Bread Baking Kit Recipe

Method

1. Weigh the flour and salt into a big bowl. Rub the fresh yeast into the flour, if using dried this can be added to the water and oil, stir to dissolve. Measure the water into a jug with the oil. Empty the jug into the bowl with the flour and mix all the ingredients together.

2. Turn the dough out onto a clean table and knead for about 20 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic and the gluten is well developed (or 10 minutes in an electric mixer). Once your dough is ready, form it into a smooth ball, nestle it back into the bowl and cover in with a bag or damp cloth. Leave it in a warm, draft free place to grow to twice its size or for 1 hour, whichever is first.

3. Lightly dust the work surface with flour, and then turn your dough out on top of the flour smooth side down.

4. Next shape into an oblong loaf to fit into the pannibos. Gently flatten it, using the heel of your hand into a rough round shape. Try to keep it even in thickness and no longer than one and a half times the length of the pannibois. Gently stretch the left side and fold it into the middle of the dough, repeat with the right hand side, overlapping slightly. The dough should now have straight sides with a lightly rounded top and bottom. At the top, take the two edges and fold them towards the centre, the dough looks roughly like a house a child might draw! Take the top edge, which is slightly pointed, and start to roll it towards you a third of the way down the dough, push it away from you to tighten the roll and brush of any excess flour so that you don’t have raw flour in the centre of your loaf. Do this three times and on the third roll, you should be at the bottom edge of the dough. With the heel of your hand, seal the edge to form the seam. Roll the dough so that the seam is on the bottom and drop it into the pannibois, seam side down. Cover with a tea towel or bag and leave to prove somewhere warm (not hot) until the top of the dough is level with the top of the basket.

5. Preheat the oven to 230 0 C/Gas mark 9. Slash the top of your tin loaf and place on a baking sheet or a baking stone in the preheated oven. Add steam to the oven either by throwing a cupful of water onto the baking sheet, or using a water spray. This will encourage the dough to rise before forming the perfect crust. Check it after 10 minutes and turn the oven down a notch (2100 C/gas mark 6. Take it out after 20 minutes when it's baked and beautifully golden all over. It should sound hollow when tapped underneath. Turn the loaf out and cool it for at least 10 minutes on a wire rack.