Get back into bread

Fresh bread is one of those simple pleasures, whether it conjures up memories of childhood or simply its the anticipation of that first slice, it really can not be bettered.

Here is one of our favourite ways of making bread and believe it or not all the hard work is done by that bread maker that many of of us have tucked away in the back of the cupboard somewehere, so get it out.

Place the following ingredients together into the breadmaker

3 cups of strong (bread) flour

1 1/4 cups of water

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp of soft brown sugar (or caster sugar)

1 tsp of dried yeast

1 tbsp of butter or vegetable oil

1 tsp of bread improver (optional)

Set the bread maker onto dough setting, this usually takes between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 hours, when it has finished take the risen dough out and place it onto a flour dusted surface, punch it down and knead into the required shape.  I like to place the bread onto a pizza stone to rise you, move the stone into a cupboard (or somwhere away from flies to rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size.

Place (bread and stone) into a pre heated oven (150) and turn up straight away to 200 degrees. Bake for 35 minutes, remove from the oven and leave to cool for as long as you can resist and then just enjoy either on its own or spread with you favourite topping.

Tip: sprinkle ground semolina onto the stone to stop it sticking, you can use flour but it may burn whereas the semolina won't

Enjoy!