Bli's Indulgence: Not your Grocer's Commercial White Bread Loaf

Ok. So it's not like we don't buy bread from the grocery store at-least once a week and it's definitely not like we are going to stop buying bread any-time soon. It's just that, when I flip the bread package around and read the the list of ingredients that it took to make that loaf of bread, I see the names of all these preservatives (which sounds like its written in some non human language) that are added to give bread a longer shelf life and I wonder just how fresh IS this loaf off bread and what AM I doing to myself by ingesting all these weird components.

Making bread isn't difficult at all. It is a little time consuming for sure as you have to proof your dough for a while. But if you have a free day then why not bake a loaf of some beautiful tasting bread?

At home you get to control the quality of ingredients. You get to choose what goes into the dough and you can envision the end product and how you would get to the end product. Having said that, it's not rocket science and you can bake a loaf using normal everyday ingredients.

Proof. That. Yeast

Being an avid baker, I always have yeast stored and in hand for my experiments. The thing about yeast though is that there are times when the yeast that you bought may already be dead before you add it your dough mix. Even if it hasn't reached its expiry date. So if you use that, you'd probably end up with a rock for a bread with none of the soft airy all so crucial bread centre.

To avoid this, always always always proof your yeast before baking. Even if your yeast package says that you can add it to the dough directly. 8 out of 10 times if you buy non expired yeast, you'll probably end up with really good bread... But what about those other 2 times? What if it was for a bread bake off? What if you wanted to show off your mad baking skills to Jamie Oliver when he popped over for tea? What about all the wasted ingredients? Not to mention the time and the energy (yours because of all that kneading. Electricity/Gas because of all that baking.)? Bottom line: Proof. That. yeast.

Proofing yeast is easy enough. You take lukewarm water and some sugar. Dissolve the sugar into the water. Add the yeast, stir it a bit and leave it for 5 minutes. Then, if you find that the yeast has created this layer of foam on the top, voilà! You are halfway there to a perfect loaf of bread. If not, repeat this entire process with yeast from a new pack (because all the yeast in the already opened pack is probably dead).

PS: Proofed or Activated yeast should look like so:

Bread Flour Vs. All Purpose Flour

The difference between bread flour and AP flour is that bread flour has more gluten forming protein in it which in turn means that the dough made from bread flour will be more elastic and you will thus need to use less flour to form a supple dough. This is not to say that you will not achieve good results out of ordinary AP flour. Just that it may not give you superfantabulous results. I use regular AP flour and in fact have never used bread flour (its so difficult to come by here where I live.). I still get amazing bread!

White Bread Loaf

Step1: Proofing the yeast

Proof the yeast using 1/2 cup of lukewarm water, 1 teaspoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of yeast

The reason why we add sugar in the yeast proofing/activation process is because yeast like to feed off something. By adding sugar, you are giving it a feeding source so that it activates.

Step2: Creating a slurry

Activated Yeast Mixture

3/4 Teaspoon salt

3/4 cup of flour

Transfer the yeasty liquid mixture into a large bowl and mix in the salt and flour to create a slurry.

Cover and leave it to rest for an hour in a warm place (The warmest room in my house is the kitchen. I usually leave it on top on the oven. During the winter months, you could preheat your over to a temperature under 40 degrees Celsius, switch off the oven, place the covered bowl in there with the oven door slightly ajar).

The active yeast will start feeding off the flour, fermenting it in the process and will release carbon dioxide. After an hour, your slurry should be risen to at least double and be slightly bubbly.

Step3: Oil

I usually add one of two tablespoon of oil (more out of habit than necessity). You can totally skip this step if you want but I somehow prefer the texture that oil gives to the bread. You could also try using different infused oils like rosemary oil or garlic oil and then accentuate taste of the bread by mixing in some rosemary or garlic in the dough.

For this particular bread I used some rosemary infused oil. I took a handful of dried rosemary and about 4 cloves of garlic and mashed them together in a mortar and pestle. I then added about 1/4 cup of regular non flavoured oil (I used sunflower oil) and continued to mash the rosemary and garlic into the oil for about 5 minutes. Since I was going for the je ne sais quoi factor, I didn't want my bread loaf to be too pronounced with the flavour of rosemary and garlic so I strained the mixture over a muslin cloth and squeezed out as much of the oil as I could. In total I got a bit more than 2 tablespoons of oil out of the mixture. If you are using just regular oil, I would not suggest adding not more than 2 tablespoons of oil.

This is what I ended up with:

Step4: Adding the remaining flour

After you mix in the oil into the slurry, add in the flour, 1/4 cup at a time and mix. Once you reach the stage when you cannot possibly continue using the fork, switch over to your hands and start kneading the dough. To get a supple dough I think I used a bit less than 1.5 cups of flour at this stage. In total you should knead the dough for 5-7 minutes. You will then get a smooth, baby-bum-bum type of springy dough. Then, oil the bottom surface of your bowl, place the dough in it and then oil the surface of the dough as well. Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Step4: Shaping the bread

If you don't have a loaf pan, you could just use a baking sheet and roll out the risen dough (carefully! Try not to deflate the dough too much!) into a ball and place it on the said baking sheet. Make sure that all your seams are on the bottom of the dough ball. I have a bread pan so I rolled my dough into a cylinder shape. Again, cover and let it rise for 30 - 40 minutes till it's doubled in size.

Step5: Bake!

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. Place the now risen dough inside the over and reduce the temperature to 220 degrees Celsius. Bake for 20 minutes. The top should be browned and should sound hollow when you tap on it.