Give us this day....
Not too long ago, I learned how to make bread. Nothing fancy, no artisan mixed multi-grain sourdough here. Just plain, white bread using nothing more than flour, water, yeast and salt.

I had to because we were in New Zealand with approximately $3 to our combined names (Mrs. Ryushin and I). Our first Payday was a good week or so away, and the nearest family support was about 15,000 miles away.

Take 8g of dried, activated yeast and add to 300g of warm (apx 40oC) water. Put this aside for 10 minutes (until there is a light foam on the top) - mix 500g of flour with 12g of salt, then add the water and yeast mix. Knead thoroughly (about 10-15 minutes) until you have formed a quite elastic dough (it should be smooth to the touch) then place this dough into a lightly floured bowl and cover with a dish towel. Place this in a moderately warm room (22-24oC) for roughly 2 hours (until the dough has doubled in volume). Turn the proofed dough out onto a work surface and form a rough loaf shape (tuck the 'edges' under the dough to smooth the sides) and then cover again and leave for another hour. During this time, heat an oven to 240oC, and place an oven dish with water in the bottom of the oven (this gives your bread the nice, crunchy crust). Uncover your fully-proofed loaf and place it into the oven. Give it 15 minutes at 240, before reducing the temperature to 200 for an additional 15 minutes. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

Now that we both have real jobs and are quite comfortable, we tend to buy bread along with our other groceries, but I was making this stuff so regularly for a while, I don't really think I can forget how to now.

Length? About 40cm with a nice, deep golden crust.
(Ryushin, Thu 30 Jun 2011, 23:06, 1 reply)

Bread making is the shit
I love it. Plus you have the added fact that you know what has been put into it. I love putting grated onions and cheese into the mix and making them into buns.
( The_Commander_of_Skips wears his sunglasses at night, Fri 1 Jul 2011, 0:53, closed)