Like I’ve said, this blog is much more than Bread with Dad, but for the first blog post, it only seems fitting that we start with bread. Bread is a simple thing that we all, or certainly most will eat at some point through our lives, and the lucky ones amongst us, may have memories of our mothers homemade bread, with a good spread of butter and homemade jam. I say lucky, but of course that is a subjective view of luck and I fully appreciate that not all mums made bread, I was lucky!

Bread as we most know it these days, from the process of making dough that produces those shop bought, packaged loaves is a very different thing to what I would call Real bread. So, if you’ve been around since this process started in 1961, you’ll know the bread I’m talking about. I’m certainly not going to preach that you shouldn’t eat that type of bread, as I believe around 80% of the bread we eat in the UK is produced that way, and whilst I know that lots of things are added in this bread making process, I’d rather not know about, or not put in my body, I have eaten lots of bread made this way. I could list all the ingredients that go in to that process, but that is not the idea of this blog.

The good thing about Real Bread is the list of ingredients are short enough for a 4 year old to remember, so now when I ask Regan aged 5, she can recall the ingredients we need. Our basic loaf recipe, just like many bread recipes varies little to ones you may have seen or tried before. I’m certainly, not taking credit for coming up with a unique recipe for yummy homemade bread!

Ingredients: 500g Strong Bread Flour; 375ml of Water, 10g yeast, 10g Salt

Method: 500g of strong bread flour, I like to do 400g of strong white bread flour and 100g of strong wholemeal bread flour, but you can switch percentages around as you wish, or do 500g of just one type of flour.

Measure out 375ml of warm water, warm, but not hot. A temperature that you can comfortably put your hand in is about right. To the water we add 10g of dried yeast, and give it a stir. Leaving the water and yeast for 5-10mins I find works best, and it starts to bubble a little.

Add 10g of salt to the flour, keep the salt away from the yeast solution, as it will harm or kill the yeast.

Since, Regan started helping we use a dough mixer to start the kneading process. Ours is a KitchenAid one with a dough hook. We put the flour and salt in the mixing bowl and start it mixing at a slow speed, number 1 setting on the KitchenAid and slowly add the water/yeast solution, Assuming the texture looks right, we then allow the dough hook to knead the dough for 10 minutes. If the dough is too dry, you can add a little more water (being careful not to add too much), or if the dough is too wet add a little more flour taking caution to add small amounts.

Whilst the KitchenAid is kneading the dough, we grease a glass bowl with a small amount of Rapeseed Oil, just enough to stop the dough sticking on its first proof.

Once the initial knead is done by the KitchenAid, we then remove the dough from the bowl and put on a lightly floured work surface to hand knead. There’s not much need for this step, but it allows Regan to practice kneading and gives us both that sense of a more hands-on approach. I couldn’t tell you what difference to taste and texture this last bit makes, as we’ve always done it.

Once, kneaded we put in to the greased bowl and cover it either with a shower cap, or a clean damp tea towel, usually its the shower cap, so we can see it rising. Leave in a warm(ish) place for around a hour.

After the hour, we remove the risen dough on to the work surface, again lightly floured and ‘knock it back’ and by this I mean we gently flatten the dough and shape it ready for the 2nd proof. At this stage we either put it in a greased loaf tin or mostly a floured proofing basket.

At this point I put the oven on high, as high as it’ll go. Because we use a baking stone, we need the stone to be HOT, so whilst the 2nd proof is taking place the baking stone can get really hot. The 2nd proof, takes around 45-60 mins, so plenty of time for it to heat up.

Just before, we put the bread in to the hot oven, I add a scoop or two of ice cubes to the bottom of the oven, on a baking tray, give a little steam, this helps give a nice crust to the bread.

Carefully, empty the dough from the proofing basket on to the hot baking stone and give the top of the bread a slash. If you’re using a loaf tin, slash the top of the proofed bread before putting it in the oven. Scoring or slashing the dough with a blade or a sharp knife is to allow it to expand during baking. The purpose is primarily to control the direction in which the bread will expand during “oven spring.”

Set the timer for 10 mins, then after 10 mins turn the oven down to 180C for another 10-15 mins.

Then the difficult bit… remove from oven, and allow to rest and cool. I say, difficult as the smell makes you want to eat it straightaway! Of course, you will eat a slice or two whilst it is still warm, but do allow 15-20mins as the inside whilst cooling is still cooking.

The initial cut, the crust we share with just butter on… in my opinion there is nothing better!

NB: I do not endorse KitchenAid, or receive any monies from them, we just use one. Other stand mixers are available and can be used. Which ever you choose, get the biggest machine you can afford so you don’t have to do several batches for one recipe.