Simple Bread

 Lately I have become much into the art of making bread. Partly because of my mother, who bakes her own bread every second day or so, including grinding different kinds of flour herself (no, worries, one day I may feature her bread, but for now let’s stick to the easy kind). The other reason would be the beautiful book 52 loaves: A half-baked adventure written by William Alexander. As the title suggests, it’s a book all about bread making. Yep, that is the kind of thing I read. But I swear, it really is fascinating – stuffed with the all the secrets and history of bread making, all in one man’s quest to find the perfect bread (and finally his way back to faith). A really good read! Here is one of my attempts to bake decent bread. I guess many versions will follow.

Ingredients

300g whole meal wheat flour
200g regular flour
10g fresh yeast
320ml warm water
7g salt
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
2 tbsp. vinegar
50g rolled oats

So, you stir the two flours together and let the yeast dissolve in the warm water. Then you pour the yeast and water mixture into the flour, combine with salt, oil and vinegar and knead it around 5 to 10 minutes with your hands or the dough hook on your mixer. It should not be too sticky when you are finished.

Form it into a ball and let it sit in a (non-metal) bowl 40 to 60 minutes a warm spot in your house. At this point I start thinking, a fireplace would be marvelous around this time of year. But let’s face it, most of us, including me, are happy to have a functioning radiator at home. So put it near there.
When the bread dough has almost doubled in size, form it into a loaf, dampen it and roll it in the oats. Let it sit for another 40 to 60 minutes.

Now comes the baking. Preheat your oven to 240 °C and put a heat-proof cup with water in it. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, then turn the oven lower to 220 °C for another 15 minutes. After that you let the bread bake the last 10 minutes at 200 °C.
Enjoy a slice fresh and warm with good butter! The bread is best stored with a kitchen towel around it or sitting with cut side on a wooden board.