It’s a miracle because it is so easy to make and there is minimal kneading necessary. As its name implies, you can leave it overnight to rise or you can make an early start and it can be ready in the evening. It’s up to you.
This easy way to make a delicious loaf is a good way to start breadmaking. There are lots of recipes for this around but here is mine.
For one large loaf
500g strong bread flour plus some extra for kneading and dusting. Use any good strong bread flour such as strong white, 6 grain or wholemeal or a mixture.
2 tsp sea salt flakes
1 tsp instant dried yeast (Doves Farm Quick Yeast is good)
350mls lukewarm water
You will also need some baking parchment and a sturdy, oven-proof round casserole(approximately 25cm diameter) with a well-fitting lid.
- Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt and yeast.
- Stir everything together using your hands or a sturdy spoon or fork.
- Add the water and continue to mix until a soft, damp, dough is formed.
- Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and shape it, by kneading lightly, into a circular loaf shape. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
- Wash and dry the mixing bowl and rub it with olive oil. (You will be glad you have done this as not only does it make the job of removing the dough after the first rise easy, it makes washing the bowl easy too.) Put the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a clean damp tea towel.
- Leave in a draft free place for 10 to 12 hours – overnight works well or if you start early in the morning it could be finished in the evening.
- The dough will rise in this time so, when it is ready, tip it onto a floured piece of baking parchment and adjust the shape by lightly kneading to produce a smooth top.
- Cover with a damp tea towel.
- After half an hour, preheat the oven to its highest setting (probably 240c) and place the empty casserole together with the lid into the oven to heat up.
- After a further half an hour, one whole hour in total, the dough will be ready to bake.
- Carefully remove the hot casserole from the oven, remove the lid and use the baking parchment to drop the dough into it (the baking parchment goes in with the dough too).
- Use scissors to cut a crisscross in the top of the loaf. Sprinkle in a couple of tablespoons of cold water, replace the lid and return the casserole to the hot oven.
- Let the bread bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and return the casserole to the oven for 15 minutes for the bread to brown on top.
- Remove the casserole from the oven and turn the bread onto a wire rack to cool.
- Once cool, this bread, if well wrapped, will keep for about a week or it can be frozen for up to 3 months.
See also: – Soda Bread
If you want a healthier and more environmentally friendly diet, a good start would be to cook from scratch, avoid buying ready-processed meals, and so avoid foods with a high sugar and salt content. Have a look at food labels, you will likely be amazed by how much salt and sugar is included and, worse, how many of the ingredients are not recognisable as food.
Sherbhert champions delicious, healthy and sustainable food where its production minimises environmental damage, exploitation, animal suffering and subsequent processing. Sherbhert’s recipes are simple and use mainly UK seasonal produce sourced as locally as possible.
Sherbhert occasionally recommends suppliers entirely because of their good produce and ethos.
