Ingredients for a 2lb loaf

If you have wholemeal flour:

10 ounces of white bread flour

22 ounces of wholemeal flour

7 grammes of dried yeast

22 fluid ounces of tepid water

or if you have no wholemeal flour:

29 ounces of white bread flour

3 ounces of porridge oats

7 grammes of dried yeast

21 fluid ounces of tepid water

Method:

Weigh the dry ingredients out in a mixing bowl then add the water. Mix the ingredients in a food mixer on level two until the ingredients are wrapped around the dough hook. Spatula the bread mix back into the mixing bowl. Put a tea towel over the mixing bowl and leave somewhere reasonably warm until the mix has doubled in size.

With a hand covered in some bread flour prize the dough from the walls of the mxing bowl and drop the dough ball onto a floured work top. Knead the dough for a few minutes to get the air out of it and warm it up a bit. Form into a ball then into a rough loaf shape.

Grease a two pound non-stick bread tin with low-fat spray. Carefully place the dough in the middle of the bread tin. Leave in reasonably warm place to rise such that it fills the entire tin but not overflowing.

Preheat an oven to gas mark 7 or 220 C. Score the dough with a fine tooth bread knife to leave six or seven cuts across the top of the dough, either across the dough or on the diagonal to the depth of around 1/4 inch.

Place the tin in the middle of the preheated oven for fifteen minutes. Then turn the loaf 180 degrees and cook for another fifteen minutes. Finally reduce the temperature to gas mark 6 or 200 C, turn the loaf 180 degrees and cook for further 10 minutes. 40 minutes in total.

Bring the loaf out and place on a drying rack until completely cool.

#wholemeal

#simple

#white