Use Your Loaf: Basic Beginner Bread Recipe

It’s finally time for our basic recipe!

Jump to the Recipe

Welcome to the fourth instalment of Use Your Loaf, a series where we go right to the beginning and build up our bread knowledge bit by bit. Together, we have learned about the ingredients in our bread and their function. We’ve looked at the different processes that go into building a loaf, and last time we stepped into the world of recipe development. Now it’s finally time to share the basic control loaf recipe. A simple loaf that we can build and learn new techniques from.

First, a few tips that may help.

Kneading

It’s time for an arm workout!

I am joking, but there is a bit of effort involved here. This is the part where we need to push a little to give the gluten a good workout.

I like to stretch the dough by pushing it with the palm of my dominant hand and then clawing it back to the middle. Then I turn the dough 45° anti-clockwise with my non-dominant hand and repeat. Yes, you could do this part in a mixer and avoid sticky hands, but to learn more about our bread it’s best to feel and see how it’s changing during the process. You should be able to feel the dough becoming softer and a little stretchier as you continue kneading, and it will be visibly smoother. As all of our baking areas are different, these visible clues are a better indication of where your bread is at than the clock.

Basic Shaping

I think handling dough is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but for others, it’s a necessary evil. For this loaf, we will stick to a basic free-form round shape that doesn’t require much handling, so don’t worry. You can also use a sandwich tin if you wish instead.

We want to create a seal at the bottom so we have an even loaf and no steam escapes from random places. The simplest way to do that is to create a ‘V’ with your hands: palms face up and slightly angled towards each other. Then, gently squeeze the sides of the dough towards each other around the loaf a couple of times. Be sure to use a light touch so we don’t push too much of that hard-earned structure out.

Steam

When we shape the loaf we want a smooth structure so we can have an even loaf, so why do bakers score their loaves? Aside from looking nice, this has a purpose, to let steam out of the bread. By doing this, we can control the direction the dough rises (oven spring). Without it, the steam can find weak points in the bread and burst through, creating bulges and cracks all over the loaf. In this very basic recipe, I recommend simply cutting a cross with some sharp kitchen scissors on top of the loaf, just before baking.

So there we are, our first loaf! I really hope you’ve had success and enjoyed making this delicious bread along with me. There’s more to come in the Use Your Loaf series – remember, this is only just the beginning!