Basic White Bread

This bread recipe is the basic one I use. It’s actually quite flexible and I’ve used it to make foccaccia before, which I make if I mess up or just have bad yeast and the dough doesn’t rise properly.

With bread baking one thing that you want to know is basic amounts are based on the flour at 100%. Amount of yeast is 1% of the flour, salt 2% and water between 50-70% depending on the recipe. So 100g of flour needs 1 gram of yeast, 2g of salt and between 50g to 70g of water.

Hydration rate is based on this formula ( water / flour) X 100 and the ideal rate between 50-70% but note that that ratio depends on factors like how dry your kitchen is, what kind of flour you’re using, etc. For this basic white bread recipe, the hydration rate is exactly at 60%. Anything above 70% is not going to be able to hand kneaded but that’s beyond the scope of this article.

Anything else like sugar, powdered milk or olive oil, put into a bread recipe is purely optional. Technically the salt is also optional but the loaf will be bland without adding salt so it’s always included. Something to note is that the more fat, like olive oil, is used in a bread the slower the rising will be, although the amount of fat in this recipe aren’t large enough to significantly slow down the process like a brioche would.

Ingredients:

500g All Purpose Flour

300g Water

10g Salt

5g Yeast

Optional:

6g of Olive Oil

Put the ingredients into a bowl and mix. Once the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl pour out on a working surface to knead the dough for 10-12 minutes. Try to avoid using too much flour when flouring the work surface, use just enough to keep from sticking, if you use too much it’ll make the dough heavy.

Once you have finished kneading, put the dough into a greased bowl. Then cover the bowl and let it rise until its doubled in size. Which will take about an hour depending on your how hot and humid your kitchen is.

Deflate and shape the dough. Cover it and prove dough for about an hour. It will increase in size and should rise to slightly above the pan.

Near the end preheat the oven to 425 degrees. It’s best to have someway to steam it, I use a pan on the rack below where the bread will be and pour water into that pan when I put the dough in. Some ovens allow you to pour water directly on the oven floor. Also when you are about the dough into the oven, slash the top of the dough, I use a serrated bread knife.

Let the bread bake for 40 minutes. Optionally, remove from the loaf pan and put the loaf back in for 8 more minutes. Then put on a rack and cool for at least 5 minutes. And that is the basic recipe for white bread.