White Tin Loaf

It's bank holiday Monday, its miserable outside and my better half was moaning we didn't have any bread for lunch. And because I'm just SO nice, I thought id try and bake a loaf for him- granted that meant no bread for 2 1/2 hours and he eventually got so hungry he walked down to CO-OP to buy lunch but HEY, I made bread!

I'm not going crazy for my first loaf of bread - something nice a simple will do - so a white tin bread will do! I'm fairly happy with how it turned out - especially for my first try of making bread (with yeast!)

This recipe is from Paul Hollywood's 100 Great Breads
500g Strong White Bread Flour (plus extra for dusting)
10g Salt
20g Yeast
50g Butter
290ml Water

Makes 1 x900g/2lb loaf tin OR 2 x 450g/1lb loaves

1.Put the flour, salt, yeast and butter into a bowl, then add the water, little by little, folding in with your hands until all the flour has been picked up. Tip out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes until you have a pliable, soft dough. Put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 1 hour.

I found this recipe too salty, so next time I'll probably put in 6g instead of 10g. Don't put the salt on top of the yeast as it will kill it, so I put each ingredient at opposite sides of the bowl. Also I got a bit confused with 20g of yeast?! So I put in a single packet of dried yeast (7g) and it seems to have worked out fine! If, like me, your terrible at kneading, Paul explains at the beginning of his book to: start by making an indentation with the pals of your hands into the middle of the dough - then lift up the dough at the top and press it into the hole you have just made. Turn the dough and repeat and keep repeating this process for the length of time stated in the recipe. When the dough was put back in the bowl, I loosely covered it with cling-film and put it in a warm room.

2. Oil the loaf tin or tins. Shape the dough to fit the tin(s), and leave to rise for 1 hour.

I went for the single 2lb loaf tin. And using sunflower oil, I liberally oiled the tin. And once again loosely covered with cling-film and put in a warm room.

3. Preheat the oven to 230c/450F/mark 8. Just before you bake the loaf, dust the top with flour and, using a knife make slashes across the top. Bake for 30-35 mins, then turn out of the tin(s) onto a wire rack to cool.

I have a feeling I didn't make my slashes deep enough or big enough, as you will see in my pictures that the bread tried to expand out the side... I also found 230c was too high, so I took mine down to 200c. Thing is, the recipe didn't state if 230c was  for fan assisted or not. Im now guessing it was for non-fan assisted ovens!

This recipe is a great starting place for those who are new to bread baking - or want a fairly easy and quick recipe for white bread. I am really pleased with how my loaf turned out! We had a slice will it was still warm so the slice just melted the butter - it was truly delicious! I'm still very new to baking bread but I'm getting there - plus I'm adhering to my New Years Resolution of doing more bread baking! Paul Hollywood would be proud!!

Variation:
For Wholemeal Tin Bread use: 400g wholemeal flour and 100g white flour plus 320ml water.