I think I started baking our own bread nearly a year ago. Since then, I have made several changes to the original recipe. I have moved away from the lovely white loaf towards healthier options, and also recieved great advice from my mom (the right ratio of white-whole wheat and rye), mother-in-law (less water) and of course the queen of domestic advice, my grandmother ( more yeast, less salt, add oil, add yoghurt, knead for longer).
So here is my new and improved recipe for making one large or two small loaves:
about 1 tablespoon dried yeast
1 teaspoon of sugar
little flour
3 tablespoons of water
1. Mix the ingredients above and allow yeast to rise.
2. Add:
3 cups strong white bread flour
0.5 cup whole-wheat bread flour
0.5 cup rye flour
3 teaspoons of salt
1-2 tablespoons of oil
linseeds, sunflower seeds, pumkin seeds, chia seeds to taste
2-3 tablespoons of joghurt (optional)
potatoes (mashed if you have any at hand- also optional)
1.5 cups water (maybe less, so add bits at a time)
3. Knead. The consistency should be thick and a difficult to knead. You should knead (with a hand mixer) it until the dough separates from the side of the mixing bowl and is sort of "pillow-y" (my word for it- obviously). It takes a couple of minutes and involves some vertical movement of the kneading sticks. If you add too much water it will be gooey, so it is best to add about a cup of water first and add some bit by bit without it getting gooey.
4. Cover and wait for dough to rise.
5. Form dough into the shape you want.
