Recipes - baking your own bread

Our lives are changing in 2010 - there is now no doubt about that for us. Our move in to a more frugal - or simple - way of living has been an effortless and a welcoming change for us. One of these changes concerns our food - our focus now is to grow what we can and to make what we can.

This weekend I baked seven loaves of amazing bread - it is a no fault recipe I got via Nikkishell some time back. Knowing we were moving towards this lifestyle, I stashed the link to the bread recipe and have a ball of a weekend, filling the house with the addictive aroma of baking bread...

If I can do it - you can do it! This is all you need to do:

Get 1kg of strong bakers flour (I got this at my local bulk foodstore - 25kg for AUD$27 - I buy in bulk!)
1 tbsp of dried yeast (supermarket)
1 tbsp of salt (supermarket)
950ml of luke warm water

1. Basically mix the dried ingredients and then mix the water in well. Leave in bowl, cover and put in the fridge to prove overnight.

2. Take the mixture out early in the morning and allow to come to room temperature. This takes around an hour for me.

3. Put bowl on its side and take the mixture out (quite sticky) onto a floured surface. Shape. Flop over. Shape again.

4. Put in a tin or on an oven tray and put it into a cold oven*, turn on temp to 450 degrees (220c). Close door. Walk away for 45-50 mins. Take out when the bottom of the loaf sounds 'hollow'.

* I don't have a fan forced oven, so turn on my oven around 2-3 mins before putting the tins into the oven.

This bread has turned out perfectly every time - and, as you can see, we have tried different pans. It's a slightly dense Italian/French style bread with a nice crusty crust, perfect for sandwiches, dipping - anything, really!

I baked up a storm this weekend - I baked Easter buns, scones and cinnamon scrolls. I'll put the recipes up soon...