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Easy bread

Whilst I'm a fan of the sourdough-like texture artisan no-knead bread has, the extremely long proves are somewhat irritating and sometimes you just want the machine to do the work. I also had this love for an onion bloomer M&S used to do before they took it off the shelves. Enter this recipe from a soon to be defunct Great British Chefs website. I sent in my list of comments including the excess amount of salt in the recipe, but just in case they take it off the site, here it is below with my adjustments. It fits nicely into the rather large IKEA loaf tin (29x10x7cm), but any tin would do really. Texture wise it's like a soft farmhouse loaf thanks to the inclusion of oil. It also lends itself to making a picture bread (see pictures below where I sectioned off the dough, coloured with various natural food powders and baked off.)




Ingredients
1 onion, finely chopped and dried in the oven for 20 mins at 170ºC
500g Strong bread flour
50ml Oil (sunflower/vegetable)
10g Salt
250ml of water
20g fresh yeast or 7g of dried/instant yeast.
Seeds for sprinkling

Method:

  1. Combine all the ingredients in the mixer (dissolving the yeast in the water if required.)
    Note: keep the salt and yeast separate for as long as possible, the onion can be omitted or substituted with other ingredients, and you can also add sugar and reduce the salt for a slightly different taste e.g. cinnamon and raisin bread?
  2. Knead until a smooth ball is formed (about five minutes in a mixer at the lowest speed).
  3. Prove for an hour under a tea towel or until doubled in size.
  4. Beat down and form into a roll and put into a lined loaf tin.
  5. Allow to prove for another hour. Sprinkle with seeds if desired.
  6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C/Gas Mark 4 for 35-40 minutes until a tap on the bottom sounds hollow.
  7. Cool slightly and then slice and serve warm.
Picture bread:



Method:

  1. At step 2 above, divide the dough into sections and colour using spoons of colour, food colouring is possible but I used sweet potato powder, turmeric and matcha for this.
  2. Work the colouring into the dough and allow to prove the first time.
  3. Beat down and then stack the doughs into something that resembles your intended design.
    Note: Try to remove as many air bubbles as possible by being deliberate in your actions and smoothing the dough down.
  4. Continue to prove and bake as above.







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