not just the sweet stuff

I made bread!

Let me clarify that, since I'm quite excited about it, I made bread without the help of a bread machine!

We used to have a bread machine and man was that easy - pour stuff in, put your settings and wake up the next day to bread, fresh from the machine. It kneads and bakes and everything.

But I've always wanted to bake bread from scratch and so, one day before work, I started on the, er, starter dough, which needs to rest for 24 hours in the fridge.

Oh but first things first, this recipe for walnut bread was something my dad printed off the cedele website. It's officially spring onion and walnut bread, but I can't stand spring onions so I took them out and put in more walnuts


Makes one 350g loaf

Ingredients
Bread flour 400g
Wholemeal flour 100g
Salt 1 tablespoon
Dry yeast 2 tablespoons
Cold water (chilled overnight in fridge)275ml-285ml
Spring onion, chopped 100g
Chopped walnuts 75g


1. To prepare the day-old dough, start at least 24 hours before the intended day of baking the bread. Mix 100g of the bread flour, 50ml of the cold water, 1 tsp of the dry yeast and 1 tsp salt together in a large plastic mixing bowl, stirring until a firm dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and let dough slowly ferment in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 24 hours.

2. The next day, mix wholemeal flour and the remaining bread flour, salt and yeast in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre, and slowly pour cold water in, drawing the flour into the puddle with a spoon. Add just enough water to make a soft dough. Stir in the day-old dough, and knead the whole mass for about 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic, and dough does not stick to your hands.

3. Gently knead walnuts into the dough until evenly incorporated. Cover dough with a sheet of plastic or a damp tea-cloth, and leave to rest for 1 to 11 hours in a cool place (ideally at about 23-24 deg C) or until dough has almost doubled in size.

4. Punch down dough, kneading lightly to deflate it completely, then shape into a tight ball and let rest again, covered, another 20 minutes.

5. Shape dough into a 8-inch long rod or baguette. Place shaped dough on a greased tray and cover with a sheet of plastic or a damp towel. Rest loaf for another 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until it has almost doubled in size. In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 230 degrees C / 425 degrees F.

6. With a very sharp knife, quickly and gently slash a lengthwise shallow cut down the middle of the loaf. Sprinkle a little flour over the loaf and bake for 25-30 minutes. The bread is done when it sounds hollow when overturned and tapped on its bottom.

And the result was a nice soft loaf with a crunchy crust.

It was fun to pull off the tea towel and discover that my dough had swelled immensely. And then I got to bash it down. What a treat.

Actually, now that I've looked at the recipe again, I realised I probably used less yeast. I think I misread it as tsp instead of tbsp. It still worked though.