Homemade Bread

You know when you have those supermarket vouchers/deals that go along the lines of; spend so much and get x amount off/so many loyalty points/x pence of per litre of fuel?

Today involved a 'spend x amount and get 6p off per litre'. This results in mental calculations as you lean over the trolley between aisles trying to work out if you've reached your limit. At my last count we were £2 short, now these deals are only worth it if you buy what you need rather than buying to make up the amount.

So I pondered for a moment, could I buy a meal for the freezer. Then a thought struck me, I'd been contemplating making bread for some time now. I took a wonder down the home baking aisle and was pleasantly surprised to find a bag of branded bread flour for £1 and a box of 6 fast action yeast sachets also for £1. This seemed like a great idea to me!!

  

 A few Christmas' ago I brought a set of 3 of these covers for bowls for my gran, as she was always putting odd containers of bits and bobs in the fridge. However when she moved into a care home I found the packet unopened and rescued them. I remembered them today and the biggest one was perfect to go over the bowl whilst it proved. I also discovered the best place to put the bowl is on top of the tumble dryer as this is the warmest place.

All in all I consider it to be a success. The bread tastes awesome, the kneading was a good work out and then there's the rewarding aspect of it all.

Recipe 
500g strong white bread flour
1  and 1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp caster sugar
1 sachet of fast acting yeast
25g of butter
300ml of hand warm water

1.) Add dry ingredients (flour, salt, sugar and yeast) to a bowl and mix.
2.) Add butter and use fingertips until no lumps - crumb like.
3.) Add water - using a normal cutlery knife to mix in.
4.) Bring dough together with hands and tip on to a lightly floured surface.
5.) Knead for 10 mins.
6.) Lightly oil the bowl (I didn't do this and it stuck), cover with a cloth or cover and leave somewhere to rise, about 1 hour or until doubled in size.
7.) knock air out (recipe recommended kneading 5 times only).
8.) Shape/split into rolls/ round and place in loaf tin or on tray.
9.) Cover and leave in a warm place until they have doubled in size again. (The rolls I did took about 20 mins to do this).
10.) Put in the preheated oven - 180 C fan.
11.) Once cooked (about 15-20mins for rolls or 35 mins for a loaf), and golden glow on top remove from the oven. The bread should sound hollow when the bottom is tapped.
12.) Place on cooling rack.