Bread

People have been baking bread for many hundreds of years, yet many of us buy our bread from the shops. I am guilty of doing this and have never tried to make my own bread from scratch. Bread is a staple in many of the world's cultures. It can be a simple combination of flour, salt, yeast and water but there are many different types of bread. I always think of bread being baked in the oven but that doesn't have to be the case. It could be cooked on a hot plate or a griddle. Remember that in ancient times bread was baked on hot rocks.

I went on holiday to Egypt a couple of years ago and on one trip I had a go at making some bread. We did a camel ride into the dessert and we were treated to a traditional meal. They made us some bread and even let us have a go at making some ourselves. It was a flatbread and was almost like a pancake in texture. This is a picture I have of my bread being cooked on a hot stone in the Egyptian desert.

I do have a bread machine which I have used a few times but although the bread has been OK, it has never been wonderful. I have tried several different recipes but have been quite disappointed by most of them. So I decided to have a go at making some bread myself. I thought it best to start with a basic white loaf so scoured my recipe books for a recipe to use. In the end I settled on the recipe in Nigel Slater's Appetite which was very easy to follow. It did use 1KG of flour so made a huge loaf. Although the bread was delicious it was a bit too much for just the two of us. I think in furture I will half the recipe. I used my KitchenAid to mix and knead the dough which was very successful although the dough did try and escape over the top of the bowl a couple of times.

I was very impressed with my first attempt at bread making and I will definately be having a go at making some more very soon. There is a fascinating array of recipes, techniques and ingredients that are available. Making bread at home is much easier than I thought and I am looking forward to trying some different recipes soon. You can't beat the smell of freshly baked bread and if I can make a delicious loaf then I think anyone can. This is my finished result which was very nice indeed.