My apologies for not posting any pictures, recipes or home cooking hints and tips during the past week. I have been a little under the weather and endeavoured to tuck myself into bed earlier than usual, rather than blogging. 


Not that my kitchen has been closed. I have still been baking and making an assortment of appealing dishes for my family to enjoy but have been relieved to have everyone gather at the table on time and eat, without a second thought to photographing my efforts. 

However I have returned to blogging in a blaze of baking glory with comforting loaf of crusty white bread, baked on Friday evening and enjoyed for Saturday breakfast. Actually the reason I chose to bake bread is because I was down to the final two slices of sourdough and simply couldn’t face the prospect of driving out in the drizzling rain to buy that hideous sticky stuff sold at after hours service stations. 

Baking bread is easy, really easy and fills the house with a delicious, warm aroma. Of course using an electric mixer makes the entire process less laborious. There is no point being a slave to the kitchen when there is a dazzling variety of useful kitchen gadgets on the market, like the KitchenAid. Attach a dough hook and within 10 minutes the mixture has been kneaded to perfection. That’s pretty much how long it took for my six children to finish off that single loaf. 

Basic Bread 
This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson’s cookbook, How to be a Domestic Goddess. it will yield one standard sized loaf of bread, crusty on the outside with a soft, best-eaten-with-butter interior. 

500 grams strong plain bread making flour (I use Western Milling special fine white flour)
7 grams dried yeast (usually 1 sachet)
1 tablespoon table salt
1 tablespoon softened unsalted butter
250 ml warm water (Nigella lists 300 ml of water but suggests using 200 ml at first and adding more if needed. I found that 250 ml was enough). 


1) Put all the DRY ingredients into the large, deep bowl of your electric mixer and stir with a spoon to combine. 

2) Add the warm water and softened butter, lower the dough hook into the mixture and turn the machine ON, using a slow to medium setting. Knead for 10 minutes until combined and smooth. 

Don’t worry, the dough will rise!
3) Turn out onto a plate while you oil the inside of the mixing bowl. Return the dough, cover with food safe plastic wrap or a clean tea towel and place somewhere warm. I tend to put the bowl next to the stove. The dough needs to DOUBLE in size which takes about an hour. So walk away and find something else to do in the meantime.

Wow! Now that’s bigger and better. 
4) Once the dough has risen sufficiently, punch it down with one of your hands and then turn out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Knead manually for a couple of minutes until it is smooth and silky. At this point you can either shape it into a domed shape and place on a greased baking tray or pop the lot into a loaf tin greased lightly with a bit of butter. Brush the top with a little cream or melted butter, dust with flour and place into a PREHEATED oven at 220 degrees centigrade for about 30-40 minutes depending on the thickness of your loaf. 

5) Remove form the oven and leave in the baking tin for about 10 minutes before turning out and either slicing and enjoying immediately or cooling completely before storing in an airtight container.