If you’ve ever considered baking your own bread but didn’t know where to start – here’s a little simplified guide!
The smell of freshly baked bread in the house is just beautiful. Buying bread in the supermarket makes me sad. Those plastic wrapped, pre-sliced loafs just aren’t what bread should be. It’s ok to buy it on occasion, I do it too, but it can’t compare to a fresh artisan bread from a proper baker with pride in their craft, or better yet, out of your own oven. It can bring us back to a time when life was slower. When things didn’t need to be fast and convenient at all cost. Bread should be simple and doesn’t need a lot of ingredients. Yet when you read the labels on those supermarket loafs, you’ll find all sorts of stuff that should never be in there.
We live in a busy time, there is no doubt about it. We can’t all pack up and live off the land in the countryside. But we can bring a little of the slow life back to us and into our homes. I’m here to make that balance possible and easier.
How to get that scent of freshly baked bread into your home!
The key is to start slowly. No need to go for the full on sourdough made from scratch straight away. Try a recipe that is either quick or easy, with a few simple steps.
Here are three recipes for you that have become staples in my kitchen.
The No Knead Bread takes time, but the steps are very straight forward. Once you’ve planned the timings that work for you, it is just about mixing and waiting. No kneading required!
The Seeded Soda Bread is great because it’s pretty much an instant success. All you need to be aware of is to put it in the oven quickly while the buttermilk and bicarb soda are doing their work.
The Flourless Nut and Seed Loaf makes a beautiful dense loaf of goodness. All it takes is a bit of stirring, waiting and baking.
Once you have made these, or one or two of them, you can start to experiment with ingredients. I love making the no knead bread with half/half flours, instead of just one. Or you can add other ingredients like olives to it, to mix it up. There are many variations on the soda bread, I also love to make a spelt version. And for the nut and seed loaf you can play with the nuts and seeds you favour, rather than what is written in the recipe.
By the time you feel happy and confident with the delicious loaves you are creating, you may well have caught the bug and want to move on to more involved yeast and sourdough experiments. That’s what happened to me :).
I’ve made a pdf for you with those recipes. You can download it here.
Be kind to yourself!
Katrine x