Crusty Home-made White Bread

This is a substantial tasty bread – no airy-fairy loaf! Delicious when sliced straight out of the oven with butter.

Ingredients
1kg Cake/White bread flour (about 7 cups)
2 tsp salt
2tsp sugar
10g Instant dry yeast
4tsp Margarine/butter
650ml (+/- 2½ Cups) Luke warm water

Method:
Sift the flour, salt and sugar together. Add dry yeast and mix. Rub in the margarine or butter. Slowly add the luke-warm water to make a soft dough. This is the tricky part. Too much water will make it sticky and it won’t rise properly (it sticks to the side of the bowl). Too little and the reaction to the yeast won’t happen properly – it won’t rise properly either.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. Don’t be gentle! When finished the dough should be smooth and elastic.
Place the dough into an oiled bowl and cover it well. Leave in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes. Use a large bowl, the dough can rise to more than twice the size. You don’t want it to stick to the cover or overflow.

Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface, knead again for a few minutes.
Split the dough into two equal pieces. Place each piece into a greased loaf tin and cover with some oiled plastic wrap or clingfilm. Leave it to rise in a warm area again for about 45 minutes to an hour.
Once risen brush the tops of the loaves with a little water and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for 35 minutes.
Once cooked leave the loaves in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.

Now for the best part – deciding on what you want to put on it before devouring!

Handy tip: Yeast (which makes the bread rise, is alive!It needs to be kept warm and toasty like a new-born baby. Careful – too hot and the yeast will die.

Handy Tip: Bread and Cake flour are almost identical. Cake flour has been refined a little further. It is quite safe to use.