I baked some bread this afternoon and it came out well.
I think this is foolproof so give it a go!
Stir a pinch of sugar and a sachet of dried yeast (8g in mine but not critical - avail in supermarket) into a scant 500 ml of warm water - slightly less is better than more.
Weigh 600g of good bread flour into a large bowl. Add a good (ie a bit more is OK) 10g of salt and a good 10g of flour improver (health food store - a jar in the fridge will keep for ages and do dozens of loaves). Optional - add half a handful of flavourings eg caraway seeds (recommended) or dried rosemary. Stir to mix - a regular table knife is good for this - make a rough well in the bottom.
Put a good couple of handfuls of flour in a bowl to one side.
Put 30ml of oil (sesame is very tasy) into liquid - stir it all well and pour into well in flour. Mix with knife until all dry ingredients are pulled together into a damp clump - this is now dough.
Scatter some of reserved flour onto clean flat surface and tip dough onto it. Scatter flour on top and knead. Just mix it all up with your hands rolling and massaging. Use more flour when it sticks to hands or surface. Pump away for at least 5 mins. Reggae is good for this.
Put the kneaded dough back into the bowl - cover and leave for 2 hours - at regular room temperature - it can't be too cold.
Later - scatter more flour onto surface and tip risen dough out. It will be sticky so scatter more flour around. Then press it and roll it to get the gas out for a couple of minutes - ending up with a loaf shaped sausage. Put this onto baking paper on a baking tray. Cut slashes across top if you like. Wait 30 mins.
Meanwhile get oven hot to 200C. Just before you put dough into oven paint the top with a splash of soy sauce mixed into a couple of tablespoons of milk (Glaze). Cook for 45mins.
Enjoy!
(Quantities are reasonably flexible but you do need every ingredient except the flavourings and the glaze. The 600g dry to 500ml wet is a little bit too wet - but it depends on the flour and you add flour to work it anyway - rebalance by adding more flour or more water as you knead. The yeast has to work in the two hour waiting gap - the dough has to expand appreciably. If it doesn't then go to plan B - roll the dough into flat circles and make pizzas.)
I tried my hand at it, I like rosemary olive oil bread so I made some.
It called for about half whole wheat flout but I only had unbleached regular flour so used that and it made a decent loaf which also makes good toast. With that kind of loaf you don't need a bread pan, just plop down a ball shaped wad of dough on a baking sheet.
