Well, crustniks, I thought I was diving for the lowest common denominator when I discovered late last night that this morning’s school lunches would not be covered by previous baking efforts.
I opted for the quickest basic white I could lay hands on . . . with my usual slight tweaking, of course!
And I have to say the results were far better on the eyes and taste buds than I had anticipated, and will become a regular on my ‘white’ dance card.
You’ll need the following – and don’t forget to add the liquids to the pan first, and mix all dry ingredients on a bowl before adding them (oh . . . and add the yeast last, after you’ve popped the dry stuff in the pan):
* 290 mls of tepid tap water
* 1 tbspn of olive oil
* 450 gms of plain white flour
* 1 tbspn of rolled oats
* 1 tbspn of milk powder
* 1 tbspn of brown sugar
* 1 tspn of improver
* 1 ½ tspns of salt
* 1 ½ tspns of dry yeast
I set Bev on the three-hour ‘white’ program, with medium crust.
And the rewards for this 10 minutes of effort (on my part, anyway)? A yummy, soft white loaf with a delightfully oaty edge. I’m also convinced that the richer brown sugar also adds to the slightly ‘earthy’ after-taste.
As with my previous white loaf, this one rose nicely, with a wonderfully round, browned dome. Although soft, it was easy to cut with a bread knife, with minimal crumb. The texture was also smooth.
Anyway, so far so good. My gals tell me they have been generating a fair degree of lunchtime curiosity with the various types of breads they’ve been taking . . . and the longer we do this, the smaller (they say) commercial bread slices look.
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