Back to basics

So, I feel like I should introduce myself. For those who don’t know who I am, I’m Allan and I’ve been cooking in kitchens both on land and at sea for almost 20 years.

The idea behind this blog The Niseach Chef is to share the little knowledge I have on cooking and help inspire you to don your apron and explore the big wide world of flavours and ingredients.

For my first post, I thought I’d go back to basics with my bread recipe. The beauty of this bread recipe is that the possibilities are endless. You can add a little cheese and chopped red onions and come out with a beautiful cheese and onion loaf, you can add some poppy seeds and come out with a seeded bloomer and you can even divide up with mixture and make a batch of rolls!

Making bread is effortless, something that can be mixed together during the adverts of Coronation Street. Now, go grab your apron and get creating!

Basic Bread Recipe

Ingredients:Makes 1 large loaf

500g Strong Bread Flour

50ml Olive Oil

300ml Luke warm water

7g Yeast sachet

1tsp Sugar

1tsp Salt

Preheatthe oven at 220°c

Place all the dry ingredients, expect the salt, into a bowl. Add the water and olive oil and mix together until it starts to form at dough.

Place the mixture onto a work surface and just go for it! Don’t be tempted to add anymore flour at this stage. Stretch, pull, roll, bang, throw and punch the dough for 15 minutes. This sounds a long time but it does make a difference to the dough. Place the dough into a bowl and cover. Let it prove until it almost doubles in size.

Once proved, knock the dough back onto the work surface and add the salt. Continue to kneed for a further 10 minutes. Now to shape the dough – it doesn’t have to be perfect! Place the dough onto a floured tray and let it prove again.