4 Cups of flour
1 and a half Sachets of dried yeasr
Half a teaspon of Salt
1 tabllespoon of Sugar
Approx 250 mls warm water
Method
In a bowl place dry ingredients and slowly add the water mix with a spoon until
the dough looks to be coming together.
Turn out onto a floured work surface and start to knead. Keep kneading until
the dough stops feeling sticky to touch. You may need to keep dusting the dough
and worksurface with flour until the dough stops sticking
Using a little Cooking Oil very lightly rub the inside of a large bowl, Place
the dough in to the bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and a teatowel and
put in a warm place to rise for at least one hour.
When it looks to have doubled in size take the cover off and push the dough down and again let it rise until it has doubled in size. You can repeat this another time if you want, the more you do this the lighter the bread. You can how ever just let it rise once and then put it on a baking tray to rise again for 30 minutes then it is ready to add any topping you wish.
I usually add a few herbs and some grated cheese and some times a few chopped
olives.
Place in a preheated oven (220 celcus) for about 15 to 20 minutes. You will
know it is cooked if when you take it out and tap the loaf it will sound slightly
hollow.
This recipie can be adapted to make rolls and Pizza dough. For Rolls it is
best to let it rise at least 2 times. For pizza just once is enough.
If it is a hot day the dough will rise if just sat in a sunny place in front
of a closed window the room should be about 27 Celcus . Bread needs to be at
this temp to rise.
If you have a food processor the dough can be made in that by putting all the dry ingredients in, turn on the machine and slowly add the water. You may need to divide the mix and finish knreading it in the machine in 2 halves as it is a bit hard for the machine. It is worth kneading the mix by hand as this helps to get the yeast started.
Have fun doing this with your children and experiment with flavours that they
might suggest. I some times roll out a little of the bread and put a small amount
of you favourite jam (very little amount) and add some dark chocolate melts
(only 6 or 7) in the middle then roll the dough up to hide the chocolate and
jam and cook for the usual time. Be very careful when serving this as it will
be very hot and sticky. It is a great lever for getting children to eat all
their dinner and have as a treat.