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Simple “Standing Mixer” Loaf

I’ve been busy this week trying to repair my Uncle’s computer, so consequently dinners and bread making have both leant towards the quicker side of things. This recipe therefore is for a fairly no-fuss machine knead bread. I use my 46 year old Kenwood Chef (Model A701A) with the bread hook to make this bread (mix and knead).


h2. Ingredients

h3. Sponge stage

* 1.75 cups of warm water
* 1.5 Tablespoons of active dry yeast
* 1 Tablespoon of sugar
* 1 cup of plain flour

h3. Dough stage

* 1 cup of wholemeal plain flour
* 1 cup of plain flour
* 1 Tablespoon of salt
* a handful of sunflower seeds
* a good sprinkle of poppy seeds
* extra flour (almost a cup)

h2. Method

Combine the sponge ingredients in the mixers bowl and whisk thoroughly.
Allow to stand for 10 minutes until it’s become quite frothy.

Now add the remaining ingredients (except the “extra flour”), and mix with the dough hook on the lowest setting until a dough is formed and pulls away from the edge of the bowl. You may need to add a couple of tablespoons of the extra flour to achieve this.

Now turn off the mixer, remove the dough from the dough hook and sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of flour over the dough. Restart the mixer on the minimum setting and mix for 45 to 90 secs. Repeat this process until the dough is no longer sticky, but feels slightly moist and very dough like. Then knead with the dough hook for another couple of minutes.

Remove the dough from the mixer and hand knead on a floured surface until the dough becomes very springy. Shape into a ball and place in a lightly greased bowl. Turn the dough ball once to coat all sides, then cover the bowl with a tea towel and allow to rise for about an hour. Because it’s rapidly approaching winter here, I now rise my dough in the oven. To do this, heat your oven to 50C (the lowest setting), turn the oven off, leave the door open for about 5 minutes so that the temperature inside the oven has dropped to about 25 to 28 C. Place the covered bowl in the oven and shut the door. DO NOT turn the oven on while your rising dough is in it, you’ll kill the yeast prematurely and probably start a fire (from the tea towel).

Once risen, turn out on a floured surface and knead until springy. Shape your loaf to fit your preferred tin (or if not using a tin, shape accordingly). Place the loaf into the bread tin (I’ve started “greasing” mine with flour rather than oil or butter, and it seems to be working very well). Allow to proof for another hour or until protruding from the top of your bread tin.

Slit the top of the loaf diagonally five times with a serrated knife no more than 5 mm deep. This will allow for expansion of the loaf and make it look pretty too 😉 (see image below)

Bake for about 35 to 40 minutes at 190C.

Turn out onto a rack to cool.

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posted to Breads and Baking,Recipes @ 11:30 pm

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Sweet French Toast | home | Basic Bread