Baking Bread with the Roughleys
Welcome to Baking with the Roughleys and more importantly baking Bread with the Roughleys!
We have been baking our own bread for more than 8 years. It started way back when we travelled through New Zealand. Shauna and I both worked in a pizza restaurant where I made fresh pizza bases and individual loaves every single day.
By the time we arrived back in Canada I found that the recipe didn’t seem to transfer well. I also thought I could improve it so I combined what I had learned in New Zealand with a recipe from Delia Smith, a lady who had been ever present in the food I had grown up with.
This bread recipe is a staple in our home as well as becoming a HIT for all of our newborn clients as they all take home a fresh loaf.
Now we want to share it with you!
This recipe makes two medium sized loaves of bread.
Ingredients
500 ml Hot Water in a large jug
1 heaping tsp brown sugar
5 tsp yeast
5 cups flour
2 tsp salt
5 Tbsp oil (olive or canola is best)
Method
Yeast Activation
- Fill a large jug with 500ml of hot tap water.
- Add 5 tsp of yeast and 1 heaped tsp of brown sugar.
- Mix well and set aside somewhere warm.
At this time the yeast will be activating. The yeast will be using the sugar as food to grow and bubble. If your jug is large enough the yeast will be able to double in volume.
Flour Prep
- In a large mixing bowl add 5 cups of all purpose flour.
- Add 2 tsp of salt and lightly mix.
- Add 5 Tbsp of oil.
Making Dough
Once the yeast has bubbled to the top of the jug you can add it to the flour mixture. If you are mixing by hand I would recommend adding a little at a time so that it is easier to combine. If you are using a food mixer you can add the entire yeast mixture at once.
Using a dough hook lightly combine the fluid and liquid by hand before attaching it to the mixer. Turn your mixer to a low setting such as 3 to combine the ingredients. This will take 8 – 10 minutes.
After your ingredients have been mixing for about 3 minutes it is a good time to check the consistency of the dough. If the dough is sticking to the bottom of the mixing bowl under the hook you can add a little more flour, giving it time to combine. If it seems dry take your yeast jug and use it to add a little more water.
You will recognise that the dough is a good consistency once the dough hook is rolling your dough around the sides of the bowl and the bowl becomes clean.
It is better for the dough to be a little stickier than dry. It will rise better making a lighter loaf. A dryer dough will make for a more dense loaf of bread.
Rolling and Rising
Once the dough has finished mixing it is time to roll it out into a long sausage. Personally I like to pull the dough from the bowl and hook and roll it into a large ball pinching the sides together. I roll the dough in light circles to combine and roll out the seems.
Next rolling close to the centre, moving my hands to the outside I roll the dough into a large sausage. I make the sausage long enough so that once cut in half the two pieces are long enough to reach end to end in two lightly oiled bread pans.
If you don’t have bread pans make any shape from the dough that you like and place on a lightly oiled oven proof tray or dish.
At this time cover your dough with a tea towel and leave in a warm place for at least an hour. The dough will rise and is strong enough to lift the tea towel. You may also see air bubbles forming under the surface, this is normal. If you leave your dough for too long it will begin to sink back down. It won’t look as pretty once baked but should still taste fine. We find that 1 hour to 1 and a half hours is normally a good amount of time.
Baking
Pre-heat your oven to 400F and bake your bread for 20 minutes until golden brown.
As soon as you take the bread from the oven remove it from your bread pans. There should be a hollow sound when you tap the base to let you know that it is fully cooked.
At this point the bread will be incredibly soft so I would not recommend tasting your work just yet. Wait 20 minutes before trying a piece with lots of butter. YUM!
Storage
Your fresh bread keeps well in a bread bin or sealed bag. If left out it will dry out much faster. We can also recommend freezing a loaf that has been pre-sliced. Again once defrosted the bread will be drier and not as tasty. A loaf in the freezer is perfect for toast.
There are no preservatives used in making this bread. The little sugar included is used up by the yeast. Despite this if well kept it should last up to a week.
Extras
We have found this dough recipe to be perfect for making pizza and green onion cakes. It also works well for cinnamon buns!
If you have any questions as always you can contact us here.
We also went LIVE on Facebook and baked with some of you! Check that out here if you need any help: Facebook Live.
Thank you for joining us for our first baking with the Roughleys. We hope to see you again soon.
