Plain Bread
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
Dissolve yeast in warm water and add to the flour mixture.
Mix until a dough forms, then knead for about 10 minutes.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
Shape and bake
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Shape the dough into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan.
Let it rise again for 30 minutes.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the bread its structure.
- Yeast
- Ferments sugars in the dough, producing gas that makes the bread rise.
- Water
- Hydrates the flour so gluten can form and dissolves the yeast.
The step that matters
Knead until a dough forms and develops structure. Kneading stretches and aligns gluten strands, which traps the gas made by yeast. Under-kneaded dough rises poorly and gives a dense, crumbly loaf.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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