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How to Make Easy White Bread

Paul Hollywood shows you how to make bread in a step-by-step video recipe.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 27,145 recipes mention both. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

The recipe

Makes 1 loaf
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Put the strong white bread flour, salt and fast-action dried yeast in a large bowl and mix, keeping the salt away from the yeast where you can.

  2. Add the tepid water and soft butter, then mix into a rough dough with your hand or a wooden spoon.

  3. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

  4. Lightly oil the mixing bowl with a little olive or sunflower oil, return the dough, cover and leave somewhere warm for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.

  5. Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Lightly oil a 2 lb loaf pan and dust it with a little extra flour.

  6. Knock the dough back, shape it into a log and press it into the prepared pan. Cover and leave to prove for about 15 minutes.

  7. Dust the top of the loaf with a little extra flour and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden and hollow-sounding when tapped underneath.

  8. Turn the loaf out onto a wire rack and leave to cool for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Bread + buttertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,145 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Bread + olivetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together999 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  3. Flour + buttertop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together122,858 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + olivetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Flour + olivetop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together13,452 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter share little aroma chemistry, yet 122,858 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs