How to bake your own bread

I bake my own bread everyday using an oven, not a bread machine and it’s so yummy.

Homemade bread can also be made cheaper than buying bread at the bakery.

Bread recipe

Ingredients: (for 2 loaves)

1kg baker’s flour
600ml warm water
20g salt
10g dried yeast
1 tblsp olive oil

Method:

Combine all your dry ingredients in a bowl.
Add the water and oil and stir until a dough is formed.
Tip your dough onto your bench and knead your dough until soft and smooth and no longer sticky, this should take about 10 minutes. (If you have a mixer with a dough attachment, your kneading can be done in this).
Oil your bowl and place dough back inside and place a damp tea towel over the top.
Let the dough sit for 1 hour to rise – the dough should have doubled in size.
Take the dough out and punch all the air out of the dough and then return it to the bowl and cover again.
Leave the dough for another hour to rise.
Tip the dough back onto your bench and again punch all the air out of the dough.
Cut the dough in half.
Take half and on a lightly floured surface, flatten it out and then roll up tightly.
Fold each end of the bread to the middle so they overlap.
Repeat steps 10 and 11 with your second half of the dough.
Round out your loaves and gently shape into an oval with seams on the bottom.
Place loaves on a baking tray and cover with a plastic bag and leave for an hour to rise.
Preheat oven to 250c and place a baking dish on the bottom of the oven.
Score (cut) loaves on top (1 cm deep) before placing in the oven with a sharp knife.
Place one cup of boiling water in the dish you’ve pre-warmed in the oven and place your loaves in to bake.
Bake bread for 10 minutes and then turn down the oven to 180c and bake bread for another 35 minutes.
Your bread is ready. Tip – the bread is easiest to cut once cooled.
You can use 20% rye or wholemeal flour for a healthier version. (If you incorporate more than 20%, you will need more water).

Do you bake your own bread? Do you have any tips or tricks to add? Please SHARE in the comments below.

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27 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 21 May 2021
    10:57 am
When I was a child my Dad would bake a loaf of bread each morning before he went to work. I would wake to the smell.

- - mom94125 said
  - 04 Sep 2016
    12:22 pm
wow to bake this everyday sure says a lot! sounds like a great recipe

- - Melissa89 said
  - 27 Jul 2016
    12:10 pm
I have done this before, it is great fun

- - mom19782016 said
  - 24 May 2016
    4:47 pm
Thanks for posting this recipe – I’ve been interested in trying to get into baking my own bread but it always seemed so difficult to start with it.

- - rovermum said
  - 23 May 2016
    10:38 am
I love bread, all types of bread. However, it is now so readily available in all its forms that I find it easier and cheaper to buy from Bakers Delight or Coles Bakery section.

- - ella12 said
  - 21 May 2016
    9:55 pm
This sounds wonderful. The whole family will love it.

- - deb_gs said
  - 21 May 2016
    9:30 pm
This recipe requires less kneading than some others. Step 17 allows the crust to become crispy. I wonder if you can make brown bread with this recipe.
- mom134803 replied
  
  22 May 2016 , 7:06 pm
  Sure you can, I always bake it brown with seeds
- - seanbadelaide said
  - 21 May 2016
    9:33 am
Can this create other shapes and sizes too? Thinking ‘no’, but wondering about smaller rolls and/or having each family member make their own creative bread shape!
If it’d work does it need a different way/time/heat for cooking?

- - mom101628 said
  - 20 May 2016
    8:25 pm
But you need to knead this bread – that’s the hardest part!

- - sharna_booth_weinrowski said
  - 10 Apr 2016
    12:08 pm
Thank you! will try this!!!!!

- - mom57665 said
  - 09 Apr 2016
    12:30 am
Great Recipe going to try it soon and add some hot olive oil when its heated yum : )

- - Mum to one said
  - 03 Mar 2016
    11:15 am
We eat so much bread and i have been wanting to make my own for ages but always felt it would be a massive task and i would need a machine or special tools but looking at this recipe it seems like it can definitely be done! Thank you

- - runofffeetmum said
  - 02 Mar 2016
    11:39 am
Can’t wait to try this love my bread

- - robyn_smithwick said
  - 25 Feb 2016
    8:32 pm
I used to make my own bread years ago. We don’t eat enough of it now to warrant it.

- - KrysGrace said
  - 20 Feb 2016
    8:05 pm
Thank you. The recipe I used last time didn’t work as well as I would have liked. This looks like it will work better

- - mom101628 said
  - 07 Feb 2016
    10:33 am
Usually make my own bread but in the breadmaker on the timer device so its ready for me first thing in the morning. Lovely smell to wake us up too.

- - curlytops said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    10:12 pm
i love the smell and taste of fresh bread.

- - mom160421 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    9:06 pm
I’ve often made pizza dough but not my own bread. I’d probably make it occasionally but not on a regular basis.

- - rachelvk said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    8:35 pm
I am starting mat leave in a few weeks… I think I would like to make homemade bread a regular thing while I am home. Thanks for the recipe.

- - mom112217 said
  - 06 Feb 2016
    8:09 pm
We use to make our own bread in the bread machine but stop doing it due to time! I try your recipe on the week-end,thanks!