Farmhouse Crusty Loaf (Handmade, Quick, Simple & Delicious)

Hello again .

My name's John .

I'm a retired cook from the northeast of England in the UK and welcome to my latest bread video .

And in this very easy bread recipe , I'll show you how to make this fantastic and delicious farmhouse sandwich loaf .

And for a change , I'll be making this one entirely by hand .

But if you prefer , you can use a stand mixer , too .

You can view the ingredients list and follow written method for this recipe on the recipe page on the Channel's website .

I leave a link in the description under the video , or you can click on the eye icon top right of the screen to take you directly to the recipe page .

And I'd like to thank the Patreon and PayPal supporters for their very kind help .

I'll be doing the shout out and name Splash a little later in the video .

OK , let's get on with today's recipe .

I start the recipe by making sure my yeast is alive and well .

First , add the sugar to a jug if you're interested .

This loaf is a 61% hydration recipe , and it works out that we need 305 grammes or 305 millilitres for this recipe , it's always much more accurate to weigh your water so carefully .

Measure your water and heat it up in the microwave to approximately 40 Celsius .

That's 100 and four F .

Make sure your temperature is correct .

Then add your yeast .

Give that a good stir until it's all dissolved .

Now set it aside until it activates and that will take approximately 10 minutes onto the mixing .

Add your 500 grammes of white bread flour to a bowl .

Add your salt to the flour and mix it in .

Make a well in the flour and pour in your now active yeast mixture As you can see , mine's nice and frothy .

If you don't see any activity , your yeast must be dead and it needs replacing .

And that's why it's always best to test your yeast before you start any bread recipe .

And that's Number four in my basic bread making rules , and I'll add all four rules to the recipe page on the website .

Now add the soft butter to the bowl .

You can use oil or soft larder if you prefer .

You OK using my trusty wooden spoon handle I'll bring it roughly together .

Now switching to my bowl scraper , I turn it out onto the worktop .

Make sure you scrape out all of that flour .

Now , using your hands , bring it all together into a sticky muss .

Your bench scraper is a great tool to use at this stage .

Now it's quite a sticky dough , as you can see in my hand .

But don't be tempted to add more flour .

It'll get a lot less sticky and smoother , the more you need the dough .

Now such a timer and hand need the dough are shown for 10 minutes .

Try to follow my needing technique .

The more you practise it , the easier it becomes .

Once the time's up , your door should be now smooth and supple .

Now form the dough into a bowl and get it into a lightly oiled bowl .

And there's about a teaspoon of vegetable oil in this bowl .

Cover the bowl .

I like to use the shower cup for this , and these and other shower cups are available in the website shop if you're interested and now get it into a nice , warm draught free spot .

I like to use my oven with just the light bulb on for this , it seems ideal now .

Set your timer for at least one hour now , I say at least one hour , as the time may vary , depending on the temperature of your house .

And while that's proofing that you need to grease a 900 gramme or £2 loaf tin with lard , butter or oil , I like to use lard for this .

No set that aside for now .

Once your proofing time's up , your door should have at least doubled in size .

Mine is looking very good and well written , so I turn it out onto the bench and knock it back .

That simply means get all of the gas out of it .

Once your dough is degassed , form it into a sausage shape as shown .

Try to stretch the outer skin of the dough as much as you can .

Place the form dough into your prepared loaf tin .

Sprinkle a little flour on the door and cover it with a lightweight dry cloth .

The dust in a flour will prevent the dough from sticking to the cloth .

You leave a couple of plates in a cloth at the top of the tin , and that will allow the dough to rise unimpeded .

Now get that into the warm spot .

Mine's going back into the oven with just the bulb on and set your timer for 30 minutes .

This time .

OK , it's been 30 minutes , so I need to take mine out of this warm spot and let it sit on the bench for a further 10 minutes while the oven heats up .

And as you can see , mine is rising very well , and it's still got about 10 minutes to go before turning on your oven .

Place a pan of hot water on the very bottom of the oven , and this is just hot water from the top , about 50 Celsius and nuts around 100 and 20 F .

The steam created from this water will make the top of the loaf very crispy .

Now set your oven to 100 and 80 degrees Celsius .

Not 3 55 F or gas mark .

Four .

OK , the oven has been heating up for the last 10 minutes .

Time to prepare the loaf .

Now take your baker's lame or blade and make a slush right down the centre of the loaf .

If you're not confident in using this tool .

Do it a little at a time like this .

Once you're happy with the slice , get it into the oven and set your timer for 30 minutes .

And while I love speaking , I hope you don't mind if I give my two recipe books a bit of a shout out .

The books have lots of our favourite , easy to follow recipes from our work kitchens in them .

Both books are available in the website shop , along with lots of other equipment I use in the videos and by popular demand .

The skeleton style oven gloves will soon be available , too .

Just click on the eye icon top right of your screen , and that will take you directly to the website shop .

Once the time's up carefully and slowly open the door so you don't get a blast of steam in the face and get it out of the oven and take it straight out of the tin .

Now , if the bread is sticking to the tin that you use , there's a couple of explanations why Number one .

It hasn't been greased properly , and number two the tin has probably lost its nonstick coating .

I'll leave a link to the UK Amazon page in the description box below for this tin that I use and I've never had a loaf or cake .

Stick to this brand yet , and I'm not being sponsored by this company , by the way , but credit where it's due .

Now place it back into the oven in what I like to call commando style and increase the temperature to 210 Celsius at 4 10 F or gas mark seven and set your timer for a further six minutes .

This will give the loaf a rich golden brown colour and a much crustier texture .

After the time's up , get this beautiful loaf of bread out of the oven and onto a wire rack to cool for a while , and it looks magnificent .

Once it's cooled , I'll come back , cut a couple of slices off and have a little taste .

OK , the smell of my kitchen is so amazing it's still on the warm side , but I can't wait any longer .

Time to cut a few slices off , and as you can see and here it's really crusty and the crumb inside looks soft and light , and you just know it's going to be delicious .

right .

I'll try some of that encrust bit with a little of my homemade butter , and the key to making beautiful bread is get your measurements correct .

Digital scales in grammes can't go wrong And , oh yes , there is nothing better than a slice of freshly baked bread straight from the oven .

Absolutely delicious .

You can't not give this simple loaf of crusty for mouse bread a big thumbs up guys , and it's so very simple to make and from us at the beginning .

Here is the latest list of my Patreon and PayPal supporters , and they are .

Marie began , Georgina McDowell , Michael Churchill , Michael Kate , Bartolome Josh , Ian McClelland and there's also three who wish to remain anonymous .

Thanks very much , guys .

I really do appreciate all that you do in supporting the channel .

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