Winter's Home Baked Bread
Introduction
Recipe provided by our friend friend Chris Winter 
Ingredients
- 4 cups of flour
- 2 pinches of salt
- 1 heaped tablespoon of honey (or sweetener of choice)
- 2 table spoons of surebake (baking yeast)
- 1 cup of cold water
- 1 cup of boiling water
Directions
- Warm a bowl by putting hot water in it
- Empty and dry the bowl and mix in two cups of flour, salt, yeast and honey.
- Add one cup of boiling water and immediately follow with one cup of cold water
- Mix it all up and leave it sit three minutes
- Slowly add the remaining two cups of flour until the mixture is sticky but doesn't stick to your hands - you may need to add more flour as necessary.
- Knead it until when you poke it, it springs back quickly (about 10 minutes)
- Leave it in a warm place, covered with a damp tea towel, for 30 minutes
- Punch it back down to get rid of the air in it
- Divide and shape however you like (into loaf tins, rolls on a tray, roll into a long sausage and plait etc)
- Place in or on your greased tool of choice
- Leave in a warm place and let it rise until it's about 2.5 times the size it started (30min - 2 hours depending on heat)
Preheat oven to 210oC
Put bread into the preheated oven for 10 minutes, after that turn the oven down to 180oC (the first bit makes crust)
- Cook until done (about another 30 minutes for loaves, less for rolls)
You can tell if the loaf is done by removing it from the tin and tapping it on the bottom. If it sounds hollow its done.
Variations
- You can use whatever type of flour you want, and can use more then one type of flour to get whatever consistency you want.
- The lower the heat for the second rising, then denser the bread will be. For good sandwich bread you want it to take close to two hours.
Winter tends to knead the dough in the bowl to save on dishes but it can also be done on a floured wooden or plastic board. Metal benches tend to be too cold for the dough. The kneading is best done with the heel of the hand - fold the dough in half and squish it with the heel of your hand then turn it 90o and repeat.