Simple Bread
In England, soldiers are – among other things – slivers of toast that you dip into a soft boiled egg.The best soldiers take time to develop. They are all natural, wholesome, home grown, and shaped with love and care.
Ingredients
- 300 g Wheat and/or spelt flour Whole or white or a mixture of your choice
- 200 g Water
- 1.5 g Instant Or 3 g dry Or 6 g fresh yeast
- 3 g Salt
Instructions
- If you are using dry yeast, measure the flour into a big bowl and make a well in it. Sprinkle in the yeast, pour on 100 g of water and let it sit for 15 minutes or so. A beige sludge may or may not form on the top of the water – don’t worry if it does not. The important thing is that the yeast is fully dissolved in the water. Add the salt and bring the ingredients together into a big ball in the bowl.
- If you are using fresh or instant yeast, measure all the dough ingredients into a big bowl. Bring them all together in a big ball in the bowl.
- Pull the dough out onto the counter and knead well for 10 minutes. Pop it back into the bowl, cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 1-2 hours or until it has doubled in size.
- To shape the bread, pull the dough out of the bowl gently onto a non floury surface. Stretch and fold it and then roll it up tightly and pop it into a greased bread tin to rise. Or make a tight ball and pop it on a baking tray that you have lined with non stick baking parchment to rise. To see videos on all aspects of this process including the shaping into a loaf or a ball, click here. Cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rest for 45 minutes-1 hour until it has risen nicely.
- Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees and pop the dough in. Bake it for 45 minutes and then remove it from the tin and place it on a wire rack to cool.
- Slice, toast, top with butter or marmite (vegemite, bovril), and slice into pieces to dip into your soft boiled egg for real bread breakfast heaven. Soldiers for breakfast? There’s a thought.
- If you would like to learn more, take a bread course with us! Click here and pop your post code into the post code finder to locate your nearest trainer.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Interesting article.
I really enjoyed making this bread. I used 2:1 wholewheat to dark rye, with pumpkin, sunflower and flax seeds thrown in before the second proof, but I must say that 6g of salt is waaaaaaay too much salt for my taste. I mean it is seriously tongue tweakingly salty. I know that rye doesn’t rise so much and the rise was *satisfactory* but I wouldn’t be surprised if the amount of salt retarded the rise a little.
Hi there, salt does indeed slow yeast down but rye can also be incredibly slow to rise. The amount of salt is such a personal thing. I hope you find what is right for you!