Home made bread

Making a home made bread is not as difficult as you may think. It just takes time...a lot of time...but every minute is worth it!

Ingredients:
- 900 gramms flour (either plain or self raising)
- 25 gramms fresh yeast
- 100+500 ml of warm water
- 2 teaspoon of salt
- 4 teaspoons of sugar
- 1 egg

How to prepare:
Take a big bowl and measure 900 gramms flour into the bowl. Add the 2 teaspoons of salt and the 4 teaspoons of sugar and mix them.
Measure 100 ml of warm water and grind the 25 gramms yeast into the water. If it is done stir the water and the yeast and pour it to the flour-salt-sugar mix. Additionally pour 500 ml of warm water to the bowl and start to mix the ingredients starting it from the very edge of the bowl in a concentric way. If it is stiff add some more flour. It takes 5-10 minutes to knead it. It is ready if it "lets" me to form a "ball".

If it's ready cover the bowl with a textile and put it into a plaid and make sure it covers the bowl everywhere. The aim is to keep the dough warm. Leave it to have a rest for 2 hours.

After 2 hours separate the dough from the bowl with the same way as before: start it at the bowl and going in concentric way work the gases out from the dough. After this the dough looks like this:

Cover the dough again with the textile and put it back into the plaid, making sure again it keeps the dough warm. At this time it gets only 1 hour of rest.
After 55 minutes put a big oven pan into the oven to 100 degrees to make it warm.
When you meet the dough next time it looks like this:

Get rid of the gas the same way as before. Take the baking pan out of the oven and replace the dough onto the baking pan. Try to form a bread. (Not toast bread but traditional, "bread bread" form). 
If the bread form is made cover it again with the textile and the plaid for another 30 minutes.

After 20 minutes turn the oven to 180 degrees and prepare a sharp knife. Crack an egg into a little bowl and mix the egg.
After the 30 minutes resting time has gone take the bread and cut three straight lines into the surface of the bread with the knife. You can make it easier by holding the dough not to move while you are cutting. If it is done spread the egg onto the bread. 
During this process the bread does not stop getting bigger:

If cutting and spreading the egg is done push the bread into the oven (which has been turned to 180 degrees previously) and bake it for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes take it out from the oven and put the bread onto the grill of the oven or onto a grate to let it evaporate. (I used my parrot's cage attachment that has never been used by him).

The bread can be kept in a bag or wrapped into in cling film because these do not collect the rest of the wet from the bread. It can be kept for 4-5 days, it does not become crumby. 

Tip:
After you spread the bread with the egg and before you push it into the oven you can sprinkle your bread with some linseeds, sesame seeds or sunflower seeds.


Difficulty: medium
Time: approx. 5 hours (the real time you work with it is 30 minutes)
Portion: 1,5 kg bread
Washing-up: little