Almost everyone is getting their bake on in lockdown. Banana bread, cinnamon buns, loaves. But finding flour, yeast and sugar has been a bit of a challenge.
Robert’s Bakery has the answer. Along with being able to buy bundles of their loaves and buns for delivery, they’ve also got a bit of an all in one for the bakers out there. A full on Get Baking Kit,
that you just need to add water and oil to. Delivered straight to your door, it includes enough for two good sized tin loaves (or one loaf and twelve bread rolls, one loaf and four pizza bases, or one white loaf, six white rolls and two pizza bases). Phew!
And that’s not all, if you treat yourself to a box, and post images or videos online with the hashtag #ShareYourBakes and you could be on the telly, in an advert which will air on national TV on Friday 5th June.
To show you just how easy it is, I made a loaf using a gifted box in real time on Saturday – and safe to say, I’m pretty impressed. Let’s start at the beginning.
When your box arrives, it includes a card with the recipe and information on it, and your bag of bread mix. This will keep for quite a while in a dark dry place, so if you don’t use it straight away, don’t worry.
The mix includes everything bar the liquid ingredients – oil (or butter) and water. So there’s no faffing around with yeast, or activating it. It’s all in one.
For this bake, I used half – enough for a good sized loaf, and used a rapeseed, red palm fruit oil blend. Olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, margarine, are all options for use in the bake.
As with any loaf, bring it together in a bowl with a spoon, or even your hands, until it forms a ball, and then it’s time to knead.
Kneading helps smooth the dough, and stretch the gluten fibres in it. This is all about the texture, and help them rise. And yes, it feels like it takes ages. By hand, you’re looking at about ten minutes, with a machine, five. So rope the kids in, or as I do, lose yourself in the process. Let your mind wander, put some music on, imagine it’s someone’s face that you’re slowly stretching into oblivion.
Dough smooth and stretchy? We’re done. Pop it into a bowl and cover it with a tea towel/clean shower cap/cling film and put it to one side for an hour.
An hour later, and this is what you’re looking for:
After this, we ‘knock it back’. We’ve let the yeast do some work, now we need to stretch it with some kneading again, ahead of a final rise. Again, this is about texture and rise – we want the bread to be as delicious as possible. After this second knead, it’s time to pop it in a greased/lined tin to rise a second time.
How long you leave for the second rise is up to you. I left mine for half an hour – it was a warm day, and the oven was on warming up, so the yeast put on a good rise. Into the oven it went.
And ta-dah! One fresh loaf, ready to be slathered in butter and eaten slightly warm (because who can resist?).
The process is easy, the result delicious and you could join Nadia Sawalha, Holly Willoughby, and Stephen Fry and their bakes on national TV. What’s not to like?
You can pick up a Get Baking Kit here, and you’d better get a move on. The closing date to enter is 31 May!