French Style Country Bread
Ingredients
320 ml warm water
optional: 2 tablespoons of olive oil (for a softer loaf)
1 1/2 tsp salt
450g Bread flour
1 1/2 tsp fast action yeast
Method
Put the water in a bread machine bowl and add the salt (and optional oil). Add flour followed by yeast and process on the dough cycle (mine takes about an hour). If you don’t have a bread machine, you can use a mixer with a dough hook. Let it mix for about 10 minutes then cover and leave at room temperature for about an hour until it doubles in size.
Use plenty of flour on hands and work suface. Empty the dough onto the surface and flatten. Fold the dough over on itself to form three layers. Repeat three times. Shape the dough as preferred - I have used disc and rugby ball shapes.
Put the dough on a non-stick surface, cover with a towel and leave to rise for 60 minutes at room temperature
Preheat the fan oven to 200 c.
Lightly slash the top of the loaf lengthwise with a very sharp small knife and sprinkle/brush with flour then bake for 30 mins. Put the baked loaf on a rack to cool