First post - my bread making philosophy

I love to cook, and I love making bread.  Bread gets bad press these days, especially from the "no-carbs" brigade.  I even read an article the other day that said no-one ate the bread provided at top Australian restaurants in case they got fat.  Miserable thin people don't appreciate bread.  In some ways, you can't blame them as most of the bread we get in this country (and in any English speaking country) is atrocious.  Factory bread is violently agitated, made to rise once rapidly, and steamed to dubious perfection.  It is highly processed, has all sorts of additives designed to 'improve' it, and it tastes terrible.  Have you noticed how light a loaf of bread in Australia is?  All of the 'improvers' puff up the bread so a standard loaf is mostly air.  This is banned in countries like France and Italy.  When you pick up a loaf of bread there, you can feel the heft and weight of it, and the crackling crust, all of which we are sadly denied here!

Although it smells good and looks good, bread made in your corner hot bread shop is made the same way as factory bread, just on a smaller scale.  Even your home bread maker uses the same process - highly refined flour, bread improvers, rapid agitation and a single rise, and steaming rather than baking it.  When you see a job advertised for one of these hot bread shops ( and I'll bite my tongue and not name any) it says "no experience required".  This is because everything is premixed and automated - no skill required.

Anyway I have a lot of fun baking bread, and eating it, so I hope to chronicle my successes and failures and hopefully encourage some real home bread baking.

To start with, a standard loaf which has been adapted from a Stephanie Alexander recipe.

Ingredients:
400g plain strong flour (Baker's flour)
100g wholemeal flour
300ml water
1 dessertspoon dried yeast
1 dessertspoon salt
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Optional - 1 tablespoon molasses (treacle)

Mix it all together in a bowl and then knead it by hand or in a machine with a dough hook for 10 minutes.  Place it in another lightly oiled bowl and clover with cling film.  Let it rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.  Bash the dough down until it is deflated, knead it into a sausage shape and place it on a folded tea towel which has been covered with flour or polenta (so you can roll the load off easily).  Heat the oven to 230 C with a baking tray inside the oven so it gets hot.  Let the dough rise for 45 minutes, then roll it onto the hot tray from the tea towel - it's ok to roll it on upside down.  Bake for 20 minutes, then turn it over and bake for another 20.  Cool it on a wire rack, and there's your bread!