When the first lockdown kicked in last year, it was very difficult to get hold of decent fresh bread; I quickly realised that it was one of the things that I missed most!

A baguette! A crusty roll! My kingdom for a poppy seeded bloomer!

My love affair with bread started quite early on in life.  On occasion, I used to go with my Godparents and pick up warm bread from a local bakery in Carshalton Beeches in Surrey.

I can still remember standing in line at the bakers very early on a Saturday morning, knowing that I would soon hold the warm bread in my hands; the smell in the bakery was bloody AMAZING and the loaf radiated its own mouthwatering scent in the car on the way home! Torture it was!

The vacuum packed baguettes that you can chuck in the oven or the bog standard pre-sliced loaves that you find in Supermarkets simply do not cut it. I vowed that I would learn how to make my own bread to an acceptable level, to satisfy my craving!

Now that the UK has returned to a second lockdown, I felt it was time to start making my own bread.

I was determined to do so with my own fair hands and without the convenience or dependency of the expensive bread making machines; said machines are currently sold out anyway, largely due to covid-19 panic buying and the logistics nightmare that has currently paralysed importing (shitty Brexit).

Thanks to a Jamie Oliver video on YouTube, I have already made a couple of loaves in 2021 and I am very pleased with the results! https://youtu.be/aUtxKeupYFg

For the recipe within the video, you only need strong flour, a sachet of yeast in water, a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt. Couple of periods where you leave the dough to prove before you bake it in the oven for 35 mins on 180oC. Very simple.

My next goal is to add in a little wholemeal flower and top the loaf with black poppy seeds or seseme seeds 🙂 watch this space!

Give it a go! It is fun! Especially the kneeding of the dough, a good stress relief.