Melt in your mouth homemade bread

Ingredients 

• 3 cups flour, bread, or plain/all purpose
• 2 tsp instant or rapid rise yeast (active dry yeast)
• 2 tsp kosher salt, NOT table salt
• 1 1/2 cups very warm tap water, NOT boiling
• 1 1/2 tbsp flour, for dusting

Instructions 

Mix Dough: Mix flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Add water, then use the handle of a wooden spoon to mix until all the flour is incorporated. Dough will be wet and sloppy – not kneadable, but not runny like cake batter. Adjust with more water or flour if needed for right consistency.

Rise: Cover with cling wrap or plate, leave on counter for 2 – 3 hours until it doubles in volume, it’s wobbly like jelly and the top is bubbly. If after 1 hour it doesn’t seem to be rising, move it somewhere warmer.

Preheat oven – Put dutch oven in oven with lid on (26cm or larger). Preheat to 230°C (220° fan) 30 minutes prior to baking. Don’t have a dutch oven? No problem! Recreate the steamy environment by placing hot water in a pan in the oven, and bake the bread on a tray.

Shape dough: Sprinkle work surface with 1 tbsp flour, scrape dough out of bowl. Sprinkle top with 1/2 tbsp flour.

Using a dough scraper or anything of similar shape (cake server, large knife, spatula etc), fold the sides inwards (about 6 folds) to roughly form a roundish shape. Don’t be too meticulous here – you’re about to deform it, it’s more about deflating the bubbles in the dough and forming a shape you can move.

Transfer to paper: Slide a large piece of parchment/baking paper (not wax paper) next to the dough, then flip the dough upside down onto the paper (i.e., seam side down, smooth side up). Slide/push it towards the middle, then reshape it into a round(ish) shape. Don't get too hung up about shape. In fact, lopsided = more ridges = more crunchy bits!

Bake 30 minutes covered, then 12 minutes uncovered or until deep golden and crispy.

Cool on rack for 10 minutes before slicing.

Ingredients 

• 2 tbs active dry yeast
• 2 cups warm water
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4-1/2 to 5 cups bread flour
• 1 tsp cornmeal

Directions 

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, sugar, and 2 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide in half. Shape into 12-in.-long loaves.

Place seam side down on a greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 230°C. Sprinkle loaves with cornmeal. With a sharp knife, make 4 shallow slashes across the top of each loaf. Bake 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients 

• 2 packages active dry yeast
• 3 1/4 cups warm water
• 1/4 cup bread flour
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1/3 cup honey
• 3 tsp salt
• 6 1/2 whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sunflower kernels 
• 3 tbsp butter, melted

Directions 

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the bread flour, oil, honey, salt and 4 cups whole wheat flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in sunflower kernels and enough remaining flour to form a firm dough.

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down; divide into 3 portions. Shape into loaves; place in 3 greased 8x4-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 180°C until golden brown, 35-40 minutes. Brush with melted butter. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.

To freeze:  Securely wrap cooled loaves in foil and then freeze. To use, thaw loaves at room temperature.

Ingredients 

• 1-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves  
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts  
• 1/2 cup raisins, optional

Directions 

Preheat oven to 180°C. Combine first 8 ingredients. Whisk together eggs, pumpkin, oil, and water; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in walnuts and, if desired, raisins.

Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 65-70 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Ingredients 

• 1 cup almond baking flour (fine texture)
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans 
• 1/4 cup cranberries (optional)
• 100ml golden linseed flour or ground flaxseed
• 100ml sunflower seed flour or ground sunflower seeds 
• 30ml cinnamon (optional)
• 30ml psyllium husk flour
• 10ml baking powder
• ¼ tsp Salt
• 5 eggs 
• 1 cup double-cream yoghurt

Directions 

Mix all of the above ingredients together. Pour into a greased loaf pan. Sprinkle some more roughly chopped pecans, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cranberries (optional) on top. Let it sit for 5 minutes to give the psyllium husk a chance to do its magic. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for 60 mins.  If you want to convert this to rusks, slice into thin slices once baked and lay onto the oven rack evenly spaced. Bake at 80-100°C  for a further 4-5hrs.