Want to bake your own bread at home? You should know which ingredients for basic bread making you'll need. Find all your homemade bread ingredients here.
Baking your own bread is really much simpler than you might think. I used to think that if nearly everyone buys their own bread, it must be a difficult thing to make at home.
I thought this about a lot of things and most of them prove me wrong. Bread is really easy to make at home and so satisfying and delicious.
I love that making my own bread means I can know exactly what's in it but also that I can reduce waste by no buying packaged bread.
Before you start baking your own bread at home, you'll need to get a handle on the basic ingredients.
There aren't many of them and you can have them on hand all the time, so fresh bread is never far away.
Ingredients for basic bread making
Baker’s flour
Baker’s flour is different to regular plain or all-‐purpose or plain flour as it has a higher protein content which makes it stronger and helps it keep its shape especially for breads not baked in a tin like my best ever olive bread.
You can use plain or all-‐purpose flour if that is all you can get but baker’s flour is recommended.
You can get it at most supermarkets or grocery stores. Sometimes it might be called bread flour.
Alternatively, if you can sweet talk your local baker (go for smaller ones rather than large chains) they might sell you a bigger bag which can be much more cost effective if you have room to store it.
They might also sell you a flour bin, which is essentially a big bucket with an airtight lid -‐kind of like an old-‐style nappy bucket, which would also do the trick.
Any airtight container will work as long as you store it in a cool, dry place.
I usually just leave mine in the big bag it comes in and keep it in the bottom of the pantry.
Water
This can be from the tap, filter or bottle -‐it's just personal preference.
For the least expensive loaf, obviously tap water is the best but I like to go for filtered to keep out any nasties.
Yeast
Unless it is a sourdough, all my recipes use dried yeast, which you get at the supermarket.
It comes in packets or in a big container, which is more cost effective and has less waste than the pre-portioned packages.
The packages are pre-‐measured though but it's up to you and your budget. Store any opened yeast in the fridge.
Olive oil
A mild oil like regular olive oil or virgin olive oil is best for baking bread unless you want the flavour to be quite prominent in which case feel free to use extra virgin.
I like to buy olive oil in 4-‐5L tins. It’s much more cost-‐effective this way as long as you have room in your pantry.
Salt
With salt, get the best you can afford.
I like pink Himalayan rock salt flakes. At the very least I would always use sea salt flakes.
I’ve read some recipes that say you need to grind the salt if you use sea salt but I never have.
Sugar
Sugar is used in recipes to feed the yeast and help it work.
Raw sugar, caster sugar, rapadura sugar as well as honey can all be used.
Egg
Some recipes call for an egg.
Adding egg helps the bread rise and also lightens the texture of the bread.
I always use organic eggs or at the very least, free-‐range eggs. Free-‐range eggs come from happy chickens and in my book happy = healthy.
Organic eggs come from chickens that haven't been fed any antibiotics or growth hormones and are fed their natural diet.
Now you know all the ingredients you need for baking your own bread at home, you'll need some recipes!
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