Easy every day white bread

This recipe is a simple white loaf which uses dry yeast and is a perfect, every day bread.
We know that people may not have had the chance to make their own sourdough starter, or are complete beginners when it comes to bread making, so Fran converted one of his sourdough bread recipes to create a recipe that is suitable for everyone. ​​

Ingredients: 

• 400g of strong white bread flour 
• 260g of warm water (65% of water compared to the amount of flour) 
• 2g of dried yeast 
• 10g of sea salt

Method: 
      Mixing the first 3 ingredients

• In a bowl add the warm water and the dried yeast and mix well until all the the yeast dissolves. 
• Add all the flour and with a scraper, mix well for 5 minutes, until there are no more bits of dry flour and it forms a very shaggy dough. 
• Transfer the dough onto a work surface and start kneading the dough with the palms of your hands - be energetic and a little fast with your kneading movement. The slower your kneading movement, the stickier your dough will be on the table. Help yourself with the scraper if you need a little help! Knead for another 6 - 7 minutes. 
• Once the dough it's nicely kneaded and elastic, make a ball shape, again help yourself by using the scraper. 
• Transfer the dough to a plastic container or bowl and cover. Let it rest for 1 hour.

      Adding the salt

• Dissolve the salt in 50g of warm water. 
• Add the salt water to the dough and work the liquid and salt into the dough by giving the dough a few folds. The dough will feel quite wet and loose at this point (don't panic!). Put the dough back inside the bowl and cover.

     Folding the dough

• To fold the dough, grab the dough at one side, lift it up, and fold it over on top of itself. Fold the dough four/five times, moving clockwise from the top of the bowl. Let the dough rest for 45 minutes, then repeat.
• Do this folding process a total of 4 times, every 45 min.  The dough will start out very loose, but will gradually become tighter as you continue folding.

   
     Prepare the proofing basket

• Grab a bread proofing basket or if you don't have one, line a clean mixing bowl with a clean kitchen towel. Dust the proofing basket or the kitchen towel heavily with flour - make sure you rub the flour into the cloth on the bottom and up the sides with your fingers. Use more flour than you think you'll need! 

      Final shaping

• 45 minutes after the last fold, transfer the dough onto your work surface (be gentle to avoid deflating the dough). 
• Shape the dough into a round shape (if you're using a round bowl or basket) by slipping your pastry scraper under the edge of the dough and then scraping it around curve of the dough, like turning left when driving. Do this a few times to build the surface tension in the dough (flour or add a little oil to your pastry scraper as needed to keep it from sticking to the dough). If you're using a oval shaped basket or bowl, make sure you shape your dough into an oval shape instead. 
• If it's not quite round, cup your palms around the dough and rotate it against the counter to shape it. If you have an oval bread proofing basket then give the dough an oval shape. 
• Once you got a nice round or oval shape, dust the dough all over with flour and transfer it to the proofing basket upside down, so the seams from the shaping are on top (basically the part of the dough that's on the bottom when the dough is on the work surface will be the top once you've transferred to the proofing basket.) 

 
     Let it rise!

• Cover the proofing basket or bowl with a clean plastic bag and let the dough rise for 4-5 hours at room temperature or until it has doubled in side.
• For a slow rise, place the dough in the fridge overnight or for around 12 hours - this will improve the flavour and aroma of your bread. If leaving to rise overnight in the fridge, bake the loaf straight from the fridge; you do not need to warm the dough before baking.

     Let's bake it! 

• Turn the oven on to 220°C (fan) and place the dutch oven or any other heavy-bottomed pot with lid in the oven. 
• Once the oven has reached the correct temperature, your pot or dutch oven will be very hot so carefully take it out (but keep the lid on). 
• Tip the loaf on top of a piece of parchment paper and using  a lame or sharp knife quickly score the surface of the loaves. Try to score at a slight angle, so you're cutting almost parallel to the surface of the loaf; this gives the loaves the distinctive "shelf" along the score line. 
• Transfer the dough into the dutch oven, close with the lid and bake for 25-30 minutes. 
• After 25-30 minutes take the lid off and keep baking the bread for a further 25 minutes at 190°C (fan) or until the crust is nicely golden and caramelised (don't be scared to have some colour on your bread, this is where a lot of the flavour and texture of the crust comes in).

   Let it cool

• Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and let it cool completely for at least 1- 2 hours. This will improve the aroma and the flavour of your bread as the crumb is still cooking. Enjoy!