Wheat Bread

Ingredients

• 2 quarts flour
• 0.5 cup yeast
• milk or water
• 1 egg-sized piece butter
• 1 tsp salt

Method

This is a fermentation-driven dough using a two-stage process: first a sponge, then a full dough. The temperature of your mixing liquid matters — cold water in summer slows fermentation so the dough doesn't overproof in heat; warm milk or water in winter accelerates it. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast — half a cup of fresh yeast to 2 quarts flour is a strong culture, typical for Victorian domestic baking. Pour in your liquid without mixing everything yet; you're building a wet sponge from the yeast and perhaps a third of the flour. Cover with a clean cloth and leave overnight (winter, in a warm kitchen corner; summer, at room temperature). The yeast will consume sugars and produce CO2 and alcohol, creating flavour and structural strength before you even knead.

Next morning, the sponge should smell vinous and show a dimpled surface. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt across the top — salt controls fermentation speed and strengthens gluten development. Mix all the flour into the sponge with your hands or a wooden spoon, then turn onto a work surface and knead hard for 10 minutes. The dough will be sticky; resist adding flour. Work it in folds: push away from you, fold the far edge back over itself, rotate 90 degrees, repeat. After 5 minutes you'll feel elasticity building as kneading aligns the gluten network. The dough should be smooth and silky, not dry. Shape into a round, cover, and allow a second rise of 2–3 hours until roughly doubled in bulk — poke it; the indentation should spring back slowly, not vanish at once and not hold its shape.

Divide into two pieces and shape on an unfloured board, pulling the surface tight against the heel of your hand to build tension. Place seam-side down in oiled tins filled halfway. Cover and proof 45 minutes until the dough crowns above the rim. Heat your oven hard — 220°C or hotter, with greater heat at the base of the oven. A loaf should turn deep golden-brown in 40–50 minutes; the bottom will sound hollow when tapped. If the dough soured in the second rise (it smells vinegary, not yeasty), add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda during the final shaping and knead it in thoroughly — this neutralises excess acidity. Cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.