'I'm Paul Hollywood and baking is in my blood.
'I was taught how to bake bread by my dad.'
One of the things I remember was giving him a hug before I went to school,
and pulling back and looking at my jumper and I was coated in flour.
And funny enough, my son does it today.
'I've been around the smell of freshly baked bread all my life
'and it's guaranteed to get my mouth watering.
'I think every home is improved by it so I want to show you that
'making bread in your own kitchen is much more satisfying than 'buying a loaf,
because it's a feast for your family and for your senses.
'The smell of it, the feel of it...'
It's beautiful stuff.
'the look of it...'
It's one of my best loaves I've ever made.
'the sound of it...'
This is a beautiful loaf.
'and the taste of it.'
I'd have that any time of the day. It's delicious.
'I want to show you that making bread is simple, really.
'You mix, knead, prove,
'shape, prove again, and finally bake.
'Once you've mastered that,
'I'm going to reveal how bread can be much more than just a loaf.
'It can be a meal in itself.'
It's gorgeous.
'So there's no excuses.
Get baking.'
In this country we eat three and a quarter billion loaves a year.
It's safe to say we like bread.
So over the next six weeks, I'm going to show you how to make more
than 30 different sorts from around the world.
As we have a rich history of baking in this country,
I want to begin this series by showing you my versions of some classic British breads.
Something deliciously crusty for lunch.
A tea-time treat that can become a pudding.
A robust and hearty dinner.
And first of all, a perfect learner loaf.
A bloomer is one of those original breads that
I first learnt how to make when I was about 13 years old.
Master the bloomer, and everything else will fall into place.
I'm going to show you how to use flour, yeast, salt,
olive oil and water
and turn it into something truly magical.
To start with, 500 grams of strong white flour.
So the next building block, 7 grams yeast.
That goes to one side of the bowl.
Your salt is 10 grams and goes to the other side of the bowl.
You don't want to put it into contact with the yeast
because it begins to kill it. That's a living animal.
Although it is dehydrated, once liquid hits it, it becomes alive
and you don't want to restrict its movements by adding salt to it.
Keep the salt away at this stage.
And there is one other perhaps
unexpected ingredient for my version of this classic British loaf.
Olive oil.
It gives a bit of longevity to the loaf, keeps it nice and soft.
And finally, 320 ml of water.
Now, this is a big thing.
Most people, when they make bread, actually use warm water.
It's a myth, a legend,
and it's rubbish.
Yeast is a micro-organism, which grows when you add water.
Using cold water means that the yeast grows slowly
and your bread will taste so much better.
Begin to mix. Fingers in like a mixer.
Like a claw, in there and begin to turn.
Add enough water until all the dry ingredients are taken up
and you have a moist, messy dough, just about hanging together.
At this stage, I need to start kneading.
Now, rather than put my dough into flour, which would just absorb
straight into the dough and make it too tight,
I'm going to use olive oil again.
A good lump of it, and it just helps it, stops it sticking to the table
and it actually stops it sticking to your hands as well.
The reason you knead bread is to build the gluten up in the dough
to make it elastic and strong.
Therefore, builds up the air bubbles in the bread.
At the moment it's quite rough, but that will get soft
and smoother, the longer that you work it.
Do this for around 10 minutes.
The more you play with it, work it, stretch it,
the better your dough will be.
So just stretch, tuck it over, stretch, fold it over,
and that is the very, very basics of kneading.
I use quite a bit of my body weight down through my hands.
It's a great little workout.
It gets rid of, gets rid of the bingo wings on the side.
And all you're doing is playing with it until you get to the point
where your dough is nice and soft...
and smooth.
You know you're doing well when it holds together in a ball
rather than sticking to you or the work surface.
But I'm there now, actually. It's getting smoother and smoother.
Look at that. This is beautiful, soft, glossy dough.
Pop it in the bowl.
Cover up your bowl and what that will do is prevent the air from
drying out the crust on that and actually prevents it from growing.
This dough will need to prove twice.
The first time, you leave it at room temperature
until it has at least doubled in size.
Which will take about two hours.
There we have it.
The yeast has begun to grow and created little sacs
full of air and if I open up the structure a little bit,
look how far I can stretch that.
That's the gluten that's been built up.
It's got a bit of air in it, which I'm going to smash out now.
Knocking back the bread forces the air out of it
and deflates the balloon.
Then when you come to shape it, you have a more regular structure inside your loaf.
You flatten out your loaf to a rough rectangle,
fold over the top, and fold it up,
all the way and flatten that down again.
Bit of stretch, fold it over and over again.
Knuckles in,
fold over the top
and then in, in, in.
There's a bloomer. That needs to be proved up now.
This second prove is for about 2 hours at room temperature.
Air bubbles again expand and the loaf doubles in size.
OK, we've got dough ready. Just take off this wrap.
My final tip is to finish by spraying the raw loaf with water and dusting with flour.
Then score the loaf, which allows you to control
the direction in which the loaf expands, or blooms, in the oven.
Thus the name "bloomer".
Now,that will go into an oven at 220 for about 25 minutes.
To get a great crust on this loaf,
a professional baking secret is to fill a trough in the bottom of the oven with water.
It creates a beautiful steam bath inside
that then allows it to grow and expand that little bit more.
And it gives you a slight shine on the top of the loaf.
Look at that.
It's got a gorgeous golden brown on the top,
beautiful light brown on the side.
A good way to check it's ready give it a little tap
and listen out for a hollow sound.
Now, that needs to go onto a cooling wire.
You can't eat it when its hot.
Leave it for a couple of hours that will be absolutely delicious,
I promise.
You should now have one crusty loaf with a soft interior or crumb,
airy and light but satisfyingly chewy.
It smells fantastic. Takes me back.
It's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
If you don't scoff it at breakfast, this delicious bloomer can be transformed
into a filling lunch.
A roasted vegetable picnic loaf.
You've got to take off the lid
because you need to cut a fair way down.
Turn half of the scooped-out bread into crumbs
and combine in a simple dressing with olive oil, garlic and sherry vinegar.
Then add roasted aubergines, peppers and courgettes.
Give it a bit of a mix together.
Now to fill the loaf.
First some basil pesto,
then alternate layers of the different vegetables,
freshly torn basil and buffalo mozzarella.
The last of the mozzarella on top
like so,
pop that back onto the top.
Really get a bit of tension in there
and that whole thing goes in the fridge overnight.
If I take this away, you'll see the inside.
And that, as a little sandwich loaf,
using your bloomer, is a bit special.
Summer. In a loaf.
Classic British breads like the bloomer evolved out of a close
cooperation between farmers, millers and bakers.
With a little bit of help from the brewers of beer.
In the mid-nineteenth century,
the Swiss invention of milling with steam-driven steel rollers
put paid to most of those community relationships.
Hello. You must be Howard.
But just outside St Albans, farmer Howard Roberts is a part of one such rare partnership
that survives to this day.
Perhaps this puts things into context a little bit, Paul,
because in the bottom of the valley,
down in the trees there, that is Redbournberry Mill.
We're farming the land here and the mill is that close.
We're producing the wheat and the oats and everything else here
and it's only literally a few yards as the crow flies to the mill there.
When you look at food miles...
- It's metres! - You're not even looking at that,
really, are you?
That's great, that's fantastic.
This wheat was harvested recently and it has to be
dried before it can be bagged up ready for the short journey.
- Hi, Justin. - Morning, Howard. Very well.
Justin James has been the miller at Redbournberry for 15 years.
So the first job is to get the wheat up to the top floor,
three floors above here.
I don't fancy doing that but I take it this has something to do
- with it. - Absolutely. I will tie the sack
onto the chain here, pull one of the two strings behind you
and the sack should disappear up to the top floor.
And all we have to do is listen for the pairs of trap doors banging shut
and once we have heard three pairs, we know it's at the top.
- One. - One.
- Two. - Two.
- That's fantastic. - Now it should be on the top floor.
We can store about three tonnes of wheat inside this one hopper.
Ah, temptation just to jump in. That's the kid in me.
There's no easy way out once you're in there, I'm afraid.
'From this point in the process,
'gravity takes the grain through the mill.'
So we are now below the hoppers, the main grain hoppers.
Yeah, the wheat is going to flow down this spout here,
if I just pull this little flap out at the top,
and the mill stones are inside this wooden box
and the grain will get crushed in-between the two stones.
- It can't get overloaded at any point? - No, you can put too much
through at one point, and that's where the phrase "grinding to a halt" comes from.
I didn't know that.
A single grain of wheat will make 20,000 flour particles.
So there's the first bit of the flour coming down.
- What a lovely colour. - Yeah.
Unbleached, nothing unnatural in it. Just the pure wholemeal flour.
A beautiful thing. It's lovely.
I'm using Justin's freshly ground flour,
made with Howard's wheat, to bake a loaf in the mill's own bakery.
In such a traditional setting,
I want to make historic British bread to which I've added a modern twist.
Now this bread's not going to taste like most normal breads.
It's going to have a lot of flavours going on in there.
To start with, I have my beautiful warm wheat flour
which I've never used warm flour before, straight from the mill.
This is what, only half an hour old?
I'm combining 150 grams of white flour with 350 grams
of Justin's rye flour,
which will give the loaf a nutty taste.
So it's going to be quite strong. Quite a heavy bread but fantastic to eat.
Add 10 grams each of salt and yeast to the mix
and then some treacle, which adds a caramel bitter-sweetness and colour.
So the next thing I'm going to add is some water.
This bread dates back to Tudor times,
when the water wasn't drinkable and so ale was used a lot in bread.
And often the barm was used off the top to rise the bread
so that was the yeast board.
This primitive yeast was unpredictable and gave us the term "barmy".
And then we begin to stir all the ingredients together.
For this modern version, I'm only adding some ale for flavour.
And now I'm going to start using my hands, so at this stage
I've nearly incorporated all of the flour into one big lump.
And using a little bit of beautiful white flour, that will be the bonding agent in this.
And then begin to manipulate the dough. Heel of the palm down, roll it up.
You need to do this for about five to ten minutes.
This needs to prove until it has at least doubled in size.
You can see the top of the dough itself is all split
and it's because the yeast has exhausted itself and forced apart the dough itself.
Now I'm going to dig this out, put it in a little bit of flour,
flatten it down with your hand, fold it.
This is where you start to use your knuckles.
In, over, over,
flatten it down again, and roll it up.
Shape this into a ball.
Coat it in a little bit of flour and spin it.
Pop that on to a tray and it goes right in the middle.
But what makes this loaf really special is my contemporary twist.
And ale and rye flour crust.
Now I'm adding the ale to this.
Get your spoon in. The spoon you used before is all right.
Add a little bit of sugar and this helps with the colour of the loaf itself.
And this is the fun bit.
Start by rubbing it onto the top and taking it as far down as possible.
And that has got a beautiful little beer batter all over the top.
Top it with a handful of oats.
After a second prove,
it needs about 30 minutes in an oven at 220 degrees.
Wow, look at this.
I hope you like it.
A great place for this loaf is at the heart of a ploughman's lunch.
Which is what I've made for Howard the farmer, and Justin the miller.
Very, very good.
- That is excellent, Paul. Yeah, very very good. - You like that?
- You can taste the beer. - You can.
You can taste all the flavour of the rye, all the ingredients.
The beer glaze is fantastic.
It gives it that extra edge.
You've done us proud.
It's fantastic teamwork.
- Cheers, guys. - Cheers.
That loaf is ideal for lunch.
Now I want to show you how to bake a perfect teatime bread.
One that was first made in the nineteenth century.
It's also rather versatile
so I'll turn it into a sumptuous pudding, but first a basic loaf.
Like the ale I used to flavour the bread I made for Justin and Howard,
this bread uses another by-product of brewing,
malt extract, to give it sweetness and depth of flavour.
I'm going to make a malt loaf, which is actually one of my son's favourites.
Strange, because it's quite an adult taste.
And we're going to start with malt.
This is a beautiful flavour - it's very, very strong.
It's like a cross between caramel and treacle.
A couple of tablespoons of the malt extract,
closely followed by two tablespoons of black treacle.
Using a hot spoon will help.
And then a tablespoon of brown sugar
and that will give a beautiful caramel feel to the loaf.
25 grams of butter now all of this goes on the heat.
While the butter mixture melts,
blend together the other ingredients.
Strong white and wholemeal flours, plus of course a bit of yeast.
I can hear my butter, which is all melted together
but you'll leave that to cool because if you put a hot mixture on this,
it will kill the yeast instantly.
Sultanas. That's all my ingredients ready.
The mixture has cooled for about 20 minutes, and the smell as
the dark warm liquid hits the bowl is really lovely, malty and rich.
Now I'm going to add my water.
And get a bit of a spoon in there to turn this mixture together.
Now start using your hand in there. Folding it into the middle.
So you end up with
that.
It's like magic, innit?
Does that scare you? Thinking "I'm never going to be able to do that."
But it's actually quite simple to do.
This is a slightly different technique.
If you pat and pour into the middle, what's happening now is
because you're giving it some aggression,
the moisture from those sultanas are beginning to release.
It is therefore a good idea to use a little bit of extra flour
to stop the dough sticking to the work surface.
One thing I crave is actually being alone making bread.
For me, it's a personal thing, making bread.
You get a huge amount of satisfaction seeing a loaf
coming out of the oven that you've made.
I'm happy with that. It's smooth, got a bit of elasticity in it now.
Half it.
Fold over the ends.
Into the tin, knuckles in, flatten it down.
These have yeast and therefore have to grow.
You need to leave them alone and let nature do its work.
After about 90 minutes of proving, it's set for the oven.
190 degrees for 40 minutes and it will be lovely
and golden in colour when it comes out.
Oooh, yes.
There we are.
They smell lovely.
Now one of the things that makes this even more indulgent
is honey.
While it's warm, drizzle over the top
and leave it to soak in
for a little bit of tea in the afternoon
with a little bit of butter. You will thoroughly enjoy a great malted loaf.
As great as it is sliced and buttered, if there is some
left over, you can transform it into a rich satisfying dessert.
First, make fresh custard.
Milk and cream.
Or if you're feeling posh, it's a bit like a creme anglaise.
For this recipe and others in the series, you can visit the BBC Food website.
2 teaspoons of cinnamon.
While that is gently heating, beat together caster sugar and eggs.
Then gradually whisk in the warm milk and cream mix.
The smell when you break into it is lovely.
It reminds me of my nan's house because she loved malt loaf
and I used to go round there as a kid growing up.
Spread each slice with butter and marmalade.
Add a layer of sultanas.
Let the custard soak in for a few minutes, then for crunch,
sprinkle with Demerara sugar.
That will then be baked.
Gorgeous.
Serve with creme fraiche and orange zest.
This is a really comforting, warming pudding,
one that shows just how versatile bread is.
I have shown you breads ideal for breakfast, lunch and tea.
Could you give me three of the lamb steaks, please?
Now I want to show you a brilliant British bread
that's at the heart of a substantial supper.
Thank you.
That's my lamb steaks and that's going to be served
with my beautiful trencher and salad. And it's going to be absolutely delicious.
The trencher is a bread that dates from the Middle Ages.
It was the stale bottom bit of the loaf given to the peasants by the aristocracy.
That part left over after the tasty bit,
the top half, had been scoffed by them,
which is where the term "upper crust" is thought to have been born.
This is my fresh version of that peasant dish.
Now it uses several different flours.
White flour,
the rye flour that we got from the mill,
which is a fantastic rye flour.
And I've also got wholemeal flour as well.
These combine to give the bread a rustic earthy flavour.
Now I'm going to add my yeast.
Only a little bit. You don't want this to rise high.
Finally, salt,
and cold water.
Just turn it around in the bowl very gently.
And begin to crush the dough together.
There we have our base dough.
Now what I'm going to try and do is force this into a rough ball.
The main difference with this dough is that it's coarser.
It's quite a stiff dough because of the rye in there and the wholemeal.
It feels nicer and you can feel more resistance in there.
That can go into a bowl now and sit and rest.
While my dough rises slowly for a few hours,
I'm going to make a marinade for my lamb.
For this, combining garlic, rosemary,
lemon zest and a good glug of olive oil.
I'm using lamb leg and that will be fantastic. Real feast food.
Throw it all in there and make sure it's all coated
and leave it to marinate for about three hours.
Like my dough, this could even be done overnight.
Bit of flour on the bench.
Get your dough out, shape it into a rough rectangle.
Get your fingers in there and begin to push it down.
It's ok.
I'm going to pop this onto a tray.
And then you can use a docker.
Basically you can use a fork or a docker and just roll it in the middle.
The main reason I do this is to stop the middle from ballooning
too much and coming up too high because it will.
I've left the edges to form a rim, like a dish
but now we are going to leave that
for about half an hour to an hour to get a bit more life into it.
Once risen, the trencher bakes for about half an hour at 220 degrees.
It's a really hearty bit of bread, that.
But I need to cool it down a little bit for at least 30 minutes.
Now we've just got to season the lamb steaks for searing now.
For this I'm using crushed pink peppercorns and a pinch of salt.
Now they're ready for a hot griddle.
Once you've got these on here, don't move them for at least 10 minutes.
You've got all those beautiful ingredients sitting on there. Don't wreck it.
Now to build the trencher.
First a layer of watercress, then blanched green beans,
radishes and spring onions.
These are done. They just need to rest now.
Once rested, slice diagonally and place on the trencher.
Then finally pour over the meat juices, which will soak into the bread.
Creme fraiche, juice of half a lemon, mustard.
And finish with a dollop of this dressing.
So there's a sumptuous supper inspired by an ancient British loaf.
I hope I've inspired you to have a go at baking your own British bread.
Because we have a really amazing tradition in this country.
Next time, I'll show you flat breads from countries that build
entire meals around them.
That's the fella.
Breads that are now a significant part of our baking culture.
This is delicious. You've got to try this.
From Mexican corn tortillas to Caribbean buss up shut,
and Indian flatbreads to my own personal favourite,
Cypriot pitta and souvlaki.
Yamas.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
Synch & corrections by Vegemite