Hearth bread in the oven

Step-by-step cooking

1. Step 1:

   

   Prepare the products. In baking bread, it is very important to measure them accurately, the quality of the future bread depends on it. This is especially true for water and yeast. Salt and sugar can be varied according to your taste. The amount of flour is given taking into account the kneading.

2. Step 2:

   

   Flour must be sifted. This will saturate it with oxygen, and the bread will turn out more airy.

3. Step 3:

   

   The water should be heated to a temperature of about 40 degrees so that the hand is pleasantly warm, but in no case hot! Otherwise, the yeast with which the water will come into contact will die. Put sugar and yeast in the water, stir.

4. Step 4:

   

   Pour the flour into the water with yeast. Do it in portions. Poured - stirred, a little more - stirred again. I first stirred with a whisk, then with a spoon, then with my hands. Do not pour out all the flour, look at the dough. It should not be steep, the bread will be tough if you shift the flour. At this stage, we just need to mix all the ingredients, the dough will remain rough, and that's how it should be.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cover the dishes with dough with a towel or cling film and leave for half an hour in a warm place.

6. Step 6:

   

   After half an hour, the dough will come to life a little - it will increase in size.

7. Step 7:

   

   Spread the dough on the work surface, dusted with flour. Pour salt on top and start kneading.

8. Step 8:

   

   Knead for a long time, pouring flour all the time so that the dough does not stick. I kneaded for 20 minutes, to a smooth, elastic state. You can use a combine harvester or a mixer, but it seemed to me that the dough is too tight for them.

10. Step 9:

    

    Put the kneaded dough in a bowl greased with vegetable oil. Cover with a towel or tighten with cling film and put away in a warm place without drafts. I always put it in the oven, in which the light bulb is on, not heated.

11. Step 10:

    

    After half an hour, we take out the dough and knead it. That is, we press on it from above with our fist, removing the excess volume. Cover again and put away again in a warm place.

12. Step 11:

    

    In total, the dough should stand for one and a half to two hours on the rise, including the time before the kneading. It should double in size.

13. Step 12:

    

    Take out the dough on the work surface dusted with flour and form a bun from it. This is very easy to do - you need to pinch all the edges in the center, turn down the seam and scroll with your hands several times from the sides, rounding it.

14. Step 13:

    

    We put the finished bun back on the proofing. I put it on the paper seam down. Cover the bun with an inverted bowl on top. Leave for 45-60 minutes.

15. Step 14:

    

    The dough will rise well, ideally twice again.

16. Step 15:

    

    Carefully transfer the dough paper to the baking sheet. We make incisions on top with a sharp knife so that the crust does not burst.

17. Step 16:

    

    Bake bread in the oven at 240 degrees for 15 minutes with steam, then reduce the temperature to 210 and bake until ready, a total of 35-45 minutes. Be guided by the color of the crust. How to bake with steam: at the very beginning, put a small baking tray on the bottom of the oven and warm it up with it. As soon as you put the bread in the oven, pour a glass of water on the baking sheet. Careful, there will be a lot of steam! After 15 minutes, open the oven and take it out.