Paul Hollywood's Bread

'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.