Bread

This recipe is produces a nice, soft though filling bread - these directions for buns - the dough of which can be the basis of many shapes from simple loaves and cottages to plaits. Again, it will reheat in the microwave and is ideal toasted and eaten with Bucky Burgers.

Ingredients:

• 1½ lb Wholewheat Flour
• 1 desertspoon Salt
• 1 oz Peanut Oil
• 3 cups Water
• 2 teaspoons Sugar
• 1 sachet of Yeast

Method:

Put the oven on to 230 Celcius.

To one cup of boiling water, add the sugar and dissolve. Add the remaining water and then the yeast. Cover and place on the top of the oven to get started.

Weigh the flour and salt into a plastic mixing bowl and microwave for a few seconds until the flour is warm (doing this means that the yeast reaction will not stop because of cold flour lowering the temperature of the yeast suspension - the yeast's temperature is thus maintained when it is added and the reaction continues). Add the oil and then the yeast suspension and knead to an even consistency. Add extra flour if necessary to make a dough. Put the dough into the mixing bowl, cover and place back on the top of the oven to rise for around 10 minutes.

Grease an oven tray with oil. Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and knead. You now need to divide the dough into 20 equally sized pieces - there are difficult ways (pulling off guessed amounts and hoping that they are the correct size) and there are easy ways. They need to be even so that they will cook evenly. Make the dough into a circle and divide into four by slicing north/south and east/west. Take one of the quarters and roll it into a cylinder and cut it into five (of the four slices that you are going to make, start with the "second" and then divide the smaller piece into two, then the larger piece into three - practice makes perfect). Cover the buns with a cloth and let them rise for around ½ an hour.

Remove the cloth and place in the oven for 17 minutes (cooking at a low temperature allows the inside to cook through without burning the outside) and then turn up the temperature to gas mark 7 and cook until brown (around 3 minutes) don't leave them on their own as they will burn.

When cooked turn out onto a tray and let them cool.

Variations:

1. Use olive oil in the recipe, using olive oil to grease the tin as well and add chunks of pitted olives to the bread to make a nice savoury loaf. In fact, you can add anything: roast nuts; sliced peppers; cooked tomato chunks and so on - experiment;
2. Increase the amount of sugar* to several ounces and add roasted, sliced almonds, raisins; sliced glace cherries and angelica (and, if you must, some yellow food colouring), covering the final loaf (or buns) in lemon icing; or,
3. Add an extra ounce or so of sugar* and make the dough a little wetter. Make into doughnut shapes and fry. Dust in caster sugar for a perfect doughnut (wholemeal as well - can't be bad).

* Increasing the amout of sugar will increase the tendency to burn during cooking.

Storage:

If not eaten immediately, store them as you would any bread.

They may be reheated in the microwave in only a few minutes and regain that just cooked smell. The bread is moist enough to do this.

Serving suggestions:

Eat as you would any bread: sandwiches, with soups, burgers and so on. Especially nice when hot. Try microwaving with garlic butter (or margarine) or toasting and then eating with a burger.