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Have a good friend whose family gets through a fair amount of bread and is increasingly concerned about the 18 odd ingredients in Supermarket bread. Knowing I have a fair number of cookbooks she asked if she could borrow a book with a basic 800g white tin bread recipe. Having 50+ bread books I thought no problem BUT looking through I unbelievably don't. Lots of sourdough recipes, lots of boule shaped bread, lots of 500g recipes. Even Nigella's recipe uses sour cream.

Can anyone recommend a basic recipe suitable for a complete novice  preferably in a book that produces an 800g white tin loaf that only uses basic ingredients? Would be looking to gifting it as an early 'C' present.

Thanks!

Disclosure: Beyond an occasional cookie, I am not a baker.
   
America's Test Kitchen recipes tend to be fool-proof, as long as you follow the directions exactly.
   
BAE made croissants for the first time using their recipe.  However, she does bake.
   
Library recipes with "america's test kitchen sandwich bread" shows some possibilies.

It isn't the number of additional ingredients beyond flour, water, salt and yeast in modern bread but the type of stuff included. When the ingredients list says "flavour enhancer" one knows that the factory has skimped on the first prove time (typically in the Chorleywood Process that is down to three minutes). There is nothing wrong in addng butter, oil, or eggs to the basic four ingreidents but anything that reads like a code (E101) or a chemical formula must be shunned.

The other adulteration is sourfaux — bread that is labelled sourdough but that, amongst other things, includes yeast. Ingredients in a sourdough are flour, water and salt with a starter made from flour and water.

In all honesty, get a good quality pack of bread flour and it will have a recipe on it. 

I use the basic recipe in Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery but that's a sign of old age I think. 

The hard part, as you know, is learning what stages to use equipment for and getting a feel for the dough, it might be worth watching a couple of videos by good bakers such as Paul Hollywood or Anna Olson to speed that up. 

I actually make my basic dough, 50/50 white and wholemeal in my Magimix food processor, works really well but it is essential to use the dough blade, not the knife.

Originally Posted by: StokeySue

I use the basic recipe in Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery but that's a sign of old age I think.

I have this book on my bookshelf.

I was looking at a recipe in Nadita's Everyday Baking: From Weeknight Dinners to Celebration Cakes, Let Your Oven Do the Work where she has a recipe which is an arancini of sorts. She cuts the crust from plain white bread, soaks it in milk, wrings it out and wraps it around the filling. She then rolls it in bread crumbs.

I was thinking it sounds interesting, but I'm not going to buy a loaf of white bread to make the recipe. Perhaps I'll bake the loaf.

Thanks for the book reference. Now if I can only find Elizabeth's book in my real-world of stacks and boxes of books.