Paul Hollywood’s Bloomer

I made some carrot soup yesterday, and I wanted to make some nice crusty bread to go with it. The first bread that came to mind was Waitrose’s white bloomer. It’s a plain white bread with crispy crusts, which is perfect with soups.

Luckily for me, the recipe for a white bloomer was right out there, and it’s Paul Hollywood’s too! You can’t go wrong with his recipe I guess, so I went along and used it with confidence. 😀

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Paul Hollywood’s Bloomer (halved)
– makes one 1 pound loaf

250g bread flour
160ml water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1.5 tsp oil

Knead and proof as usual. The dough was very soft, smooth and delicate. Shape into a bloomer (I found a very helpful YouTube video here!).

When it’s ready for the oven, brush or spray the whole dough surface with water and dust with flour. Score it with a sharp knife.

Bake at 200ºC for 25mins, then 180ºC for 15mins. Introduce steam in the oven at the beginning for that thick crisp crust!

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Dead simple isn’t! This is the most straightforward bread I have ever made.

Note the little blisters on the crust. These were formed because the surface was already ‘gas-proofed’ (by coating it with water) when the yeast was still producing CO2 bubbles in the oven! Something new I learned today 😀

Taste: Slightly salty, but it’s a savoury bread after all. Not for jams, haha.

Texture: Was alright. Top crusts were thick and crunchy, the rest not so much, because my oven was very small and it wasn’t ‘steamy’ enough. The bread itself was soft, but it wasn’t fluffy like the usual Asian bread. There was no pulling-strings effect. I think the amount of oil might have hindered gluten development a bit here. Still nice to eat though!

Overall, it’s not as good as Waitrose’s (of course…), but I am content! 😂😂😂