The Dairy-Free Zone. Good food, no cow juice.

White Bread

Of all the day to day foods which are hard to find dairy-free, bread is probably top of our list. We were reduced to just one (other than speciality breads) which was readily available near us and would keep for more than 24 hours. As a result, we bought a bread machine and I can honestly say that it was an extremely good investment. This recipe is in two versions: one for a bread machine and one for making by hand. I enjoy making bread by hand, but doing it almost every day simply took up too much time to be practical. The machines all come with recipe booklets, but they all require skimmed milk powder because of the problem of leaving fresh milk out of the fridge. The adjusted versions work well and have the added advantage that you can leave rice milk, oat milk or soya milk in the machine overnight on the timer without it going stale whereas dairy milk would probably be starting to turn after 8 hours un-refrigerated.

Making bread by hand requires a 2lb loaf tin (or 2 1lb tins), a large mixing bowl, some cling film/a clean tea towel and a wire cooling rack.

Ingredients

By hand

1lb 8oz / 700g strong white bread flour
1tsp granulated sugar
1tsp salt
10g / ˝oz hard margarine, cold and diced
1 sachet easy-bake yeast
15floz / 425ml hand hot water (1 part boiling to 2 parts cold)

In a bread machine

N.B. Always put the ingredients in the pan in the order given in the recipe.

6 floz / 170ml water (warm if making immediately, cold if on timer)
3 floz / 90ml rice milk/soya milk/oat milk
2Ľ tbsp sugar
1Ľ tsp salt
2˝ tbsp dairy-free spread
15oz / 425g strong white bread flour
1Ľ tsp traditional dried yeast (NOT easy-bake yeast)

Use setting for large white loaf. This is not a "fast bake" recipe.

Method

By hand

Making bread needs warm containers, so warm a mixing bowl before you start work and get a tin ready by greasing it thoroughly with dairy-free spread and setting that to warm too.
In your bowl mix up the flour, sugar and salt.
Rub in the fat as you would when making pastry. This can be done either by hand or in a food processor (8 seconds on high speed).
When you have the fat evenly distributed, stir in the yeast.
Add the water and mix everything into a soft dough. Turn it out onto a floured board/work surface and kneed it for 10 minutes.
Pat the dough into the tin(s), making sure that it fits the bottom of the tin without any big air pockets.
Cover the bread generously with oiled clingfilm or a clean tea towel, and put it in a warm, draught-free place to rise for about 30 minutes. In this time, the dough should have more or less doubled in size.
Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 9 / 240°C / 475°F.
Put the bread in the oven and turn the temperature down to Gas Mark 8 / 230°C / 450°F. Bake for 30-35 minutes. To check if the bread is cooked, carefully tip out the loaf onto a rack or an oven-mitt-clad hand and tap the bottom with a knuckle: when cooked your loaf will sound hollow.

The identical recipe works just as well for making rolls. Simply divide the dough after kneading into balls weighing roughly 2-3oz / 50-75g and lay them on a well-greased baking tray. Place to rise as for a loaf, then bake at the same temperature as before, but only for about 15 minutes. As with a loaf, the rolls will sound hollow when they are cooked.

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