Out of the cave.

In the philosophy world, bread would be Plato. Both are fundamental to their disciplines: to be a philosopher, you need to have read and understand Plato. To be a baker, you need to have tackled bread. Both are complicated, and enduring. Making bread typically includes waiting hours for it to rise, and a good ten minutes of strenous kneading. There are 45 dialogues in Plato's complete works, some of which, like The Republic, are themselves divided into several books, and average about 30 dense pages of complex, abstract concepts. In my first year as a philsophy student, I spent a term studying several of Plato's books. Now as a baker, I must learnt to make bread.

I'm starting with the simple form of white bread rolls.

 

You'll need: 250ml milk

50g butter

2 tbsp sugar

a 7g sachet of dried fast yeast

500g strong white flour

2 tsp salt

2 eggs, beaten

And to glaze: 1 beaten egg + 1 tbsp milk

 

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the sugar and milk. Leave aside till only slightly warm, then add the yeast. Leave till frothy.

Mix the salt into the flour in a large mixing bowl, and make a hole in the centre of the dry mixture. Here, add the yeast liquid when its read, follow by the beaten eggs. Mix gently with a spoon and finish with clean hands. The mixture should be sticky. Knead for 10 minutes on a lightly floured surface. You don't want to add too much flour in this process, so use a non-sticky surface.

 

Place in a smaller bowl (roughly double the size of the dough) with cling film over the top, and leave to rise for one and a half hours in a warm environment.

Afterwards, the dough should have risen almost to the top of the bowl, as in the picture below. 

 

 



 At this point, knock the dough back and then leave it for another ten minutes. Then divide the dough into 16 even balls, and hand flatten for the roll shape. Place them a greased baking tray (I used margerine, but baking parchment might be more effective for a clean finish) and cover in cling film again to leave to double in size. This takes about 20 minutes.

Prior to baking, brush the rolls with the glaze mixture, then place in the oven for 15 minutes till golden brown and firm at the bottom.

 

 

Both baking bread and reading Plato aren't the easiest of tasks, but are rewarding.

"I read the Republic today"

"Really? I baked sixteen bread rolls from scratch"

 

See.