From first loaf to bread for the street: a six-week baking plan

Six weeks at your own kitchen table. If you have never baked bread, you end with a plain loaf you can make without the recipe in front of you. If you already bake, you end with a slow-proved loaf in a pot and a month of baking for other people.

Why this works

Geoff Collis learned to bake during a pause in his flying career, by asking a bakery a question and then turning up. Within a matter of months he was making breads and pastries, ABC News reported. This plan follows the same idea at home: one simple loaf, repeated until your hands know it, then one change at a time.

It uses the Real Bread Campaign’s basic recipe (Sustain) because it needs only four ingredients and no special kit, and its tips because they come from bakers who teach.

Before you start

Kit: a large bowl, kitchen scales, a measuring jug, a baking tray or loaf tin, a clean damp tea towel, a wire rack and oven gloves. That is all.
Ingredients for one loaf: 500 g strong flour (white, wholemeal or a mix), 340 g water at about 25°C (hand-warm), 5 g dried active yeast or 10 g fresh, and 5 g salt. The Campaign suggests avoiding “instant” sachet yeast, which usually contains additives.
No scales? 350 ml water, 1 teaspoon salt and 1½ teaspoons yeast.
Time: about three and a half hours from mixing to cooling, most of it waiting. Pick a morning at home.
Hot oven: 230°C is very hot. Use oven gloves and keep a clear space to put the tray down.

The plan

Week	Do this	How often	Notes
1 (never baked)	The basic loaf, exactly as written: mix, knead 10–15 minutes, rise until doubled (about an hour), shape, rise 40–60 minutes, bake 15 minutes at 230°C (450°F) then 30–40 at 200°C (400°F)	Once	Sticky is normal. Do not add flour.
1 (already baking)	The basic loaf, then the same dough shaped and chilled in the fridge overnight before baking	Twice	Compare taste and crust side by side.
2	The same loaf again, this time shaped in a tin as a sandwich loaf, or as eight rolls (20–25 minutes in the oven)	Once or twice	Write down what you changed.
3	Swap a quarter of the white flour for wholemeal (keep the total at 500 g; add about 20 g more water as the wholemeal share rises)	Once or twice	The Campaign suggests moving to more wholemeal step by step.
4 (never baked)	Bake the basic loaf from memory, recipe closed	Once	Then check it against the recipe.
4 (already baking)	Slow proof plus pot: chill the shaped dough overnight, an hour at room temperature, bake in a heavy lidded pot preheated for about 20 minutes at the oven’s top setting, lid off for the last stage	Twice	Lower to the recipe temperature when the lid comes off.
5	Learn from someone better: a bread class, or ask a local bakery if you can watch	Once	Ask how they judge when dough is ready.
6 (never baked)	Bake two loaves and give one away	Once	You have a habit now.
6 (already baking)	Bake for others: 10 to 20 loaves across the week for neighbours or a bread club	Across the week	Food hygiene certificate first if you sell anything.

If it goes wrong

Dense, heavy loaf: usually not risen enough. Give it longer next time; the times are a guide and a cool kitchen is slower.
Too sticky to handle: wet your hands and the worktop rather than adding flour, as the Campaign advises.
Pale crust: your oven may run cool. Bake a little longer at the end.
Went stale fast: do not keep bread in the fridge, where it stales fastest. Eat it within a day or two, or slice and freeze it.

Track it

Keep one line per bake: the date, the flour mix, how long each rise took, the oven times and one word about the result. By week 4 you will see your own kitchen’s timings, which matter more than any recipe’s.

What next

If you want it to be work: the National Careers Service lists three apprenticeships of about two years (Baker, Lead Baker and Pastry Chef) and the option of starting as a trainee. A food hygiene certificate is a short course.
If you want it to be generous: a weekly bread club for your street or a community fridge.
If you want it to be about the flour: look for an independent or stone-grinding mill near you, which the Campaign recommends.

General information, not medical advice. Check with your GP before starting a new exercise programme.