Cottage Loaf

I thought this looked good in Paul Hollywood's book, so thought I would give it a go. It turned out to be one of the softest and lightest breads I have made.

I have now discovered that the longer you can leave the dough to rest initially (up to 3 hours), the better the bread will be. For anyone who thinks they don't have the time to bake bread, I urge you to think again. Most of the time is not actually spent working with the dough, but leaving the dough to rest and prove. So you can go out for a few hours and come back to it. Plus if I can do it with a 9 month old baby causing havoc all around me, anyone can do it!