Making the most of the toast!

 If you're going to bake bread, most recipes you're give are for one loaf, but you can usually fit two in an oven, so don't waste the heat and make double the quantity and bake two loaves, it's more economic. The don't even have to be the same, here's two bakes I made today, a simple loaf ideal for toast and sandwiches, and a cinnamon and ginger swirl bun loaf.
You make one batch of dough and then divide it into two halves and give each half a different finish.

The basic dough used here is

800g pasta flour ( I find this makes great bread, but strong white is fine)
200g wholemeal bread flour.
50 g butter
600 g tepid water
15 g yeast ( I use the Allison's yeast that you activate in the water first)
50 g brown sugar
8 tsp salt
2 eggs
you'll also need more brown sugar, powdered cinnamon and stem ginger in syrup.

 The usual method I use is to add the sugar to the tepid water, add the yeast and watch it activates (fizz up) and then drop in the butter to soften it. The pour the flour into a big bowl, make a well in the center for the water/yeast mix and a small hole in the flour away from the well for the salt.
Pour your yeast/water/butter into the well and work the flour into it, then add the eggs. You may need a little more water, you want a wet but not too sticky dough.
Put a little oil on your work surface to stop the dough sticking, and kneed for about 5-10 mins until the dough is soft and silky, it should feel so good you want to rest on it for a nap!
Put it back into your bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise, it should double in size. I discovered the other day that if you have hard water, your dough rises slowly, which explains why mine takes about three hours to rise.

 When it's risen, tip it out and fold the dough, squashing out the air. Now break it into two equal halves. The picture above is the simple loaf I made from one half, a nice, smooth round set on a tray lined with baking parchment and left to prove covered with a plastic bag.
On the right is the bun loaf I made from the other half. I rolled out the second lot of dough with my hands, and then buttered it well on one side. I then sprinkled that side with brown sugar, cinnamon, a piece of grated stem ginger and some of the syrup. Then I rolled up the piece of dough like a Swiss roll, cut it into sections and placed them end up in the tin. The first picture shows them when I'd put them in the tin, the one above right shows them once they'd proved for an hour along side the plain load, nicely risen. Pre heat your oven to 210 half an hour into the proving time (If you have a super NEFF oven, you can speed this bit up with their amazing prove to bake setting, sadly, I do not!)

Bake the two loaves side by side in your oven, they should take about the same amount of time. I brushed the bun loaf with milk and sugar before baking, it probably caught a little on the top but I don't mind that actually! The took 25 mins, and are both ready in time for breakfast tomorrow!