Make Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf Recipe

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Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf recipe goes hand in hand with my Great British Baking Show Bake-Along. If you LOVE to bake and try new recipes join the group!

My bakers were given a very sparse cottage loaf recipe on our Bake-Along group. It had measurements only and very few directions to follow. Kind of like a real technical challenge on the GBBO.

Of course, I wasn’t THAT cruel. I linked them to the REAL recipe. And I also gave them a link to this version of a cottage loaf recipe as well.

This post is for anyone looking to bake Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf with American Measurements, no scale needed. And it’s also for anyone participating in my Great British Baking Show Bake-Along. 

Why Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf with American Measurements?

This is a bake I thought long and hard about. I wanted to give the bakers a real technical challenge, yet I didn’t want to scare anyone off.

My plan was to give them only the measurements and a few directions for Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf and then direct them here for weights and measurements translations and more baking directions as needed.

One of the things I wanted to avoid with this Bake-Along was forcing people to buy more things. I didn’t want money to hold anyone back. So I came up with the idea of providing a recipe with measurements we were all used to.

This way no one is left out of Bread Week because they didn’t have a kitchen scale. My Bake-Along is ALL inclusive, you just have to want to do it.

And remember it’s NEVER too late to join the fun on Facebook, here is the link, join us! We’re going to KEEP on baking-along as long as we can!

The recipe and directions for Paul Hollywood’s Cottage Loaf

The recipe and directions I gave were minimal. In fact, this is exactly what my bakers received in the Bake-Along group.

• Make a dough using 500 grams of flour, 7 grams of yeast, 7 grams of salt, 50 grams of butter or lard, 300-450 ML of  water
• Knead until done
• Prove
• Shape loaf
• Let Rise
• Bake until done

But then I am providing them links to the Cottage Loaf Post on the GBBO site AND this post with American measurements. If you want the complete recipe just scroll down and there it is with all of the measurements and directions.

I have personally made some things for the Bake-Along that I would have NEVER tried by myself.

That’s one of the joys of this group, baking new things everyone will enjoy trying. My recent favorites have been Jaffa Cakes and Povitica and this classic the British Iced Bun! But perhaps my all-time favorite bake was when we made Bedfordshire Clangers.

I love festival week when we made a loaf of bread for a festival. I’d been planning to make Pan de Muertos already but when festival week came up I had to make it right then.

This is such a FABULOUS loaf of bread! It looks rustic and tastes as if it came from a bakery. Plus with that topknot, it just looks over the top awesome!

Can I Make Bread with All-Purpose Flour?

Yes, you can absolutely make bread even IF you don’t have bread flour. Bread flour has wheat that has a higher gluten content so it’s a little more structurally sound. If you DON’T have bread flour it’s going to be just fine. I test all my recipes with All-Purpose Flour (AP Flour) to make sure they will work for you.

As a mom of teen boys I know buying bread flour in bulk can be hard to do, whether its availability OR price that makes it hard. So I make sure that if anyone needs (KNEADS) to use AP flour, they’ll be just fine to do so.

You can ALSO make your own bread flour out of AP flour. Simply measure out your flour, for every cup remove 1.5 teaspoons of flour and add in 1.5 teaspoons of vital wheat gluten.

How to Eat a Cottage Loaf?

I had a question from a reader and I thought I’d share it here if anyone is interested. She asked HOW to eat a cottage loaf. When I make it I’m serving it with a hearty soup, like this Hungarian Mushroom, and I simply cut it in wedges.

FAQs about this Cottage Loaf Recipe:

• Can I bake this in a loaf pan? I don’t recommend baking this bread in a bread pan, use another recipe for that. This is really made to be formed and baked like a classic cottage loaf. Even if the shaping of it intimidates you try it anyway!

• Mine turned into a lumpy mess, what did I do wrong? That’s probably a measuring issue. If you’ve added the called for flour and it still looks like the dough is too soft to even stay in a ball you may have added too much liquid or your flour measuring was off. Try adding small amounts of flour and kneading them in until a nice dough is formed.

Do I need a scale for successful baking?

Using a scale means you never get too much or too little of any ingredient, your baking WILL be better but it won’t be perfect. There’s a LOT of things that make bakes fail OR succeed and a scale can help. But I would say that practice and trial and error are the best way to be a better baker.

How to Correctly Measure Flour

When you’re measuring flour for this recipe remember to loosen it or lighten it with a slotted spoon. THEN scoop it into your measuring cup over the top of the rim. THEN scrape it off with a flat knife or edge of something to get the correct amount of flour.

Continue to Content

Yield: 1 loaf

Paul Hollywood's Cottage Loaf with American Measurements

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I'm hosting a Great British Baking Show Bake-Along. Here's Paul Hollywood's Cottage Loaf with American Measurements for Week 3, Bread Week!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 cups flour, plus additional for dusting
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 3 1/2 TBSP butter, softened, or lard, cut in pieces
• 2 cups warm water, Not quite 2 cups, it translates to 1.9 cups
• oil

Instructions

1. put flour, yeast, and salt in a mixing bowl
2. add butter or lard and 1 1/4 cups warm water, stir together
3. once stirred togther add the remaining water, remember you may need a little more or a little less, so add it a small amount at a time until the mix is pulling together in a ball
4. dust your counter with flour, tip the dough out and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth
5. place in an oiled bowl, cover and let prove until the dough is doubled in size
6. once it's doubled, punch it down, folding the dough to the center
7. divide the dough into 1/3 and 2/3 chunks
8. take the 2/3 piece and pat it to a rectangle, fold over in thirds long ways, then fold each end in, use your hands to pat and strech the dough into a circle
9. repeat with the smaller piece of dough
10. place the smaller circle on top of the bigger circle, pat down gently, flour up two fingers and plunge them down through both circles to bind them together
11. cover completley and let rise about one hour or until the dough is soft and springy
12. meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 425˚ and out a large roasting pan of water on the bottom rack
13. once the bread is done rising, remove the plastic wrap, slash it in 8 places, dust lightly with flour and bake at 415˚ for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 375˚ and bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the bread is done
14. test for doneness by knocking on the bottom of laof, if it sounds hollow it's done

Recommended Products

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• 
  KitchenAid 
• 
  Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Commercial Baker's Half Sheet (2 Pack), Silver
• 
  SMARTAKE 200 Pcs Parchment Paper Baking Sheets
• 
  Fleischmann's Instant Yeast - 16 oz. bags (PACK OF 1)
• 
  Saf Instant Active Dry Yeast | Red One Pound Vacuumed Packed Package | Baker’s Choice| Long Shelf Life | Fast Acting | Quick Delivery

Nutrition Information

Yield

12

Serving Size

1 slice
Amount Per Serving Calories 194Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 3gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 10mgSodium 294mgCarbohydrates 30gFiber 1gSugar 0gProtein 4g

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