Ooh we love a cottage loaf – and in these days of sourdoughs and fancy patisserie, they’re becoming rare as hen’s teeth. There’s something so comforting and satisfying about ripping off the top of the bread and diving into the fluffy, cloud-like middle.
No one’s exactly sure of the origins of this bread, but common suggestions are that its name relates to the design (the lid almost being like a thatched roof on a cottage), or that stacking doughs on top of one another helped to maximise oven space.
You’re unlikely to find this precious British bread outside of very traditional town and village bakeries, but you CAN make it at home!
Ingredients
- 500g strong white bread flour, and extra for dusting
- 1 sachet dried yeast
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 50g butter, or lard
- 350ml warm water
Method
1. Grease a large bowl.
2. Add the flour to another large bowl and stir through the yeast. Add 2/3rds of the warm water and combine with a knife. Let it sit for a few minutes. Stir in the salt.
3. Add more of the water if needed – you want a soft, pliable but not wet dough.
4. Bring it together, and tip onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for up to 10 minutes until smooth. Don’t be tempted to keep adding more flour as this will produce a denser, drier loaf. Keep working at the dough and it will become less sticky. Using a dough scraper is really helpful at this stage.
5. Pop your dough into the prepared greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for around an hour until it’s doubled in size.
6. Tip your dough out onto a floured surface and knock out the air by folding it in on itself a few times.
7. Take off a third of the dough and put it to one side. Shape the larger ball of dough into a round. Do the same with the smaller piece of dough.
8. Lightly wet the very centre of the bigger piece and pop the smaller on top. Dust a wooden spoon with flour and push it through the centre of the loaves.
9. Use the wooden spoon to make indents around the bottom loaf, and use a sharp knife to cut slashes in the top of the smaller loaf.
10. Pop the bread inside a large, clean plastic bag and prove for another hour. Heat the oven to 210C.
11. Dust the loaf all over gently with flour and bake for 15 minutes before lowering the oven temperature to 190C for another 20 to 25 minutes. It should be golden all over and the base should sound hollow if you tap on it.
12. Allow to cool (very hard, we know) before tucking in! You’ll want lashings of really good salted butter.
