Preheat your oven to 230º C/ 450º F/Gas Mark 8 and place the
oven shelf up high. Place the dry ingredients in a large mixing
bowl and stir to combine. Crack the eggs into a smaller bowl or
measuring jug and beat with a whisk. Add the cider vinegar,
olive oil and ¾ of the 1 cup of water and whisk. Pour the
whisked wet ingredients into the dry ingredients in the bowl and
bring the mixture together with one hand. You should have what
Nigella Lawson describes as a “shaggy mess”, i.e. the dough
should be fairly wet but not over wet. It should not be at all dry.
Add the remaining ¼ cup water if you need to achieve this
consistency (I needed the full cup). Transfer the dough into the
oiled loaf tin and push it fully up against the edges and into the
corners of the tin. You can try smoothing the top, but it didn’t
work for me (I got a “rough terrain” looking loaf).
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Place the loaf tin in the oven and bake at 230º C/ 450º F/Gas
Mark 8 for 10 minutes until the top browns (this took 10 minutes
in my oven, but check after 5 minutes). Turn down the heat to
190 ºC/375 ºF/ Gas Mark 5 and continue to bake at that
temperature for 30 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven and
insert a skewer to check that it is cooked though. It will come
out clean if it is cooked. Turn the tin upside down to release the
loaf, then place the loaf back in the oven upside down without
the tin and bake till the bottom and sides start to turn light
brown – about 5-10 minutes. Remove from the oven and
transfer to a cooling rack to cool.
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