Instructions

Step 1: Mixing the ingredients

• Place the flour in a mixing bowl then use a ladle to make a hole at the center of the bowl.
• First, put sugar and baking powder into the hole and stir to combine the ingredients with the ladle then put salt in and stir more.
• Pour water into the bowl while stirring the flour mixture to help the flour mixture absorb all the water.
• Finally, drizzle the cooking oil onto the flour mixture and continue mixing for a little while.

Step 2: Kneading dough

• Turn the flour mixture out onto a working surface and start kneading it. It is quite sticky at first because the ingredients have not yet been combined well at this stage, especially the cooking oil.
• Work your palm’s heel on the dough, turning it round and round and you will feel the dough getting smoother and less sticky in your hands.
• Keep kneading until the dough become supple. Do a small test by gently stretching a small ball of dough out with your two hands. Stop kneading if the dough does not break under the test.

Step 3: Shaping the bread and letting the dough rise

• Cut the dough into 3 equal portions with a bench knife (don’t pull or tear the dough).
• First, re-shape the dough portions into balls by either
  (1) folding the side of the dough to the bottom several times with your two hands to create a surface tension on top, then place the bottom part on the working surface and move it in a circular movement to make a perfect ball; or
  (2) loosely cupping one hand on the dough and slowly moving your hand on the working surface in a circular movement and then go faster and faster until you get a perfect ball in your cupping hand.

• Next, roll each ball into a long oval shape with your two hands and place the oval dough onto a rack covered with parchment paper.
• Let the shaped dough stand until the dough has doubled in size.

Step 4: Baking and enjoying

• Once the shaped dough has risen as required, use a sharp blade to score slashes on top of the bread as demonstrated in the picture below. Scoring helps the dough reach its maximum volume faster and crack open as intended under the oven heat. This is also one way to decorate your bread. If you are interested in scoring techniques, try this or this.
• Place the rack on a baking sheet and put it into the oven.
• Bake the white bread at 180 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the bread tops start turning light golden brown.

You can taste this freshly-made white bread as is, or sweet by dipping a slice into sweetened condensed creamer, or savory by cutting the bread loaf half open then put in some omelet or grilled pork and cucumber or tomato like Vietnamese bread. What an easy, simple but tasty breakfast!