Friday's fairly easy white loaf

Left for 45 mins, shaped and ready to rise

I have had an enormous amount of help this week with my weekly bread recipe. David Whitehouse, who has the ohgoshandbother blog, contacted me having seen last week's Friday's Cheddar loaf, wondering whether the loaf had risen and baked correctly. Although this loaf had a lovely cheesy crust and in my opinion was very tasty he was right, it was dense and a wee bit flat. You will see our correspondence in the comments box .
So, today I have followed his advice vigilantly, but rather than try the ambitious raisen and cinnamon loaf which I'd intended to do, I thought it best to stick to a basic loaf and try and get that right first. My struggle has been adapting Dan Lepard's recipe in the excellent Short and Sweet recipe book for Easy White Loaf, to one that can be made with a food mixer. I'm not against kneading and leaving, but I was given a Kitchen Aid Artisan food mixer for Christmas, which I've wanted for years and want to use.

Do listen to my Audio Boo which gives a short overview of the stages involved. 

So, David suggested that I mix all my ingredients (400g strong white flour, 300ml warm water, 1 tsp salt and one rounded tsp of yeast (which is less than the usual 7g dried yeast sachet)) in the mixer, kneading in the usual way (which takes around 5 mins in total in the mixer on speed 2) and then leave in the bowl with the dough hook raised for 45 mins. I had to add a further 80g of strong white flour to reach the right smooth, elastic bowl-cleaning consistency. David then suggested shaping and resting in a floured tin, for a further 45 mins, UNTIL the loaf has halved in size again.

And this is the make or break of a good loaf. Any more than half way risen and the loaf is exhausted, and less and it won't have much umph.

Rested and ready to bake

So... 3.5 hours later and the loaf is still resting! The temperature in the kitchen is 19 degrees, but the flour was cold when starting, so maybe this has slowed things down. But I think that we are there (although it is difficult to tell, as the dough has obviously sunk but has an overall risen look) So, I'm going to bite the bullet (hopefully not a portentous phrase) and put it in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade. Fingers crossed.

Here is the finished result!

So did I rush it or get it about right? It has a firm but not too hard crust, it is nice and chewy and well seasoned. My samplers liked it, but they are somewhat biased and if I'm being critical  I wonder if it has risen as it should. I'm very happy to enter a Friday bread clinic - I don't pretend to be a great baker, but am very keen to keep on trying. So, any further help or advice?