Lady Arundel's Manchet
A crowd-pleasing vegetarian built around strong white bread flour, salt and caster sugar — roughly 65 minutes start to finish, and rated medium to make. Below: the ingredients split into pantry staples and a quick shopping list, a built-in serving scaler, and the method in 7 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and large pot. At medium difficulty across 7 steps, it's manageable with a little attention. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (1)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Warm the milk until it is just lukewarm and stir in the caster sugar and yeast; leave for about 10 minutes until the surface turns frothy.
- Rub the softened butter into the flour and salt in a large bowl until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.
- Make a well in the centre, add the beaten egg and the frothy yeast mixture, and stir to bring everything together into a soft dough.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead firmly for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, springy and elastic, then place in an oiled bowl, cover, and leave in a warm spot for 1 to 1.5 hours until doubled in size.
- Knock back the risen dough, divide it into 4 equal pieces, and shape each into a neat round flat loaf; place on a floured baking sheet, cover loosely, and prove again for 30 to 40 minutes until puffy.
- Preheat the oven to 200 C and, if you like a traditional finish, prick the tops of the manchets with a skewer to release steam.
- Bake for 18 to 22 minutes until risen and pale golden and the loaves sound hollow when tapped underneath, then cool on a wire rack before serving.
You'll use: Oven · Large pot · Baking sheet · Steamer
Ingredient substitutions
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
Tips & common questions
How long does Lady Arundel's Manchet take to make?
About 65 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 7 steps and 7 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of milk?
Try any unsweetened plant milk. See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Lady Arundel's Manchet vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Lady Arundel's Manchet is an original recipe developed in-house by Consomee. Photo: Manchet3.jpg by dorkinglad, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons. We add the serving scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure on top — how we source recipes.