Tuesday, March 31, 2009

It's going to be bread again....


After I got the breadmaker, making bread is like a breeze. No hassle, just simple measurements, and we get fresh bread without any addictives anytime we want. It's good that there are many tried and tested recipes as well baking tips around, and the only problem is choosing which recipe to use.

This is my fourth loaf of bread, the third being a raisin loaf following a recipe which churn out bread that need strong jaws to chew. It might not be the recipe's fault as i accidentally re-start the BM mid-way through the process, and not knowing what to do, i just let the BM did all the work all over again. The raisin loaf was supposed to be our little treat to bring to the zoo on sunday, and also to pass some over to my aunt cat to try out. Since the loaf didn't work out, we discarded it, very wasted but no choice *sigh*



I rely alot (actually solely) on HHB's advices on making bread using BM so far, though she did prompt me to get some books from the library. I may do it after I finish digesting her blog on bread, which seems like an encyclopedia! (Note: The raisin loaf is definitely not using HHB's recipe.)

Back to my fourth loaf, i tried Milk Loaf and the result is satisfying, but not as soft and fluffy as can be seen in HHB's blog. The crust is slightly thick and too brown, which I understood is the characteristic of a BM. Read somewhere that we can reduce the baking time to achieve not-so-thick and over-browned crust. I tried stopping the machine 5 mins before the complete cycle, but I think stopping the BM 10mins earlier might achieve better result. This morning, we had the bread spread with margarine and sprinkled with some sugar, the taste of bread is really nice!


Ingredients/ Method
143g fresh milk
35g egg
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g instant yeast
38g unsalted butter

1. Add milk, egg, caster sugar, salt, bread flour to the breadmaker. Create an indent in the flour, and add in the yeast.
2. Switch to Dough mode and let it knead for 20 mins. At the 8-10th mins, add in butter.
3. After the kneading, set the BM to Sweet mode and let it run the complete cycle. Stop the BM 5-10mins before the pre-set time.



5 comments:

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, you can also select the Light crust function to reduce the baking time. You can try the "Chrunchy Peanut Butter Bread" recipe which I have posted in my blog. I tried using the full cycle, and the bread was quite soft, and those who have tried it also gave positive reviews :)

quizzine said...

Hi HHB,
I did use the Light crust, but the loaf still turned out with quite thick and over-browned crust. I saw the Cruncy Peanut Butter Bread after i did the Milk Loaf, and it's already on my to-do list ;-)

Happy Homebaker said...

I guess the bread machine is invented catering to European type of bread...with thicker crust. So, if we were to use it for making soft loaf, it can be quite tricky. One way to overcome it is to slice off the crust. What do you think?

quizzine said...

Haha, in fact i always like to eat the first & last piece of bread. Until i can overcome the problem, i have to cut away the crust for the time being. Thanks for your advice!

E ling said...

hello!

we also tried the milk loaf recipe from HHB too using just the breadmachine!

we didn't use the knead cycle and just used the "sweet" function to make it which saves quite a bit of time!

for the crust, i think cos the machine heats from below so you really have to watch it like a hawk and cool it once it finishes baking...hope this helps!!