All Roads Lead to Rome

I tried to do a Chocolate Chip Walnut Wholemeal Bread yesterday. I failed badly as I decided to do the 2nd proofing by leaving the dough in the fridge overnight. Today a hard dough greeted me and even after thawing for 4 hours, the dough did not rise. I tried baking it, hoping that it will rise but it did not. In the end, I was laughed at badly by my visiting mum. :S

Not someone to be beaten so easily, I embarked on a search for a simple wholemeal bread again. I particularly ensured that I searched for a recipe posted by a Singaporean or Malaysian as I found the sugar content in other sites tend to be much much more than what I can bear. And guess what, after a quick search on 3 sites, they all point me to HHB! Wow! HHB is becoming the queen of blog recipes in Singapore!


Without hesitation, since I have been a avid follower of HHB, I copied out the recipe and started measuring my ingredients at 7:30pm. To which, Hubby and Mum exclaimed in unison "You making bread AGAIN?" very encouragingly.

This recipe uses the sponge dough method. Basically a sponge dough is formed first and allowed to ferment for a good 90 minutes in our weather. Then it is added to the rest of ingredients and bread is made as per normal familiar steps thereafter. According to Wikipedia, sponge doughs were used before bread improvers were invented so I am sure it would result in soft soft bread.

It took me a good 4.5 hours for the entire process. For the final proof, I couldn't hold my sleep monster any more. Since my hubby is still up, I pop the pan in the oven covered by aluminum foil at the top to prevent burning, turned on the timer for 45mins and instructed him to wait for 10 minutes before turning on the oven before he goes to bed.

Thankfully, he was obedient in this round and the bread was a success. I was greeted with a nice soft sweet smelling wholemeal bread in the morning after a quick heat up in the oven. The crust was crisp and crumbles easily. The interior is soft and fluffy. Better than those store-bought ones.

I shouldn't have halved the recipe as my non-bread-appreciating hubby ate up more than his allotted portion for breakfast and I am left with only 1/5 of the bread now for my tea later. It was THAT good.

Indeed, HHB is THE place for nice recipes. Thanks again!

Goes nicely with my butter, ham and baby lettuce. It went nicely with salmon cream cheese that I had as well. Very very nice and fresh.

Simple Wholemeal Bread
(I halved the recipe for this bake and changed it to knead in mixer vs breadmachine)


Ingredients

(A)
120g wholemeal flour
85g bread flour
4g instant yeast
130g water

(B)
85g bread flour
15g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
10g milk powder
50g water

(C)
15g unsalted butter, softened


Method

1. Mix all ingredients in (A) in a mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise or proof for 90mins.
2. Place the ingredients in (B) into the mixing bowl. Knead to form a soft and smooth dough.
3. Add in (C) and knead till dough pass the elastic membrane test.
4. Cover bowl with cling wrap and let it rise for 1 hour or till it doubles in size.
5. Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.
6. Flatten and roll out each dough into an oval shape (20cm by 10cm). Roll up swiss-roll style and pinch the seams in place. Place in a pullman tin (size, 7.5"x4"x4", well greased), seams side down. Cover the lid and let dough proof for 60mins or until the dough rise up to 90% of the height of the tin.
7. Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 30mins.
8. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.