Am I sick of bread making already? Probably not. I really love making bread, and nowadays, we hardly buy bread from the shops, only when I wasn't well and of course, I'd feel guilty afterwards.
Bread making can be boring, considering every second day, I make a white sandwich loaf.
So I alter a bit here and there, using this starter, that starter.
This time, it's the Hot Water Dough Method.
Well, I don't know what others call it really.
Hot Water dough:
100g plain flour
70ml boiling water
1/8 teaspoon salt
Mix salt with flour, and pour boiling water over it, knead into a soft dough, cover in sealed container, and leave in fridge over night.
Bread Dough:
250g bread flour
160ml full cream milk
20g butter
7g dry yeast
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Scald milk, wait for it to cool down and activate the dry yeast in there. Put dry ingredients in a big kneading bowl, salt and sugar at the bottom layer, make a well. Pour in the yeast mixture, and add the hot water dough starter. Make dough and knead in 6 minute intervals - knead and rest the dough for 6 minutes and then knead again for the best result, knead till dough is elastic and let it sit in a covered container to proof till double the size.
Shape bread, cover the top of tin with foil and press with oven proof weights.
Once it filled up the tin, bake in 190C oven for 30 minutes with the foil and weights on (the dough did get a bit strong and slid , but still a soft and fluffy loaf...
I have been lazy with my bread making - into the routine, nothing new, alternative sourdough and white loaves for the children.
Last week, I thought, I might try the water roux dough again. It's an interesting bread, and I haven't used that method for hmm... almost 4 months? Can't remember. Just a simple water roux dough loaf, and turned out pretty well, children loved it.
Water Roux - The Day Earlier
20g flour
100ml water
Mix flour with water in a clean pot, bring it to simmer and stir quickly to make a smooth silky roux paste, cool and store in a air tight container in fridge.
Soft Buttery White Loaf
350g strong bread flour
160ml whole milk (a lot of water roux bread recipes call for milk powder and water, I'm not quite sure why, but since I'm not a huge fan of processed products, I usually use fresh products whenever I can, unless there's a scientific reason not to)
1 large egg
50g butter
7g dry instant yeast
Water roux made the day before
pinch of salt
1 tbsp sugar
Warm up the milk and add yeast to it, set aside and let it froth up - for about 15 minutes
Add sugar and flour to the yeast mixture, and salt, make sure salt is away from the yeast.
Add water roux to the rough doux and the egg, start kneading, and slowly knead in all the butter, bit by bit.
I normally knead the dough for a couple of minutes and leave it in the bowl, cover by damp cloth for 10-15 minutes and go back and knead again, repeat till the dough is elastic, and then leave the dough in an oiled container, coverred in a warm spot to proof.
The bread only takes about 1-2 hours to proof for the first time, and then it's time to shape the dough into a greased loaf tin for the second proofing, around 1 hour and into a preheated 190C oven to bake for 30 minutes.
I love seeds in my bread, so when I found some really good linseeds in the local nut shop, I used it immediately in my beloved sourdough.
It turned out to be a huge loaf, but it's just the normal combination:
100g 100% hydrated sourdough starter
200ml water
40 ml olive oil, extra virgin
200g plain flour, prefer bread or strong flour
150g whole meal flour
50g linseeds (could be more or less, I didn't measure to be exact, approx)
1.5 tsp salt
It smells good, an awesome loaf.
If you are interested in the starter, this is my earlier post in regards to the starter and baking of my first several batches of sourdough: Sourdough Wholemeak Ciabatta
Once there's a nice plain dough for any keen baker, the choice is endless.
The best plain dough for my breads so far is the Pain Viennois Dough recipe I got from Emmannuel Mollois, and I've made my adaption version using some wholemeal flour, and have since reduce the quantiy to:
200g strong bread flour
150g wholemeal flour
160ml milk
1 egg
40g butter
30g sugar
5g salt
2 tsp fresh yeast
for a normal every day loaf and been using the bread in plain toast, basically everything.
Today, whilst making bread again, I thought, it's the last week before we are going on our holiday, why not make a bigger loaf and without the wholemeal flour.
And half way through, I changed my mind, so I end up with 2 loaves, one plain, one Cinnamon Caramel Fruit Twist loaf, hubby just loves his cinnamon fruit breads...
For today's 2 loaves:
For the dough:
480g strong bread flour, extra for dusting.
60g butter
250ml full cream milk
2 large eggs (59g)
3 tsp dry yeast
40g sugar
5g salt
For the filling of one loaf:
2/3 cup mixed dry fruit with peels
4 tbsp brown sugar
40g butter
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp all spice powder
extra cinnamon powder and raw sugar for dusting.
Syurp wash made from hot water, sugar and gelatin.
Method:
Heat milk up and then cool back down to around 40-45C.
Add in dry yeast and wait 10-15 minutes for it to get frothy.
Put salt at the bottom of the mixing bowl (make sure it’s away from the yeast), add flour and sugar and make a well in the middle.
Add yeast mixture liquid – I’ve used the bench top mixture for this recipe, but you can use hand….
Turn the mixer to low spead with dough hooks, start kneading till a soft dough is formed, add eggs, one by one till dough is smooth
Keeo the mixer working the dough, gradually add soft room temperature butter which was broken into small cubes, and until all lumps are gone and dough is smooth, that will take around 15-20 minutes.
On a nice clean bench , spread some dry flour, and knead with the help of a dough scraper if you need to use one, as the dough can be wet and sticky.
Set the dough to rest for a while in between kneading, until the dough pass the window test.
Get a big bowl and grease the bottom a little, put the dough in.
Cover the dough with cloth and leave it to proof for 2-3 hours till it's double the size.
Knock the bubbles back, cut the dough into 2 portions, the plain loaf takes 3/5 and the cinnamon loaf takes 2/5.
Grease tins, shape the plain dough and leave it for proofing.
Using a rolling pin, roll out the smaller dough, until it's quite flat and spread on the fillings (melt butter and work it with the brown sugar and spices, mix very well).
Spread on the sugar butter mix first and then the mixed dry fruits, roll up into a long thin log, twist and form a hook shape, cut sides so it shows the layers.
Leave in another greased loaf tin, cover both tins with clean cloth and proof for another 2 hours (it's cold in my house, probably not so long in warmer environment.
Brush both on syrup wash. Spread on more cinnamon and some raw sugar on top of the fruit loaf.
Bake in preheated oven 190C or 375F for 25 minutes.
The bread is really light and fluffy!
So happy with the tast and submit this to Yeastspotting!
Although I love my wholemeal sourdoughs, hubby's not a big fan, and we do need different breads... He's got super sweet tooth so I normally make him something sweet for his brekky.
This is one of his favourite bread:
Cinnamon Raisin Loaf
• 380g Strong Bread flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp instant dried yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp raw sugar
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 whole egg lightly beaten
• 50g softened butter
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
Mix flour salt, all spice, cinnamon and half of raw sugar and brown sugar.
Heat milk to moderate temperature, lukewarm, add half of raw sugar and yeast, and stand for 10-15 minutes till frothy.
Rub softened butter into the flour mix, until it resembles bread crumb and add vanilla essence and egg.
Add yeast mixture and egg, and add mix to a rough dough.
Add raisins and knead. It’s better to knead 6 minutes rest the dough for 30 minutes – and repeat the process for 6 times, until it’s smooth elastic and not sticky to hand.
Leave dough in a clean lightly greased pot and cover to proof till double the size.
Cut dough in 5 different portions and roll up to smooth rolls, set in a greased tin, proof till full size.
Brush on egg wash.
Bake in 190C oven for 30 minutes.
I must say I'm never a white bread fan myself, I like hmm.... rustic. Hard crusts, dense, seeds, rye, spelt, etc etc, and I fell in love with the sourdough starter from day one.
However, the family loves white breads and sweet breads and after reading about Water Roux breads, from Happy Home Baking and Christine's recipes, I decided to give it ago. After all, mum and dad always liked Bread top style breads.
I decided to start with something simple... and I end up using another blogger's recipe, by Sea Dragon of Corner Cafe.
I used almost exact the same recipe... Although I found it a bit hard to knead and added 10ml more water. Ah, some old habbits die hard... so I did activate the dry yeast with warm water first, and rub the butter into the flour... Guess I wasn't reading properly... hehe...
I must say that I can't get the right room temperature, I did it yesterday and it was like 13C max during the day in Melbourne, wet yes, but very cold. Even colder during night time when I was making the bread. So unfortunately I wasn't able to follow the second part of the recipe with temperature instructions.
Well, the first proofing was actually going alright. I usually don't prefer to use the bench top mixer (I do like it with cakes etc, especially macarons) but I don't like it with bread kneading, it will only do the initial job... and I've sold my bread maker on EBay a while back because I never used it. I have found the best result was from the one of the Master Class on Master Chef with breads, that you knead bread and rest and do it slowly.... and I found the dough started to proof already during that period... So.. all positive?
But then I got impatient... The best breads I made, especially the croissants etc, are almost all cold proofed, takes longer than in the warm damp environment, but stronger... and probably the only way I can ever make bread in the cold Melbourne anyway (well, even with central heating, our rooms are only 19,20C, gonna save power, save the planet, right?). So normally, if the bread is not ready before we go to bed, I just leave it in the kitchen, covered, over night, when we don't use heating at night time, the room temperature is usually 7-8C, similar to proofing breads in the fridge?
But this time, I want to see it happenning, like straight away, that's almost always the case with a new method... so I heated up the oven and switched it off, leaving it pretty warm. It's a very old oven we've got in the kitchen and it's on dial, so I can get the rough temperature, and I'd say, maybe around 30C? And it did proof quite quickly.... However, the gut feeling was, it wasn't holding up properly, so, after baking, it has shrunk a bit back... hmm....
So I can't say I'm totally happy, and surely will try again another time.
Mum's got the loaf anyway and she will give me the feedback I'd hope.
I've been thinking of baking a loaf for Luke's lunch boxes, something a bit more healthier than brioche but still eggy and tasty... And then I saw Emmanuel Mollois making Baguette Viennois on Poh's Kitchen.
I made a loaf using his recipe totally but into one big loaf, and then - just like what I always do, I decided to add in my taste....
30g Sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dry yeast
3 eggs
400g strong bread flour
50g butter
200ml milk
80g whole meal flour
Heat milk up and then cool back down to around 40-45C.
Add in 10g sugar and dry yeast and wait 10-15 minutes for it to get frothy.
Put salt at the bottom of the mixing bowl (make sure it’s away from the yeast), add flour and the rest of the sugar and make a well in the middle.
Add yeast mixture liquid – I’ve used the bench top mixture for this recipe, but you can use hand….
Mix well flour and liquid, and then gradually add soft room temperature butter which was broken into small cubes, and mix well.
Add eggs, one by one, and mix well into a soft dough but a bit wet.
On a nice clean bench (I do take it out of the mixer once the butter is all blended in) and knead with the help of a dough scraper if you need to use one, as the dough can be wet and sticky.
Knead till dough is elastic and not sticky and smooth.
Put it in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth to prove for 2 hours or till it’s double in size.
Separate into 3-4 smaller portions and roll them up, and put in the greased loaf tin.
Prove for another 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until it’s full size, and bake in pre-heated oven 190C for 30 minutes.
This bread is tasty and eggy but not as rich as brioche loaf, which is very nice in between.
Please note that this recipe was adapted from Emmanuel Mollois but there are some changes: I added a bit of whole meal flour and reduced amount of sugar. I also added an extra egg and reduced the amount of the liquid. I made the loaf from the original version the week before, and Emmanuel’s original recipes were made into Baguettes and rolls.
I quite like this bread and will submit this to yeastspotting.
