Just like a dream comes true …

Bread or bun making has been in my to do list forever, unfortunately I am not good in kneading dough, therefore I always hold off on baking bread and bun myself. Last year, while I was shopping at Target, I saw this Breadman bread machine was on sale from $87 to $17. 75% off from the original price.. what an incredible deal right? Can’t resist myself to pass this opportunity, as a result, I bought this machine and has been sitting at home for almost 2 months now.

Right after we returned from my trip, I decided to give it a try with a few recipes.. From pandan raisin bun (too ambitious the first time) to a couple simple white bread, fully done by the machine itself, it was a total disaster. The raisin bun taste like a cake than a bun, the first white loaf I tried from the recipes come with the machine was too dry and hard right out of the machine, not to mention what’s that going to be turn out the next day.. like a rock. The 3rd recipe I tried was even discouraging.. taste like flour, and hard like a rock. It end up in my trash right after the bread was cook. What a discouraging experience huh?

Just though of returning my bread machine to Target ( since I am still within the return period), I saw this wonderful yummy green tea loaf from LCOM. Read the article and follow the thread to Happy Home Baking blog, patiently review all the wonderful comments about this milk loaf. It sound like a little fool proof recipe to me. OK… technically I still have until the end of month to return the machine, I decided to give it a try.

Take a look of what I got. This picture was taken the next morning. This is like a dream comes true to me… a fresh loaf of bread come out from my kitchen.

Not only the bread is soft, it is very flavorful and rich in butter flavor just like how Happy Home Baking describes in her blog. This also reminded me the Hokkaido raisin bread I brought from pavilion during my trip home. Not only the bread taste good when is fresh out from the machine, it taste as good the next day with the softer crust. I gave it light toast on the 3rd day with butter spread; it was still wonderful with a slightly crispier crust. Hmm.. yummy.

Hubby saw that I was so excited with the loaf, he decided to pinch the loaf while taking the picture to show how soft the it was when fresh from the machine :)

Many thanks to LCOM, Happy Home Baking and her reader’s review.. some motivation and encouragement on bread making… Going to try more recipes in this couple week before my return data is DUE!

Ingredient I used (Click here for link to original recipe):

• 143g warm 2% fresh milk
• 1 egg (room temperature)
• ~ 38g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 25g caster sugar
• 5g salt
• 250g gluten flour
• ~ 4g Instant yeast (since my scale only measure in 5 gram increment, so I did a rough est)
• 1 tsp bread improver

Method I used:

• Put everything in the bread machine in the order listed above.
• Set to dough function for the first 20 minutes.
• Then set to auto program for basic white bread 1.5lb with light crust to finish the rest of the baking process.
• 2.5 hour later … VOILA! The loaf is ready.

While I was searching for bread recipe for my next creation, I saw that bread flour is actually not the same as the high gluten flour I used in this recipe. I know that most of the Chinese bread recipe call high gluten flour and I always thought bread flour = high gluten flour. After doing a little bit of research, found that they are not exactly the same in term of the protein value contain in these flour. Click here for more detail explanation. Seems like high gluten flour actually produce a more elastic effects

Most of the western bread recipe call for all purpose or bread flour. I have been using all purpose flour and bread flour for my previous baking and it was a disaster. I have seen people replace all purpose flour with bread flour or using regular bread flour for this recipe and the outcome is wonderful. This has truly make me wonder how much different will these flour made? Should I try my next bread with all purpose flour or stick with the gluten flour?