Sweet Loaf 甜面包

Bread Story Part 1 – Sweet Loaf
My bread making journey was not so smooth, I experienced 4 failed attempts before I finally made my first loaf.

I started off my bread making with no knead bread which I got the idea from YouTube. From the video clip, it seemed so easy by merely mixing dough and let it rest overnight and throw into oven to bake. But the truth was not that simple after all. I ended up with ugly looking bread.

Later, I decided to tryout bread recipes from one of my cook books - Baking made easy by Agnes Chang. Even with clear instructions, it still took me 3 tryouts before I finally landed with bread looking loaf.
After so many failures, I concluded that there are 3 main factors one must take note to ensure a successful bread making:
First and foremost, dough needs warm temperature to proof; best conducive temperature is around 25--30 degree Celsius. I made by first loaf in winter times and the temperature at that time was below 20 degree; hence my dough was not proof enough to rise to double even I had set aside over 18 hours! L

So, rule number one in bread making is to proof your dough at warm place, place over warm stove, oven or even boiler room. However, if you stay in tropical zone, you shouldn't have this issue at all! J

Secondly, dough needs to be well kneaded till smooth texture where dough can stretch into thin sheet without tearing. My second attempts failed with reason that I did not knead the dough enough to gluten. I do not have bread dough mixer so I hand knead all my bread. If hand kneading, dough needs to be knead for at least 15 minutes. Use finger testing on dough. Press finger on dough, if depression bounce back into shape, the dough is ready to set aside to proof.
Frankly, I must admit, to have 100% hand knead bread, you need strong arms. If any of you wish to tone up your arm muscles, this is a very effective way. Best part is, you pay no fees to join fitness club and after this workout you get rewarded with a nice homemade loaf! :-P

Lastly, watch out for the second proofing time, do not over proof the dough; it will collapse during baking if over proofed.

After reading this article, I bet your bread making stories will be much smoother than mine because I have shared the main tips with you and below is fool proof recipe that I had tried on. Happy trying!

First successful loaf



Sweet Loaf



BASIC SWEET BUN DOUGH MAKING  INGREDIENTS 500g bread flour or high protein flour 2 tsp instant yeast (I used Edmond Sure Bake yeast) 100g castor sugar 1tsp salt 270ml water 50g soften butter METHOD Place all ingredients bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt into a mixing bowl and mixed well. Slowly pour in water. Use slow speed to knead the dough till gluten is formed (can pull into very thin sheet without tearing). If hand kneading, knead at least 15 minutes until the dough is smooth. Add in butter and knead till well combined. Remove dough from mixing bowl, shape into a smooth ball and put into a greased bowl. Cover with wet cloth. Leave aside to prove till double in bulk. (Place in warm place to speed up the proving process) To test the dough ready or not - press dough with finger, the depression should stay. Refer here Punch down and knead again till smooth. Leave aside to rest for 15 minutes. Shape the dough into bun or loaf shape place in greased loaf pan or baking tray and let it double in bulk for the second time. Bake at 200 degree Celsius for 15-20 minutes till golden brown. Remove and brush with melted butter. Tips: This dough can use to make Sausage Roll,Red bean/Custard Bun and Garlic Butter Bun 甜面包 材料： 500克面包粉或高筋面粉 2茶匙速溶酵母（我用爱德蒙活性酵母） 100克细砂糖, 1茶匙盐, 270ml水 50克软化牛油 方法: 将所有材料面粉，酵母，糖和盐放入碗中搅拌均匀， 慢慢地倒入水。 使用慢速度，拌打面团，直到面团形成可以拉得很薄又不会裂与有弹性。如果用手揉，揉面团至少15分钟，直到面团光滑。加入牛油揉至均匀。 将面团取出揉成圆形，放入抹油的碗，盖上湿布。让它发至双倍。（放在温暖的地方，以加快发面过程。 用手指按压面团测试面团，凹处继续存在表示面发得刚刚好。 把面团打下再揉至光滑，休面15分钟。 塑造成各种型状的面包排放在烤盘，让它再发第二次面至双倍大。 使用200摄氏烘约15-20分钟至金黄色。 取出并刷上融化的牛油。 Tips: 此面团也可以用来制作香肠卷和奶油包蒜蓉牛油包