A Basic Bread

I was very pleased to know a pastry guru a week ago. He is a friendly and sharing person. We had a wonderful tea time with his creative "Strawberry Red Bean Mo Chi".

I told him my bread making failure then he was so generous and gave me a live demo straight away in my kitchen. He easily picked up a recipe book from my bookshelves and took a basic bread recipe to start his demonstration. He left us during the second proofing by leaving the rest of the instruction and promised that the bread will be very nice and soft. That's true! This is the bread that been baked 40 minutes at 190'C. Later on, I was advised to increase my oven temperature to 210'C to achieve a golden brown color but it was too late as the bread had been cool down for a while. Anyway, that is pretty much optional. I was very impressed when I've produced this square bread. It was very soft and tender with no yeasty flavor. The texture had no different compared with those Gardenia bread. The only different is the bread did not contain any preservatives or bread improver. It's just the right homemade bread I have been looking for. We finished eating the whole loaf in 4 days. The bread is still quite soft in the 3rd day, hence I kept the leftover bread in the fridge. We toasted the bread with some "Anchor Salted Butter" in day 4, the smell and texture was fantastic! Since we had finished the whole loaf, I would like to try to make one on my own. Hopefully it turns out the right bread as the demo one. I was very happy with my first result. This bread is almost in square shape. The texture and smell was exactly the same as the previous one. All thanks to WL! Recipe instructed by the guru:

• Mix all the dry ingredients: 270g bread flour, 30g wholemeal flour, 3g yeast and 6g sugar
• Add 6g salt.
• Gradually add in 240ml cool milk and mix it by a flat beater at low speed until everything just combine.
• Add in 12g butter continue to mix for 1 or 2 minutes.
• Change to a dough hook continue kneading for about 10 - 15 minutes at medium speed.
• Off the machine and clear the stick dough at side of the bowl and add 1 tablespoon bread flour. Continue kneading for few seconds.
• Knead the dough on a lightly floured work surface until the dough smooth but not sticky.
• Shape it into a smooth round dough, cover with cling film and let it rest for 20 minutes.

• Knead the dough and punch out the gas until the dough smooth and elastic.
• Divide the dough into three equal pieces and roll to form three even 'ball' shapes.
• Flatten a dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough like a swiss-roll. Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Roll up the dough tightly. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
• Place the rolled dough in a greased bread tin.

• Spray with some water around the tin. Place it in the oven with door close, proof for 60 minutes without lid on.
• Put the lid on when the dough rise near to the top. Take out the tin from the oven and preheat the oven at 190'C.

• Bake approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown. (I increased the temperature to 210'C for extra 10 minutes until the bread had a golden brown color)
• Take out the bread to cool down before slicing into pieces.
• Store leftover bread in airtight container without slicing it into pieces to let it stay fresh for the next serving.