Light Rye Bread - Loaves #3

My first bread with the crippled mixer. I was so happy when I made this. My first pullman loaf!

The bread is not light, but kind of heavy, like how rye bread should be. But the texture is tender and spongy, with a bouncy mouth feel. I don't know how to describe it the best, but it's quite unique. This recipe is inspired from KitchenAid's cookbook, but I twisted it as I didn't have quite a few of the ingredients.

Wholemeal Cream Bread - Loaves #2

I've  been chatting with my friends on FB  about getting a Made in China mixer known called B5 or B7. Still thinking thinking.. another US KA or China B5/7. Decisions decisions.

If not bread baking will retire in my home. Or maybe partially retire because bread made with all purpose flour could still be managed with manual kneading

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread - Loaves #1

The texture was  better after some tweaking with the yeast

I made this almost 2 years ago. I never posted this as I was still looking for the perfect shot, but after  6 months with the new mixer (that time), my mojo for baking bread loaves fizzzled. The shots weren't as nice  as I wished because I just moved in the house that time. I wasn't very sure of the  lighting spots and my use of the camera is very different than now.

Feta Cheese Bread - Cheezy Bread #3

This is a savoury bread. Not the type of airy cottony Asian breads, and neither is this flavourful like Artisan breads.

The only sugar here is used for activating the yeast. Although I used instant yeast, it's good to go through the activating process once a while to check whether it's still viable. I keep my jar of yeast in the fridge, but still it's better to be safe than sorry.

Light as Air Seed Bread - White Loaf Week # 3

Frankly, is this as light as air? Hmm.. maybe for western standard, it could be. I have never eaten breads besides what is made in Malaysia and Singapore

Growing up with commercial breads made with chemicals like improvers and softeners, this bread is definitely not as light as air. Gardenia definitely is the winner, hands down. Which is why I prefer High 5 if I want to buy. High 5 has better structure, better chew, more to swallow. LOL.

17 Hours White Bread Loaf - White Loaf Week # 2

I made this loaf twice.

Being a new bread baker and attempting such recipes is a bit daunting. I do not even recognise when the bread is kneaded enough. I wasn't daring to knead it long and was doing a few silly mistakes like adding too much yeast or putting in sugar when I shouldn't be. In the end, my first attempt with this recipe flopped. It still became a loaf, but I added in a lot more flour due to the pre-ferment dough has overfermented causing a lot of liquid to be produced. I had Bee Bee on my 911 and I knew where I had gone wrong. I told myself, don't give up and try again.

Hokkaido Milk Loaf - White Loaf Week # 1

moon effect from my camera's external flash

My bread postings are soooo long overdue.
It's time for me to flood you all with my breads. But don't worry, breads won't run for a month straight. But I can do bread month's' if I want to. It's crazy, as usual, that's me.

This is not my first loaf.. I made a few loaves before this and I just wanted to post white sandwich loaves first.

Pumpernickel Bread

I have a bread, and it’s called pumpernickel,
Yum yum pumpernickel,
Pumpernickel bread, hey!

Watch this clip.

I knew of pumpernickel through Barney. This purple dinosaur not only taught my girls stuff, but it taught me that there is a bread called pumpernickel. So off I went googling for more information.

Pumpernickel is a German traditional bread that is traditionally leavened for days and slowly baked at low temperature. It’s very dense and full of rye.

But Americans made their own version of pumpernickel, adding in coffee, molasses, cocoa powder to imitate the dark colour that traditional pumpernickels have. And it doesn’t possess the density that traditional ones have, rather more like regular wholemeal bread. Personally I believe that I’ll try out the adulterated version.. due to convenience. But please take notice that this is not the real pumpernickel that is German in origin.

One day, when I went to Ipoh for some bakery supply shopping, I saw the word “pumpernickel” in the fridge. I looked closer, gosh!!!! It’s pumpernickel rye flour or the coarse meal of rye berries. Then I saw dark rye flour beside it. Gosh!!! These stuff are in Ipoh?? Gosh Gosh!!!

I quickly bought one pack of each and when I got home, I tried to find a suitable recipe.. and I found this . I do not have whole meal flour with me, but pumpernickel meal, so I subbed the whole meal with pumpernickel meal, isn’t that better? I only have that much of rye flour and pumpernickel meal, so I can only use bread flour for the rest. And as always I love butter with bread and I put in slightly more. I adjusted the recipe slightly (sugar and oil) and the rest quite stuck to the ratio. I do not have molasses, but I have dark brown sugar, something easily found and bought at sundry shops, and they are really cheap. But mine was bought from Tesco, a milled form, lighter in colour, rather than in clumps. I do believe those in sundry/grocery shops that sells by weight smells better and looks much darker, just like gula melaka. Use that if you can. See the sugar in this pic to see how dark it is. The one below is the one I bought as used this time.

Non Traditional Pumpernickel Bread Recipe

100gm dark rye flour (although my package was labeled as dark rye flour, it doesn’t look dark at all, when I compared mine to the recipe source)

100gm pumpernickel meal (coarse rye), lightly pulsed to reduce to a finer texture

200gm bread flour

3 Tbsp dark brown sugar

20gm butter

1 tsp salt

1 ¼ tsp instant yeast

300ml water
Extra bread flour for flouring during kneading

Mix the flours and salt in a bowl. Stir in the yeast and brown sugar (break up the brown sugar a bit with your fingers before mixing it in). Make a well in the center of the bowl and add the butter, and water. Mix well to form a soft dough.

Turn dough out onto a floured counter and knead for 10 minutes. As you knead it, the dough will become sticky and a little difficult to work with – just add a dusting of flour whenever it gets too difficult and continue to knead. Clean out the bowl you were using and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Shape dough into a round and place in bowl, cover with a dishtowel and let rise in a warm place for 1-2 hours until doubled in size.
Punch down dough in bowl and place on counter to divide in two small oblongs. Grease two small loaf pans and press an oblong of dough into each. Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Place risen loaves in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes or until the bread is dark brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Turn out and cool on wire rack. Wrap in waxed paper and foil (I just put into Tupperware, whole, unsliced) and let cure for 24 hours (I only did it overnight). Serve in thin slices.

Actually I didn’t knead this by hand, but used Mike’s aunt’s breadmaker on Pizza mode. I'm a total flop with manual kneading.
Shaped by hand and baked in my oven.

The dough is very soft and STICKY. (Maybe it was due to using less flour comparatively cos I wasn't flouring the table for manual kneading) I was glad I did it in the breadmaker. I dusted and dusted my hands and tray with lots of flour when I wanted to shape it, which explains the whitish spiral shape on the bread slices. The dough is a fast riser….. it grows and grows. And when it was baking in the oven…. You should be here to smell it. Fantastic. My kids enjoyed this bread very much, compared to regular wholemeal bread. The pumpernickel meal gives it a nice chewy and "toing toing" texture. I'll definately bake this again...

I’m going to eat it with my homemade Apricot Jam… Yum yum.