Sunday 22 April 2007

Butter Loaf

Borrowed a few cookbooks on breadmaking from the library and I'm now more familiar with the functions of my new bread machine. At least I know that you could actually open the lid while the machine is kneading the dough. I wanted to try the full function of the machine, ie mix, knead, proofing and bake. However, I am not too keen to make a plain white loaf and was happy to find this sweet bread or butter loaf recipe from a Japanese translated cookbook. The recipe is rather straight forward and I used the "Sweet" function to make the loaf. As sweeter breads tend to brown more quickly, this function make sures that the dough has sufficient time to rise and is baked at a lower temperature. I set the crust colour as "Light" on a safer side as I didn't want to have a dark crust.

I measured out the ingredients and place them in the pan following the sequence as stated in the manual...first to go into the pan are the wet ingredients such as water, milk, and eggs (lightly beaten), followed by butter, sugar, salt...and then the flour...with finger, make a small indentation on the centre of the flour and add the yeast to the indentation. The important thing is not to let the yeast come in contact with the wet ingredients...this is especially so if you are using the delay function.

After reading through the manual and cookbooks, I have a better understanding on how the various ingredients work together:

- sugar is the vital food for yeast to ferment...but too much sugar may slow down the fermentation, as such, sweeter bread needs a longer rising time.
- Salt is used in bread recipe to improve flavour and the crust colour. Too much salt can inhibit the fermentation...as such when adding in the ingredients, avoid letting the yeast come into contact with salt. if salt is omitted, you will get a larger bread.
- eggs can improve the texture of the bread and make it larger in size.
- butter and oil can make the bread softer and keep bread fresh for a longer time.


Dough proofing in the bread machine.


After 3 hours, the loaf was done, and it looked so pretty fresh out of the oven ;)


The down side of using a bread machine for baking is that the kneading blade actually got embedded in the loaf. I removed the blade from the loaf when it was still hot as I wasn't sure whether it would be difficult to remove if the bread was completely cooled. The blade made a small hole on the base of the otherwise almost perfect loaf.

The crumb is rather yellowish as two eggs are used in the recipe. It looks almost like a butter or pound cake. The texture is just right...light and fluffy with a thin, crisp crust. On it's own, the taste is a little plain, not sweet at all...it's almost like a plain white bread. I guess it will taste much better with some peanut butter or jam.

Ingredients:

250g bread flour
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
3 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs (medium)
50g butter (soften at room temperature)
50ml milk

To make with a breadmaker:

  1. Assemble the pan and kneader blade. Add in milk, lightly beaten eggs and butter, followed by sugar and salt. Spoon in the flour and make a slight indentation in the centre of the flour. Add the yeast in the indentation.
  2. Shut the lid and set to the "Sweet" function, select loaf size as 1 lb, and set as Light crust.
  3. At the end of the programme, lift the pan out of the machine and turn out onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool before slicing.

Tip: Do check the kneading progress from time to time. If there are pockets of ingredients at the sides of the pan, open the lid (while the machine is still kneading away), scrape down with a spatula, make sure that the spatula doesn't get in the way of the kneader blade. Refrain from opening the lid when the dough is rising or baking.

To make by hand:
  1. Place flour, sugar, yeast, salt in a mixing bowl. Add in eggs and warmed milk (around 45deg C). Mix till a soft dough is formed. Knead in the butter.
  2. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for 5 mins or until it is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a smooth round ball.
  3. Lightly grease a mixing bowl with salad oil and place the dough in it. Cover with cling wrap and leave it to rise for 1 hour or double in size.
  4. Remove cling wrap and punch the risen dough in the bowl to deflate it. Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and shape it to form a rope. Cut into 3 equal portions and shape into round balls. Rest for 10 mins.
  5. Flatten each dough and roll out to form a rectangular shape. Roll up tightly like a swiss roll. Line the doughs side by side in a lightly greased 19cm x 9.5cm x 7.5cm loaf tin. Cover with cling wrap and let it proof for another 40 mins, or until double in bulk.
  6. Remove cling wrap, brush with egg wash and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30mins. The bread should be well risen, golden brown and sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Cool on wire rack before slicing.

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, i noticed the bread in ur bread maker is nicely shaped. Ive never baked using a bread maker - usually remove n bake in oven. Did u remove the bread dough after 11/2 hours n roll into shape, then put back into breadmaker or does the breadmaker automatically shapes it nicely?

Lissa

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Lissa, for this butter loaf, I used the bread maker to bake the loaf. I didn't have to remove the dough from the pan to shape it. I simply let the machine run on it's on. I find it amazing too that the dough is able to fill up the entire bread pan and bake into a nicely shaped loaf. I believe all bread machines are capable of this :)

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Just wanna let you know that I made this today, and it was stunning - moist, fluffy, super yummy delicious!!

I used the "sweet" function, light crust on Kenwood breadmaker. My hubby and kids love it.

Thanks for the recipe.

Cheers,
Celine

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Celine, nice to hear that you & your family like this bread, and it's such a straight forward recipe, isn't it!

MGBY said...

Hi Happyhomebaker, i found very useful tips on this page and i've quoted with acknowledgement on my blog. but if this is not ok with you, please let me know... i'm very new to baking bread with BM & forgetful so i thought this is a way where i could remember the tips better... my apologies if you find this inappropriate... pls let me know.

please keep up your wonderful efforts, been visiting your blog regular, really envy you for what you are doing :)

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi MGBY, thanks for your kind words! No worries, about quoting the tips! I feel more honoured than anything :D

Anonymous said...

Good morning Happy Making Bread,

My name is Wendy Tran. First of all I need to say that my knowledge of bread making is 0 :), therefore when I read your block and saw the breads you made I was so admired. Yesterday I tried the butter loaf recepi and I got a bread completely different from what I saw on your block: it was dark, maybe very dark, and not soft at all (dry). I used a Mezzo Breadbaker MD10259, made in Australia. I followed the recepy carefully. I think maybe 50ml milk is not enough for 250g flour comparing to another recepies with about 250ml milk for 320g bread flour. Should I need more milk or butter? Please give me your advise. I'd like to try again.
Thank you and wish you a happy weekend.
Wendy Tran
dmnd_apple@yahoo.com

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Wendy, I am so sorry to hear about the unfavourable outcome of your bread :( I am not sure what went wrong. As this recipe uses 2 eggs, I think the liquid should be enough? Since Celine (see her comments on this posting) had tried it and it turned out alright for her, I guess the amount of liquid used is correct. Did you follow the sequence of adding ingredients in your bread maker? My bread maker requires the wet ingredients to go in first before the dry ones, I read that some machines require the sequence to be reversed. I set the crust as LIGHT, instead of medium or dark, I am not sure whether the setting has caused your bread to become very dark? Hope I have answered some of your doubts? do let me know if you need more clarification.

Anonymous said...

Hi Happy Home baking,
I baked a dark and dry butter bread last time, do you remember me? I'd like to ask the baking time of your breadmaker. Mine is 55 minutes, maybe it's too long for a 250g flour butter bread and I should reduce the baking time. I think this is one of the reason made my bread be dark and dry.
Thank you and look forward to your reply.
Wendy

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Wendy, my breadmake also takes about an hour or so to bake the loaf. If I were to use the standard cycle (knead-rise-bake) I won't be able to adjust the baking time. The other reason could be this recipe is too small for your breadmachine...I believe 250g of flour would probably yield less than a 1 lb loaf. I would suggest you try out another recipe that is accompanied with your breadmachine's instruction manual to test. Since it is the first time you are baking bread, you may have to experiement a little to try it out. Good luck, and do drop me a note on your second attempt.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I simply love this recipe. It turned out so beautifully soft and fluffy and the entire family swiftly finished the loaf in no time!
Just would like to know what kind of breadmaker do you use? The nonstick material on my breadpan has somehow come off & I am thinking of getting a new one.
Thanks!
Irene

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Irene, I am pleased to hear that you like this bread :)
I am using a breadmaker which I bought from Carrefour...under it's housebrand, Bluesky. It's belongs to the cheaper range of bread machine...$69.90. So far it has served it's basic purpose. Hope this helps.

Anonymous said...

Our bread rises well but then settles back in last half hour. any suggestions what changes we can make to ingredients? Jason

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Jason, as you didn't mention how you went about making your bread, I am not able to make any suggestions. However, I have checked the Baking911 site, and there are two possible causes for the collapsed bread:
1. "Oven temperature that's too low. This means the dough rises to its maximum, then collapses before it gets hot enough to set."
2. "Sometimes bread will over rise or rise too fast - adjust amount of yeast by 1/4 teaspoon or add in 1 to 2 tablespoons flour". Hope this helps.

veronica said...

Thank you for your blog! I have just got a used bread machine and can't wait to try! Can you let me know the name of the translated Japanese Bread book? Is it translated in English? If you can give me the link as to where to get it ( I am in the US ), that would be awesome!

Thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Veronica, the title of the book is "面粉点心大会串" author: 长谷川芳子, it is not translated in English, it is in Chinese. I'm sorry, I borrowed the book from the library, so I am not sure where can you buy it.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I love your blog and all the recipes! I tried this recipe yesterday, but my bread turned out hard and dry. It was my second time using the bread machine, but both tries yielded dry and hard bread. I followed all the measurements in the recipe and used a new packet of yeast, so I have no idea how to correct it. Any ideas where I went wrong? Thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

What about the loaf size? Did you choose the smaller loaf size (1 lb)? You also need to set it to a lighter crust. This way, the bread will not bake for too long at a higher temperature. Also, you need to add the ingredients according to your bread machine, some requires dry ingredients to be added first before the wet ones.

Anonymous said...

hi i was just wondering, when you use the sweet function on your bread machine, how long is the baking time?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, I am sorry I did not take note of the specific baking time as my breadmachine only showed the total time taken. btw, my breadmachine broke down, and I am not able to check. If I remember correctly, the usual baking time is around 50 - 60mins depending on the colour of crust you select.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am looking at the model breadmaker you have (Mezzo MD10259) an cannot seem to locate any details on them. There is no photograph so I could you please advise your thoughts? Thanks
Bernie

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Bernie, I do own this brand of breadmaker, you have made a mistake, that comment above was left by a reader by the name of Wendy Tran. I used to own a breadmaker which I bought from Carrefour, under their housebrand.

Anonymous said...

My wife has just bought a BLUESKY Breadmaker new,
yet it has no instructions in English in the box.
I note ou have no English instructions anyway, but I need to ask if yours has a removable pan, and if so, how to you get it out. Ours has two very firm clips either side of tha pan but I have no idea how to move them to get the pan out.
Hope you can help......our Model is BBM2113-M

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Anonymous, you can remove the pan by holding on to the rim, and sort of twist/turn it (like a steering wheel?)...anti clockwise, and you should be able to remove it. Hope this helps and happy baking. btw, may I ask where did you bought the breadmaker? Mine was spoilt two years back, I am thinking of getting one.

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB, thanks for sharing this recipe. I'm trying it out now with my new Kenwood BM. Already put in all ingredients and it just started kneading..Finger crossed! :-D - Jen

ijenbakingzone said...

Hi HHB,
I've made this bread for the second time and it turned out very soft and and fluffy as expected. TQ for sharing! - Jen

New said...

Hi, after so many attempts I've finally got a soft n fluffy loaf! Thanks to your recipe! How do u slice the bread so nicely? Do u use electric knife? Where to buy a good bread knife?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, glad to hear about your successful attempt :)
I use a $2 serrated bread knife I bought from daiso. You can get good knife from various departmental stores.

MnYfoodtalk said...

Hi, I found your explaination about how sugar, salt and eggs effect the bread is helpful. Will try out your recipe one day. Thanks for sharing!

Anonymous said...

Hi, can i know which brand of breadmaker did u use? U mentioned that u used to own the carrefour housebrand one? So currently? what abt the buns, do u oso use the breadmaker to bake them? How?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi, I bought a new breadmachine recently from China. You can refer to the comments I posted here (http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2012/02/blog-post.html)

I only used the bread machine to do the kneading...I prefer to shape the buns and bake them in my oven.

Janice said...

Hi HHB,
My BM can only bake 750g & 1kg loaf so I need at least 500g of flour.. Can I double the recipe? But 4 eggs sounds like alot.. Might give it a try..
Cheers,
Janice

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Janice, maybe you can try other bread recipe I agree 4 eggs is a lot!

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB,

Just to let you know I made this bread today (7 years from your date of post!) and the bread is amazing! Very different from other bread that I have tasted. I made 1.5 times (as 250g flour seems too little) using 3 eggs. The bread has a nice eggy aroma 鸡蛋香 and very velvety. The only downside is my bread machine gave it a very thick crust (despite I used the light crust mode). Next time I will bake it in my oven. Yum!
Tks.
Mandy

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Mandy, thank you for sharing your baking experience :) Happy to know that this bread recipe works well for you. Yes, bread machine tends to give a thick crust, I have always used my oven to bake.

Lean said...

Hi hi, just bought a bread maker and would like to try this bread coz is my husband favourite.
In your recipe mid size egg, how big is this ? Weight ?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Hoay Lean Ong, I used 55g nett weight eggs.