Almost a Square

Made this Milk Loaf using a Pullman's tin (loaf pan that comes with a cover). I bought the tin for almost three weeks already, and I only got the chance to try it yesterday. Well, from the photo you would have guess that the loaf didn't turn out as expected...yes, it didn't fill up the entire tin :(

I guess the portion of flour used (only 250g) is almost quite impossible to fill up a 11cm x 11cm x 19cm loaf pan. The poor dough took almost 2 hours to rise up to about half the height of the tin! This is the longest time I have waited for a dough to proof for the second time. As it was getting rather late, I went ahead to bake it, knowing very well that I won't be able to get a square sandwich loaf :'(


Nevertheless, despite the shape, the texture of the bread was exactly what I have been looking for. It was really super soft (not sure whether it was due to the looong proofing time??), airy and cottony. The bread tasted as good the next day, still very soft and surprisingly very flavourful (could be the butter I used). I didn't have to toast the bread and it tasted delicious even eaten on it's own without any spread. There's no cream or bread improver added in the recipe...just egg, flour, milk, butter, sugar, salt and yeast. This is the kind of recipe that I have been looking for! using only the very basic ingredients and yet yield the best result.


I always have problem taking pictures of bread texture...this is by far, the best shot that I could manage...see how soft the bread is?

Besides the good combination of the ingredients in the recipe, I believe the shaping and rolling out of the dough also contributes to the soft texture. I used this shaping method for this loaf. I have also adopted the method of adding the butter only after the rest of the ingredients have been mixed for 8 ~10 mins. This method has been widely adopted in cookbooks from Taiwan and Japan. The reason behind this is that during the initially mixing, temperature will rise a bit...adding the cold butter later will help to reduce the temperature...well, this probably ensures the yeast to activate and maximise it's "potential" at "the right" temperature?? I used my bread machine to knead the dough...using the Dough function which has a standard kneading time of 20 mins. Once the kneading cycle completed, I stopped the machine and re-start it to give it another 10mins of kneading. I then let the dough proof in room temperature. As the bread machine will increase the heating temperature once the cycle starts, I left the lid opened throughout the kneading cycle. This helps to prevent the temperature from getting too high.


This picture was taken while I was trying to take photos of the bread slices under the morning sun ;)



and the shadow belongs to this cute little"friend" of mine =)

Ingredient

143g fresh milk (I used HL low-fat fresh milk)
35g egg
25g caster sugar
5g salt
250g bread flour
4g Instant yeast
38g butter (unsalted)

How I did it:

1. Place milk, egg, followed by caster sugar, salt, bread flour and yeast into the pan of the bread machine. Set to Dough function. Add in the butter after 8 ~ 10 mins into the kneading cycle. Continue to let the bread machine do the kneading. Stop the machine after the kneading cycle. Re-start the machine and let the dough knead for another 10mins before stopping the machine.
2. Remove dough from the bread pan, let it proof in room temperature in a mixing bowl, covered with cling wrap. Let proof for 60mins.
3. Remove dough and punch out the gas. Divide dough into 3 equal portion. Roll and shape into balls. Let the doughs rest and relax for 15 mins. (this 'relaxing' time is needed so that the dough will be easier to roll out and shaped).
4. On a lightly floured surface, flatten one dough and roll out into a longish shape. Roll up the dough swiss-roll style. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
5. Flatten the rolled-up dough and roll out again into a long rectangular shape. Roll up tightly, and make as many rolls you can, swiss-roll style for the second time. Do the same for the two remaining doughs.
6. Place doughs in lightly greased bread tin/pan. Let the doughs proof for the second time, until it fills up 80% of the tin/pan. Cover with cling wrap.
7. Bake at pre-heated oven at 180 ~ 190 deg C for 30 to 35mins. (I set mine to 200 deg C as my oven temperature is always on the low side.)
8. Unmould the bread immediately when removed from the oven. Let cool completely before slicing.