Friday 29 January 2016

BM wholemeal bread


I was given a preloved but almost brand new bread machine a few months ago. It came just in time, as my own bread machine refused to work right after the newcomer arrived, 一山不能容二虎 (literal translation: there can't be two tigers in one territory) ;)



This Zojirushi bread machine is very compact in size, much smaller than my China brand bread machine. It doesn't take up much space and doesn't stick out like a sore thumb on the kitchen counter, in fact it is slightly smaller than my rice cooker!




As compared to my old machine, the programming function of this newcomer is not as 'flexible'. Unlike my old machine, I can't stop and re-start the machine to let it run the kneading cycle for another round. This is due to the fact that after the machine is turned on, it has this 20 minutes 'rest' cycle before it starts the kneading cycle. If I were to re-start the machine, the dough would have to be left sitting (which means left to rise) for 20 minutes. I have learned a technique to over come this limitation, but I will elaborate more in a separate post.



In terms of the quality of the finished bread, both machines gave satisfactory results. I would think it is more using the right recipe to suit your bread machine than its functions or quality.

However, having said that, I choose to think that this Japanese brand should have a longer life span hopefully the belt that makes the kneading blade spin would not damage that easily. It is 5 times more expensive than my previous bread machines (which had a life span of around 3 years each), so I would expect this one to last for at least another 10 years ;)

One plus point of this Zojirushi machine is that the kneading blade will not stick to the bread loaf. Just give the pan a few shakes and the loaf will be released from the blade and slide out with ease, leaving the blade in the pan.



Here's sharing with you a bread machine Wholemeal Bread recipe which I took from Carol 自在生活. I have been using this exact recipe ever since I got hold of the new machine. I probably made at least 10 loaves. Why? The reasons are:

  1. It uses the most basic ingredients, water, flour, sugar, salt, butter and yeast. No eggs, no milk, yoghurt or other ingredients are needed to enhance the texture or flavour.
  2. The bread is made using a straight dough method, no tangzhong or water roux is required to yield a soft texture.
  3. Most bread recipes would call for adding the butter only after the dough has been kneaded to a smooth dough, however, it is not necessary to do so for this recipe, the butter is added together with the rest of the recipes.
  4. The finished loaf has a nice thin crust, with a light and fluffy texture that stays soft for 2 days when stored in an airtight container.
  5. Since it is a straightforward recipe, I usually set the machine to run in the late afternoon just before I start preparing dinner. The loaf will be ready in about 3.5hrs, upon cooling for an hour, I would either slice it or store it as a whole loaf. The timing works really well for me as we could have almost fresh loaf of bread the next morning.


The texture of the bread speaks for itself...

The dough rose high and mighty, almost hitting the lid. The resulting loaf is light and airy, similar to those made with kneading by hand or a kitchen mixer. I tend to forget about the machine when it is running, but I will certainly know when the loaf is almost ready as I could smell the wonderful aroma of freshly baked bread coming from the kitchen. It feels really great when it is time to retrieve the loaf from the machine, without much effort, I could have a nicely baked homemade loaf :D

The recipe has never failed me and it is now our everyday bread.




Bread Machine Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients:
(makes 450g/1 lb loaf)

180ml water
30g wholemeal flour
250g bread flour
14g caster sugar
2.5 g (about 1/2 teaspoon) salt
28g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
2.5g (about 3/4 teaspoon) instant yeast

Method:

* Place water, wholemeal flour, bread flour, sugar, salt and butter in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Make an indentation on the flour with your finger and add in the instant yeast. Select the Basic or Regular function of the bread machine. Select Light crust function and press start. When the cycle completes, lift the pan out of the machine and carefully shake the loaf out of the pan. Leave the loaf to cool for at least an hour before cutting and remove the blade/paddle, if necessary. Store in airtight container.

Recipe source: Carol 自在生活

27 comments:

PH said...

It's so useful to have a bread machine but knowing me, I will not use it that often. That's why I hesitate to buy. Your bread turned out as lovely as always.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Phong Hong, I have the exact sentiments so now I have set a self imposed rule that I must make at least one bread machine loaf every week ;)

Amy Baking Diary said...

Hi HHB, nice bread!

Happy Homebaker said...

Thanks Amy :)

prispoh said...

Good day HHB

I used your BM Wholemeal Bread recipe yesterday to make some buns with cream cheese filling. The buns turned out very good. I did not add wholemeal flour, the buns were baked using bread flour.

Thank you for the excellent recipe.

Wishing you and family A BLESSED YEAR OF THE MONKEY.

Blessings
Priscilla Poh

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Priscilla, thanks for your well wishes! We must thank Carol for sharing her recipe :)
Here's wishing you a prosperous year ahead.!

Unknown said...

Nice bread thinking of using my panasonic bread maker to make this bread not sure to choose the wholemeal for normal bread function for this can you advice? Thanks

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, what's the main difference between the wholemeal and normal bread function of your bread machine? Longer proofing time? For my bm there are only 'soft', 'regular' and 'firm' functions. I used the regular function.

Unknown said...

Thanks for your reply, in fact my panasonic bread maker is a Taiwan model come with more function I think not sure abt S'pore model! It has normal (abt 4 hrs) super soft (4hrs 50 mins), soft (4hrs 20 mins), fast (1hr 55 mins) and wholemeal (5 hrs) bread function! As per the manual the wholewheat recipe the ratio of the ingredients is 1/2 bread & 1/2 wholewheat flour! Usually I choose the soft loaf function for my bread I think I will use the same function for this recipe too!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, the soft loaf function should work well for this recipe as the wholemeal flour is not alot. Hope to hear from you after you have tried it :)

Unknown said...

Hi thanka so much for advice, tried out the recipe using my BM it was nice & soft! Hopefully my gals like it!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, I am glad to hear that your bread turned out well :)

Unknown said...

Just like to check what brand of wholemeal flour you use as yr bread look white not so brownish? Thanks!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, for this loaf I used Prima brand wholemeal flour. I don't think it is due to the wholemeal flour, more likely the type of bread flour used. I used prima brand bread flour. If you use unbleached flour it will be brownish but more healthy. I hope unbleached flour will be as easily available here soon.

Unknown said...

Thanks, previously I use to get prima flour but now I hv changed my flour to either Japanese bread flour or blue jacket flour!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, recently I bought blue jacket flour to try too! But I can't really tell whether there's any difference unless I made two identical loaves to try. Nevertheless, I somehow feel that the dough made with blue jacket flour tends to rise better...will like to try Jap bread flour too.

Unknown said...

My friends & family members who try the blue jacket flour find that the texture of the bread is softer compare to other brands that they are using! As for the Japanese bread flour it's quite costly to get it at the Japanese supermarket therefore I managed to get the 1kg repack fm Bakerz@work at $3.80 per Kg which is located at Macperson not sure it's convenient for you to get there! Therefore now I stick to either this Japanese bread flour or blue jacket flour!

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Christina, thanks for the info! Will certainly check out the shop.

ML said...

Hi, I am also using the same breadmaker. Tried the recipe twice but both times the bread texture was too airy at the top of bread loaves. Couldn't get the texture like your's. 2ND time I even reduced yeast to 2g. Can I confirm that you are using the basic 3.5hr function? What brand yeast are you using? Thanks for sharing.

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi ML, I use the Basic bread function, 'Regular', 'Light Crust', total 3hrs 30mins. My Zojirushi bread machine model is: Home Bakery Mini Breadmaker BB-HAC10. Is this the same model as yours?

I use Prima brand Bread flour and wholemeal flour. For yeast, I am using SAF-Instant Levure Seche de Boulanger Dry Baker's Yeast (refer here for image: https://www.diffmarts.com/48291/saf-instant-dry-baker-yeast-55g)

Hope this helps, and hope your bread will turn out better on your next attempt :)

ML said...

Hi, HHB, thanks for replying. My BM model is BB-HAQ10. Both look exactly the same to me so don't know where is the difference. So far, I've always been successful using soft mode but not quite regular mode as it tends to over-proof.

Anonymous said...

Hi, HHB. I made this today and it was so yummy and fluffy. I do add some dried fruit to enhance the flavour, but somehow it become so crumbly and i don't mind a little crumb at all just curious did i do something wrong that make it crumbly?
Thanks for your reply
Sondang

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Sondang, I read that adding dried fruits may affect the proofing of the dough.

Anonymous said...

Hi HHB, thank you for your fast response. Oh i see now, then if im about adding dried fruit than i must increase the liquid? how much?
thank you. Sondang

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Sondang, I am sorry I am not able to advise on exactly how much liquid to add as too much liquid would affect the dough too. Furthermore, it also depends on the amount of dried fruits you add. I have tried adding a handful of raisins to another bread machine recipe and it didn't affect the bread texture. If you are interested you may refer to the recipe here: http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.sg/2016/03/bm-milk-loaf.html

Otherwise it is best to follow bread recipes that calls for dried fruits. Hope this helps and happy baking!



Mavis said...

Hi, I'm also using this zojirushi BM and agree w you that it's great but a pity it doesn't come with a "pause" function.. I thought it'd be helpful I can pause for a couple more minuntes to extend the proofing time. How do you overcome it?

Happy Homebaker said...

Hi Mavis, you can try turn off the power and restart again within a few mins. The machine will resume the cycle if it is within 10mins. This is a build in feature in case of power failure. Hope this helps.