I have been meaning to write a post about my bread-making attempts. The first one was when I first bought the machine last December. Since then I have made another five loaves... and here's how it went.
My second loaf turned out pretty much the same as the first. At that time, I had already bought a kitchen scale, so I could measure my flour properly. I tried using Japanese flour only (as opposed to a mix of Japanese bread flour and normal bread flour as indicated by the recipe) but the bread turned out to be practically the same as the first time.
I stared a lot at this photo, and the photo of the first loaf, to try and see the difference. I couldn't find any, be it in looks or in taste.
For my third attempt, I bought some pumpkin seeds to add to the bread. I also tried using all-purpose flour, because I had seen online that we can use all-purpose flour, it just gives you softer bread. I got another similar-sized loaf, and it was softer... but only while it was warm. Even though it tasted like bread, its texture was more like cake than like bread, which is definitely due to the flour. I didn't like the texture too much...it didn't feel like I was eating bread!
On the other hand, the pumpkin seeds did give a bit of flavour to the bread, albeit just a light flavour.
All this while, I had been substituting water and milk powder for the full cream fresh milk that was in my cousin's recipe. After more research, I found a tip saying that we can make bread fluffier if we add milk powder. They said to add a few tablespoons (two or three, I can't remember) of milk powder to the recipe. I was already using milk powder, but maybe I didn't use enough.
In the next loaf, I added three tablespoons of milk powder (while still using water instead of fresh milk) to the recipe. And I tried adding chocolate chips to make chocolate chip bread. The fruit and nuts are supposed to be added at the last stirring cycle, which lasts for ten minutes. I wasn't sure whether the chocolate chips would melt away in the stirring, but decided that the worst that could happen was that I would end up with chocolate bread. And end up with chocolate bread I did.
However, compared to my previous loaves of bread, this one was definitely taller, even with the same amount of flour.
And softer too. The following photo was taken just to show you the dent that was made in the loaf when I dropped it out of the pan. That never happened with the previous loaves!
Cutting it open...
And this photo was taken just because it looks nicer... the cut in the above picture was a bit jagged.
And then, after varying results with the nuts and chocolate, I tried adding fruit. This loaf is the one my mother dreams of when thinking of homemade bread. Colourful bread with red cherries, green cherries, and raisins. (traffic light bread, I would say...) The fruit was maybe cut too small... and the green cherries almost completely lost their colour (we could only see a slight green tinge at a few places).
We made this bread one morning when everyone was here for Chinese New Year, and had it immediately for lunch. It was very soft and fluffy, thanks to the three tablespoons of milk powder and its freshness. When they were leaving to go back to Kuantan, we made a second fruit loaf for them to take home, with the fruits cut to bigger pieces this time. We could see the fruit better, but the green cherries still lost their colour. Hmm... I guess cherries are just not meant to be green. :P
My second loaf turned out pretty much the same as the first. At that time, I had already bought a kitchen scale, so I could measure my flour properly. I tried using Japanese flour only (as opposed to a mix of Japanese bread flour and normal bread flour as indicated by the recipe) but the bread turned out to be practically the same as the first time.
I stared a lot at this photo, and the photo of the first loaf, to try and see the difference. I couldn't find any, be it in looks or in taste.
For my third attempt, I bought some pumpkin seeds to add to the bread. I also tried using all-purpose flour, because I had seen online that we can use all-purpose flour, it just gives you softer bread. I got another similar-sized loaf, and it was softer... but only while it was warm. Even though it tasted like bread, its texture was more like cake than like bread, which is definitely due to the flour. I didn't like the texture too much...it didn't feel like I was eating bread!
On the other hand, the pumpkin seeds did give a bit of flavour to the bread, albeit just a light flavour.
All this while, I had been substituting water and milk powder for the full cream fresh milk that was in my cousin's recipe. After more research, I found a tip saying that we can make bread fluffier if we add milk powder. They said to add a few tablespoons (two or three, I can't remember) of milk powder to the recipe. I was already using milk powder, but maybe I didn't use enough.
In the next loaf, I added three tablespoons of milk powder (while still using water instead of fresh milk) to the recipe. And I tried adding chocolate chips to make chocolate chip bread. The fruit and nuts are supposed to be added at the last stirring cycle, which lasts for ten minutes. I wasn't sure whether the chocolate chips would melt away in the stirring, but decided that the worst that could happen was that I would end up with chocolate bread. And end up with chocolate bread I did.
However, compared to my previous loaves of bread, this one was definitely taller, even with the same amount of flour.
And softer too. The following photo was taken just to show you the dent that was made in the loaf when I dropped it out of the pan. That never happened with the previous loaves!
Cutting it open...
And this photo was taken just because it looks nicer... the cut in the above picture was a bit jagged.
And then, after varying results with the nuts and chocolate, I tried adding fruit. This loaf is the one my mother dreams of when thinking of homemade bread. Colourful bread with red cherries, green cherries, and raisins. (traffic light bread, I would say...) The fruit was maybe cut too small... and the green cherries almost completely lost their colour (we could only see a slight green tinge at a few places).
We made this bread one morning when everyone was here for Chinese New Year, and had it immediately for lunch. It was very soft and fluffy, thanks to the three tablespoons of milk powder and its freshness. When they were leaving to go back to Kuantan, we made a second fruit loaf for them to take home, with the fruits cut to bigger pieces this time. We could see the fruit better, but the green cherries still lost their colour. Hmm... I guess cherries are just not meant to be green. :P
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