If you can't beat them, join them!
My family wanted supermarket bread and they got what they wanted. I have not bought Sunshine or Gardenia breads for a long time but since they wanted sandwich bread (the kind that they were used to), I had no choice but to do some for them.
I got a Pullman loaf tin recently when my wife and I checked out Phoon Huat's outlet at Sims Lane recently on my day off. I chose the larger loaf tin which measured 13 x 4 x 4 and that required about 46 oz of dough. In a previous bake, I used 36 oz of dough because I followed Hamelman's Pullman recipe which was for a 13 x 3.5 x 3.5 tin.
For today's bake, I decided to do a whole-wheat version using up what's left of my Shipton WW flour in my freeezer. The WW was 40% so I increased the hydration to 70% from Hamelman's recipe for a white loaf.
The first 2 Pullman bakes that I did was well received by my family. Sad to say, they prefer soft bread to the hard ones I usually bake. Most of the time, I am the one eating up my own bakes. I have to admit that there is a sense of satisfaction in seeing my daughter eat up a complete slice for breakfast. Usually, with those crusty French bread, the crust is left behind, probably as a message to me.
Perhaps it is time for me to be more accommodating to the needs of my beloved daughter and my aging father. He will smile when I asked if he has eaten the bread that I had brought for him. His usual reply was that his teeth are falling out after eating my bread.
9 comments:
Hi, I am also in search for a good whole wheat bread recipe, though i don't have a cool beehive like yours. Can I have the recipe please? My current one is from the King Arthur whole grain book. Cheers, Kah Ling
Hi Kah Ling, do you mean the sandwich type or the lean crusty type? I will send you the recipe by email.
Hi,
I mean the sandwich loaf. My current recipe from King Arthur's is 1 cup bread flour to 3 cups WW, and it has a little potato flour, some milk powder and liquid is a mix of water/orange juice/milk. I add a little vital wheat gluten. but of course it's baked in a regular oven.
sorry i mean the sandwich type. I also use the phoon huat loaf tin.
The recipe has been sent to your email. Have you received it?
hello tom,
i'm a bread fan too, but haven't been doing much baking as i can't seem to fit it into my schedule.
anyway, i am just curious about how u keep your bread fresh, given the large batches you bake and the one-man consumption. i've tried freezing and toasting it but it sometimes makes the crust harder.
and...whereabouts in s'pore can u get a weighing machine appropriate for bread measurements?
jy:)
Hello JY,
I have 2 weighing scales. The older one is a spring loaded one which can weigh up to 2.2kg(5 lb). The other one is a digital Tanita scale which I use for measuring salt. I seldom weigh the yeast which I measure by the teaspoon. You can measure salt by the teaspoon also. So the digital ones are not really necessary but nice to have.
Your mentioning of my one man consumption habit makes me feel guilty because it's true that I have been consuming way too much bread and it is starting to show. I give my breads to my mother because she likes it. At least I hope so. It is a problem giving bread to co-workers because they keep the bread till the next day for breakfast and by the time they consume, the bread is already in it's third day.
The best way to keep bread fresh is to freeze it as soon as it has cooled. If your freezer dosen't smell, you don't even have to wrap in cling film. I put my bread in a freezer bag and seal with a ikea clip. You can thaw the bread overnight on the kitchen counter and bake again next morning at 150C for 5-10 mins.
Thanks Tom, for the reply. I decided to forego the scales and got myself a set of much cheaper measuring cups and spoons instead. I think i'll try to make bread in individual sandwich portions next time so i'll just thaw the little loaf i need, without trying to hack out the needed portion. your freezer must be huge to store so many things and such long loaves.
jy:)
Unfortunately my freezer is tiny and I get a lot of flak for stuffing it with bread and flour. Just the other day, it occurred to me that the tiny fridge which was enough for my wife and I years ago is now inadequate. The years has rolled on and we have been using this small fridge despite the fact that there are now more members in the family.
I have to cut up my baguettes to store them in the fridge. I loath to do that so I usually give them away.
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