Monday, November 8, 2010

Oatmeal and Wholemeal Bread

Yes, I'm afraid I've been smitten by the bread baking addiction bug!  It's a lovely cool day today and bread baking is usually not recommended but I went ahead anyway.  I used the same recipe as last night's but made some changes like using some wholemeal flour and darker brown sugar (Muscovado).  Here are the photos!


After heating up the milk, I poured it into my mixing bowl where I already had my oatmeal, butter and sugar.  I stirred occasionally so the brown sugar could dissolve properly.  I waited for about 30 minutes or till the mixture is warm to the touch but not hot.  Then I added 2 cups of flour, the yeast and beat till mixed.

I then kept adding cup after cup of flour using the mixer hook until the mixture was sticky but not wet (low speed please otherwise your kitchen and you will turn white!).  Then on medium speed I kneaded it for 8 minutes. This is what it looked like after 8 minutes.

I transferred the dough to my table with lots of flour.  The mixture was quite sticky but I just made sure I had enough flour under the dough.  I then covered it with a damp tea towel until it double in size, about 90 minutes.

Here you can see how the dough has doubled.

I poked holes with fingers to show you how airy it had become.  I then measured out the dough on my digital weighing machine (yes, I'm a perfectionist!).

Here's a mini oval loaf just put in...

Here's what it looked like after 30 minutes.

I made one in a tart pan (the ones with the removeable bottom).


After baking, it looked really nice.

Here's the mini oval loaf.

And the one in the tart pan.  Nice, eh?

One thing to note about baking bread with no stabiliser (chemicals).  It may be a bit denser than what you're used to buying from the store.  But the good thing is, you know exactly what you put in it!  For me, I used organic ingredients.

I hope you get inspired to try it out!  Don't be discouraged if you don't get the exact results you want.  Try again and again.  Get used to working with the bread dough.  It's really fun to make and to eat too!  Let me know how it goes.

1 comments:

Shionge said...

Yes very very nice and making your own bread certainly is more healthier :D