Simple Wholemeal Bread

Made this wholemeal loaf a few days ago. It's a simple almost no frills everyday kind of bread. The steps involved in making this bread are quite easy. The only thing that you need is lots of time and patience. This bread uses a 'sponge dough' method...which requires 90mins of extra proofing time as compare to other breads that use the 'straight dough' method.


I read that the 'sponge dough' method would yield a softer bread texture. The crumbs was indeed light and soft, and the bread stayed fresh and soft for 3 days. I didn't even have to toast it before serving. It tasted great with my favourite blueberry jam, and I love the nice fragrance from the wholemeal flour. Even my kids, who don't really fancy any kind of wholemeal grains in their bread, didn't make a single complain :)



Simple Wholemeal Bread

Ingredient:

(A)
120g wholemeal flour
85g bread flour
4g (1 tsp) instant yeast
130g water

(B)
85g bread flour
15g caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt
10g milk powder
50g water

(C)
15g unsalted butter


Method:

1. Mix the dry ingredients in (A) in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in the water. Mix by hand to form a soft dough. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise for 90mins.
2. Place the ingredients in (B) in the pan of the bread machine (according to the sequence as stated in the instruction manual of your bread machine). Add in the soft dough in Step 1.
3. Select the Dough function of the bread machine and press start. After about 8mins of kneading, add in the 15g of butter (Ingredient C). Let the machine continue to knead the dough. After the kneading cycle has stopped (20mins), Stop and Restart the machine. Continue to let the machine knead for another 10mins.
4. Stop the machine and place dough in mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise till double in volume for about 60mins.
5. Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Press out the trapped air as your knead. Divide into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.
6. Flatten and roll out each dough into an oval shape (20cm by 10cm). Roll up swiss roll style and pinch the seams in place. Place in a pullman tin (size, 7.5"x4"x4", well greased), seams side down. Cover the lid and let dough proof for 60mins or until the dough rise up to 90% of the height of the tin.
7. Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 30mins.
8. Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.

Recipe adapted from 孟老师的100道面包