I've been baking bread these days.
#Reason 1: less sinful than other deserts.
#Reason2 : my electric handmixer just Died after I tried to mix my dough using the freaking small dough hooks.
#Reason 3: I love bread.
After several attempts, I realise that baking a good bread really isn't easy. Unlike cakes n cookies, bread is more tacky to deal with. The time taken is alot longer. You need time to knead , ferment and proof. I usually take half a day to bake my bread. Prolly is because I m Pretty new to this. I hand knead my dough every occasion and it is rly tiring. Each time taking about an hour. By the end, I'll be sweating like a mad horse. Definitely a good workout. After these attempts, I feel that we've been taking bread for granted. I mean bread is easily available cheaply from bakeries everywhere. Similar to rice, it frequently appears in our diet and it's a necessity. Despite the more tedious process, bread is not as appreciated as muffins, cakes etc... Right now, I m more appreciative of bread. Behind the pretty looking buns siting comfortably in the bakeries, are actually slogging their lungs out kneading the dough. Okay, that's quite exaggerating. I know tech is advance and there's bread machines now. -__-" But hey, in the past, they dont right!! I rly salute those bakers who hand kneaded their brea in the bakeries. You have my respect man. Okay back to now, I am still far far from average. But I'll keep doing it!
My very first attempt baking bread was sweet bread dough, taken from "magic bread" by Alex Goh. It is a wonderful recipe but I ruined it. I did not knead my dough enough. It was elastic but it failed the window pane test. But I was so excited that I went ahead with the next step. Wrong move. Next, my first proofing was nicely done. But my second proofing was horrible. I just shaped the dough and left them on a plate for abt 30 mins. In fact, second proofing, also known as the final rise is v crucial to give you a light and fluffy bread. Unfortunately, I ruined it.
I tried making some Kaya buns with my grandma's homemade kaya. I didn't know
how to wrap the kaya properly and it oozed out of the buns even before sending them into the oven. The other bread was almond raisins rolls. I sliced them too thinly and the fillings were overflowing. In all, I made a mess. The buns were too compact. Best eaten when it's hot because there were like rocks when they had cooled. Nevertheless, I had a great time!! It's a good start of my bread baking journey.