Super Soft Fluffy Bread

If you are overly crazy for soft cottony bread (well, not everybody loves soft bread, some just like it chewy), this recipe could be a keeper and worth bookmarking, thanks to Wendy of Table for 2....or more. 

I was raking my brain last weekend thinking of what to do or rather what to cook to fill my glorious Sunday when suddenly out of nowhere the idea of bread making struck me. Hey, why not? After all, I have been yearning and dying to make one my own. I have never personally experienced playing around with yeast and witness (well at close range) how this microorganism affects the dough. I have always admired with envy how bakeries make such soft fluffy breads.  To me, only bakeries would be able to make that, definitely not amateur like me until I read somewhere that any Tom Dick and Harry can make good bread, of course if given a good recipe.

All excited, I hunted for the recipes through the net.  Among the lot, I finally chose Wendy's, simply for the fact that she presented it in such a straightforward easy-to-follow manner.  Also, her recipe called for coffee creamer.  That sounded unique to me. The last thing was she boldly described her breads as 'wonderfully soft'. Oh, how on earth could I resist that??

So, after breakfast that Sunday, off I went driving around Malacca town, 'chaperoned' by my wife, son and daughter hunting for the ingredients.  Sad to say, not all supermarkets in Malacca sell bread flour.  Seemed that I might have to get it from a cake ingredient shop.  Again, not all shops are open on a Sunday.  Grrrr!  Frustration set in.  At last, I managed to get it from Yami Bake House. When I asked for bread flour, the lady boss was kind enough to recommend me Japanese high protein bread flour.  When I asked her for the differences (between this and the normal bread flour), she was again kind enough to share her knowledge, at great length.  She went on and on so willingly until I was lost and could not make head or tail of what she was rattling about.  Reason?  It was all in Mandarin!!  But one thing I could make out for sure, the flour is presumably much better!!

At home, I checked all the ingredients needed and I soon realized, hey where's the coffee creamer??  I don't store creamer at home.  Cleverly, I scavenged the kitchen drawers and to my delight, I saw quite a few plastic bags containing sachets of sugar, coffee, tea, cereal including creamer.  There were loads of them, all in different colours and logos.  Wow!  What a great collection!  Ahh, to all you ladies out there, especially Asian Chinese, stop pretending!  I'm sure you know what I mean here, in particular where those things might have come from!  I took many sachets with all of them bearing a big yellow 'M' on it.  Whatever it is, thanks to my wife for saving the day!

So, the remaining process of the bread making experience was pretty easy and smooth sailing especially with the dough proofing very beautifully.  The end result was satisfying too. The bread was really fluffy and as what Wendy had described it - wonderfully soft!  

However, one setback was the dough gave out quite a strong unpleasant 'yeasty' smell that freaked my son out.  As expected, he just stayed away from the kitchen for a while and dared not taste the bread.  $#%$@#!!!  The whole house smelled like unwashed shoes and stinky socks.  Then, I checked out in the net and discovered that I could have overproofed the dough.  Eerrm, is it true?  Well, it could be because apparently I had left it sit for more than 4 hours while I went out shopping.  The second setback, I had overbaked the bread just a little too long causing some to be slightly burnt.  However I tried to edit the 'burnt' photos with my photo editor application, the effort was just futile. 

Sigh!!  Never mind-lah, first time!  So, here goes the recipe.....

The Ingredients:

(A) 
310 bread flour (I used high protein bread flour)
60g  cake flour
40g coffee creamer (coffeemate)
70g sugar
2 tsp instant yeast


(B)
115g  milk
1 egg
2 egg yolks

(C)
1/3 tsp salt
40g butter

(D)
1/2 egg mixed with 1 tsp water

Method:
1. Combine (A) together.  Mix it around to combine. 
2. Combine (B), pour into (A) and knead to form a dough.
3. Put (C) into the dough and knead until a smooth dough is formed 
    (I gave this a 15 min knead by hand)
4. Cover the dough and let it proof until it doubles in size
5. Punch down and knead for another 1 minute.
6. Divide dough into 50 or 60g pieces each. 
7. Wrap each piece of dough with preferred fillings
8 Let dough proof until double again and brush (D).  Bake in a preheated oven at 170/190C for 15 
   minutes or until golden brain. 

 HAPPY BAKING!!