Making My First Loaf of Bread

I've always wanted to bake my own bread. That would be easy these days, with the bread machine readily available. Our bread machine, which we rarely used, spoiled. The last time when I tried to use it, it wouldn't bake. So Mom took the dough out and baked it in the oven instead.

Since then, I've never baked another loaf of bread. However, I still desired to make bread from scratch. Just for curiosity's sake. Heh. So the other day, I stumbled upon this recipe by Yi Reservation. Of course I was inspired and decided to give it a try. The bread turned out to be fantastic and I was really happy!

The texture and taste was great! Mind the holes - this is the only part of the entire loaf with gaps :))

Looking at the results, I was so excited! It was so easy to make and I really can't wait to make more! 

The night before, I cooked 20g of all purpose flour with 100ml of milk to get water roux. This I cooled and placed in the fridge. Early this morning, I took it out from the fridge to bring it to room temperature before use. The first step is to mix the water roux with 330g of bread flour, 80ml of milk, 50g of sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of yeast, and a beaten egg. When the ingredients incorporated .... 

 The dough mixture ....

I let the dough rest for about 30 minutes before I kneaded in the butter .... 

 After the butter is kneaded into the dough. Knead till all the butter has been incorporated.

Again, I rested the dough for an hour. After an hour. I divided it into 3 portions. At this stage, the dough was very easy to handle - warm, soft and supple. I kind of enjoyed playing around with it. I started folding it .... I think I folded it however I liked and as many times I liked. I sure did not count. Heh ... check the original website for the correct way of doing it.

Then I placed the dough into my loaf tin to proof it for the last time ....

Last proof 

Just before baking, I brushed the loaf with egg wash. I baked it at 180 degrees for 15 minutes ... and saw that it was getting browned too quickly. So I covered it with a piece of foil and baked for another 20 minutes. 

Fresh from the oven, looking very amateurish :)) 

I think my loaf tin was too big, so the bread did not rise as high as I hoped. Probably I needed another 1/3 of the original recipe to fill the entire tin. Not sure, experiment next time. Happy :))