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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Rapid Light Wholemeal Roll


It could be the middle age weight gain, it could be all the rich and sinful cakes that I have made, it could be the inviting breakfast tables at the hotels.... I have been putting on so much weight that I desperately need to lose some weight before these extras find a permanent home on me.

The easiest (and least sacrificial) step to take is make simple healthier switches, e.g. brown rice vs. white rice, broiled vs. fried, soupy noodle vs. fried noodle. Then of course, bread instead of cake and wholemeal flour instead of white flour.

Wholemeal flour is called wholemeal simply because it is made using the whole wheat grain, including bran and the wheat germ. Since it contains 100% of the wheat grain, including the bran and germ, it has a higher fibre content than plain flour which is a healthier option than white bread.

White bread contains refined carb which take a longer time for your body to break down, plus the fact that wholemeal contains more fibre, gram for gram, you are likely to filled with lesser bread, hence better off for weight management!

Size of dough before 1st proofing


Dough after the first proof - doubled in size.


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Rapid Light Wholemeal Loaf
Taken from “The Bread Book”, Sara Lewis
Yield a 500g loaf


Strong wholemeal flour 175g
Strong white flour 150g
Caster sugar 2 tsp
Salt ½ tsp
Instant yeast 1 ¾ tsp
Sunflower oil 1 tbsp
Warm water 200ml
Bread Improver 1/2 tsp (optional, not in the original recipe)

  1. mix flours, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Add oil & gradually mix in enough warm water to make a soft dough.

  2. knead well on a lightly floured surface for 10min until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put into a greased loaf tin

  3. cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and leave in a warm place to rise for 45min or until the dough reaches just above the top of the tin.

  4. remove the clingfilm and bake in a preheated oven 200C for 25min for small loaf.

  5. hold the tin with oven gloves, loosen the bread with a palette knife. Trf to a wire rack to cool.

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Baker's Notes:

  • the beauty of the recipe is that it requires no knock back and 2nd proofing. But I didn’t read carefully, and did it the traditional way!

  • Forgot to remove it from the loaf pan, bun ended up with wet bottom. Hope you won't make the same error like me. To remedise, I turned the bread upside down and toast it lightly for about 5 min.

  • The bread is soft enough – though you can’t beat the white bread. It could be attributed to the 1/2 tsp of Bread Improver (avail from Phoon Huat) that I have added. Some purist may snarl at the addition of extra chemical to the otherwise healthy bread, I believe if it can entice my family to accept the diet switches, it will be well worth.

  • For shaping, I divided the dough into 60g each. It is not obvious in the picture: I get very full rounded bun for this portion.

  • I added a dope of cream cheese spread as the filling – my parents, though they are non-cheese eater, like the filling!
Some of the filling "leaked" due to the poor shaping.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks perfect! Thanks for sharing :) I hope to give it a try. Did you get the wholemeal flour from Phoon Huat as well? Also, approximately what size should the loaf tin be?

Cookie said...

Hi Ovenhaven,

I got the Prima wholemeal flour from supermarket.

Loaf tin- that's a good question! I will go back to check if the book specify!

Cheers.

Cookie said...

Hi ovenhaven,
The book only stated that the recipe yield one 500g loaf, no measurement of the loaf tin was given.

I googled and found this on:
http://uktv.co.uk/food/ingredient/aid/511511

- As a rule of thumb, a tin measuring 17x11x8cm produces a 500g loaf

- the tin should be just over half-full when the knocked-back dough is placed in it.


Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Anonymous said...

Oh thank you for that, Cookie! I'm gonna go and measure my loaf tin now and see if it's the one :P

Thanks again for the help, and sorry for the trouble!

Julie said...

Hi Happy Cup,

The rolls look so good. I'm planning to make them very soon. My questions : what is the reason to add white flour & would it be ok to leave out the white flour & increase the amount of wholemeal flour (instead of the white one).
BTW, love your website.

Thanks,
Julie

Cookie said...

Hi Ovenhaven,

Just a suggestion, if your loaf pan is too small, you can bake the balance dough in your muffin pan to get individual roll.

Hi Julie,
Thanks for visiting.

If you are making wholemeal bread for the first time, I would suggest that you use half bread flour (or more white), half wholemeal flour and see if the texture suits your palate.

Reason being -the wholemeal flour does not contain sufficient gluten to create the leavening effect. Without the leavening, the bread will be dense and heavy, which most of us find it difficult to accept.

The white bread flour is added to make light, aerated bread.

Wholemeal is certainly healthier but we can only change our family's diet gradually :-)

My family finds that 80% white + 20% wholemeal to be the best!

I hope i have not confused you... if I do pls let me know and I will try my best to answer them.

Cheers.

Julie said...

Happy Cup,

Thank you for your response & advice. I'll let you know the outcome ...


Julie

Cookie said...

Yes, Julie, pls tell me how did you bread go!

Cheers!