a better cream cheese bread

It's almost a year since made this bread. Though it was soft and fluffy, I didn't make it anymore cos I thought it does not keep well.

KWF the forummer who first posted the recipe mentioned that the problem could lie in my cream cheese, rather than the recipe. So I decided to have another go.

Apart from using a different cream cheese, I also added some wholemeal flour. Just a little, so as to retain the soft & fluffy texture.




WHOLEMEAL CREAM CHEESE BREAD

Ingredients :
220g bread flour *
30g wholemeal flour *
10g powder milk
15g sugar
2g salt *
2g dry yeast (1/2 tsp) *
20g butter
50g cream cheese spread *
160g water


Method

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl until well blended.


2. Add in the wet ingredients to form a dough.


3. Knead dough until dough is elastic and smooth.


4. Place it in a large greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth or cling-wrap and leave it to proof in a warm place till double in size (about 1 hr).


5. When proofing is completed, punch down the bread dough to release the air.


6. Divide the dough into 50-60g, and let it rest for 10min. Shape the dough into rounds and place into a 6" pan. Cpver with a cling film & leave to proof until double its size again (about 30-45 minutes).


7. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 30 minutes.


8. Remove bread from loaf pan to cool completely.
   

* changes that I made to the recipe:

• Instead of 250g bread flour - I used 220g bread+30g wholemeal to add some nutrient.


• I used cream cheese spread instead of cream cheese cos that's what I have at home.


• Since cream cheese spread is very salty, I reduce the salt to 2g (original 3g)


• I usually have some problem with yeasty smell in bread, so I reduce the amount of yeast slightly.

I made the bread by hand, without stand mixer or breadmaker, using Dan Lepard's method... which save me the tedious kneading. Also, I did not have to add anymore flour to overcome the stickiness. I always follow his methods as far as breadmaking is concern, and have been able to get fairly good & consistent results.

Taste Test:

• it is truly soft and fluffy, the little wholemeal added some sense of wholesome eating while making it more acceptable for my family who not so keen in eating healthy!


• I didn't manage to check if the bread turned sour cos I brought the loaf to work and my colleague all wallop all in 30minutes! All of them eat and node their head... you got it?
  
  

Just a bit sidetrack to photography, I taken 3 pix of the same bread under different lighting condition. The first pix right on top was taken at night using flash.

This one below is taken at night without flash:


And the final one was taken in the day with natural day light:

While most photographer will say natural lighting is best, but my favourite is actually the night flash one - I find that shows the brown shiny top best!