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.