Bread

This subject is turning moldy. I had wanted to sing praises about my recently acquired bread machine but the crazy wildfire was chasing everyone out of their homes then. I felt quite guilty taking the bread with us as we snaked our way out of the smoke and leaving the fella behind to face its unknown fate. So much for being an employee (the machine, I mean).

So, I owe you one - the Panasonic SD-YD250 Automatic Bread Maker. Breakfast has never been simpler. I just need to prepare the recipe, put the stuff in and hit the start button. After 4-5 hours, the bread is ready - freshly baked, so nice. I can program it at night to be ready the next morning too. I can add raisins, use wheat or white flour, and I can use the sandwich mode which makes a softer but bouncy texture. There is the rapid bake mode which finishes the process in 2 hours - maybe this is for a single rise. Non-wheat flours only rise once instead of twice like wheat. The bake option takes 5 hours for the entire process; so this includes 2 rises. I would like to be adventurous and try making crossaints and pizzas but I won't have time to blog in that case.




Here's a sample recipe that I have remembered by heart.

For medium size loaf - good for three hungry people for the day:
3Cups Flour
1.5 Tbsp Sugar
1.5 Tbsp Butter
1.5 Tbsp Powder Milk
1.5 Tbsp
1.5 Tsp Salt
1.0 Tsp Yeast
1.25Cups Water

Put everything in except the yeast. A timer will beep to inform you when it is ready for the yeast. Amy was pretty enterprising and use 4 cups of water instead....and we got nothing to eat for that morning. So it is important to put in the right amount of everything. I noticed that the butter makes a difference. I have used 3 different brands (maybe different in the amount of fat per serving) and they gave different textures for the bread. If you are interested in making gluten-free bread, there is a book written by Carol Fenster. She is a well-known expert in gluten-free and wheat-free diets.




There is another type of bread which will never turn moldy. This is Bread - the 70s band that produced hits like "Make it With You", "Baby I'm-a Want You", "Everything I Own", "Guitar Man", "If" and "Goodbye Girl" that I enjoy very much. If I remember correctly, the group stopped in Singapore during their final Bread tour in 1996-1997 and performed at the World Trade Centre, and I was thrilled to watch the concert. Wow, that's 10 years ago already, time really flies. So, without further delay, let's get some susu kacang and listen to some music. Mr David Gates.....