Recipe: Simple White Bread, 簡單白麵包

Updated: 18 Jun 20

Half portion: 24h slow rise with 1/8 tsp yeast (temp 17-21C).
Dust, fold, shape. Rest 2h bake at 230C 35m *10% protein

18 May 20

We love it. This Simple White Bread is going to take over the store bought white bread for a while.

The bread is crusty, soft and aromatic (my little girl thought I was baking pizza). It is delicious even on its own!

Recipe from https://www.patreon.com/posts/32890582 Video: https://youtu.be/NkSN0rlC-m4 . Thanks handsome!

Ingredients:

• 630g Flour (used All purpose flour OR bread flour)
• 15g Salt (adjust according to what Salt you use) used 2 tsp(12g)
• 30g Sugar used 25g
• 15g Yeast (Instant Dry Yeast) used 1 tbsp(12g) *Autumn: 1/4 tsp, winter: 1/2 tsp, resting overnight  in the oven
• 450 ml Water used 380g warm water +/- 40C
• 50 ml Olive Oil used 38g
• 100-150g seeds and/or nuts (optional) omitted

Steps, with stand mixer:

1. Into a mixing bowl, add all ingredients.
2. Mix and knead for 15 minutes.
3. Lay a piece of baking paper on the baking sheet. Dust the baking paper *used silicon sheet.
4. Place dough on the baking paper.
5. Dust both palms. Shape dough, forming a round ball. *optional: to have a smooth dough, I stretched the sides to the bottom. Repeat a few time till all sides are smooth.
6. Dust the dough. Cover and rest till double, 40-60 minutes *On cooler days, rest dough in the oven (oven preheated to 38C then Off)
7. Preheat oven to 190C (Best results: 230C middle rack for 35-40 minutes).
8. Score (optional) dough with decorative cuts. 
9. Middle rack, bake for 40 minutes (for crusty bread, place a bowl of water on a lower rack).
10. Remove the baking paper, place the bread on a wire rack till completely cool. Cut and serve!

My notes:

1. Depending on the type of oats/seeds/nuts, adjust water accordingly.
2. After kneading, dough should be a little sticky but not too difficult to work on.
3. No-knead bread. Add extra 70g water. With a spatula, mix all ingredients. Cover, rest till double. Pour sticky dough to dusted top. Fold and shape. 
4. If you like it plain, do use milk or water instead of olive oil.

Tips from the master:

1. To store the bread for longer time in humid weather conditions, slice the bread and place it in a paper bag in the freezer. Use pan or toaster to unfreeze and toast.
2. If you want to personalize your bread you can also mix your flour with spelt or rye flour. For example use 10-20% spelt in combination with 90-80% wheat flour. This will slightly change the consistency, flavor and color of the bread but still deliver a tasty simple bread.

The Making of Low Shu Fun 老鼠粉 Silver Needle Noodles

Recipe: Homemade Bread Flour and Wheat Starch

This is an option if you run out of bread flour or wheat starch.  Not perfect, but if you are desperate and can go flexible, give it a try!

I made them out of curiosity and it was fun!


Bread flour (extract gluten ref: https://youtu.be/9nCYhlj5Z1c)

1. Mix 60g water and 100g plain flour (mine with 10.9% protein). 
2. Knead just to form dough ball.
3. Cover, rest for 20 minutes.
4. Wash dough ball with water.
5. Wash until it weighs 50g (yield estimation: 50g high gluten dough, with 20g water). 
6. For every 250g bread flour, I used 220g plain flour + 50g high gluten dough and reduce 20g of water/liquid required.

Wheat starch

1. Set aside the white starchy water until it is clear on the top with starch sitting on the bottom.
2. Pour away the clear water and you will have some wet starch.
3. I used this to coat meat and make silver needle (rat tail) noodles.