Wheatgerm and rye bread with poppy seeds

Soft, fluffy bread rolls made without a bread machine. The secret is tangzhong (water roux), a method I seem to be using more often these days as it gives you soft fluffy bread texture easily at home without any commercial chemicals or flour improvers that you find in store-bought bread. 

Tangzhong is simple: you heat a small batch of flour with liquid (water/milk, or even beer) in a saucepan, stir until the mixture  has the consistency of hair paste (or you could be scientific and measure the temperature, which should be 65 Celcius).  Heating the flour with liquid helps develop the gluten strands in the flour, which is what gives bread its lovely texture and crumb. Add to your usual bread recipe, adjusting for the amount of flour and liquid used. 

Here, I used tangzhong to make bread rolls with some mix-ins and toppings that I had on hand. You can use the same recipe with raisins, multigrains, etc. 

Tangzhong (water roux)  湯種

• 45g (1/3 cup) bread flour
• 125ml (1/2 cup) water or other liquid (I used milk. You can use beer to get a more rustic and yeasty dough, but the bread will be darker in color.)

1. Add in both flour and water in a saucepan. 
2. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture has consistency of hair paste/glue paste and becomes slightly translucent (or measure temperature, which should be 65 degrees Celcius). 
3. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. 

Wheatgerm and rye bread with poppy seeds

• 1 batch tangzhong (as above)
• 125ml (1/2 cup) milk
• 45g (3 tablespoons) butter
• 130g (1 cup) bread flour
• 130g (1 cup) cake/all-purpose flour
• 50g (1/2 cup) wheatgerm*
• 50g (1/2 cup) rye flour*
• 50g (1/4 cup) sugar
• 2 teaspoons yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon milk powder (optional: enhances the aroma of the bread)
• 1 teaspoon poppy seeds (optional)
• Milk or beaten egg, for glazing (optional)

* You can replace the wheatgerm and rye flour with 1 cup of other types of flour, such as spelt or just plain flour. Corn flour and other low-gluten or low-protein flours will change the texture of the bread (it will be more grainy, like quickbreads).

1. Heat the butter and milk until melted, about 30 seconds in the microwave.
2. Pour the butter-milk mixture into a mixing bowl. 
3. Add 1 cup of the flour, along with the sugar, salt, and yeast. Mix until combined.
4. Add the remaining flour and wheatgerm, and mix until the flour is absorbed, and dough becomes sticky. Continue to mix until dough begins to form a ball and pulls away from the side of the bowl.
5. Turn dough onto a scrupulously clean, lightly-floured surface, and knead for 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. You can do this by hand or with a bread hook on a mixer. For best results, use the windowpane test (stretch a small piece of dough in a rectangle as far as it will go without breaking. If the light shines through it like a windowpane, this means that the gluten in the flour has developed sufficiently.)
6. Place the ball of dough in an oiled bowl. Turn to coat the dough in a thin layer of oil. Cover the bowl and leave in a warm dry place for two hours, until the dough has doubled in size.
7. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest for 15 minutes. 
8. Shape the dough as you want: either one large loaf, or smaller rolls. I divided my dough into three round balls, then rolled them out into ovals. I then folded the top and bottom thirds of the oval inwards, to make a rectangle strip, then flipped the dough over so the seam side faces down. Finally, I rolled up the rectangle of dough into a spiral bread roll. 
9. After shaping the dough, place it on a baking sheet, or in a greased loaf pan. Cover and let rise until almost doubled, about 40 minutes to one hour. 
10. Brush your glaze (milk or eggwash), if using, and add toppings. I used poppy seeds here. 
11. Bake in a 180 Celcius (350F) oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown. 
12. Remove from oven and pan, transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. If stored in an airtight container in a cool place, it will last 2-3 days depending on the climate and humidity.

Barm bread (sourdough)

Poppy seed barm bread during the second rise

I've been busy baking and using my homemade sourdough starter recently. After trying the popular Taiwanese 65C tangzhong/water roux method, I came across a traditional British baking method called "barm" that is very similar, except you use ale instead of water to make the roux. Barm bread usually has a more flavor due to the use of beer, and has a lighter, fluffier crumb (texture) due to the gelatinous roux which allows the gluten in the flour absorb more moisture. The secret to making great bread is to have the dough as wet as possible. 

Making barm bread is a process that can be separated into two distinct parts: first you need to make the barm, then you use the barm to make the bread. 

Barm:

• 250ml (8.5 oz) ale -- while any bottle-conditioned beer works, I used Baird Brewing's Single-Take Session ale as I thought it would give a light, rustic flavor. A stout or porter will give you a darker, maltier barm.
• 50g (1/2 cup) bread flour (sifted)
• 4 tsp white leaven/sourdough starter, or 1 tsp active dry yeast

Baird beer from Numazu, Japan

1. Heat the ale in a saucepan on medium heat until 65C (if you don't have a thermometer, don't worry, you can eyeball it. Wait until you see some bubbles form but don't let the ale boil over!)
2. Remove from heat and whisk in the flour, stirring rapidly to avoid lumps forming. Don't worry if you get lumps, if needed you can strain them out with a sieve later after cooling. It should have a slightly translucent brown (exact darkness will depend on the type of beer you used) and have the consistency of hair gel/pomade.
3. Put the ale-flour mixture into a small bowl and let cool to 20C (room temperature), then stir in the leaven or active dry yeast.
4.  Cover with plastic wrap or a clean cloth, and let the barm sit overnight for up to 48 hours until nice and bubbly.  If it doesn't bubble, your yeast/starter is dead and you'll have to start again.
5. The barm is now ready to use in making bread! It can replace your sourdough starter in most bread recipes.

Sourdough barm bread with poppy seeds:

• 150g barm, from above (I used all of the barm made from the above recipe without measuring it, which turned out fine)
• 250ml (8.5 oz) water
• 500g bread (high-gluten) flour; or 400g bread flour and 100 g wholemeal/rye flour
• 10g (2 tsp) salt
• 2 tbsp poppy seeds (optional)

1. Mix the barm and water together until the barm is completely dissolved. 
2. Add the flour and salt, then mix until you get a wet, shaggy dough. It will be a sticky mess!
3. Put in a bowl, cover and leave at room temperature for 12-18 hours. 
• If your room is warmer than 20C, you might want to put the covered bowl in the fridge to keep the dough temperature down and allow time for the flavors to develop during the long fermentation. 
• You can also split the rise time over two days: I made the dough after dinner one night, then put it in the fridge overnight. I took it out the next morning and left it on the countertop all day. When I came home from work 12 hours later, the dough had finished the first rise. 
4. After the first rise has been completed (dough will be double in size), punch down the dough and scrape it out onto a floured surface.
5. Shape the dough into whatever form you like. I made four oval rolls.
6. If using poppy seeds, sprinkly on top now. 
7. Place the shaped dough onto your baking sheet (I use Silpat to avoid the bread sticking to the metal pan, or you can use baking paper), and let rise in a quiet, dry area until doubled (1-2 hours).
8. Bake in a preheated 220C/425F oven for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
9. As with all bread, resist the temptation to eat or slice the bread as soon as you take it out of the oven! Let cool to room temperature before serving.

Golden-brown poppyseed barm rolls 

Bacon cheese bread (no-knead method)

Recently I've been dabbling with making bread, mostly with the water roux (tangzhong) method to make soft, fluffy, Japanese-style bread (more on this in another post), but this no-knead bacon cheese bread came out so well, it was devoured by during a craft beer tasting that we had last night in Hong Kong.

It's a crusty, chewy country bread that has a hit of salt from the bacon and cheese, and a hint of zing from the herbs and flaked red pepper. I adapted the recipe from Jim Lahey's book My Bread (of Sullivan Street Bakery and New York Times' Mark Bittman no-knead bread recipe fame). His recipe is itself inspired by traditional Italian lard/ciccioli bread. (Lard might sound scary, but it really makes for a lighter crumb and richer bread, similar as to the use of lard in pie crusts.)

This strong-tasting bread goes well with beers or ales. Recommended with North Coast Pranqster (a Belgian-style golden ale) or Baird Beer Numazu Lager.

Side note: Both of these beers were at the beer tasting I attended, and if you're in Hong Kong, you can get these beers and more through Hop Leaf, the new craft beer distributor that I'm involved in. (end promo!)

A few people have asked me for the recipe for this bread - I guess the combination of bacon and cheese is always a winner. If you're vegetarian (but not vegan), simply omit the bacon to make an equally delicious cheese bread. In the same vein, if you're lactose-intolerant, you can omit the cheese and keep the bacon.

Here's the recipe. It sounds a bit convoluted and troublesome, but if you break it down into steps, it's actually extremely simple and there's very little actual work involved. Mostly it's just waiting, as it uses the long-rise/no-knead method.