Bread again...

Not bread again?? Yes, if you have been reading my blog, you'll know I bake bread almost every other day.

Using my basic white bread recipe (I just love this recipe!), I made walnuts and raisins bread again. The last time I baked bread, I added the nuts and fruits 10 mins before the cycle ends. This time round, I added them towards the last 5 mins but the fruits and nuts seemed to have "dissolved" into the bread dough again. I suspect it's because I've chopped the fruits and nuts too finely (DD3 is eating this so I don't want any choking hazard ingredients in the bread).

Before I bought the bread machine, I hand-kneaded my bread dough and I don't have such a problem. That's because after rolling out the dough, I added the nuts and fruits and folded the dough. But with a bread machine on hand, I'm too lazy to bring out the dough and do it the manual way. In addition, I have "better" things to do (ie to coax dd3 to nap/to remind dd1 to do her homework!).

I'm getting lazy lately, always not bothering myself to do the egg wash, thus that explains the dull looking bread.

This pic was taken on the day the bread is baked. The bread is soft and fluffy.

This bread was kept in the freezer and left to thaw overnight. The texture is almost as good as freshly baked :)

Interestingly, the nuts and fruits are more visible in the loaf bread.

Makes me wonder why...??

Ingredients

1 cup cold water

3 cups bread flour (you can vary the ratio 1 cup plain: 2 cups bread flour if you wish)

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt (salt and sugar at opposite sides of the pan)

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp yeast (make a hole in the centre & put in the middle of the flour)

Method
Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Basic Bread cycle; press Start.