07/04/07

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Mid week baking is usually a rush job. Some people wonder where I get my energy from after a long day at work to 'slave' away in the kitchen. Sometimes when I tell people that the actual bread making process does not take up a lot of time, I half wonder if they believe me. Most of the time, the dough is left sitting around and the baker is free to do a lot of other more useful things like spending time with the family. It is true that a certain amount of supervision is required but it is minimal. On the other hand, by the time I am done with the bake, it is usually around midnight. There is also the washing up to do but passion provides the fuel to get all this done expeditiously. A certain amount of pleasure lies in the anticipation of something delicious to be savored for breakfast the following morning.

However taste is subjective. I have given my breads to neighbors, colleagues, relatives and friends. Occasionally, I get some positive response about the breads. Most of time, there is no response. Recently, I met a neighbor to whom I had given a ciabatta. The comment was that they cannot appreciate such hard bread. I acknowledge this as most Singaporeans are used to sweet dough breads. Anything with a hard crust and a chewy crumb is considered unpalatable. A friend related a story of how people in his tour group to France, the bread capital of the world and complained of bleeding gums after eating the bread there. Just loved it when I learn that there are other French sadist bakers out there inflicting pain on the marshmallow gums of my fellow Singaporeans.

Personally, I try to steer away from the bread made at local bakeries as it is probably made with margarine, read trans-fats. That is my motivation for making bread in the first place. If I want to eat soft fluffy cotton candy buns, I'd use REAL butter, expensive no doubt but tastes better and maybe better for the heart.

For this bake, I settled for my favorite Raisin bread again as I had only plain flour left. I had made up some poolish this morning and made one up with what I thought was a 75% hydration dough. I realised later that it was actually 80%. Guess my mental calculation is not what it used to be. As a result, 2 of the loaves were stucked on the brotform. What was worse was the slight over-proofing as I had forgotten to preheat the oven earlier. Although they look OK externally, I'd only know how they turned out when I cut the loaf.