Home-made Bread Loaf January 28, 2008

Having been home for the last few months, I decided to attempt the frightful world of breadmaking.  Like others, I’ve often had the fear of baking bread.  Even when I use to own a breadmaker, the bread came out quite hard, and extremely doughy.  Here’s a brilliant recipe for making your own loaf at home.   Especially if you like the soft Japanese loaf bread, light and fluffy.

Ingredients:

• 250 grams of bread flour
• 140 mls of milk (low fat is ok)
• 50 grams of unsalted butter
• 25 grams of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of instant yeast

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients together and knead til doughy and smooth.
2. Proof dough in a mixing bowl for 1 hour. Cover bowl in cling film.
3. By this time, the dough should have doubled in size. Punch out the air and divide the dough into 3 balls. Place the 3 dough balls back in the mixing bowl and cover with cling film. Proof for another 30 mins.
4. Grease a pullman tin (loaf tin with cover. Available at specialised baking stores).
5. Take one ball of dough and roll out with a rolling pin. Roll up tightly (swiss-roll style) and repeat for other 2 balls of dough.
6. Place the 3 pieces of dough in the pullman loaf tin and proof for another 30 mins. In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius.
7. Bake for 30 mins. Remove tin cover to let bread top brown for another five mins.
8. Remove from loaf tin and let it cool before cutting.

VOILA!

Not that hard eh! After this successful attempt, I’ve gained more confidence in baking bread. Will update with new bread recipes and pictures too.

Jones The Grocer October 24, 2007

Ahh.. Don’t you just love walking past the window display of a local deli.

When in Sydney, D. took me around to the little streets filled with unique antique shops, boutiques, cafes and my favourite.. delis.

Short for delicatessen, deli is somewhat a cross between a fast-food restaurant and a grocery store, offering a wide range of food stuff, such as GOOD coffee, cheese, sweets, sandwiches, platters, and a variety of not-so-commercial grocery items, such as dipping sauce, jams, dressings, chutneys… etc (I could go on forever…)

Interestingly enough, we popped in to a Sydney popular deli named Jones The Grocer for a quick bite and shop, and their friendly staff informed us that they have just opened up a franchise in Singapore! (Low & Behold!!!)

Tucked away in Dempsey Hill, Jones The Grocer Singapore is about three times the size of its Sydney store, with a much bigger dining area. The part that still gives me the thrill is that they have a cheese room too!

D. and I popped in a couple of weekends ago, and we were amazed at how packed it was (felt like Okka Central for a while!), and I was very pleased to see that Singaporeans were getting into this deli culture.

Deli culture is predominantly a Western one, but the success of Jones the Grocer will definitely raise the bar on the standards that we are about to expect from a decent deli. Though it will take a longer time that I expect, I hope deli culture will become an a new Singapore way of life (mainstream, that is).