Baking Sessions

How did you spent your Christmas holiday this year? I spent most of my days making bread, bread and bread. Ya.. For 3 consecutive days, I have been making a load of bread each day. Really making good use of the new Kenwood BM450 bread maker. Just can't wait to share my baking experience with you all.. Here you go: 

On Christmas eve, I made pure Chocolate bread for my hubby and kids. :) 

Nowadays making bread is just so simple with breadmaker (any brand and model). :) Just throw in all the ingredients and it will do the kneading and raising and then baking on its own. You must follow the amount of ingredient stated in the recipe book ya.. Don't be too pandai pandai to add your own ingredient weight into your recipe ya. Maybe once you master already, then you can add whatever you want into it. So, i followed suit what is stated on the book, what to put first and put end are also important. E.g you can't put yeast first, then top up with water and flour. Your dough will raise too high and end up your bread too hollow inside. So , must follow ya... :) 

The base ingredients are water, egg, flour, brown sugar, salt, butter and yeast. All into the mold waiting to knead.

After the 1st knead process. 

I find this KENWOOD breadmaker does a good job in the kneading processes. It will make sure no dough balance stick at the side of the mold. End result, very clean wall with a nice dough in the centre of the mold. Fantastic! No user intervention! Very auto! 

Baking process done in 55mins!

It is very hot! So wear protective gloves when handle with it!

The mold is a non-stick material. Just turn the mold upside down , a light shake, the bread will come out. Nothing stick in between.. Be careful ya.. must wear protective gloves. Don't get yourself burn, it is indeed piping hot!!

Chocolate Bread waiting to be cut/slice

MASTERPIECE!!

Nice? I share half of the loaf with my parents in law when they dropped by our house to join us for dinner. Got their compliments tau? hehehe.. so happy!! :)

On Christmas day, which is also Sunday, I will bring my kids to visit my mum. I always make it a point to visit them at least once in a week. They actually miss their grandchildren very much. Ya, i miss them too :) Especially my mum. My best friend! :) Made them light wholemeal bread, mixture of high protein flour and wholemeal bread. I think is 70% wholemeal and 30% HP flour. Less sugar for them , as my parents do not really fancy sweet stuff. Oh ya, wholemeal bread won't raise high, it is more compact compare to normal bread. This is normal. :) 

Light wholemeal bread for my mum and dad :)

Another MASTERPIECE!

My parents didn't cook any for lunch on Monday. Just tah-pau some Assam Curry Fish and eat with the bread. FINISHED tau? :P Oh ya, if you see those black dots dots on the bread, those are actually black sesame seeds. I also added white sesame seeds too, but can't see here.. just some additionall touch from me to my parents. :)  

Next, on Monday which is Christmas's replacement holiday, made another bread. Raisin + Chopped Almonds Bread. Saliva dripping le? Hehehe..I weight all the ingredients put all into the mold, also added raisin and chopped almonds into the breadmaker pocket. Ya, it is a pocket! A small compartment to put side dry ingredients. This is new ya.. not all breadmaker has this. Why do we need this? Coz if you put these dry ingredients too early during kneading process, it will turn too soggy and crushed even before baking. So Kenwood breadmaker has these few programmes that will ajar the pocket door, at certain period of kneading, don't you think it is intelligent? :P For this bread, I used the delay timer of 6hours. I set the Start button at 9am , and since i need to bring MM to visit my parents again, so I plan to have my fresh baked bread at 3pm when i reach home. So , i set 6 hours timer , 9am-3pm , is 6 hours la.. Once reached home at 3pm, OMG! The smell!! As though, i entered into bakery shop.. hahahaha! So delighted tau!! 

Add in raisin and chopped almonds into the breadmaker pocket.

Raisin + Chopped Almonds Bread .. The best look!

Another another MASTERPIECE!

Soft inside, crunchy outside!! Delicious!! So satisfying!

The reason I decided to get a breadmaker is because I don't want my family to consume so much artificial perservatives which are loaded into those commercial bread. Since I did not use any perservative, I need to store those bread in good condition. I put all into TUPPERWARE brand containers , and keep it into fridge if we can't finished the load within 2 days time. But, actually usually finished in 2 days time la.. :P Hor??? Hubby hor?? Hehehehe.. :P