Still in the quest of finding the ultimate easy soft wholemeal bread recipe, I came across this adapted recipe by bakeforhappykids, which involves combining warm water with the wholemeal flour the night before baking. This is supposed to soften the bran of the wheat, resulting in a softer bread. Original recipe here by King Arthur Flour.
I followed the recipe on bakeforhappykids, except that I used honey as I didn’t have maple syrup, and I also used only 1/3 of the total recipe.
The dough was too wet and a thin layer of dough was stuck to the bottom of the bread pan. I had to add an extra 2 1/2 teaspoons of flour and a few drops of water before a proper dough could be formed.
The dough felt a bit dense but was not sticky and was considered pliable enough for a 100% wholemeal dough.
I baked them for 17 minutes. I think 15 mins should have been fine, because the crust was just very slightly thicker than I wanted it to be.
Knowing 100% wholemeal bread isn’t the tastiest, I glazed the buns with sugar-water right out of the oven (hence the shine). The hint of sweetness was quite nice.
As you can see, the texture looked quite dense. The crust felt kind of hard too.
Not a good sign! Haha!
Surprisingly, the buns were very soft! This was the softest dense bread/bun I have ever made. Plus it’s completely cooked, the inside was not wet at all. On Day 2, it became slightly harder and drier, but still edible. However, the flavour has developed so well that they taste absolutely delicious now!
For the texture, I still prefer the tang zhong version I made here. It was much lighter, softer and sprung back straightaway during the pressure test; but for the taste, I really like this one.
So, I will probably adapt this recipe into a tang zhong version to get the best of both worlds! 😀 Stay tuned~~
bakexcitations! 