Breadmaking Noob: Nutella Bread Loaf

 



Unforutnately, I did not manage to take photos of the making of the bread because it was late Sunday night and had a handful alternating between baking and tending to Baby A. Then the next morning, E had the loaf all sliced and buttered, ready for work. So, I only managed to get a picture of what's left in the container.

Finally, after several not-so-successful tries of breadmaking, I have made a loaf that is soft and fluffy, and remained so until the next day! I used a recipe from nutritionist mom Jennifer Lee's blog as reference. By the way, she has a lot of good recipes to try, and they all look yummy!

Few tweaks to the original recipe though, since I typically use whatever ingredients I can find at home and I don't have some of the items called for in the recipe:

1. For the scalded dough, I used plain flour as I was running out of bread flour.
2. Instead of using red bean and black rice (did not have those), I replaced it with some watered-down Nutella spread.
3. I also replaced the milk with water. 
4. And since I did not have Grapeseed oil, I used the only oil I had...canola oil (Note to self: Go get some Olive Oil!).

This time, instead of just dumping everything into the bread machine and walking away, I checked the dough every now and then. I also had the machine knead it twice- the first time using the "Dough" function on the machine (30 minutes kneading), and once done I switched to the normal "White Loaf" function for a full cycle of knead-proof-bake.  

During the first knead, I realised that the mixture seems a tad dry and was not mixing well. So, I added a little water. But I think I may have added a little too much because the dough ended up really sticky. Then, I sprinkled flour over the mixture, bits at a time, until I THOUGHT the dough was okay to go. It was still a little sticky (could that be due to the scalded dough?), but any more flour the dough will probably end up too dry!

I had no idea whether this was going to be successful, because once again I did not follow the recipe to the exact point. :p



But in the end, the loaf came out at a nice height (not too short like previous attempts), and more importantly they were soft and fluffy (not springy like previous attempts).

It did not have a strong chocolate flavor, but I suppose cocoa powder would work better for that. The Nutella merely gave the loaf a hint of brown.

Overall, I cannot be happier with the results. I mean, come on. My FIRST successful loaf! Haha. And I am having fun. I hope everyone at home won't suffer from bread overload!