Crazy for bread

Home-made, super yummy whole grain raisin bread.

I love bread, especially those dense and super think whole grain bread. But here in HK, except in the Western bakery and Western supermarkt, you can only find those fluffy white sliced bread, baked with lots of yeast and air. I remember when I first came back to HK, I spot out the so-called 'Whole grain bread' in the local pastry shop, I asked, 'Why is it still so white?' 'Whole grain bread is like this.' It seems that there is a different definition of whole grain bread among us.

As a result, at that time, in order to buy a real loaf of whole grain bread, I would deliberately take the ferry to Central (of course I would do other shopping as well). When I came to know that there was bread machine in the world, I was really excited, and I was so lucky that I got it as a house-warming gift from my good friend. Since then, my house was always full the the aroma of freshly baked bread.

The great invention────Bread machine.

By then, my house was always open to international couchsurfers. Obviously, Europeans and Americans are bread-eating people, so the 1kg bread was always not enough for us every morning. But I remember that sharing real bread, plus putting different spread like fruit jam, peanut butter and fresh fruits was one of the happiest moments in life.

I love to go to a particular Western supermarket to buy bread flour, normally the products they sell are really expensive, but I find that bread flour is particular cheaper than other places. The one I use most to make bread is the already mixed Six Seeds Bread Flour (with Sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, linseeds etc), very convenient to use and the bread tastes exactly the same as those in Europe.

Next is Pumpernickel Bread Flour, it is a kind of very German bread, very very dense and heavy in texture, not everyone like it, but I love it. I love it especially when I can taste the caraway seed when it gives me a spike of taste.

The above are all pre-mix flour, it is not easy to get it done wrongly. But I do love to mix my own flour, esp with Whole Grain Bread Flour and Spelt Flour (An ancient floor widely used in and before Middle Age, it is the ancestor of modern wheat and is very nutritional), also add my favourite sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, dried fruits and nuts etc, it tastes great.

In fact, there are many benefits of baking your own bread. First, as I live on an island, so I don't need to deliberately go to town to buy bread anymore; it is more economical, as a loaf of read bread in the Western bakery costs more than 30HKD, a package of bread flour only costs 45HKD, and it is sufficient to back 3 loaves of bread; these kinds of bread do not use too much yeast (the function is to help them to expand a lot in size), so it won't create too much gas in your body; for sure there will not be preservatives and chemical in home-made bread; you can select your own organic floor and ingredients, and you don't need to tolerant those unhealthy white bread anymore; you can add as many seeds and nuts as you want, as they are usually kept like jewels that you can only find a few in a loaf; you can eat freshly baked bread whenever and wherever you like, isn't it like dreaming?

Except using bread as sweet like putting jam, I like using bread to make Italian Bruschetta. However, in order to suit my specific vegetarian diet, I skip the favourite ingredient in Italian cooking──galic, but in my opinion, they are more light and delicious!

I first take a slice of thick bread (usually they use baguette, but I think it is very airy, without that dense texture) to toast, can toast it until it is crispy also, then put a spread of thick avocado paste on it (choose the most ripen one, then you can use them like jam), add a pinch of Himalayan salt and toss some extra virgin olive oil on it, you can also put some slices of black olives on it. The secret is, you have to eat it while it is still hot......Yum! With such simple ingredients, the taste is incredibly delicious, quickly try it out!