4 zee luv of bread – Carrot bread

Its been a LONG time since I baked bread and I do miss it. While baking bread can really test one’s patience especially with the long proofing and resting time but really, nothing beats the reward of feasting on homemade bread (without the preservatives)! What more the intoxicating smell of freshly baked bread!?

Recipe adapted from Alex Goh


408g bread flour
17g caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp milk powder
2 tsp yeast (scant)
180g water
18g honey
27g butter
40g carrot, finely chopped

Method:

1. Boil chopped carrot with water for 5 min, strain and set aside carrot and water for later use when cooled.
   
2. Mix in yeast, flour, sugar, milk powder, honey, carrot and water until form a rough dough.
   
3. Knead for 3 min then add salt and then after 5 min add butter.
   
4. Knead dough for 15 min until dough is smooth and elastic. Rest covered dough for 50 min.
   
5. Lightly knead and divide them into equal balls. Rest for 10 min before shaping them into mini bartards or one large one. Proof dough covered for 1.5 hours or until double in volume.
   
6. Bake in 200C degrees pre-heated oven for 30 - 25 min or until based of bread sounds hollow when tapped.

Note that the above bread was baked using a bread machine using steps 1 to 3.

Verdict – bread was soft and good with a very slight hint of carrot. My dad was happy with it and said it tasted better than the commercially bought ones (given by my aunt). Ha ha, think he was just being sweet.

For comparison only, the commercially bought carrot bread.

I’ll probably give this another go but this time with some added wholemeal flour for fibre!