Round loaf

When we were in Japan, I finally got this round bread tin I'd always wanted. It is known as 'トヨ型 (Toyo Gata)' in Japan. I've never come across this type of bread tin here in the UK so I did a bit of research to see where it's originally from. Apparently there is a almond cake made in a rounded tin like this in Germany and Austria called 'Rehrücken' (which means saddle of venison). So, maybe that's where it came from.

Anyway, I used the tin to bake my Milk Rye bread again. Since I cannot see the inside once I put the other half of the tin, I was bit worried (and excited) to see how the bread was done. When I opened the tin...., it was... PERFECT!

I used 500g of the dough and when the dough rose about twice the size, I put the other half of the tin and waited for another 10 minutes, then baked it. Make usre you take out the bread from the tin as soon as it comes out of the oven or the bread gets soggy because of the moist inside the tin.

The tin even have waves so when you cut it you get nice even slices! Perfect for a buttery toast... ;) I can see this tin is going to be my new friend in the kitchen. :D

The tin is available on Amazon JP. I also found something similar on Amazon UK.

Milk Rye bread

Since we came back from Japan, I'd been feeling a lack of energy to go in the kitchen and bake...;( However, today I finally got off my bum and decided to bake for my girl (and Andy and myself...)

I used 'Yudane' method (湯だね) to make a nice soft bread with an unique flavour of rye. This time I also made a starter by using much less yeast than usual, flour and milk (I call it 'Nakadane' in my recipe below).

After a long preparation, the bread came out just how I wanted. My girl loved it. She ate almost the whole thing. I dipped it into a home made super spicy tomato soup. Look! My bread looks as if it was in a bath of tomato soup! ;D

So..., today's baking session was really good. It certainly lifted up my '.......☁☹☔' mind a bit. And... most importantly it was very rewarding to see Lana eating it so well. ;)

Ingredients:

Yudane

Rye flour 100g

Boiling water 100g

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Nakadane

Milk 100g

Strong flour 100g

Yeast 2g

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Strong flour 300g

Milk 150g

Sugar 40g

Butter 40g

Salt 4g

DAY 1---

1. Make Yudane by mixing rye flour and boiling water together to form a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it in the fridge overnight.

2. Make Nakadane. Warm up milk to lukewarm. In a bowl combine milk, flour and yeast and bring them together. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in the fridge overnight.

DAY 2---

1. Take out Yudane and Nakadane from the fridge in order to bring them to room temperature.

2. Combine all the remaining ingredients and mix with the standing mixer for 1 minute.

3. While continue kneading, add Nakadane into 2 little by little followed by Yudane. Knead for 10 minutes.

4. Place the dough in a clean bowl, cover the bowl with cling film and leave it until the dough has doubled in size.

5. Take out the dough on a floured surface. Reshape into a ball. Leave it for 10 minutes.

6. Shape the dough into a tin. Leave it until the dough has risen twice the size of the original size.

7. Preheat the oven to 200ºc. Bake 40 minutes.

Rye bread with dates

I made another rye bread with my rye flour sourdough starter. This time I added some dates and date syrup. Unlike last time I used rye flour only, which I think made the bread even denser.

I baked in a mini loaf tin and the bread came out so solid and dark that it looked like a brick. I thought "If I get hit by this, that could actually hurt me..." Cutting the bread was tough too. I felt like I was sawing the bread rather than cutting...

Anyway, the bread tasted good. Because it was quite hard, I needed to chew more, which made me eat less. (good good... :D) I also tried dipping into my pumpkin soup. That was amazing! The unique flavour and bit of saltiness of rye flour brought the sweetness of pumpkin very well.

All in all, these rock hard mini loaves weren't not bad at all. ;D