Baking bread without machine :)

One random fact about me: I <3 Bread :) I am being remembered by a friend as 'the girl who hugged a loaf of bread to work and have it for lunch'. hahaha..

Skip that randomness. This post is on bread making which I did WITHOUT the use of bread machine. hehehe! power right? =x The bread turned out edible and my mom loves it. She thinks they tasted yummehhhhh ^^ This isn't the usual white bread dinner roll. It is a bread with a surprise! PANDA BREAD!!!! I know you must be thinking OMG this girl is so SLOW... -.- the hype about this bread occurred like long ago. I wanted to try it out back then in London but green tea powder is just too expensive for me to make an investment on. In fact I did try to do another version in London. A simpler one - the Mickey version. hmm I thought I had an entry on it posted on my London Edition blog. oh well take a look at the photos here then.

An accidental heart-shaped version. wonder if I can replicate that =x

So now for the Panda version.......

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okay my Panda bread looks...HORRIBLE! The presentation is a very far little off. The 'Panda' looks distorted. =x You wouldn't be able to tell that it is a panda if I didn't tell you right? TT

This is my first time making it so please bear with the distorted funny looking panda bread. You need to embrace the defects. It make it special and different isn't it =x

All right enough with the excuses. I actually bought green tea powder from Kitchen Capers that cost $8 for a 70g bottle. Kinda expensive? but definitely cheaper than the ones in London.

I meant to show you a defective product of mine because I wanna let you know that failures occur. You do not always get something perfect out of the oven. This is where you look at the mistakes, find the answers / solutions, learn from it and conquer it. :)

I took the recipe from here which I bookmarked a year ago. Finally I get to try it out. Looking at the picture, that panda looks distorted too!!! hahaha...so maybe mine is not exactly a failure. =x I went to search for more images and realized, I could do away the red ribbon which might make the assembling much easier and the panda more perfect looking. Look here for the perfect panda assembly. (Btw if you did notice, I tried to add a nose to the Panda's face) Or maybe you will want to check out on youtube, the video of how to make Panda Bread. I found one, but it is in cantonese which you are still able to follow even though you do not understand cantonese.

Most of the recipe calls for bread machine (which is much simpler and quicker I supposed) but Pig Pig's corner (the blog that I got my recipe from) uses a mixer with the hook attachment. NB: You need to use a mixer that is powerful enough to knead bread dough. Well, I only have a hand mixer, hence I had to knead the dough with my pair of hands! Who says you can't make bread without a machine.

Years ago, I chanced upon this video by Richard Bertinet on Gourmet Magazine website which I thought was really useful when it comes to learning how to knead the dough, understanding the texture of the dough, etc. However, there is one thing not shown in the video. You might be wondering, how do I know that my dough is done? You will know by taking a small piece of dough (large enough to pull apart) and stretch it gently. This is call the 'Window pane / Membrane Test'. It should look like this. Where the dough doesn't tear easily, it is very elastic and you can sort of see through it.

Another random fact: I <3 kneading bread dough. :D

So I was thinking, isn't Panda bread a wonderful Children's day gift as compared to giving them cookies, sweets or cupcakes? Bread is a much healthier choice =x I am sure the children will be so ecstatic to receive it. I mean you don't see such bread everyday right and are there any SG bakeries selling this? I am so gonna perfect it and start selling it to family and friends, whoever are interested PM me please. kekeke...

xx,
TBG