Cinnamon Loaf

Theres another blogsite which I have been visiting these days and that is Happy Home Baking. And recently, as mentioned in her blog, (quote in summary), with feedback from her regular visitors who like me, were lamenting about how 'challenging' bread making is without a breadmaker. Spontaneously, she baked her recent green tea with red bean bread with her hands. Inspired somewhat by her, I had a go at bread making with my small hands earlier on. (p.s. I am a fleshy gal but with comparatively smaller wrist and bony hands. no, no, i am no alien though. haha.)

Following a receipe from Baking Mum, LeeLee, http://bakingmum.blogspot.com/2006/10/bread-paradise.html, and instead of ingredients filled buns, i tweaked the receipe to become Cinnamon Loaf bread instead. This is my 2nd attempt at this receipe and this round turned out far better than my 1st try, which was about 2 months back.

However, I must profess that kneading bread dough with just my pair of hands was no easy task especially when I had kinda 'hurt' my left wrist over the weekend due to accidental careless carrying of my shopping bags. Thus, I was gentler in certain kneading movements, whilst on further minutes, more pressure with focus on my right hand. At the end of the initial 15 mins of manual kneading, boy, you can imagine how relieved I was that the dough was nicely formed and I could relax my arms while the dough was left to 'proof' for the 1st one hour.

Then came the 2nd round of 'punching' of the air from the dough that had rested for an hour. WIth every punch, i could heard the 'suppressed' air bubble burst, 'pop' pop'. Followed with the roll dough, and instead of using melted butter or fresh milk, I used a tsp condensed milk mixed with a tsp of water to 'moisturise' the dough before sprinkling on the cinnamon powder and brown sugar and roll up. Set it aside in greased pan for another hour of proofing.

Baking time was about half an hour and after 1 hour of cooling the loaf on the wire rack, as I was preparing to use the knife to detach the loaf, I was thrilled instead that the loaf slipped off from the pan and landed neatly on the wire rack.

Oh yes, finally a successful hand made freshly baked Cinnamon Loaf which I can safely declare is 'edible', 'soft', 'cottony' with crispy crust (fresh & warm fm oven) .... hmmm... i love the fragrance of cinnamon.

Credit goes to LeeLee for the receipe and Happy Home Baking for showing the way to hands- on bread making.