Soft Wholemeal Honey Milk Bread Loaf
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time:20 minutes plus 1 1/2 hours rising time
Cooking time: 45 minutes
- 30g/1oz bread flour
- 125g/4flozs. milk
- 30g/1oz. butter
- 125g/4flozs. honey
- 170g/6ozs. milk
- 1 egg, lightly whisked
- 200g/7ozs. wholemeal flour
- 200g/7ozs. bread flour
- 2 teaspoons instant dried yeast
- 1.5 teaspoons salt
- 1 egg beaten with 1 teaspoon water for egg wash
- Oil for spraying
Step 1 - In a small saucepan whisk the 30g bread flour and 125g milk together until smooth. Heat on medium heat until it reaches 65C/149F. Remove from heat and add butter. Whisk in the honey (I warm it a little in the microwave first to make it easier to handle) and second lot of milk as well as the egg. Set aside.
Step 2 - In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook place the two flours and yeast and mix with a spatula to combine. Add in the tangzhong mixture and stir to combine. Then knead on low speed for anything from 8-11 minutes. You want to get the window pane effect where you can pull apart the bread gently without it breaking and you get a translucent "window". It is a touch harder with wholemeal flour than it is with plain bread flour so windowpanes may not be as big as normal-an inch or two is fine. Roll into a ball and place in a bowl (I scrape down the sides of the mixer bowl and use that) and cover with cling film. Since it is cold, I also put this bowl in a bowl of hot water, changing the hot water 2-3 times. You want it around 2-3 times its original size and it will take around an hour.
Step 3 - Preheat oven to 170C/348f and spray a loaf tin with oil. Knead in the salt and then divide the dough into three even pieces. Flour a surface and roll out each of the three pieces into a rectangle around the same width as the tin. Roll up like a Swiss roll and repeat with the other two pieces of dough. Cover with cling film and again place in some hot water until it has risen again, around 20 minutes. Gently brush with the egg wash and bake for 30-35 minutes.