Another Good Book - Bread Making

I bought another bread making book last week. The book title is "Tsang Mei Chi Teaching You How to Make Bread the Very First Time". And the small print on the book cover says, "Super Simple, the Most Fundamental, Sure Success."



I think it is a very well written book as it comes with simple, clear, intelligently written illustrations. The flow charts showing est. time for each and every process are really good. The whole learning process is complete with lots of photos.


For the start, I didn't want anything fancy, so I tried out the wholemeal Bread Loaf recipe and I'm very pleased with the result. It is soft and it tastes just like those bread you could get from the bakeries. We finish the whole loaf in 3 days and the last slice was still soft.





Then I tried out the Pullman Bread (Toast Bread/Sandwich Bread). I'm getting more confident at the end of each trial with very encouraging results. I even told my hubby and my kids that from now on all bread on our table will be home baked ..... hmmmmm.....maybe 80%......we'll see...

P.S. I'm also more familiar on how to operate my mixer and I've come to know how to do a proper stretch test and can tell when the dough is ready. The old saying "Practice makes perfect" is once again proven very right! So don't give up, guys!

The book that can improve your baking skills

2 weeks ago I bought a cook book titled OKASHI DAIHYAKKAI I (CAKE ENCYCLOPEDIA), translated and printed by a Taiwanese publisher. It was originally published in Japan in 1998 by Japan Broadcast Publishing Co., Ltd. It has lots of detailed and systematic explanations of how to make cakes.

I was initially hesitant over buying this book as because of the Taiwanese translation. Some terms used in Taiwan are different from that in Hong Kong. I decided to buy the book at the end, knowing that it would help me improve my baking skill as the book captures a lot of essential and yet easy-to-follow steps.

Sharing my agony of cake making is the best way to convince how this book helps me. Remember I had hard time whisking the egg white to stiff perks? The book teaches you through photos of how to hold the whisk and how the egg white turns into different texture over each stage.

When I was making the mango mousse cake, I tried to follow all the steps mentioned in the book. I overlooked one minor step (or I thought it was a minor step that I chose not to follow) i.e. to brush sugar syrup (with a dash of liquor) onto the sponge layer cake. The moment I ate the mango mousse cake, I knew that next time I must follow the book diligently, because the cake was obviously too dry and you could feel that it was not blending well with the moist and the refreshing mango mousse. I believed the sweetness and the fragrance of the liquor will also helps blend well with all types of cake fillings. Seldom do I find so many great hints and tips written in such details in other cook books.

So for those who really wants to save some money spent on attending expensive baking classes, self learning with this book would be a great alternative.