Peanut Butter Bread with My Tesco Breadmaker

After my first successfully baked loaf of bread, followed by numerous other successful attempts, I thought that bread-making in a breadmaker was fail-proof. Never did I know I was so wrong until I encountered my first failure. I had some really nice purple sweet potatoes and so I decided to use them to bake a white bread variation using the basic white bread mix. As the steamed sweet potatoes have a high moisture content, I knew I had to reduce the amount of water called for in the recipe & did so. To my dismay, it was still too wet & the bread turned out like kueh in texture : (

After the first failed attempt, I lost motivation to bake for a while. When I found organic wheat bread flour at the Four Seasons Organic Market in Parkway Parade, which I was searching high & low for, it ignited my 'fire' again. I tried the light wholemeal bread recipe but unfortunately it led to yet another disaster. Once bitten, twice shy! Twice bitten, forever shy? No, I refused to succumb to the obstacles. Upon reflecting where I could have gone wrong this time, it struck me that it could be due to the new Fleischmann's natural yeast which I'd just bought. After doing some Googling, I realised I was right. This is an active dry yeast, not instant dry yeast, which needs to be activated. I followed the step-by-step instructions from YouTube to activate it, thinking that I would get it right finally. To my disappointment, the same problem occurred again! Being at my wits' end, I turned to shifus in the Tesco Breadmaker Recipe FB group for help. The two pieces of advice that were most apt to my situation were that I needed to increase the quantity of the active dry yeast & that some organic bread flour could be the possible root of the problem.

Thus, for today's bake, I decided to only use my usual organic hi protein bread flour. After doing some more homework online, I also discovered that I've to increase the active dry yeast by 1.25 times & the activated yeast should be added to the dry flour instead of adding it to the rest of the water with salt & sugar.

Ingredients (for a 700g loaf using the Basic Programme with Light Crust):

1.25 cups of water at room temperature

Approximate 1.875 tsp of Fleischmann's active dry yeast (or 1.5 tsp of instant dry yeast)

1/4 cup of Billington's molasses sugar

1.5 tsp of Nature's Glory unrefined Himalayas rock salt 

3 cups of Origins organic hi protein flour

1/2 cup of Adams creamy peanut butter (can use crunchy version too)

Directions:

1. Add a drop of molasses (or a pinch of sugar) to 1/4 cup of warm water (37°C to 43°C) & stir to dissolve.

2. Pour the yeast into the sugared water & stir vigorously until you can no longer discern the yeast granules then cover with a towel as yeast works better in the dark.

3. Let it proof for 10 minutes as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4. Pour the remaining 1 cup of water into the bread pan. Add in the remaining ingredients in this order: salt & sugar (on opposite sides), peanut butter (in the middle) followed by flour.

5. Check to see if the yeast is foaming which means that they are alive & well. Pour the activated yeast water onto the top of the flour in the bread pan.

6. Choose the correct setting, start the breadmaker & wait for your loaf to be ready.

(Note: I took out mine 10 minutes before the time is up to get a softer crust.)

As I made the first slice through it, I knew this is going to be one fluffy bread. In fact, it turned out to be the softest loaf I've baked so far. This is the second time that I'm using this recipe (1st time was with instant dry yeast & another brand of peanut butter) but it's definitely better than its predecessor. The contributing factor could be the active dry yeast, the peanut butter or the fact that I took it out earlier but nonetheless, this is a keeper for sure! It tastes so good even on its own. How do I know? Hee..because hubby & I already had some for supper ~.< My little bread lover will be in for a pleasant surprise for breakfast..lolz!

On a seperate note, I would like to recommend the above-mentioned brand of peanut butter. I did consider making my own peanut butter but couldn't seem to find organic peanuts. Therefore, this will do for now as it is one of the healthiest jar of peanut butter that I've come across so far which is made from 100% peanuts without any hydrogenated oils or salt.