My sister recently bought a $3-loaf of tomato herb bread by Gardenia from the supermarket. We loved the bread. But being the cheapo when it comes to food, especially bread, I found it too expensive. I’m not the kind to pay good money for well, air pockets in flour mixture you know. I had to recreate the bread for myself.
I made my own oven-dried tomatoes. It’s basically fresh tomatoes, oil, herbs and salt and baked in the oven till it shrinks to something you can work with. Since I was incorporating the tomatoes into the bread dough itself and not sprinkling them on like pizza, I decided to keep them a little wetter than normal dried tomatoes so that the juice can be used in the dough.
Speaking of the dough, it’s special. I recently came into contact with a Japanese method of making bread that involves a water-roux mixture. A water-roux mixture is essentially mixing bread flour and water in a 1:5 ratio and heating it a little so that it becomes slightly sticky. By incorporating this mixture into a bread dough makes the bread fluffier and lighter.
I took this picture before the first proofing stage. I love how the tomato fibre and skin is peeking out of the dough; it has a certain artisan feel to it.
This is the first loaf. I don’t own a bread loaf tin, so I used a pound tin instead. I covered the pound tin with aluminium foil during the second proofing and part of the baking process. The accidental nick at the top is from tugging off the foil too hastily. My bread rose to adhere itself to the foil. Note to self: oil the aluminium foil too the next time.
That’s an interior shot. I am happy that the bread has quite a bit of air pockets. Very different from the very first time I made bread. Anyway, this is the first loaf made in a pound tin, and the picture at the top of this entry? That’s the second loaf made rustic style. I preferred the one made rustic style because I think it proofed longer and hence it was lighter. (The woes of having a small oven – batch baking.)
On taste; it’s not as tomato-ish as I’d like. Perhaps the next time I’d increase the amount of tomatoes, and instead of using water to moisten my dough I might use a can of V8 or something. We’ll see.
And a picture of the loaf sliced up. I actually found a bread sawing knife at home. I made my sister use some of it to make a sandwich to bring to school.
I don’t like paying for bread especially when they are so easy to make. Easy and way cheaper than baking a cake if you asked me.
