Soft, fluffy bread using just plain flour and absolutely no kneading required at all. You don't even need to touch the dough with your hands, is it possible?
The answer is YES!
So let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started.
To get 1 small loaf (it'll only fill up 2/3 to 3/4 of a standard loaf cake tin), you'll need:
150g plain flour
1 egg
25g castor sugar
75ml milk (need not be lukewarm)
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
40g raisin
ps. you can easily double this recipe to get a "standard sized" bread loaf.
Making this bread can't be any simpler. You just need.... TIME.
Yes, not elbow grease, but time.
In a large bowl, add in your flour, castor sugar, instant yeast and salt. Make sure that your yeast is not in direct contact with the salt. Then, crack in an egg and add in the milk (I prefer to add the liquid directly over the yeast's spot to better dissolve them, though I know it's actually not required) and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon. When the dough has some sort of come together with no pockets of flour, add in the vegetable oil and continue stirring the dough for at least 5 minutes (or more, if you can) with the spatula, to help the gluten to develop.
Now, for other kind of bread dough I would recommend that you mix with a pair of chopsticks, but not for this recipe, because the dough will be more like a batter and using spatula will give a more effective mixing due to the higher surface area. The ridiculously high hydration of the dough is what gives us soft and fluffy bread with no kneading.
And yup, after you're done with the mixing, scrap down the sides of the bowl to push down the stray bits of batter as best as you can and cover the bowl with some cling wrap. Then, leave it on the countertop for 20 to 30 minutes first before keeping it overnight in the refrigerator (about 8 to 10 hours will be ideal).
The next morning, take your bowl of dough out of the refrigerator and leave it on the counter for about 30 minutes for it to warm up slightly. Then, add in the raisins and stir with a spatula until well mixed. Then, pour out the dough into your prepared loaf tin (mine is non-stick but I greased it slightly with some non-stick cooking spray anyway to be doubly sure that nothing sticks. you may even line your tin with parchment paper because it's going to be quite sticky), cover it with a damp towel or clingwrap and set it at a warm place for 2nd proofing, until it is at least 1.5x to 2x the size. You can tell by sticking a toothpick into the batter and then using the height of the batter that has stuck onto the toothpick to make a marking on the loaf tin to know where should the batter rise till to be twice of the original depth/height.
As it was an exceptionally chilly morning, it took me about 1.5 hours for the dough to nearly double in size. If your oven comes with a dough proofing setting, go ahead to use it and it should take you 20 to 30 minutes instead. Otherwise, you can put the tin inside your oven (switched off) and add in a bowl of boiling hot water below the rack to quicken the 2nd proofing process.
And once the dough has proofed, brush the top of the dough with some eggwash (I used only the egg yolk with some water, hence it's super browned. But you can use the whole egg too) and bake it at 180 degree Celsius for about 25 to 30 minutes until nicely brown.
Check for doneness by lightly tapping the surface of the bread with your fingertips. If it sounds hollow, the bread should be fully baked through.
Tadaa~ Super soft, sweet and milky raisin bread with absolutely no kneading at all.
And because the bread is made with plain flour instead of bread flour, the texture is much finer, closer to our usual store-bought loaf bread, and not as chewy as what you'll usually get with using bread flour.
Just see how soft and fluffy it is! The bread considerably harden up (went stale) on the 3rd day even though I kept it in an airtight container, so I'll highly suggest that you do a smaller batch and try to finish the bread within 1 to 2 days.
Till then,
Mia Foo
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