Lavender Yogurt Bread

Breads are staple. But rice is not for me. I need to have my daily bread, but I don't have to take rice to survive. That's me. I've been using 吴宝春金牌土司 as my bread base for most of the breads I baked in the evening. It's the easiest bread I've done so far and the usual result is a soft bread.

With more time during the weekend, I would like to explore other bread recipes, especially those that required some preparation the night before. This Lavender Yogurt bread from Alex Goh's "The Art of Making Bread" is one of those recipe which required to prepare an "old dough" the day before. It was supposed to let it rest 24-48hours, but I used it within 12hours. Hmm...now I wondered what is the difference between an "old dough" vs a "preferment".

The bread was really very soft after baking. It is fluffy and light. The lavender smell filled the air when baking. Enjoy this as a sandwich or on its own.

Recipe for Lavender Yogurt Bread, adapted from "The Art of Making Bread" 无添加剂面包 by Alex Goh.
(Makes 2 regular loaves)

Ingredients:

Laomian老面
100g Bread flour
70g Ice cold water
2g Instant Yeast

1. Put the flour and yeast into a bowl. Add cold water and mix to form a dough.
2. Cover with cling wrap and leave to ferment for 4 hours. (I ferment mine for 2 hours only)
3. Remove the fermented dough from the bowl, place it into plastic container and press to degas it. Cover with cling wrap, keep it in the refrigerator for 24-48hours.
4. If not use within 48hours, divide it into required weight, wrap it with plastic bag and keep it in the freezer. Use it within 30 days. 
5. Before using, remove from the freezer, leave it at room temperature and let it thaw for 30mins.

Main dough

400g Bread flour

100g Plain flour

8g Instant yeast

1 tbsp (12g) Dried lavender

80g Honey
8g Salt
170g Laomian (refer to the top)
50g Cold eggs
150g Cold water (total weight of eggs and water should equate to 200g as sometimes, the eggs maybe heavier and you can use them all.)
100g Plain yogurt
80g Unsalted butter

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients except butter, in the same order, in a mixing bowl. Using a dough hook, knead to form a dough.
2. Add butter and knead until smooth and elastic. Leave to ferment for 45mins.

3. Divide the dough into 8 portions and mould them round. Leave it to rest for 15mins.
4. Flatten the dough, then make 3 fold. Flatten lightly and roll it up like swiss roll.

5. Put the dough into the rectangular regular loaf pan.

6. Leave it to proof for 45mins.
7. Meanwhile, heat up the oven to 220C.
8. Bake at 220C on the lowest rack for 23mins. Tent the bread after 10mins if the top turns dark.

9. Remove from the loaf pan immediately after baking. Cool completely before slicing.

10. Enjoy with butter.