wholemeal raisin bread

Who is to say that one cannot make delicious bread / cakes / cookies using premixes?

There are 2 ways to use premixes:-

(a) follow the recipe wholesale; or

(b) vary the recipe.

I have a tendency to vary recipes to suit my taste, to make the finished product more tasty / appetising or arising from feedback from friends and relatives. To me, a premix is good as a base but I would usually vary the recipe to create my own recipe. What you see in the photograph below is raisin bread.

I bought a packet of Red Man fine grain wholemeal bread premix from Giant Hypermarket at Parkway Parade recently. According to the instructions at the back of the packet, you can either use a Red Man Bread Maker Machine or you can make the bread using conventional baking. I own a bread maker but it is not a Red Man Bread Maker Machine. I decided to make the bread using conventional baking but vary the recipe to make the bread more interesting and tasty.

Here is my recipe for raisin bread.

Ingredients

500g Red Man fine grain wholemeal bread premix

5g dry yeast

1 tsp Bake King bread improver

1 tsp ground cinnamon

100g raisins

300ml water

For coating the loaf pan

margarine/butter
bread flour

Method

1. Mix the bread premix with the yeast, bread improver, ground cinnamon and raisins thoroughly in a large mixing bowl using a wooden spoon. Leave the mixture to rest for 1 minute.

2. Add 300ml of water and mix well.

3. Knead the dough for 15 minutes. Cover the mixing bowl with a damp cloth and leave the dough to rest for 5 minutes.

4. Grease the insides of 2 small loaf pans with butter/margarine and sprinkle bread flour to coat the sides of the pan.

5. Separate the dough into 2 equal portions and press each portion evenly into a small loaf pan. Cover each pan with a damp cloth and leave the dough to rise for 1 hour.

6. After an hour, you will notice that the dough has doubled in size. Bake the bread in an oven pre-heated to 190 degrees celsius for 25 minutes.

7. Take the baked bread out from the oven and cool thoroughly before you cut the bread.

Tips

1. You can eat the bread on its own or you can spread crunchy peanut butter onto the bread.

2. If you intend to toast the bread in an oven, spread some margarine/butter onto the bread before you toast the bread. When the margarine/butter melts onto the bread, it is simply heavenly!

3. The bread goes well with a cup of coffee.