Back into Bread-making Mode

Since today is a public holiday, I decided to make some bread. Yes, I am back into THAT mode again. I think it’s because BG gave me some kind words and encouraged me to try his pre-ferment or biga or sponge method which he says is easy peasy.
OK, and since I love easy peasy breads and since my other attempts were so-so lah, I decided to try again.
You see, I hate failing. I know. No one likes failing right? But me, I think I do not deserve to fail especially when it comes to something like breadmaking. Granted, I am not the best chef in the world but I can bloody hell cook other stuff….sarawak laksa, boil soups my grandma would give the thumbs up to, make curry puffs the old fashioned way – you know, using fingers to fold the edges one by one and not using some plastic curry puff crimper (a legacy of my mom’s I assure you).
So why not bread?
Today, I made pre-ferment bread. I haven’t baked it yet as it’s still rising. But I will alert you the moment it comes out of the oven. It’s worse than waiting for PMR results man. Nailbiting intense.
OK, to make this pre-ferment bread, you work on it the night before. I won’t repeat BG’s instructions so you head on over to his blog and steal his recipe haha.
I did add 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary (which I dug out from somewhere in the cabinet) and a handful of raisins.
And I kneaded vigorously, so vigorously that BG would be extremely proud of me. For 30 minutes, I pulled, pushed, twisted the bread dough. And sweat I did. It was a workout for the arms!
So now it’s merrily rising away for an hour before I take it out, punch it down and give it a second rise for 45 minutes before it goes into a preheated oven for a good baking.
This time though, I used plain flour for the pre-ferment stage but I bought high gluten flour (Nona brand, called Top Flour) to try out.
Let’s all cross fingers for my Raisin Rosemary Pre-Ferment Bread!
* But before I forget, a big shout out and thank you to Dotty who posted to me a lovely Anne Geddes Baby Names Keepsake! Thank you, thank you, thank you! You are too sweet.

** I was surfing about for bread recipes and stumbled onto this white bread recipe which is terribly funny and very detailed on each ingredient.