Homemade Wholemeal Bread

Recently I bought the Noxxa Breadmaker 3in1 oven that can make bread, cook like a conventional oven and toast bread. I did some research beforehand, and it’s one of those breadmakers for gluten intolerant people that can also make regular bread as well. And while I love my regular baking – my parents have been on a gluten-free train recently, and I’d like to make them something on occasion as well. Finally, yesterday I managed to buy the ingredients to make a healthy wholemeal bread which is actually just wholemeal flour and high protein flour, both of which cannot be found in normal supermarkets. So I had to go to those places that sell baking goods only.

First of all, using the Noxxa is so easy as it comes with its own measuring cups and spoons and these are used with the recipe book provided. So I actually don’t need to use a scale which I hate, coz all the recipes call for measurements with the cups and spoons provided.

Recipe for Whole Wheat bread (I made the adjustments)

Water 27 deg c 1 1/2 cups+1 TBL
Margarine 2 TBL
Salt 2 tsp
Brown Sugar 1/3 Cup
Milk Powder 3 TBL
Whole Wheat flour 2 Cups
High Protein Flour 2 Cups
Instant Yeast 1 TBL

Program 5 (takes 3 hours 40 min)

So all I did was add the ingredients according to the order above, with yeast being the last. Program 5 in the oven is used for wholemeal breads that used more than 2 cups of whole wheat flour. There area lots of other programs as well for various different kinds of bread which I can’t wait to try.

So everything got dumped in the breadmaker and this is how it looked like. Then it’s put into the oven.

After pressing the program 5, the timer showed how long it will take for the bread to be completed.

At first I wondered why nothing happened, then only I realised the first 30 min is for preheating, but unlike normal preheating for cake when the oven actually heated up, this one it doesn’t. It’s just 30 min for the oven to ‘get ready’ for the first kneading process.

If I had used Program 8 for breads that contained other ingredients, the oven would have beeped for me to add them, but as I was using Program 5, no such thing happened. The good thing is I can open the oven anytime during the Rise process, not during the kneading process. So I just simply add in some raisins and almonds.

Oops this is the final product. You can see that it is not as even as a bread should be. That is because I didn’t intervene in the shaping process, I could have used a spatula to shape it nicer a bit before it started baking in the last 30 min. Also, whole wheat breads will not rise as high as normal breads.
The crust was a bit hard but the inside is soft and fluffy. I baked it last night and today there’s only half left. I think we can finish it by tonight to take the place of rice.
The greatest thing, the bread is so easy to take out, just give a shake and it’s out as the breadpan is non stick. As you can see, nearly nothing got stuck to it. I am still amazed how easy it was to make a bread, so much easier than making a cake or mini muffins. I will never buy bread outside again!