Improving the flavour of my semi hand-made bread?
Hello,
I wasn't sure exactly where to post this as it's a bit of hybrid question.
For the last few years, I've been baking a loaf of bread every two or three days. I use a Panasonic bread machine to make the dough which I then shape by hand, leave for a second prove and then bake in the oven.
My recipe:
1.5 tsp yeast
450g strong white Canadian flour
150g strong wholemeal Canadian flour
12g salt
1 tsp sugar
20g extra virgin olive oil
380ml water
It's all loaded into the Panasonic the night before so it sits for a few hours and I use program 4 (Whole wheat) which is a five hour cycle. Before it starts baking, after four hours, I take the dough out, it's normally grown to the top of the pan. I very lightly knock it back, shape it into a bloomer and then leave it to prove again for another hour and a half.
After that prove, I slash it, give it a wash with egg white and sprinkle poppy seeds on top.
I bake for twelve minutes at 220°C, reduce to 200°C and continue to bake for a further seventeen minutes. I don't add water to the oven for steam because the oven has a vent and steam just bellows out of it. I did run steam for a while but I don't really notice any difference.
I get a nice crusty bread with a good crumb but all the flavour is in the crust, it tastes really good and I'm sure a lot of that is due to the egg wash and the poppy seeds. But the actual body of the bread, the bit in the middle is a bit bland really.
I don't know what I'm expecting but I'd just like a bit more taste, a bit more oomph from the bread.
Does anyone have any suggestions please, any tweaks or additions to the recipe? Or am I expecting more than's possible for what's effectively a mighty white 75/25 bloomer?
Thanks :)