Wool Bread

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In 2021, Wool Bread emerged from Malaysia courtesy of the YouTube Apron channel. It's formed to resemble a skein of bread. Well made, it's light and fluffy.

Wool bread can be made plain, sweet, or savoury....simply choose your own inclusions, added when rolling and shaping the dough, as you'll see described below.

We will make two types of wool bread: yeast-risen and naturally-leavened using a sourdough base.

Of course, you could easily adapt the yeast-leavened to incorporate a tangzhong or a yudane technique which would make it even lighter and fluffier.

This is adapted from an original Malaysian recipe.

Yeast-leavened Wool Bread

Ingredients

80 gms of tepid milk

3 gms of instant active yeast

300 gms strong bread flour

5 gms crushed sea salt

30 gms granulated sugar

55 gms beaten egg (equivalent to one medium egg)

100 gms whipping cream

A note on these ingredients

Demerara sugar can be substituted for white sugar, as can honey. Remember that honey is sweeter so only use 75% honey. You can also use full-fat milk instead of whipping cream. If you wish to use whole-grain flour, that will alter the colour and texture a little, but it will work.

Inclusions

You can add sweet inclusions, e.g. chopped cranberries, chopped apricots, chocolate chips, etc. or savoury: cheese, chillies, bacon, etc.

First, activate your yeast by adding it to the tepid milk and striiting it really well. Put to one side for about ten to fifteen minutes until it it frothy.

Now, place the salt, flour, sugar, egg and whipping cream in a large bowl or mixer and finally add the yeast mixture.

Mic thoroughly and knead until you have a soft and silky dough.

Remove the dough and place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm environment until it doubles.

After about an hour and a half (watch the dough, not the clock), the dough has doubled nicely.

Weigh the dough and divide into five equal portions. Cover and leave to rest for about 15 minutes.

Roll each portion out to the size of a naan bread. If it fights back..stretch it with your hands

Using a bench scraper or similar, cut the bottom half of the dough into thin strips

You're going to roll the dough into a cylinder from the non-cut end to the cut end. However, you may wish to add inclusions...see below...

Now is the time to add your inclusions....sweet or savoury.

Fold the inclusions in to keep them tucked in and roll the dough into a cylinder.

Place the cylinders in a prepared tin (this one is 20 cms by 7 cms). Cover and keep warm until the dough has doubled.

The dough doubled in about 1 hr at 23⁰C. Don't worry if your tin osn't exactly the right shape...here you see the same dough prepared in two different tins.

Now, preheat the oven to 180⁰C and brush the dough over with a milk wash. Then, bake for 17 - 20 minutes until it's golden brown.

and the crumb...

Sourdough Wool Bread

Ingredients

400 gms strong bread flour

55 gms wholegrain / wholemeal / wholewheat flour

200 gms sourdough starter (active)

120 gms tepid milk

30 gms whipped cream

30 gms sugar

55 gms beaten egg

5 gms crushed sea salt

30 gms unsalted butter (softened)

The process using sourdough starter is more or less the same.

Mix everything together and knead until you have a soft and silky dough.

Cover and leave until the dough has doubled. This will take longer than the yeast-leavened. Expect it to take up to 2 hours. However, watch the dough and not the clock.

Decide into FOUR pieces and shape as above.

Leave it to proof for a second time - until it has doubled.

Brush with milk and then bake at 180⁰C u until it is golden brown.