Wholemeal bun with raisins (straight dough) / Why bake your own bread?

Last Satuday, I had a bake-a-bread class at my organic shop Just Health. More and more people resort to baking their own loaves at home these days. The compelling reason was mostly heath-related. During the class, I also made extra effort to educate the clients on the 'not-so-healthy' stuffs that are used in baking commercial bread, including 

• shortening / trans-fat (a cheap alternative to butter or plant oil, but carry the risks of clogging the arteries. The FDA had once mentioned that trans fat is a unique powerful promoter of heart disease. So ditch those margarine from your kitchen. They are not easily metabolized or digested, thus may accumulate in our body, causing further harmful effects on our liver).
• bread improver (which consists of a variety of chemicals, including azodicarbonamide ADA, a type of chemical used to make yoga mat or base of our shoe. When used in baking bread, it allows bread to raise higher, stay soft for longer period of time and form an attractive looking crust. Prolonged exposure of this additive may cause asthma or skin sensitization).  
• bleaching agent used to turn flour white (when the flour is bleached it produces alloxan. Alloxan is a poison that is used to produce diabetes in healthy experimental animals (primarily rats and mice), so that researchers can then study diabetes “treatments” in the lab. There is no other commercial application for alloxan, because it is so highly toxic) - here's the primary reason why I woud encourage you all to use unbleached flour to bake your bread. Unbleached flour are commonly found in premium supermarket or organic shops in Malaysia. 

Here' the recipe for this nice, soft and fluffy wholemeal bun. It's a straight dough recipe, unlike the normal scalded dough recipe that I always do. But it yielded very fluffy bun which was still good the next morning. I adapted this recipe from a fellow blogger, unfortunately, I copied the recipe and forgot whom I got it from. 

Recipe makes 10 buns

*I kneaded and proved the dough using my trusted Donlim breadmaker.  

• 2tbsp rice bran oil 
• 350ml water 
• 1tsp salt 
• 3tbsp molasses sugar 
• 450g bread flour (Hi-protein) 
• 100g plain flour / all purpose flour 
• 50g wholemel flour (Hi-protein) 
• 3tsp instant active dry yeast 

• 2tbsp raisins & 4 black apricot, chopped (organic)

Instructions 

1. Add all the ingrediens (in the order listed above) in breadpan, except raisins and apicots.  

2. Select mode for dough 发面. Press start. When the dough has kneaded for about 25min, add in raisins and chopped apricots.

3. After 1hr30min, the breadmaker will beep indicating that the dough is ready. Remove dough from breadmaker.

4. On a floured surface, punch the dough to remove trapped air. Knead afe times. Divide into 10 buns and form into ball shape. Brush top of buns with water and sprinkle with white sesame seeds (optional).

5. Place the bun in the oven for second rise until the buns double their original size (about 45-60min).

6. Preheat oven to 170degC, bake the buns for 18-20min.

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (August 2014 Event: Flour) - organised by Zoe (Bake for Happy Kids) and Mui Mui (My Little Favourite DIY) and hosted by Diana from Domestic Goddess Wannabe.