Fragrant Homemade Blueberry Bread
Crispy outside, moist and chewy inside! The secret to making delicious blueberry bread at home
Create a blueberry bread that’s crispy on the outside, wonderfully moist and chewy on the inside, just like freshly baked bread from home. This is the ultimate home baking recipe, filling your mouth with a rich blueberry aroma and a subtle sweetness.
Bread Dough Ingredients- Bread flour 320g
- Instant dry yeast 6g
- Salt 5g
- Skim milk powder 20g
- Grapeseed oil 13g
- Blueberry syrup 35g (store-bought or homemade)
- Lukewarm water 195g
- Freeze-dried blueberries 10g (to add extra blueberry flavor!)
Cooking Instructions
Step 1
1. In a large bowl, combine the bread flour, instant dry yeast, salt, and skim milk powder. Gently mix them together. (Be careful not to let the yeast and salt come into direct contact.) Add the grapeseed oil, blueberry syrup, and lukewarm water. Mix with a spatula or your hands until the ingredients form a cohesive mass.
Step 2
2. Lightly crush the freeze-dried blueberries with your hands and add them to the dough. Knead the dough to ensure the blueberries are evenly distributed and not clumped together. The dough might seem a bit sticky at first, but it will become smoother with sufficient kneading.
Step 3
3. Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes until it becomes smooth, elastic, and less sticky to the touch. Once the dough is smooth and can stretch thinly without tearing, place it in a clean bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Let it undergo its first rise (bulk fermentation) in a warm place (around 25-28°C or 77-82°F) for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in size. (To check if it’s ready, gently poke the center of the dough with a finger lightly coated in flour. If the indentation remains, the dough has risen well.)
Step 4
4. Once the first rise is complete, turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently punch it down to release the gases. Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Shape each portion into a ball (this is called rounding) and cover them with plastic wrap or a damp cloth. Let them rest for about 15 minutes for an intermediate proof (or bench rest). This step helps to relax the gluten, making the dough easier to shape.
Step 5
5. Take each rested dough ball and flatten it with a rolling pin into a long oval shape. Fold the dough into thirds (like folding a letter). Gently roll it out again with the rolling pin. Starting from one end, roll the dough up tightly into a log shape. Pinch the seam at the end to seal it securely.
Step 6
6. Place the shaped dough logs into your loaf pan(s), seam-side down. Cover the pan with plastic wrap or a damp cloth and let it undergo its second rise in a warm place (around 30-35°C or 86-95°F) for 1 hour. The dough should rise until it fills about 80-90% of the pan’s height.
Step 7
7. Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F). Place the loaf pan(s) into the preheated oven, then reduce the temperature to 180°C (350°F). Bake for 28-30 minutes. If the top of the bread starts to brown too quickly, you can loosely cover it with aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning. Once baked to a beautiful golden-brown, remove the blueberry bread from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing and enjoying!
