a loss to the malaysian bread baking community

few months back, we visited mardia and mustaffa's artisan bakery. it was enlightening for me as we learned so much from a real bread baker!

so it's kind of sad when i got a call from mark (our mutual friend) that mustaffa is leaving malaysia and returning to his home country.

managed to visit him 2 sats ago, just days before he left!

like before, gave lots of good tips and advice on bread baking. i managed to bake 2 loaves the previous day so brought a loaf over to solicit his opinion on my bread.

phew! was glad the master said "it's okay". he mentioned it's a bit crumbly though and pointed out could be due to over-proofing. yes, he is right in this regard. i think i do over-proof the dough as i tend to use less yeast and let time do the rest. but as i'm so absent minded, many times i forgot i got a bread dough waiting to be baked!

so will definitely try less proofing next time.

oh yeah, was overwhelmed by this little gift mustaffa gave me.

it's a grain mill so i could mill my own flour now!

according to mustafa, bread baked with freshly milled flour tastes better and is more tender in texture.

can't wait to try this!

so thanks a lot mustafa for all the advice and this gift.

hope you and your wife the best of your endeavours. wish to meet you again some time in future.

thx!