Well may you ask. Why? I have a daughter who will only eat (without protest) the loaf from the Franchised Bakery in town, 16 kms or 10 miles. It must be toast sliced and heaven forbid I should dare to pull a loaf from the freezer. The quest to reproduce it at home may end up a futile one but I'm enjoying it anyway and learning a lot. This bread is snow white, fine close crumb, very moist with soft lightly coloured crust. I'm sure you know what I mean. I'm trying to get there and I have to admit that it isn't easy. I've been close on a couple of occasions and one attempt (a Pull-apart ring of small buns with ham and cheese topping) came very close to the desired texture, color and flavour. Sometimes the bag they sell it in comes with a label listing the nutritional info and ingredients. This is helpful since it tells me that it is indeed a very simple recipe. However, there is the "Secret Ingredient", being a Soft Bread Improver. The ingredient list for this is given in order of volume but of course not the actual proportional formula. So this is what I've gleaned so far and my interpretation of same. First it contains Soy Flour. By this I have researched Lecithin. Second by volume is Wheat Flour. Now wheat flour is already the main ingredient in the bread so I can only assume that this is in fact Vital Wheat Gluten of 70 % - 80% Protein, otherwise why would you bother? Next is Emulsifier 481. I'm going to ignore this since it is a stabiliser that assists in machine mixed mass production, so not for me. It then lists Enzyme and my research would suggest that this is most likely to be Amylase. I'm not going to try to get this as I wouldn't know where to begin looking. The last and therefore smallest ing' is Dough Conditioner 300 (Ascorbic Acid or plain Vit' C). So if a single loaf using 500 grams of Bread flour requires a 1% addition of Improver I was going to try 1/2 Teaspoon of Lecithin, a short 1/2 Teaspoon of Gluten at 75% and a sniff of Citric Acid since I don't have Ascorbic. Will this matter? I would really like to see a clear and useful formula for the preparation of a home made "Bread Improver". What do you think? I know many argue that for the home baker it is not necessary but many recipes stipulate it's addition and I feel that it makes a significant difference to my loaves. Perhaps it covers up my inexperience in kneading and shaping. That reminds me of my other question. How important is shaping the dough in a Pullman Tin with lid? I've seen 1 link that basically stuffs it in and pushes it to the bottom and into the corners after rolling it out to 3 X the length of the pan and then double folding it in from each end. Please call our bakers hot line for help with this recipe. Joan@bakershotline

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