I know it doesn’t look like much but this represents some success. So what was different? Well after sorting out the measurements, I followed the recipe almost exactly.
I reduced the sugar (too much) to less than a table spoon, used lemon juice not vinegar, and added a little more yeast. When making the dough, I held back about half a tablespoon of water, and added some (less than a half teaspoon) while the mixture was being kneaded.
This resulted in a much drier dough than before. And the results are above. The humidity in Taiwan is quite high, so perhaps there was some compensation in the moisture. Worked well.
The bread itself is a basic white loaf, without much flavor. So next time we’ll look at adding a light flavoring of some sort.