This has been a
dream of mine for a while – to bake my own bread. I’ve read about so many
bloggers successfully making their own bread, and that too not just bread; you
have multigrain bread, banana bread, walnut loaf and all sorts of complicated
stuff!! So, I decided to give it a go, and went about enthusiastically baking my
very first loaf. And…it failed. It was this hateful, solid, extremely hard mass.
I’m pretty sure I could have hurt someone with it, though I didn’t try ;-).
Don’t worry, this
recipe isn’t that, it is my second attempt, and it is something like a combination
of bread recipes from two superb food blogs - Aarthi’s Yummy Tummy, and Niya’s Niya’s World. So
here we go!!
What you’ll need:
1. 2 cups
multigrain flour
2. 1 cup plain
flour
3. 1 tsp salt
4. 1 tbsp sugar
5. 1 tbsp dry
active yeast (take a fresh packet)
6. 200 + 50 ml warm
water
7. 1 tbsp olive oil
8. A little butter
and milk for brushing
What you’re going
to do:
1. In 50 ml warm
water, dissolve 1 tbsp sugar. Add the yeast and leave to rise for 15 min.
2. In a large bowl,
put in 200 ml warm water, and dissolve the salt in it. Add the fermented yeast
mixture and mix well.
3. Add in the flour
a little by little, mixing into the liquid with a metal spoon. You'll end up
with a sticky dough.
4. When it can no
longer be stirred with a spoon, put in 1 tbsp olive oil and start kneading with
your hands. It'll still be sticky, so you won't be able to knead very well. If
it seems tough, add some more warm water.
5. Once you get a
soft, slightly sticky but pliable dough, transfer it into a large, oiled bowl.
The oiling of the bowl is to prevent the dough from sticking to it.
6. Cover the bowl
with a wet kitchen towel and allow to rise for 1 hour.
7. After an hour,
the dough should have risen to double its volume.
8. Turn out the
dough onto a well floured surface, punch it down and knead well, for about 10
minutes. Your arms will ache a bit, but it is all worth a wonderful, light
loaf!
9. Put it back into
the bowl and let it rest for 30 minutes, covered with the kitchen towel.
10. Take out the
dough again, and punch it and knead it once more. Shape it into a loaf and
place it into your greased loaf tin. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
11. Preheat the
oven to 190 degrees Celsius. After the third rising, this is how the loaf
should look like:
12. Brush the top
of the loaf with some milk and place the loaf in the oven and bake at 190
degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes. The purpose of the milk is to give the
loaf a beautiful golden color.
13. Once out of the
oven, brush the top of the loaf with a little butter to keep the crust from
turning too hard.
Cut into slices and
enjoy!!
With Nutella - my favorite topping
for practically everything :-)
Believe me, the
feeling of baking your own bread is indescribable, even better than baking a
cake!! The aroma wafting out of the oven, the feeling of fresh bread in your
mouth, the crunchiness of the crust and the softness of the bread, heaven!!
You can also sprinkle
sesame or other seeds on top of the loaf prior to baking. I tried flaxseed
once:
Notes:
1. Use a fresh
packet of yeast, makes a big difference.
2. The water for
the yeast mixture shouldn’t be too hot, just warm.
3. If your yeast
didn’t ferment, there’s pretty much no use going ahead. Start again.
4. If the dough
seems too tough at the beginning, add warm water – else it won’t rise as well.
5. Wait a bit once
the loaf is out of the oven to cut it.
6. Use standard measuring spoons and cups.
I did try this
recipe with only multigrain flour, but it didn’t rise well. I’m not sure why
that was. I’m still a novice at this, so looks like some experimenting is
called for!!
