Milk bread recipe

Its been quite sometime that i have fed my blog as i was concentrating on few other things in life.  The interest ans enthusiasm in cooking or baking did not vanish as few of my friends thought and asked. Been baking with different combinations and flours, happy with the outcome too. Whenever my family craves for bread i just bake it few hours in advance. Must tell you that the process of baking bread is so therapeutic and is healthy for mind, body and the family if i may say 😀. 

So yes coming to the recipe... i have tried baking with whole wheat and few millets too. The trick for a good bread lies in the type and quality of yeast ( i use prestige brand yeast) , kneading and hydration of the dough. 

For this bread I have used organic maida ( all purpose flour) .

The measurements or the ingredients is as follows

Organic maida - 1/2 kg

Yeast 3 tspn

Sugar - 2 - 3 tspn

Salt - 1 tspn or as required 

Milk- one cup

Water- one cup 

Butter - 50 gms (melted and cooled)

Olive oil - few spoons 

Method 

• Throw in all the ingredients in a huge bowl except the olive oil, yes all the above ingredients except the olive oil.  
• Use the spiral attachment of the egg beater and knead the dough ( i dont use my hand for kneading as this dough is a wet dough and i dont enjoy it sticking on to my palm) . Hence i use the hand beater with the dough hook and knead the dough for 10 - 12 mins pulsing  in between.
• Once the dough has come together and well kneaded add 2- 3 spoons of olive oil and smear over the dough using your palm and just bring the dough in a shape of a ball, pat and leave. 
• Cover the bowl with a lid. 
• Let the dough rest for 1 hour or 1 and half hour. The dough should double in size( it should rise).
• Once the dough is risen punch it down with a spatula ( again i dont like the dough sticking to my palm and hence i use a spatula).
• Once the dough is punched down divide the dough into two loaves.
• I used a 9 inch round silicon pan and kept the loaves in it ( rugby ball shaped loaves) 
• Now switch on the oven to preheat at 200 degress Celsius for about 20 minutes.
• Once the oven is preheated keep the dough in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
• Check the colour change, remove from the oven, brush some butter and slide the bread in the oven again and bake for about 5 minutes to let it holden brown.
• Remove the bread and slightly knock and check whether you hear a hollow sound. If you can manage the heat lift rhe bread and knock the bread from the botton too to hear the hollow sound.
• Leave the bread in the wire rack to cool completely.

Dont risk slicing the bread before it cools down as cooking happens even after the bread is removed from the oven in the trapped heat. 

Once cooled slice the bread and proceed enjoying it the way you prefer.

Happy baking

Thankyou 

Chaithanya  

   

Mint and garlic pull apart bread recipe

Mint and garlic pull apart bread recipe

I  have almost forgotten how to login into blogger as its been that long I have blogged.

Been creating new recipes as I love doing it and it helps my creative brain to stay alive as I get older ;) , but not been recording as I was caught up with few other activities in life. When I posted the picture of this bread few friends insisted on  having the recipe and hence this push to blog this recipe.

This recipe happened last week when i was reading something and was craving for a warm piece of bread. I was anyway planning to bake some bread, garlic bread and was so tempted to add mint to this garlic bread and hence this recipe.

So for bread baking few pointers are knead the dough well irrespective of what flour you use, i have experimented baking breads with all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, and few millet too and the basic rule I have noticed is a well kneaded and hydrated dough.

Coming to this recipe

Ingredients

Flour - 3 cups all purpose flour (maida) plus1 to 1.5 cups atta
Sugar - One tsp
Salt - one tsp
Yeast - one tsp
Milk - half cup
Water - 1.5 cups
Olive oil - one tbsp
white and black sesame seeds one tspm each
Turmeric powder - one big pinch
Garlic butter - 100 gm
Mint - one cup (tightly packed)

Method

1. Take a big bowl and add 3 cups of A.P flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour ( hold the remaining half cup flour to add later if necessary), add salt, sugar, yeast, turmeric powder, milk and water and olive oil to the flour.
2. Knead well using a dough whisk for about 10 - 12 minutes until the dough is well kneaded and elastic and leave the dough in a bowl coated with oil and let it rise for about an hour or two or until the dough rises and double in size.
3. Meanwhile chop the mint leaves finely, melt the garlic butter and add the finely chopped mint to the melted butter and mix well.
4. After the dough has risen punch down and make small balls of the dough.
5. Flatten the dough balls and then brush the mint and garlic butter mixture on one side. flatten all the balls and layer it one by one and brush each layer with the mint and garlic butter mixture. 
6. When all the dough is brushed and stacked lift it carefully and place it horizontally in a loaf tin or any pan suitable to place the stack.
7. Once it is place just brush over the remaining butter mixture on top of the dough.
8. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes and in the meanwhile the bread is left for a second rising.
9. Once the oven is preheated place the loaf tin in the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes until the top of the bread is golden brown.
10. remove the bread from the tin and preferably serve it hot.

So that's the bread which is best served when hot or warm, i served this bread for breakfast accompanied with some scrambled eggs and coffee.
Happy baking
regards
Chaithanya

Whole wheat dil leaves crackers recipe

Akki roti is one my fav Karnataka delicacies and last week I learnt the recipe and tips and techniques to learn from a friend and made it two consecutive days in full excitement. I am saying about akki roti here because I love dil leaves in akki roti and I placed an order for dil leaves with my grocer but when the leaves arrived I realised I ran out of akki roti flour. Hence this idea popped up in my mind and since I love the flavour of dil leaves dint waits to try out the recipe which was playing in my mind.

Recipe follows

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – 1.5 cups

Dill leaves (finely chopped) – ¼ cup (packed)

Coconut oil – 2 tbsp.

Ghee- 1 tbsp.

Sugar – 1-2 tbsp.

Pepper powder – 1 tsp.

Garlic powder – 1 tsp.

Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp.

Salt – ¾ tsp.

Baking powder – a pinch (1/8 tsp.)

Milk – enough to knead soft dough

Method

• In a huge bowl put the whole wheat flour and all the rest of the ingredients except milk. 
• Mix all the ingredients well with a fork. 
• Slowly add the milk to make a soft dough, neither too wet nor to dry or hard.
• Let the dough rest for 10 minutes
• Take an empty food grade cover with three sides closed or you could simply take two food grade plastic sheets. Keep the dough in between and roll out into thin sheets. Take a cutter and cut squares of the rolled dough. Place these squares in a greased baking tray or a silicon sheet and bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celsius for about 20 minutes until the edges slightly turn golden brown colour.
• Remove the crackers from the tray and place in a wire rack to cool. Once cool the crackers will turn crisp and crunchy.
• If not place the crackers in the tray and place it back in the oven for another few minutes but be careful it doesn’t get burnt!!
• Once cooled store in an airtight jar

Note : you could vary the spice measurements to your taste.

Done :)

Thanks

Chaithanya

Whole wheat chocolate and almond cookies with chocolate chunks

My boy loves anything sweet specially when its chocolaty and cookies top the list and he has been requesting me for a long time to bake some chocolate cookies. And off late he stopped requesting too, guess he thought amma wouldn’t bake as I have been emphasising on other better options of snacks recently.

Anyway today I thought of giving him a surprise and I made the cookie dough before he was back from school and baked it when he went out to play in the evening. And when he entered home he straight away walked into the kitchen to gobble up the cookie, of course I had to remind him to wash his hands. Also the little sister was also right beside him and they drooled at the melted chocolate oozing out!! He also counted the cookies and made sure he gets a fair share .. lol

In the meantime I took a bite on one and wohoo when the chocolate oozed out the child in me jumped with joy.

It was not a very different recipe from my usual cookie recipe yet I wanted to record this recipe.

Though I started off with a simple chocolate cookie it dint quite end up so.

Let me get to the recipe

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – 1 cup

Almonds (I use mamra variety) – ½ cup

Egg – one

Sugar – ½ cup

Butter (salted) – ½ cup (100 gms)

Baking powder – one big pinch

Cocoa powder – 2 – 3 tsp.

Milk – ¼ - 1/3 cup

Chocolate chunks – 125 gms

  

Method

• Wash the almonds well and soak for about ½ hour
• Grind these almonds using milk and make a paste and keep aside
• In a large bowl throw in the butter, sugar, flour, egg, cocoa powder, baking powder and the almond paste and mix it well using a fork and keep aside for about 30  mins
• Chop the cooking chocolate into large chunks and throw in the cookie dough and mix well.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius for 10 mins
• Grease the baking tray and scoop out the dough and place in the baking tray leaving a gap of at least an inch.
• Place the tray in the top rack of the oven (that’s what I do for cookies) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes.
• Remove the tray and carefully remove the cookies and place it in the wire rack.
• Store in an airtight container once cooled.

The chocolate remained soft even the next day but not gooey, may be I could microwave for few seconds and leave it for few minutes before taking a bite and get the oozing chocolate effect

I used organic raw sugar in the this recipe, the granules are crushed sand and not crystals or fine powder.

Happy baking!! :)

Thanks and regards

Chaithanya

3 flour murukku it is!

That day when I realised there are no munchies at home and me being me don’t like my family feeding on store bought munchies hence checked my grocery. And I remembered I had bought urad flour from the market last week, so just went on to exploring  making some crispy snack. If we check on to murukku recipe there is no dearth for it with the variety of combinations it has. Hence I thought of going my way.

Picked out rice flour , gram flour, and rice flour and mixed and kneaded  with some spices and extruded using using the chakkuli maker and used the thick seviya strand moulds.

Anyway the The recipe follows....

Ingredients

•   1 cup urad flour
•   1 cup gram flour
•   1 cup rice flour
•   Ghee – 2- 3  tsp.
•   Water – as required
•   Spices – (jeera, ajwain, asoafetida, turmeric powder, chilli powder, pepper powder, sesame seeds)
•   Salt

Method

In a huge bowl throw in all the flours, ghee and spices and mix well and then add water little by little and make a not so soft dough, dough will be sticky so use a fork to start mixing the dough and use your palm at a later stage. Let the dough rest for 10- 20 mins.

Heat the oil and fill the dough in the murukku press and then hold the press above the hot oil and squeeze out the dough in the hot oil. Turn the murukku over and remove it it to a kitchen towel once it stops bubbling.

Note :

The dough will be sticky use a little water to put out just enough dough to fill in the mould.

Fry in high flame

If the dough turns out to be watery add any of the flours  little more since wet dough will absorb oil.

Thanks you 

Chaithanya