Whole wheat and sorgum bread with black sesame seeds and sunflower seeds

Bread baking is the new found love and currently experimenting on millets. Its jowar again !! Let me pamper jowar enough before I handle the next millet flour.

Bread baking is therapeutic and the aroma is sensational, if you know what I mean :) Start baking your healthy breads right at home. 

Ingredients

Water – 1 cup

Yeast – 1.5 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Whole wheat flour – 1 .5 cup

Jowar flour (sorghum flour) 1 cup

Sesame seeds – 2- 3 tsp

Sunflower seeds (crushed) – 2-3 tsp

Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.

Method

• Microwave the water in a heat proof glass bowl at high for one minute ( this is for one cup of water )
• Sprinkle the yeast and sugar and stir well.
• After 15 mins you will see a frothy yeast mixture (else repeat this step).
• At this stage keep a sieve over the bowl and sift in one cup of whole wheat flour and one cup of sorghum flour and salt into the dough.
• Use the dough hook attachment of your egg beater and knead the dough for about 10 mins.
• Add the olive oil and knead again for another 5 mins.
• Finally add the sesame seeds and crushed sunflower seeds in the dough and knead for a minute.
• Now using your fingers gently bring the dough together, use a little olive oil if you find the dough very sticky. Cover and leave the dough to rest in the bowl for about an hour or until it doubles in size.
• Once risen preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius and scoop out the dough into a loaf tin. Don’t forget to grease the tin before you dump the dough. Sprinkle sesame seeds and sunflower seeds on top (optional) and also sprinkle a little flour on top (optional). Score the bread with sharp knife (optional). And just leave the bread to proof for the second time (that’s about 20 mins approx.)
• Don't let the bread prove (rise) for a longer time for the second time. 
• By then oven would be hot, place the loaf tin in the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the top is brown and you hear a hollow sound when you tap the bread.

Notes:  

• It’s safer if you could get your frothy yeast mixture right in the beginning than proceeding ahead.
• Sifting is to make the flour airy and light before it falls into the yeast mixture.
• Dough hook attachment is the spiral attachment which we get along the egg beater set. This is helpful in not making our hands messy while making the bread dough.
• It’s safer not to go by the exact measurement in the recipe and make sure your dough is on a wet side (sticky dough). Initially put ¾ flour mentioned in the recipe and then proceed until you still get wet dough and not stiff dough.
• You could alter the measurements of seeds used according to your convenience.

Enjoy baking 

Thanks

Chaithanya

Whole wheat and sorgum focaccia (atta and jowar) recipe

Whole wheat and sorgum focaccia (atta and jowar) recipe

Once upon a time when I bought few cherry tomatoes I just crushed few and put in my pots. Been religiously watering the pots without but my expectation of seeing the tomatoes had died. But to my surprise after a couple of months I started seeing the saplings and one fine day I see my cherry tomatoes have showed up.

Now when someone has surprised me so well, I wanted to treat them special and hence this recipe. I wanted them to show them up, yea, I agree salads are one option but unfortunately I am not a salad person. Hence thought of making a focaccia since I got about a dozen of those cutie pies. But then again thoughts will try whole wheat and jowar focaccia. Why not, when you want to make someone feel special, take an extra step always J

Alright so I am eager to share the recipe now

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour – ¾ cup

Jowar flour – ¾ cup

Water ¾ cup

Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 2 tsp

Salt – ½ tsp

Olive oil – 2 tbsp.

For the topping

Cherry tomatoes – 1 dozen

Oregano, chilli flakes, basil (seasoning of your preference)

Olive oil – 2-3 tbsp.

Method

• The temperature of the water for the yeast to work is crucial, I have mentioned this every bread baking post. So for this measurement I microwaved the ¾ cup water in high for about 30 seconds. 
• After removing the glass proof bowl I sprinkled the sugar and the yeast into the water and stirred well. After 15 mins it would have frothed up.
•  Sift in the flours and salt and knead well (I use the dough hook of my egg beater attachment) once the dough has come together, add the olive oil and start kneading with your hands for a while.
• When  you get the soft dough let it rest in a well-greased bowl for about an hour or until the dough has risen and doubled in size.
• Preheat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about 10-20 mines. Meantime, knock down the dough and flatten in a preferred pan and make a lot of holes by using your finger. Pour in some olive oil and half the tomatoes and place in it. Sprinkle the seasoning all over and leave it to puff up again until the oven is preheated.
• Once the oven is heated place this pan in the oven and bake for about 20 – 30 minutes or until you see a nice golden brown crust on top.
• Remove and let cool.
• Serve it with some extra virgin olive oil or a garden salad

Thanks

Chaithanya

Jowar roti - easy method

Jowar is a millet and jowar roti is a staple food in many places in India. My Marathi neighbour had once shown me how to make jowar roti the traditional way, but failed miserably whenever I tried it. Finally I found a way to make jowar rotis, not the traditional way but I do fetch good rotis by this process, Glad to share and save the recipe :)

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Salt - 1 tspn
Oil - 1 tspn

Method
Take a flat pan and pour water and keep on the stove. Let the water boil properly, sieve in the jowar flour to the boiling water. Cook the flour in the water till all the water is absorbed by the flour. Remove from flame and knead the dough as much as possible while the dough is still hot/warm. The more you need the better the rotis. 
For the next step, i.e to knead the dough its highly recommended to have a chapatti presser/tortilla presser, else it is very difficult to roll the dough way you roll out chapatti dough.

So keep the chapatti presser ready by spreading plastic sheets in between ( so that you can easily remove the rotis ). Take a small portion the dough, make a small round ball and keep it in the presser between the plastic sheets and press it. Lift the lid of the presser, remove the roti and cook on a medium hot tava , flipping in between and also showing it directly to the flame , so that it puffs up. Repeat the process to get nice fluffy and soft jowar rotis.

Enjoy with some spicy curry !

Jowar idiyappam/ sorgum flour stringhoppers

What you see in the picture is idiyappam or string hopper, its usually made with fine rice flour but I have tried  with ragi flour ( finger millet flour) before, the recipe you will find in my previous posts. This time I tried with jowar flour  and I was surprised with the result, Hey it came out good and infact my family dint realise it was jowar, and as it is jowar  has a very subtle taste. I combined the idiyappam with quail eggs curry.

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 1 cup ( dry roasted)
Rice flour  - 1 1/2 cup ( dry roasted)
Oil - 1 tspn
Salt - as required
Hot water - 2 - 2 1/2 cups

Method :
Dry roast the flours separately and put it in a wide bowl and add in the salt and oil and mix well. Pour in the hot water and mix the flour till you get  a dough consistency. I used the hand held dough blades for this since it will be easy to handle hot water and mix it simultaneously to form the dough. Once your dough is ready keep the steamer on the stove with required amount of water. Use the chakli maker with the string hopper nozzle and pipe the noddles , you can also sprinkle some grated coconut over the noodles and steam for about 10 - 15 mins.

Serve hot with a spicy curry of your choice or even stew.
Enjoy!!!

Jowar idlis

You would have realised by now that I try making dosas, idlis, cookies and cakes with anything edible :) . So this is another attempt making idlis with another millet called jowar. I know jowar roti been made by Marathi neighbour which requires a lot of skill and experience. And we south indian can eat anything if it is in the form of idlis and dosas specially when it comes to kids. Hence this experiment and needless to say my family dint realise much about my experiment :) Served with curry leaves chutney !

Ingredients

Urad dal : 1 cup

Idli rava- 1 cup

Jowar flour- 2 cups

Soak urad dal for around 5 hours and grind it well till soft and fluffy. Add in the idli rava and jowar flour and mix well with required amount of water to an idli batter consistency. Let it ferment overnight and then steam as usual idlis. Serve hot with sambhar or any chutney of your choice. Done! :)