simple bread – CafeGarima

I saw this enticing video on my Facebook feed a couple of days back and then watched it again, and again! The loaf looked so pretty and inviting! I knew it won’t be long before I bake it. And I did last night. Two mini loaves in cute little loaf tins I bought recently. I swapped the bread flour in the recipe with a mix of maida and multigrain flour and it came out beautiful and moist. The caramelised onions and the spring onions infused the loaves with a gorgeous flavour!

Without much ado, here is step-by-step the recipe:
Makes one 8 ½ x 4 ½ inch loaf or two 6×3 inch mini loaves

1 ¼ cup Maida/APF
1 ¼ cup Aata/Multigrain or whole-wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
¼ cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 medium sized onion
2 Tbsp rice bran oil/any other vegetable oil
5 spring onions
1 cup warm water ( to be added while kneading as required)
Chop the onion and the white part of the spring onion fine. Heat the oil an fry the onions till well browned (caramelised)
Chop the green part of the spring onions fine.
Warm the ¼ cup of water, mix sugar and yeast and leave covered for 10 -12 minutes till it is frothy and bubbly.
Meanwhile, in a large kneading bowl, add the flours, salt, greens of the onion and the caramelised onion with all the oil in the pan.
Add the bloomed yeast and mix well.
Knead into a soft and supple dough adding warm water as needed.
In a lightly oiled bowl, leave the dough covered till it doubles in volume. It took me an hour. It may take more or less time depending on the heat and humidity.

Grease a regular loaf tin or two mini loaf tins
Flatten the dough gently and pat down to form a rectangular shape. Roll the dough into a loaf shape wide enough to fit into your loaf tin and transfer the shaped loaf/loaves to the baking tin/s.
Cover and let rise till the loaves have risen an inch above the pan.

Pre heat the oven at 250C for 15 minutes while the loaves are rising and bake for 10 minutes at 250C. Then lower the temperature to 230C and bake for another 15 -20 minutes till the tops are browned and the bottoms of the loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Remove to the cooling rack and slice upon cooling. We couldn’t wait that long so ended up slicing these fellas while they were very warm, They were dunked into tomato basil pasta soup and devoured with much relish. It was a good dinner last night 😀

Enjoy with soups and curries or just as a snack with a smear of butter. They are delicious!

A simple no-fuss white bread loaf

Joy! Ahoy!! My quest for a perfect loaf of white bread has finally ended!
Had been hunting around for days and trying a lot of recipes but no success. Too dense, too yeasty, just not right- till today! A big shout of thanks to my dear friend Kalpana Vinay for these measures. They worked so well! This is a total no-fuss bread with easy to remember measures. Straight to the recipe now, without any fuss! 😀

Ingredients

All purpose flour/Maida 3 cups
Instant Yeast- 1 Tsp/Fresh Yeast 10 grams ( Find an excellent yeast converter here, in case using a different variety of yeast)
Sugar- 2 Tsp
Salt- 1 Tsp
Butter – 1 ½ Tbsp
Milk- ¾ cup (may use a little more in case the dough is too hard)
Warm water- ¼ cup

Prove the yeast – add the sugar to ¼ cup of warm water. Mix well. The water has to be just the right temperature- not too hot because that will kill the yeast not too cool because the yeast won’t prove. Drop some on the back of your wrist and it should feel warm there. Add the yeast and rest covered for 10-15 minutes. The yeast should froth like soapy bubbles. If it doesn’t, throw the mix and start afresh. Proper proving of the yeast is vital to good bread!
In a big bowl, take the flour and salt. Mix.
Once the yeast has bloomed, add it to the flour and mix well with a wooden ladle. Add milk and keep mixing. Once well mixed, knead the dough well using your hands. It will be sticky to start with.
Add the butter and knead for another 10-12 minutes. It will now become a non-sticky, soft and pliable dough.
Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover with cling film, or a kitchen towel and rest for 11/2 to 2 hours. The dough should double up. The time actually depends on the weather conditions-if very hot, it doubles sooner than the 1 ½ hours. This is the first prove.
Remove from the bowl once the dough is doubled and gently knock out the air.
Shape the dough into a loaf and place in the loaf tin.
Cover with cling film or a kitchen towel taking care to that they do not touch the top of the bread. This is how I do it.
Leave to rise again for about 45 minutes. This is the second prove.
When there are 20 minutes to go, pre-heat the oven at 200C.
Brush the top with milk and bake for 20 minutes, till the top browns. If doing in an oven with two elements, please keep both on. The bread should sound hollow when you tap on it.
Slice when fully cooled.