Bread Bonanza - Brown bread....

I have been trying to bake my own bread since some times now. In my previous attempts i got Okayish breads, where some of the part was nice and as a bread should be and some of the part was un-cooked in centre.

Finally, yesterday i was able to bake a bread that was uniformly cooked. Though in my excitement to cut it, i couldn't wait for the bread to cool down and ended up breaking some slices...But still it was a good bread, the way a brown bread should be!!!! Jumping to recipe now. I am following a recipe from Baby and toddler cookbook from Tarla Dalal with little modification (from Good housekeeping magazine's recipe section).

I want to mention here that i didn't have a bread baking tin (Actually i bought one but it was a little big for my oven and didn't fit in :( ), so i kept the loaf in my regular circular tin and used aluminium foil to cover the bottom and sides of the loaf. But it is always better to use to bread baking tin for better results.

Freshly baked bread.......

Edited to Add : I bought a bread loaf pan and you can see the result :)

 Ingredients:

Whole Wheat flour - 2¼ Cups (250 gms)

Dried Yeast - 1 teaspoon (Though the recipe asked to use 2 teaspoon fresh yeast, i didn't have any so i  used 1 teaspoon active dry yeast)

Sugar - ¾ Teaspoon

Butter - 1 teaspoon

Salt - ¾ teaspoon

Method:

1) Take 1/2 cup warm water and add sugar to it. Mix well.

2) Now add yeast to this water and see that it dissolves completely.

3) Wait for 4-5 minutes. You will see rise in the water level. (In colder countries, please keep this mixture in warm place to allow the yeast to work.)

4) Sieve the flour along with salt. Add butter and mix well.

5) Now using the yeast, sugar, water mixture, knead soft dough. If needed add some more warm water.

6) Knead well till the dough is smooth and elastic. A lady in a youtube video suggested "slapping" the dough to see that it is elastic enough!!!

7) Cover with a damp muslin cloth (i used my regualr kitchen cloth) and allow it to prove (meaning increase in size by fermentation) till it doubles in volume. (May take 20-30 mins)

8) Once the dough doubles in size, punch it in the center (from the same lady in the youtube video) to remove any air.

9) Knead it again thoroughly.

10) Shape into a loaf and place in the greased loaf tin. (as i said, i didn't have any, so i kept the loaf in my regular circular tin and covered the loaf's sides and bottom using aluminium foil.

11) Cover again with the damp muslin cloth and allow to prove again till it doubles in volume.

12) Pre-heat oven to 180 degree C (though the book said to 200 degree C, i found that this temperature works for my tin)

13) Sprinkle some water on the tin and bake in the preheated oven at 180 degree C for 15 mins. (Recipe says at 200 degree c for 10 mins)

14) Then reduce the temperature to 150 degree C and bake for 15 more minutes. (But keep checking in between to see that it is not turning to brown, if that happens then plz stop baking further)

Please, please let it cool before you cut it. I know it is very difficult, but let it cool (you can enjoy the smell of the baked bread :)) and then only cut into slices.

Note: If you want softer bread then you can replace 1/4 th cup of wheat flour with 1/4th cup of maida (so you will be using 2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1/4th cup of maida, mix and proceed)

Home made bread......

+techie ZM