Eggless Baking : Sundried Tomatoes & Cheddar Cheese Breadsticks

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” 

- James Beard

It's been long time since I posted any bread recipe here but that doesn't mean I'm not making one. Buying a bread is a rare occasion in my home now, which is actually limited to occasional bagel purchase. I feel it's more easy to bake at home then try to figure out the ingredient list of store bought bread & making sense out of that list. Talking of ingredients, came across this link regarding subway bread few days back thought of sharing it, do check it & then wonder why in the world they have to put chemicals in the bread which are used in the making of yoga mats and shoe soles.

Coming back to today's recipe, needed something for after school snack so decided to make bread sticks. When it comes to any kinda bread I always want to try something new, so instead of using my regular recipe for the bread sticks, I googled & quickly decided to use this recipe as a base, from food network. It's a very easy and basic kind of recipe, I did twisted it a little bit, replacing some of all purpose flour with whole wheat flour is normal here in my bread baking. The addition of cheddar & sun dried tomatoes really worked very well here and we all loved it except the kindergartner. Here's my version of these Almost Famous Breadsticks.

What I used :

• 1 & 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp. of  luke warm water
• 2 &1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
• 3 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 1 & 1/4 cup whole white wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. melted butter(at room temp.)
• 2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt

Add-ins :

• 1 & 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 tsp. of chilli flakes(dry red chilli seeds)
• 1 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes (I first soaked them in hot water for 10 minutes & then chop) 

For the Topping :

• 4 Tablespoon unsalted melted butter
• 1/2 tsp. sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
• 3/4 tsp. dried oregano

What I did :

1. Place 1/2 cup of warm water in the bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast & sugar on top of it. Let it stand for 5-7 minutes.
2. Mix salt, whole wheat flour and all purpose flour nicely with fork/whisk in a separate bowl.
3. Yeast will start becoming foamy. Add flour and salt mixture, rest of the water, butter and oil to the yeast mixture.
4. On the medium speed knead the dough till it becomes smooth & soft, around 7-9 minutes.
5. Once the dough is smooth and soft add the cheese in 3-4 turns to the dough & mix it on slow speed.
6. Now, at this point I divided the dough into two parts. As I was not sure if kids will like the addition of sun dried tomatoes or not, so half of the dough was oiled & kept in a oiled bowl covered with the kitchen towel/plastic wrap for rise.
7. For second half of the dough slowly add(around 2 Tbsp. at a time) chopped sun dried tomatoes and red chilli flakes & let it mix at slow speed. Once the whole thing is mixed, oil this batch of the dough also and keep it in oiled bowl covered with kitchen towel/plastic wrap for rise.
8. It will take anywhere from 60-90 minutes until the dough gets double.
9. Prepare the baking sheet by lining them with parchment paper,
10. Once the dough is doubled slightly punch it, sprinkle some flour on the workspace. Take first batch/ball of dough & cut it into 16 equal pieces. I usually make a log cut into half & further cut the two logs into half & so on.
11. Now roll each piece of dough to 6-7 inches of log with around 3/4 inch thickness. Arrange them on the baking sheet around 2" apart. Finish rolling all the dough into bread sticks just like that.
12. Cover these rolled breadsticks with oiled plastic wrap & let them rise for another 30-45 minutes.
13. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
14. Melt the butter, brush it on the breadsticks & sprinkle them with 1/2 tsp. sea salt. There will be at least half of the butter left.  In the remaining butter add 1/4 tsp. kosher salt, garlic powder & oregano, keep it aside.
15. Bake until light golden color. Mine were done in 12-13 minutes.
16. Take them out, now brush rest of the melted butter(mixed with sea salt, oregano + garlic powder) on the baked bread sticks & bake for another 1 minute.
17. Cool them on wire rack. Serve with soup, pasta or simply marinara sauce.

Notes :

1. It's a big batch of dough and makes a lot of bread sticks. I made average size not too big kind and I got 32 bread sticks.
2. I reduced the qty. of salt in the dough as we were going to top the bread sticks also with the salt. And these were perfectly salted as per over taste. 

Eggless Baking : Oatmeal Sandwich Bread.....Mini Loaves & Buns

Though the official name for this bread is Oatmeal Sandwich bread, it doesn't contain Oatmeal but plain rolled Oats. I adapted this recipe from King Arthur's Bread Flour bag with minor changes only so I didn't felt like changing it's name. But telling you the truth, at home it was called bread just plain bread because sometime it's better to not mention everything to 9 yr. olds. I made it yesterday for dinner & I'm posting about it today, so that means it was not only good but really good def. a keeper recipe specially if U are new to bread making, as this is one easy recipe and I wanted to save this recipe before I loose it with all the minor changes I made.  As I'm already trying hard to figure out one green spaghetti recipe my daughter asked me yesterday to make again, because it doesn't happen everyday that your kid ask U "can U make that green spaghetti again which was not very green, didn't look good kinda but I loved it".

Now, to prove my point about it's taste....so here's this thing, I made it left them on the counter top for resting, came back home after an hour or so....first thing I hear is "tumhare bread khatam ho gayi"(your bread is finished). He ate at least one third of the bread, with butter O'course, occasionally dipping it in the soup. DD sat for dinner, first bite & she goes I will take one of this tomorrow for my lunch with jelly & give me something along with it. And little one who is not very fond of crust on the bread as it is sometime hard for her baby teeth's(chewing on hard candy is all together different thing) voluntarily picked one bun & ate at least 75% of it and returned the rest of it to me which was actually the centre of bread, she ate crust from all sides. Yes crust was not to crusty only little chewy as it's suppose to be. Crust has always been one of my major concern because most of the time my breads have hard crust, though I love that but kids don't, so this one was perfect. I'm not sure if it was because of additions of Oats or just because bread flour is used or b'coz I used buttermilk instead of regular milk. Now to the recipe.....

What I used :

• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
• 1 cup quick-1 minute Quaker Oats(recipe called for old fashioned)
• 3 tablespoons EVOO(recipe called for 2 TBLSP. butter)
• 1 & 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3 tablespoons honey (can use brown sugar also)
• 2 tsp. Rapid Rise Yeast( recipe called for 2 tsp. instant yeast OR 1 packet active dry yeast)
• 1 & 1/4 cups lukewarm buttermilk (recipe called for milk)

Note : Actual recipe also have an optional ingredient 3/4 cup of raisins/currants.

What I did :

I simply followed the recipe and as per that Combine all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl to form a shaggy dough(means it's still not smooth ). Knead dough, by hand (10 minutes) or by machine (5 minutes) until it's smooth. I used stand mixer here.

Once the dough is done I normally take the dough out of the mixing bowl & grease that same bowl & leave the dough covered in that same bowl for resting. Recipe ask for 1 hr. till it become quite puffy though it may not double in bulk. Mine was resting for 1 & 1/2 hr. & was almost doubled.

To Shape : Lightly grease the loaf pan/pans U are planning to use. Transfer the dough to lightly floured surface, slightly punch & shape it into desired size. This recipe is for one 9x5 size loaf so if U want to do that after U shape the log place it into 9x5 inch loaf pan. But I planned to do it differently.

I cut the dough into five equal parts 2 of them were rolled into small loaves, I used ceramic mini loaf pans, size from top of these pans is 5x3 & height is 2 inches.

Rest of the 3 parts were again divided into 2 each so 6 in total. These went into large size muffin tray(muffin capacity in these one is almost double the regular size muffins) . 3 shaped like small log 3 just rolled into ball.

Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 60-90 minutes (I spent only 60 minutes here).

Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 35-40 minutes for regular 9x5 inch loaf. But in my case I baked 25-30 minutes, 25 minutes for muffin tray/buns & 30 minutes for mini loaves. Towards the last minute of baking I brushed them with the melted butter & baked for another minute or so.

Notes : As I'm always little unsure impatient when I'm baking bread so I did took out one bun out of the tray & without waiting I opened it up from the centre & it felt good. Mission accomplished.

Eggless Baking : Home made Soft Pretzel and Diwali Wishes to All my Readers

Wishing all my Readers "A Very Very Happy Deepavali" the Indian festival of lights.

These were her words when R came back from her school the other day : "Wow! U made them?? I knew U made something like bread I could smell it. Do U have Cheese sauce/dip with it???? And in reply to her Cheese dip question when I said sorry I didn't had any yellow cheese in the fridge, in the mean while she had her first bite, she goes "these are good BUT Aunt A's are better. YES! Auntie Anne's from the mall, we all have eaten it some or the other point and O'course they come with the DIP, and I didn't had any. BUT wait, the moment she had few more bites and she goes but I love the salt part, actually these are REALLY GOOD. She polished off two. I did melted a cheese slice for her, as on the name of yellow cheese that was the only thing I had but the moment it got off the heat it kind of got hard & not melted any more. So note to myself : next time I make these make sure cheese dip is ready first & I'm sure then Mom's Pretzels will be best and not next to the best.

Now before jumping to the recipe, few days back I found this blog called applecrumbles & the post I landed up on was about summer rolls, yes ! the kind U make using rice paper wrappers, I read it because it was a good co-incidence that couple of days back only I had bought a pack of rice paper rolls & since then they were are sitting on my counter top. No, I didn't made those but instead at the end of the post she had mentioned that Next Week "we will be making pretzels, want to make pretzels with us ?" At that moment itself I emailed her & by the night she emailed me the recipe. She and one of her friend are following a book called "Fusion of Food + Friends" and every week they make one recipe from that book. Now, I got the recipe and before jumping to baking I did little online search, and it was little as I checked first two links of the search result & I was set to go. Plus one more thing I did do little extra search about Yeast also but that's a topic for some other day.

Original recipe was using 4 cups of flour that means lot of pretzels. Now my main problem while baking is,  that most of the recipes are for big batches, so I spent some time to 1/4th it. I wrote everything on paper & while getting the dough ready I messed up(4 calls in time span of 20 minutes, all imp. plus a toddler keep coming back to remind me I no like pretzel, Didi(big sis) like it) and pour half cup of extra water to the dough. Added more flour etc. to fix it. So, my messed up recipe yielded me 5 pretzels of around 5" radius. Now to the recipe...

Here's what I used :
for dough :

• 1 tsp. Rapid Rise Yeast/Instant Active Dry Yeast
• 3 tsp. Honey
• 5 TBSP. Warm Milk
• 1/2 cup Warm Water
• 1 cup + 6 TBSP. Bread Flour
• 1/4 Cup whole wheat flour(atta)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1&1/2 TBSP. EVOO(extra virgin olive oil)

for water bath :

• 4 TBSP. Baking Soda
• 2 Cup hot water

for topping(optional) :

• Coarse Sea Salt
• Melted Butter

What I did :

1. I used kitchen aid stand mixer to make the dough but one can easily do it with hands.
2. Mix salt flour & yeast together. Add rest of the ingredients from the dough list. Knead it to the consistency where the dough is no more sticky.
3. Rub some oil on the dough ball & keep it in some big oiled bowl. Cover & let it sit in some warm area of your kitchen for at least 1 & 1/2 hour or until it get almost double in size. Mine was sitting for almost two hours & it was more than double after rising.
4. Preheat the oven to 400 degree. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper & lightly spray it with cooking oil/spray.
5. Getting water bath ready : Heat the water  & dissolve baking soda in it. Be careful when U add soda to the hot water, it gonna get all bubbly & sprinkly.
6. Take the dough on a lightly floured surface divide it into 5 equal parts.
7. Now take one dough ball & roll it into a big rope and shape it like a pretzel. Here on this blog U can see step by step pictures or I'm sure U can find many videos about how to roll a pretzel on U Tube or learn it from the experts : make a trip to your local mall & have a live demo of how to roll a pretzel in Auntie Anne's shop.
8. Once the pretzels are shaped take them one by one & give them a hot soda bath. Gently drop one pretzel at a time into the bath, count to 10 & using slotted spoon take it out & place it on the ready baking sheet.
9. Sprinkle some coarse sea salt if U wish.
10. Bake them for around 10 minutes or till they get brown on the top. Mine took good 15 minutes.

11. When come out brush them with some melted butter.

Note : I used 1 qt. small pot for soda bath, if using big pot double the quantity of water & soda so that there is enough water for pretzels to float in.

These were good look wise and taste wise, very soft from inside, but they were not as chewy as store bought ones are. That could be because of I used milk & olive oil in it but I'm not sure. But as the overall result was so good I think it's a keeper recipe.

Now coming back to the original recipe it used :

• water only & no milk,
• active dry yeast (so proofing is required)
• white sugar instead of honey
• melted butter instead of EVOO
• all purpose flour instead of bread flour & whole wheat flour
• Kosher salt instead of sea salt

Idea of using milk & honey instead of water & white sugar was an inspiration from this & this blog.

These delicious Pretzels are on their way to Susan's Yeastspotting.

And yes! I just noticed that  's  is missing :-( from the tag which I made at the last moment in hurry. So, please put an imaginary 's to read it as Mom's Pretzel & not Mom Pretzel.

Healthy Banana Bread loaded with all the good stuff....not only Whole Wheat but Eggless too

It's been little busy over here, summer vacation is over. Trying to set some routine after 2 & 1/2 months of  break. Mind is working hard again to find interesting options for school lunch & after school snack, on top of that this year in 3rd grade they have to take snack too. So here's this simple recipe which I feel is a very good option for any time of the day snack, we have been eating this as morning breakfast with a glass of milk or coffee. It's quite filling & healthy too. It's Banana Bread but not regular kind, I'm using not only whole wheat flour but oats also in this. I had no plans of making this bread but thanks to my little one she has found one new hobby, whenever she can grab a banana she likes to peel it, until now she usually would eat it too, but now-a-days she only peels them & she's done. Now what do I do with 3 peeled bananas in a day. So I twisted my regular banana bread recipe added few more things to it and here goes the recipe(please do check the variations at the end of the recipe, got whole wheat version too) :

What U need :
dry ingredients :

• 1/2 cup + 1 Tbsp. all purpose flour (I used maida)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I used atta-flour used for making Indian style flat bread)
• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1 /1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. dry ginger powder(optional)

wet ingredients :

• 3 med. size ripe bananas
• 3 Tbsp. veg. oil
• juice of 1 orange
• 4 Tbsp. honey
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar

good stuff :

• 2 Tbsp. dry roasted flax seeds
• 1/2 cup roasted, chopped almonds
• 10 dates chopped

What U do :

1. Take all the good stuff(nuts & dry fruit etc.) & sprinkle 1 Tbsp. of flour on them & mix them with the hand so they get good coating of flour. It  helps preventing them from sinking to the bottom of the pan.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients using a fork making sure no lumps are formed.
3. In a big bowl mash bananas using the back side of fork & add rest of the wet ingredients from the list.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ones. Gently mix them.
5. Add mixture of good stuff to the batter, fold it in.
6. Bake it in the greased loaf pan for 35-40 min.(till the tooth pick comes clean) at 350 degree F.

Note :

This bread was little crumbly but very flavorful, it reminded me of fruit cake & was quite soft even for next couple of days. I did made this for 3-4 times in this month but every time with little variations. Actually this recipe is very forgiving one can easily adjust the ingredients according to the availability or taste. All the variations had almost same amount of oats.

Variations :
First was with half all purpose flour & half whole wheat flour.

 Second was with totally whole wheat flour, came out really good without any compromise on taste.

Third was again totally whole wheat flour but I added 2 Tbsp. of Ragi(finger millet) flour & 1 Tbsp. of flax seed(alsi) meal(powder) also. Instead of almond & dates I only used around 1/2 cup of black raisins & I didn't had any oranges so I added 1-8 0z. carton of apple juice, reduced oil to 2 Tbsp. only(works fine) also reduced the sugar a little bit. Bananas used were also one & a half only. I baked them in mini bundt pan so baking time was reduced to 16 min. only at 350 degree F(recipe yielded 12 mini bundt cakes-I had filled each cavity to 3/4 level). I highly recommend this recipe if you are trying to bake with whole wheat flour as it was light & not at all heavy texture. And these were not at all crumbly. Here's the click...

And this wonderful healthy bread/mini bundt cakes  goes to Champa for her weekly bake-off.

Basic White Bread with the touch of Whole Wheat Flour

I don't need the bread, but it's nice to do something creative

- John Goodman

I have a very good excuse for making another bread in a row, Champa of Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen is hosting a CSN giveaway for which she has a condition that bake/cook anything from her blog , so what can be a better reason for trying new recipes & also I really like her baking recipes, specially breads. Make sure you check out her blog for more wonderful recipes. My first trial from her collection of bread recipes was Challah Bread which came out really good & now is the turn of Basic White Bread, again with good results. I've mainly followed the original recipe but have made little changes in term of ingredients. So please check the original recipe for full details as I'm only going to write down the changes I've made.

• Original recipe uses 3-3 & 1/4 cup Bread flour or All purpose flour(APF), I substituted 1 cup of APF with whole wheat pastry flour & rest I used was APF.
• I used only 1 tablespoon of sugar & not 2.
• Salt  1 & 1/2 tsp.
• I also covered my bread after first 10 minutes of baking as I've noticed in my previous bakes like Challah & Biscotti that my oven brown the breads & cookies little too early so to prevent that covering it loosely with the foil is way to go.
• I used stand mixer to knead the dough at speed 2 for around 7-8 minutes.

Here's another look at the dough/bread at various stages.

Shaping a Loaf : Just in case if some one is new to bread making I thought these 3 steps about how to shape a loaf, will be helpful(source : KitchenAid stand mixer recipe book)  :

1. On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle, approximately 9x14 inches.
2. Starting at a short end, roll the dough tightly. Pinch to seal the seam.
3. Pinch the ends & turn them under. Place the dough, seam side down, in a loaf pan. Follow the directions in the recipe for rising & baking.

Also sending this bread to Champa's  weekly bake-off.

Challah - A Jewish bread

I don't even butter my bread. I consider that cooking.

- Katherine Cebrian

I Love to make bread but the only problem is when it's freshly made at home there is no portion control, it happened earlier also & happened again this time too. It vanishes or 1-2 slices are left. Few weeks back I tried my hands on Challah bread after seeing it on Champa's blog, she has a good collection of baking recipes. Not once but two days in a row I made this bread. First day I tried with all purpose flour & second trial was with whole wheat flour. I divided the recipe into half so that I get only one loaf ,also made little bit of changes, for original recipe click here. Now for the recipe :

What U need:

1. All purpose flour- 2 cups
2. Sugar - 2 Tblsp.
3. Vegetable oil - 2 Tblsp.
4. Salt - 1 tsp
5. Egg  - 1
6. Warm water - Mixed with egg to make 3/4 cup
7. Active Dry yeast - 1/2 Tblsp.

What to do :

1. Add enough water to beaten egg so that it make 3/4 cup of liquid in total. Pour it into stand mixer bowl. Sprinkle yeast & sugar on it. Let it sit for 8-10 minutes or till yeast become frothy.
2. Add salt & oil, attach the dough hook & turn the mixer on at speed 2 & slowly start adding flour, half a cup at a time. Knead it at speed 2 till it turns into smooth dough, took around 6 minutes or so (This process can be done by hand also as suggested in original recipe you need to knead the dough for about 10 minutes or so).
3. Rub oil in a big bowl & let the dough rest in it, cover the bowl with plastic wrap. In an hour or so dough should be doubled in size but it can take more time also depending upon the temp. in the room/kitchen where the dough is kept. Mine took 1 & half hour this time.
4. On a lightly floured surface divide the dough into 3 equal parts & roll each part into around 10" long log. Place all the 3 logs side by side.
5. Wet tips of your one hand fingers with some milk & pinch one end of all the 3 logs together to join them. Dry your hands & make a braid with those 3 logs & again join them at the end, the way we did in the beginning.
6. Move the braided dough to parchment lined baking sheet. Brush it with milk. Cover loosely with aluminum foil & let it rise for another hour or so.
7. Toward the end of rising period turn the oven on at 375 degree F for pre-heating. Again brush it with milk before putting it in the oven.
8. Bake at 375 degree F for first 10 minute. Reduce the temp. to 350 degree F & continue baking for another 20-25 min. or till nicely browned and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
9. Cool on wire rack.

Note : In my first trial bread got too much browned.

So when I baked it second time the very next day I covered it loosely with foil after first 10 minutes of baking & result was good. Also I kept the oven at 375 instead of 400. It was a whole wheat version......some time taking so many pics can be confusing....forgot to take picture of final result. 

For Whole wheat version I added around 1 & 1/2 Tblsp. of thick home made curd(yogurt) while kneading the dough as whole wheat flour usually needs little extra liquids or u can simply decrease the quantity of flour by 2-3 Tblsp. I'm sending this bread to Champa of  Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen for her weekly Bake-off.

Pav Bhaji

You don't have to be a mumbalite to love Pav bhaji, for those readers to whom these terms sounds like words from alien language Mumbai is the financial capital of India.The city also houses India's Hindi film and television industry, known as Bollywood.......largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced and Pav Bhaji is one of the very famous street food from that city, popular through out India.

I don't think I have ever met any Indian who doesn't like Pav Bhaji. As it's not only tasty but you also get full dose of veggies in one shot (also a multi-day dose of fat/butter if you make it the typical way street vendors make it over there). I use to make bhaji at home & bring burger/buns/pav whatever best I can get my hands on from the grocery store. But if you like pav bhaji, you know how important pav is in this dish. Couple of months back while browsing thru my papers I found a piece of paper with the recipe for home made pav in it......I'm sure I must have noted down this from "Greh Shobha" magazine. It's an Indian magazine and my MIL has a big collection of it, so when ever I visit her, one of my favorite thing to do is read all those magazines and many a times note down few recipes also. So, I gave it a try and they came out good......decided, no more bread buying for bhaji.....I have made few changes in terms of flour. Here goes my version of pav bhaji :

What U need for Pav :

• 1 cup all purpose flour( i use maida)
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour(regular atta can be used)
• 1 cup bread flour
• 1 Tblsp. active dry yeast
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1cup luke warm water
• 3 Tblsp. oil
• few drops of milk

What U need for Bhaji :

• 1 large potato
• 2 green bell peppers(capsicum / shimla mirch)
• 2-3 carrots
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1/2 cup cauliflower
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 -3 medium size tomato, chopped
• 2-3 green chillies, chopped
• 2 Tblsp. tomato paste
• 3-4 tsp. pav bhaji masala (i prefer MDH)
• salt
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric(haldi)
• oil / butter

What U need for final dish :

• handful of chopped red onion
• handful of chopped cilantro
• Amul butter lots of it OR as little as you want(or any butter U like)
• lime/lemon pieces

What u do :
For Pav :

Add yeast & sugar to luke warm water, let it sit for 5-7 min. till it get little foamy. In a big bowl take flours add salt, yeast water & oil. Knead it to a soft dough. Take another clean big bowl grease it & keep the dough in it covered with plastic wrap. Leave it at warm place for 2 hours or so till it gets almost double in size.

Once double in size punch down the dough, knead it again & make around 8-9 same size balls. Arrange them next to each other in greased mould, I used Pyrex dish for that. Let them rest again at warm place for another hour. Heat oven at 350 degree F brush the dough balls with milk & bake for 15-20 minutes. Once the golden brown crust forms on the bread that means pav's are ready. Take out of the oven & mould let it rest & cool.

For Bhaji :

Steam all veggies except onion & tomato with very little water, salt & turmeric. Once done, mash them using potato masher or back side of serving spoon. Now take a big pan/karahi, heat some butter(I use half butter, half oil) & saute onions in it. Later add tomato paste, chopped tomatoes & green chillies. Let everything cook. Add pav bhaji masala, after a minute or so add mashed veggies & let everything simmer for at least 15-20 minutes. If  looks too dry add few spoons of water.

How to serve :

Cut each pav horizontally into two parts, top & bottom. Put some some butter on to the hot griddle/tava & toast pav's on it(cut side down). Now to serve put pav with the butter toasted side up in the plate & next to it put a serving of bhaji, sprinkle some lime juice, chopped red onions, cilantro & lots of utterly butterly delicious Amul butter(India's most famous butter).

Note : Bhaji tastes much better if you make it at least few hours ahead of time. One can easily control the amount  of butter used in this dish & it still tastes good.

I wanted to send it to Champa's "Baking with Book-Breakfast event" but never got a chance to complete it in the month of April. But still it's on it's  way to champa of Bangalore Baker for her weekly baking event.

Italian Bread Try-2

Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.

- James Beard, AmericanChef

My bread(the one I baked) has air holes in it......and I thought I could never do that well I mean sort of......... In the month of November I have baked 3 breads, out of which 2 were Italian breads(didn't posted any of them). But I guess it's more easy to bake them than to document them. But I have to write a post for each of them, for my record, so later on if I need to, I can refer to my notes here.

This time I decided to choose another recipe . After my first trial of Italian bread I did little research & decided that it's time to use biga. Now, what's biga? Biga is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking. Many popular Italian breads, including ciabatta, are made using a biga. Using a biga adds complexity to the bread's flavor and is often used in breads which need a light, open texture with holes. Apart from adding to flavor and texture, a biga also helps to preserve bread by making it less perishable. Biga techniques were developed after the advent of baker's yeast as bakers in Italy moved away from the use of sourdough and needed to recover some of the flavor which was given up in this move. Bigas are usually dry and thick compared to the French Poolish or a sourdough starter (source : Wiki).

Here's the recipe, as usual I divided into half to make one loaf.

Ingredients :

For Biga

• 1 cups bread flour
• 1/8 tsp. Instant dry yeast
• 4oz. water @ room temperature

For Dough

• 1 & 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1/2 tsp. instant dry yeast
• 1/2 cup plus 2 & 1/2 Tblsp. water @ room temperature
• Salt 1&1/4 tsp.

Other

• cooking spray (I used olive oil )
• cornmeal
• large baking sheet

Method : Before I start to write the procedure, I would like to say that making biga may sound complicated but it's really as easy as mixing flour & water. The only difficult part over here is that you have to start it a day before, it's a time consuming process as most of the time is spent on dough to rise & ferment.

Making Biga : Just mix the ingredients for biga & knead it for 3-4 minutes. The dough or as it's called biga will be kind of very soft. Grease the inside of bowl with few drops of oil(or use cooking spray). Cover with plastic wrap & keep it at some warm place for at least 3 hrs. after that move it to the fridge.Next day after fermentation, biga will be bubbly & almost double. Make sure you take it out of the fridge at least half an hour before you decide to work on it(I took it out an hour before).

Making Dough :

1. Like biga, dough is also easy to make, combine flour, yeast & water & knead it for 3-4 minutes. Coat the inner side of a big bowl & let the dough rest in it for 20 min. covered with plastic wrap.
2. After resting period sprinkle the salt & add biga to the dough and mix everything together & knead for few minutes( I did it for 5 minutes), making sure that everything get mixed while kneading, Oil your hands to avoid stickiness. Note : It take little time to incorporate the salt into the dough this way, I'm not sure what difference it would make if salt is added in the beginning which would be easy, but I followed the recipe for that part. But I did added all the salt at this point, where as actual recipe is adding it in two parts. Actual recipe has a link for the video on how to knead which is really helpful for beginners like me.
3. Cover the bowl with the dough tightly with plastic wrap & let it sit at room temperature for at least one hour.
4. Uncover after an hour, fold the dough, one side to the other and top to the bottom & flip it over in the bowl(don't forget to use cooking spray/oil). Remember NO PUNCHING gently folding only. Again cover it with the plastic wrap & let it rest for another hour.
5. Repeat step 4 after an hour. So in total the dough rest & rise for 3 hours.
6. Now on a floured surface roll the dough to roughly 8" x 10". Then starting from either of the short side fold both the corners towards inside(roughly 2-3"). Now start rolling that pointed side, make a log. Put the seam side down & tuck the ends underneath(I lightly wet my finger with water & used it to pinch the sides & seam at the end of the log/roll).
7. Transfer the loaf onto the baking sheet(sprinkled with corn meal). Cover loosely with plastic wrap & let it rise for another hour.
8. Recipe suggests to pre-heat the oven to 500 degree F for 45 minutes, yes 45 minutes to the mark, that means it needs to be really hot, I did it for only 30 minutes(I guess it was hot enough).
9. Once oven is ready, cut a 1/2" slit lengthwise in the loaf, leaving 2" margin on both sides. You really need a sharp knife for this, In my last trial after baking the slits were hardly visible, so this time I used kitchen knife & it worked perfectly.
10. Bake for 10 min. at 500 degree F. Rotate baking sheet one half turn reduce temperature to 400 degree F & continue baking for another 30 minutes until loaf is golden brown(oven temperatures may vary, so I normally set my timer to little less time then it's asked for.....mine was done in total of 33-34 minutes). Note : when tapped on its bottom, a perfectly baked loaf shoul sound hollow.

Here's the picture of final result.....

Look : It looked like a perfect artisan bread.

Crust & Inside : It was really crusty from outside, given a choice I would really like to have little softer crust than what it had. It was more on the harder side I would say, I have to do little more work on that, if any body has any suggestion please drop a line. Now for inside, it was perfect, it had that taste & aroma of fresh bread and that chewiness and most important of all it had air holes, what more I could wish for.

Serving Suggestion : We liked fresh warm bread with little butter & leftovers were eaten little toasted with butter.

Storing : Actual recipe says you can freeze it also, but I kept few leftover slices wrapped in the foil in air tight box on the kitchen counter & used it next day.

Here it's called Stuffing, Back Home it was called Bread Poha

Before we move to today's recipe....what is this Fruit or Vegetable ???

Now for the recipe, nope it's not using the produce from the above pic, but it's the recipe from our thanksgiving dinner, something so important that you can't think of having a turkey dinner without it....it's stuffing.

It's typically made with bread croutons, some veggies, nuts & dry fruits. You can either fill the big bird with it (which I don't like) or another popular way is you cook it separately and serve it as side dish (it's called dressing when cooked separately). This time when I cooked bread stuffing, it reminded me of bread poha my Mom makes with lots of veggies & nuts, though it's not exactly same but has many similarities. I ate the leftovers for the next day breakfast & loved it.

Ingredients :

• 2 cups bread croutons(check notes for making your own)
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped granny smith apple
• 1/4 cup or more roasted & chopped almonds & walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped apricots
• 1/4 cup raisins plus dried cranberries
• 2 Tblsp. of unsalted butter (or U can use all evoo instead)
• 2 Tblsp. of evoo(extra virgin olive oil (or you can use all butter instead)
• 1 Tblsp. of evoo for sauteing the vegetables
• 1/2 cup of vegetable stock or water ( I used turkey stock)
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste
• 1 tsp. dried parsley

Method :

1. Heat butter & oil in a big heavy bottom pan. Add bread croutons to it & toss them to get coating of butter. Cook them on a med. heat for about 5-7 minutes, stir them in between. When they start to turn brown, take them out of the pan. If you don't have big pan do it in two batches using 1 spoon of butter & oil each, for each batch of croutons


2. In the same pan heat 1 Tblsp. of evoo & add celery, carrots & apples. Cover and cook them till they get soft, if needed add little stock or water at a time.


3. Once the veggies are soft add croutons, nuts & dry fruits. Also add salt, black pepper and parsley. Mix everything & add 1/2 cup of stock/water. cover & cook for couple of minutes.


4. Turn of the gas. Let it sit for sometime before serving.


5. This can be served as a side dish or can also be eaten as a snack or breakfast by itself. You can also top it with fresh cilantro(instead of parsley) & sprinkle some lemon/lime juice before serving. If you like you can also add other veggies like peas, bell pepper, green beans etc.. My mom makes bread poha version with some tomatoes in it.

Note : to make your own croutons, take 5 slices of 2-3 day old bread, preferably french bread or any hardy bread. I use whatever kind I have at home. This time I used multi grain bread. Cut the slices into 4 stripes & then further cut each strip into 4 pieces. Spread them onto cookie sheet & toast in the oven 350 degree F for roughly 10 min. or so. Shake them in between, once they turn crispy they are done. Remember if croutons are not crispy stuffing will turn mushy.

For Vegan version instead of butter evoo can be used.

This dish is quite healthy as I used multi grain bread to make croutons plus it has lots of veggies, nuts & dry fruits. Specially with all the other flavours going on kids can't figure out that it has multi grain bread in it(so no complaints). I'm sending this to WYF-Speciality event as I cooked it specially for Thanksgiving dinner and I'm also sending it to Yasmeen's HealthNut Challenge-3 : Healing Foods as it contains all the healthy ingredients from carrots to apples & almonds to cranberries. Last but not the least it goes to Radhika & Sudeshna's Food for 7 stages of life : Kids Event.

And yes, before I sign off did you guys guessed what the name of the fruit in above pic is. It's persimmon, known to the ancient Greeks as "fruits of the Gods". Saw it in the local Chinese farmer market, there were two varieties, one was sold in the pack of 6 or 8 that looked more like round tomatoes. The one I got was sold loose, so I got just one to taste, later checked on the wiki it's called "Hachiya". It was too(when I say too I really mean tooooooo) sweet, pulp inside had similar texture like ripe mango pulp but it was too sweet (we, in fact he only ate one bite, ate it just raw) may be I should have made milk shake with it.

Saturday morning breakfast - Homemade Bagels with Apple Peel Chutney

Too much of googling can some time lead you to this.......

I was not exactly looking for Bagels but surfing for one thing easily takes you to other once you are on net, so that's how I ended up making Bagels this weekend. Doesn't need much planning, I just followed the original recipe ,tasted good DD ate with cream cheese but I liked it with some whipped butter & home made Apple Peel chutney. DH gave me 7-8 out of 10 (10 being the best), so I guess I did good as it was my first try.

Bagels taking hot bath(in water) before baking :

I'm not writing the recipe here as I didn't made much changes except that I divided the recipe into half so I got 6 bagels out of it. Another change was instead of all-purpose flour I used bread flour(b'coz I had a big bag of it). As for timings are concerned mine were done in 25 min., I usually keep my timer set for 5 min. less then time asked for, in the recipe, whenever trying something new.

One more thing I rolled & shaped 5 bagels acc. to the direction in the recipe but for one I just made the ball of dough & with finger poked the hole (like you do for vadas), and that one(right one in the bottom pic) came out little smaller in size. So I believe roll & shape process is better to use.

Ready to go in the oven :

It's a food blog so a post without recipe doesn't sound good....here's the recipe for my Home made Apple Peel chutney or as I say by-product of applesauce because I wanted to use peel left after making applesauce, so I came up with this idea.

Ingredient :

• Peel of 2 apples cut into pieces(I used red delicious)
• half apple cut into pieces(preferably granny smith but use what ever u have)
• 3-4 dry red chillies
• around 2 tsp. of chopped ginger
• salt as per taste
• black pepper as per taste
• 3-4 cloves(loung/lavang)
• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 tsp. cinnamon powder
• juice of half lime(if using granny smith taste the chutney before adding lime juice)
• apple juice around 1/2 cup(water can be used)
• little oil

Method :

1) Heat little oil in a pan then add mustard seeds, cloves & red chillies, let them splutter. Now add ginger, apple peel & apple. Sprinkle the salt & cook the mixture on med. heat for roughly 20 min. or so. Keep adding little bit of apple juice whenever you feel it's getting too dry.

2) Once peel & apple become soft add black pepper & cinnamon powder.cook it for a minute or so then turn off the gas & let it cool down a bit(If it's too dry splash little water or juice).

3) Once cool add lime juice and grind it using blender or food processor.

Enjoy the chutney as a side with roti or spread it on your favourite bread/bagel or as a dip. Sorry, no photos we were busy eating & I totally forget to take pic of my bagel with butter & chutney on it.

Irish Soda Bread

"I'm always watching my weight. I don't eat sweets like cookies or chocolate. But bread is different. I can't even have one piece, because when I start, I don't stop." by : Daniela Pestova

Photography by "R" with her original idea

I choose Irish Soda Bread as my first bread to bake by myself for one particular reason : it's very easy to follow instant recipe with few ingredients(i had everything in my kitchen) & i feel it's kind of foolproof recipe for a first time bread baker(maker).Now, what exactly is Irish Soda Bread ?

It's a type of quick bread in which bread soda (otherwise known as sodium bicarbonate or baking soda) is used for leavening rather than the more common yeast. The ingredients of traditional soda bread are flour, bread soda, salt, and buttermilk. Other ingredients can be added such as raisins, egg or various forms of nuts. Soda bread dates back to approximately 1840, when bicarbonate of soda was introduced to Ireland. Soda bread eventually became a staple of the Irish diet.

Actual recipe is from Parents.com it says Irish Brown Bread over there, but i guess it's same as Irish Soda Bread because it uses Soda & buttermilk which are the key ingredient for this bread.Though i did made few changes after doing my web search and result was pretty good.

Ingredient :

1. 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour(Maida)
2. 1-1/2 cups whole-wheat flour(I used regular chappati flour)
3. 1/2 cup quick oats
4. 1/2 cup wheat germ
5. 1-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder(not in actual recipe but i added it)
7. 3/4 teaspoon salt
8. 1-3/4 cups buttermilk
9. 2 tablespoons honey

Directions :

1. Heat oven to 400°F. In bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, quick oats, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. In small bowl, using fork or a whisk mix buttermilk with honey(Spray your measuring spoon with Non-stick spray, so that honey doesn't stick with the spoon). Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture; stir to combine.

3. Turn dough out onto floured surface & gently bring it together(no need to knead the dough) and shape into a circle( I greased my hands using 3-4 drops of Olive Oil while forming it into circle). With a sharp knife cut a X mark on top of the loaf around 1&1/2 inch deep.

4.Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes( You can use a Pizza stone if you have one, I used greased Cast Iron Skillet).

5. Reduce temperature to 375°F and bake 15 minutes more or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap it. Let cool 20 minutes.

Ready to go in the Oven

And It's Ready.

Note : Mine was baked in exactly 30 minutes but timings may vary from oven to oven.

Review by my family : Here in this section I'm planning to keep a note regarding the review of my experiment under the following categories, which i feel will be helpful to anyone who wants to try this recipe & also, if after long time I myself want to repeat the recipe.

Look : We all loved it how it look. My daughter said it's pretty but doesn't look like bread b'coz she never saw a round bread before.Now time to cut it .

Crust & Inside : Had a great hardy crust(for DD it was too hard....did I told you guys that she takes crust of her sandwich bread too)but she liked the inside of it.Inside was kind of textured (crumbly but not falling apart)It's not airy like french baguette but it's hardy.Like to mention here that this bread was quite filling one, i guess b'coz of the whole wheat flour & oats I used in the recipe.

Serving Suggestions : DD eat it with her favorite strawberry jam.Adults liked it eating it plain or toasted slice with butter.I even ate it with lentil soup in the lunch, tasted delicious.

Storing : Kept two slices on the shelf for first two days. Second night moved it to fridge.Because of the milk used in the recipe I was not sure about storing it outside for longtime.

Rating : I had never tasted Irish Soda Bread before, so really can't compare. But i would say overall it tasted really good(everybody in the family liked it).Good choice for bread making beginners like me.Pretty Easy to make.

Don't forget to checkout my next experiment with Bread making/baking. And "Diwali Mubarak" to all of You.

I'm sending this delicious Irish Soda Bread to CFK-Wheat guest hosted by Sireesha of Kidz Delight, event authored by Sharmi .

Road to Making of Artisan Breads

Mission : Baking Artisan Bread twice a month.

Yes, and why it's a mission??? because from past few months hubby dear wants to buy a bread machine, which I'll be happy to have in my kitchen but only one problem, I told him that if we buy one, then every weekend it'll be his responsibility that he makes fresh bread, so that the machine can be put to it's optimum use. It's not that he won't make it,he'll be happy to do that but, I'm very much sure that in couple of weeks this machine will also be sitting, waiting to be picked, with few other gadgets like Ice cream maker,Meat grinder to name few which we, or i should say, he bought, because like me he also loves the kitchen stuff & get really excited shopping for the same.

So,I decided to take the matters into my hands(fingers crossed). It's not like, that I have no baking experience, but I don't call myself an experienced baker but at the same time I enjoy baking & have my own share of rise & flops.But my experience in baking is mainly with cakes & cupcakes(and I do consider apple/banana breads in the category of cakes) & occasional cookies, pie etc.

I don't know of anybody who doesn't like Freshly Baked Bread still warm to eat. The experience is totally different, if you have never eaten one it's worth a try.Before I go any further in this post let's see

What is Artisan Bread ???

Artisan bread is exactly what its name suggests: bread that is crafted, rather than mass produced. Baked in small batches rather than on a vast assembly line, artisan bread differs from prepackaged supermarket loaves in a number of ways. Special attention to ingredients, process, and a return to the fundamentals of the age-old bread-making tradition set artisan bread apart from soft, preservative-laden commercial breads.

The basic building blocks of bread are flour, water, yeast, and salt. Sourdough is added for some breads; eggs and sugar for others. Bread has been around for centuries. No chemicals were added to the breads baked by ancient Egyptians or those mentioned throughout the Bible, and none are added to artisan breads now. Since chemical additives are not used, the flavors of each ingredient are fully developed. And because of no chemical additives, artisan breads tends to have a much shorter shelf-life than the mass-produced prepackaged store-bought bread. It should be eaten within a day or two of purchase/baked or frozen for extended storage.

The process of crafting and baking an artisan bread remains largely the same as then. Quality ingredients are mixed, slowly fermented, hand shaped, and baked in small batches in stone ovens. Often, steam is utilized during the baking process to produce the crispy golden-brown crust characteristic of certain varieties of the artisan loaf (Source : wisegeek.com).

Why I'm discussing all these, because I think bread making is the simplest daily routine activity(well thru out the world people bake it everyday in the comfort of their home so why can't I) BUT then at the same time it's as complex as science, needs patience also,hmmm....well i some time dig into my cupcakes the moment they come out of the oven.

So, Saturday, October the 10th of 2009 was the day....I set my mind a night before, that first thing in the morning I'm gonna make Irish Soda Bread (Of'course I did my research). Now, the question is why this bread? and answer is I wanted a fool proof recipe to start with, plus the one, which doesn't need lot of prep time as i wanted to surprise my family.Click here to experience my Irish Soda Bread.

So, I'm starting my experiments with bread making, while keeping this Russian Proverb in my mind ......"One can get sick of cake, but never of bread.". All of you are welcome to join me in this adventure.