Sandwich Bread

Sandwich Bread 

One might wonder if I am mad to try out different recipes for the same dish. Well I strongly believe that each ingredient has its role to play in the making of a dish and the different ingredients used or not used makes some difference so that you can ultimately choose the one you like best. I was bowled over by Dan Lepard's Sour Cream Bread which I made a few months ago but then I wanted to try out another recipe for sandwich bread and so this time I searched for something which would be different and to be fair  it was the use of the egg  from Roxaneshomebaking that simply made me zero in on her recipe.

I'l be honest I have never been betrayed by the often deceitful yeast and so this recipe is quite a walk in the park. The only difficulty is in the wait.

Well, well so this one uses eggs and if you don't take eggs well there always is the Sour Cream Sandwich Bread for you to try out.

Anyway this is what you need for a decent loaf  :-

Cups used in this recipe holds 250ml liquid

3 and 1/4th cups of all purpose flour
20gm fresh yeast or 10gm instant dry yeast
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp sugar
50gm melted butter
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/4th cup lukewarm milk + 2 tbsp for brushing
1 egg

Proof your yeast by dissolving it in 2 tbsp to 4 tbsp lukewarm water with a pinch of sugar.

Once the yeast is proofed take your flour in a big bowl make a well in the center and add the yeast , sugar , egg and add the salt on one side of the flour then add the cooled down melted butter and the water and mix with a wooden spoon and leave for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes add the lukewarm milk and make a dough which you must knead for about 5 minutes to make an elastic ball. Cover with a damp cloth and let it rise for about 1 hour.

After 1 hour it should have doubled in size and then punch it down and flatten it with a pin and tightly wrap it in the shape of a scroll and then place it in a greased loaf pan to rise for another 45 minutes or till it doubles.

Preheat oven to 180 C and brush the loaf with milk and bake for 30 minutes to 37 minutes. Once baked let it cool down in the loaf pan for 15 minutes and then take it out and let it cool down completely before slicing.

Tips

1. The brushing of milk is crucial in getting an even browning for the bread without leaving burnt marks 
2. To make the loaf extra soft always place a tray of boiling water beneath the rack no which the bread is being baked. 
3. You must never try and slice the bread before it has completely cooled down else the slices will not come out clean and  you will end up with a messy mush. 

Sour Cream Sandwich Bread

Sour Cream Sandwich Bread 

There was a time when making a sandwich at home required buying bread and other ingredients , assembling them and eating it, given the bread would be bought from bakeries but once you have made your own bread successfully there is no looking back. Like my friend Karen says, its therapeutic and I say its an addiction and well you get the best flavours and taste.

So when I decided to make a sandwich I had to pre-plan it from at least 4 days before. First and foremost there was the search for the perfect recipe though but wait the sandwich is yet to be made because first comes the bread. Well to be honest when it comes to bread I don't have to read too many articles and recipes to know where to find the perfect recipe. You see the first time I ever baked bread it came out top notch and perfect and I had nothing to do with it, it was all because of my Bread God Dan Lepard's recipe. His recipes are perfect , so whenever I bake my bread I just follow his recipe and add a little of what I call 'Manjari proof' thing in the end.

So Mr. lepard says this is the 'proper British sandwich bread' and I say it comes out marvellous. It calls for sour cream and so lets begin with the sour cream . You can easily buy your own but believe me making sour cream substitute at home is easier than any other dish. And there is no need to try and make this healthy with wholewheat flour because if you really want healthy bread make a wholewheat bread . I have one in my Cakes and Bakes :)

 For the sour cream :-

200ml cream
2 tbsp vinegar (I used apple cider vinegar)

Just mix the cream with the vinegar and keep it in the hottest part of your home and let it ferment for 24 hours to 48 hours and you shall have thick sour cream substitute. Then chill this for a day and you are sandwich ready. I took advantage of the horrible summers in India and my sour cream was ready after overnight fermentation which I chilled for the entire day before using. After using the amount of sour cream required for the bread you shall still have some sour cream. Use it for salads, soups etc. The amount left is too little for cakes.

Recipe Source : Dan Lepard's Sour Cream Sandwich bread

What you need for a good loaf which yields enough slices for 6 sandwiches is :-

125ml chilled sour cream
550gm all purpose flour
150ml cold water
100ml boiling water
2 tsp dry active yeast
2 tsp castor sugar
2 tsp salt
25gm butter (all of which you shall not require)
Milk for brushing

Start by boiling the water. Take a big bowl and add your sour cream, cold water and then add the hot water , salt sugar and yeast. See the recipe did not call for proofing of the yeast and I haven't done it but I am guessing this first step proofs the yeast. After 5 minutes stir well and add the flour and use your clean hands to make the dough and cover and leave for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes butter your hands and knead the dough for 1 minute and leave for 10 minutes covered with the cloth. Repeat its  process twice. Now knead it well and tightly roll it like a scroll and butter your baking pan and leave the dough inside the pan covered with cloth  and let it rise for the next 1 hour to 1.5 hours till it has doubled in size. Brush with milk. This brushing of milk is what I call the 'Manjari proofing' because if you don't there is a chance that the top becomes too dark. This gives a nice brown crust on top and a shine.

Preheat oven to 200 C and bake for 30 minutes to 45 minutes. I personally required 39 minutes. Let it cool in the pan for 2 minutes and then take it out and let it cool on the rack for at least 2 hours to 3 hours and when it has become completely cool only then should you slice it. If you try slicing ti earlier your bread will crumble.

Make a nice sandwich. I shall make it tomorrow because ' Tomorrow is another day'  :)

Milk Bread

Milk Bread 

My father has always maintained that no other bread tastes as good as the humble milk bread. While I do not accept his thoughts on bread because I love whole wheat bread and some other breads as well on a hot summer's day I make a batch of milk loaves for my father who loves fresh soft milk bread with copious amount of butter spread on it and sugar sprinkled on it. And it becomes a heavenly  treat with fresh cream on top

The truth is that, once you start making bread it is only through your experience that you come to know of certain important aspects which no recipe talks about.

 

For instance the first time I had baked a bread I had thoroughly searched the internet for recipes and most of them scared me until I stumbled upon Dan Lepard's artisan bread. It was well explained and my bread had come out perfect, yet after my experience with a couple of other breads it was only practice which made me realize that while the success of a bread baked at home depends largely on the right recipe so does some other factors. So, most people face a problem of the bread not rising but did you know that is bread is proofed beyond requirement it will rise and then start expanding but you need not worry because there is a solution. You simply punch it down knead and let it rise :)

Milk bread is one of the easiest breads one can bake and the ingredients are very easily available and stocked by most homes and so it usually saves you the trouble of going out to gather ingredients.

Here is what you need for the recipe :-

For the recipe I followed Dan Lepard's recipe to the tee but cut the recipe down to suit my requirements

312 gm all purpose flour + a little extra for kneading
1 tsp instant yeast
50ml cold water
188 ml warm milk
38 gm salted butter
13g castor sugar or honey (I had used honey)
Extra butter for greasing and kneading
1 tsp salt
Though not mentioned in Lepard's recipe I used extra milk to brush the tops before baking

Start by bringing the milk to a boil and letting it cool down to a lukewarm stage when you add the cold water and the yeast. Remember that the liquid must not be of a high temperature else it shall kill the yeast.

Next mix the flour, castor sugar or honey, salt and then melt butter and pour in in the dough. Use your clean hands to knead. Remember it will be sticky but you must not add extra flour else your bread will come out hard. keep kneading the sticky dough for 10 minutes and then let it rest for 10 minutes covered with a wet cloth. After 10 minutes grease your hands with butter and knead it till it forms a super soft dough and let it rise for the next 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Before the final rise 

Here is the tricky part. Dan Lepard works in a cold country and I stay in a tropical one , so my bread was done in 50 minutes and then I punched it down and added flour to knead it and shape it. I  divided it in three balls and shaped them like sausages by rolling them and placed them side by side. I covered it with the cloth and let it rise for the next 20 minutes.

Ready to be baked 

Now preheat the oven to 180 C and bake for 40 minutes to 50 minutes in a well greased tray or a loaf pan. Do not forget to brush the dough with milk before baking it for a beautiful brown yet soft crust else your crust will blacken.

It is important to let the bread cool completely before slicing it up. It takes a bit of practice to get it out of the tray. Simply use a blunt knife to gently but firmly bring it out after 10 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

P.S. When baking the bread always use a tray of boiled water beneath the rack on which the bread is beign baked. This keeps the bread moist while it is baking.

Enjoy the soft slices buttered well . Indulgence is a luxurious necessity. In the end my father might have shown his mock anger and said, 'The daughter is doing nothing but baking . Why don't you open a  bakery?' but his chewing on the buttered slice of milk bread said otherwise . Now I can happily go off to sleep and wake up to a delicious breakfast :)

Whole Wheat Bread

  Whole wheat bread 

 I could live on a loaf of bread and some good cheese . Oh well I think I am on what is a bread-high. And why wouldn't I be, I  baked my first 100% wholewheat bread and it was 100% successful. Now I do not even have to quote sources to let people know at this day and age about the immense benefits of whole wheat bread over white bread, the media has taken care of that well enough. No matter which newspaper you read, magazine you love flipping through or television you watch the media has does a brilliant job in educating people about the benefits of wholewheat bread. So the bottom line is you stay healthy and fit. Now being a passionate food enthusiast I for one am obviously part of many a social food groups and the horror stories about working with whole wheat bread did scare me unnecessarily as I might say after my bread puffed while I kept puffing with joy.



Now I had already ventured into the delightful arena of bread-making and with the right recipe in tow there was that Cheddar Bread and Bacon garlic cheddar bread but then again those were the work of white flour. It was tasty , fluffy delicious and utterly butterly unhealthy. Now if I was not a dunderhead when it came to science I could have explained why it is more difficult to work with whole-wheat bread but after reading numerous articles, recipes etc on wholewheat bread what I understand is that wholewheat lacks something called gluten and hence the difficulty . Now some people add extra gluten on but I for one hate recipes that call for an unnecessary ingredient when there is a way of not using it , so there is no extra gluten  but what I did do was follow the ingredients of one recipe and follow my method because I had been so successful with a certain Mr.Lepard's method of baking bread.

Before we even begin lets get one thing clear. Whole-wheat bread is supposed to be denser than white bread. It is supposed to be heavy and what the commercial brown or whole wheat bread does is misguide the customer very dishonestly. If your whole-wheat bread is light fluffy know this for sure that your baker has added a good percentage of white flour so. What might have worked in my proofing could have been the weather of the country I live in. While there are numerous problems with living in a country such as India be it the non-delivery of gas cylinders , the pathetic rashes I develop during the summer months or so many other things if there is one thing that worked in my favour it was the weather which I believe helped in my proofing. Now the process I followed is a bit lengthy but if it works then what is there in a bit of patience because bread-making is one of those dishes where your actual work is minimum.

So here is the recipe

3 cups (cups which hold 250ml liquid ) whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
4 tsp fresh yeast / 2 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbsp  honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup warm water but not too hot else it kills the yeast . It should ideally be tepid water
2 heaped tbsp curd / unflavoured yogurt
4 to 5 tbsp sesame seeds (optional)

I keep making wholewheat bread and keep playing with shape
A wholewheat sandwich loaf made at some point 

Start by dumping one cup of whole wheat on a work bowl and adding the yeast and then adding another cup of flour before adding the salt and then the final cup of flour. It seems that salt is a hindrance to the work of yeast and so many a recipe suggests either putting them side by side away from each other or layering it. Now slowly pour the warm water. It should not be hot because hot water kills yeast. Mix in the yogurt / curd . Mr.Lepard had taught me that curd makes your bread super soft and delicious and who am I to not listen to an expert.  Mix this with a wooden spoon and form a rough dough and then cover with a tea-towel and leave aside for 10 minutes .

After the 2nd kneading from the 10 minute gap regime 

Now oil your hands , oil the work board add the honey and 2 tbsp olive oil and start kneading the dough. The dough should be 'sticky but should not cling to your hands' is the golden guidance I have received from another recipe.  What I did was I did knead it for 10 minutes and then covered it and left it for another 10 to 12 minutes and kneaded it for a minute and left it for another 10 minutes covered with the tea-towel kneaded it again and finally after the last 10 minutes of resting the dough (it was covered every time it rested) I found that it  was well covered with oil from all sides, exactly what I had wanted . Now I used 1 tbsp flour to knead the bread and used 3 tbsp sesame seeds inside the dough and kneaded it , floured the work board  and put my dough in shaped it , covered it with my tea-towel and then left it to rise for about 30 minutes in the corner of my cabinet . The time needed for the last rise would largely depend on the place where you to stay, temperature, whether condition. I stay in a humid tropical country and so it takes very little time. For others in colder areas it might just take about 1 hour or 1.5 hours.

The rise of the bread 

At the end of it it was perfectly risen. I made three slashes of top to let the steam escape and sprinkled some sesame seeds on top. I preheated my oven ,  to 200C ,placed a tray of water beneath the rack on which my baking floured baking tray went (I do not own a bread pan) and baked the bread for 30 minutes turning it and baking after 20 minutes for an even baked bread. After 30 minutes i reduced the temperature to 180C and baked for another 15 minutes. Now the bread is baked by 35 minutes if using a convection oven or 30 minutes for a regular one but for those who like a nice rustic crust which is a deep hue of brown follow the lowering of temperature and baking it for another 15 minutes.

The tray of water beneath the rack helps in keeping the bread moist and soft

Once done let it cool on a wired rack for 30 minutes and do not be tempted to slice the bread before it cools down. I think this was the hardest part of the recipe. Enjoy it with some extra virgin olive oil and some grilled chicken on top or feta or grilled indian cottage cheese (paneer) or just about anything. What did I do? I rewarded myself with two slices of the fresh bread with very little just melted Emmental cheese on top.

A wholewheat boule made for a friend 

What I most love about the whole wheat bread is that it solves the problem of my tea-time accompaniment. Growing up in a household where the Darjeeling tea is a must as the start of the day and start of the evening  I but naturally grew my palate for that delightful tea sans sugar and milk but the single greatest problem would be finding a suitably healthy accompaniment. I mean sure for principle meals you can have salads, soups , wraps but then there was the problem of the tea-time partner. A thin slice of this bread warmed up with a very little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil is divine.

Bacon Garlic Cheddar Bread

Bacon garlic Cheddar Bread 

A lovely lady had told me that bread-making can be addictive and she was extremely right. You see bread-making is one of the easiest dishes to be made in the kitchen. Once you find all your information and the right recipe there is no looking back. So in my first post for bread I have jotted down what one should do when making bread. Now let me clarify from before these bread are rustic yet soft and fluffy on the inside and you can just about use any stuffing which catches your fancy. Well garlic , bacon and cheese are three ingredients which have , is and always shall catch my fancy and so here I present my Garlic Bacon cheddar bread.

The recipe of bread-making has been written in the  post, Cheddar Bread  and follow everything except the stuffing part

For the stuffing :-

350gm lean bacon
70gm to 100 gm cheddar cheese
5 to 6 large sized garlic cloves
1 tbsp olive oil

While the yeast works its way in your bread mince your garlic finely and chop the bacon into bite sized pieces and cube the cheddar but in small cubes. Fry the bacon and add the garlic and saute till the bacon is well fried and the garlic is softened and crisp gives out the aroma but make sure not to brown it.

So instead of stuffing the dough with cheddar you put in the garlic bacon mixture and then add the cheddar. Now press them down and cover it well with the dough from all sides and then bake at oven which has been preheated to 220C and bake at 220 C for 45 minutes in case you have convection oven or for 35 minutes to 40 minutes for regular ovens.

Cheddar Bread

Cheddar Bread 

There are certain pleasures of life which makes you feel that life can be beautiful and my recent venture into the bread-making arena has left me feeling that life is sweet. Alright I have to confess that the perfect outcome of my first ever bread has left me a little more joyous than ever. You see first-time successes are nothing to feel great over because if you really do your research well and know what to do and what not to do then chances are you will not fail.

Now there are plenty of recipes out there in the virtual world but choosing the right one is your key trick. For me I like the lengthy ones which explain every bit of the process and after my immense first time success with Dan lepard's Dundee Cake I decided he was my man for my first White bread as well. Now even with a good recipe I was terrified and here is why. You see the first time I had followed Mary Berry's recipe my cake had a mildly zinc like taste which I later found out was due to the amount of baking powder. I learnt a valuable lesson that the strength and usage of baking powder can geographically vary. So a reduced amount of baking powder later I have since made perfect Victorian sponge cakes and so I was a bit scared about using yeast since I felt the geography could come between me and my perfect loaf but then I closed my eyes read his recipe and compared it with another well known one and finalized on his well explained one. This one is just how I liek my bread to be rustic in its look and feel and taste and soft and cheesy inside.

So bread-making is the easiest of all culinary projects. Here are a few tips I have gathered from Mr.Lepard :-

1. Take your time and work a bit , so he suggests letting the yeast salt, flour and wet ingredients work for 10 minutes and then giving it a light kneading with buttered or oiled hands leaving ti for 10 more minutes and repeating it twice more. 
2. He suggests using yogurt for half the amount of water specified in a recipe for softer bread without a milky taste. So if a recipe asks for 300ml water you use 150ml water and 150gm yogurt which has been whipped.
3. Always place a tray of water beneath your rack which is baking the bread since that helps in keeping it moist. 

So I bravely added cheddar to my first bread and its  success overwhelmed me and so here I present my very own Cheddar bread since Mr.Lepard's recipe was only for a white bread :P 

Serves 4 to 5 

400gm all purpose flour 

1 tsp instant yeast 

1 tsp salt 

150ml lukewarm water 

150gm yogurt which has been whisked 

100gm Cheddar cheese cubed into very tiny cubes 

Kitchen towel 

Butter for kneading 

Extra flour for kneading 

Mixing the ingredients with the wooden spatula 

Start by placing your flour in a bowl. Add the yeast on one side of the flour and the salt on the other side . If you mix the salt and yeast it apparently hampers the yeast in its work. Slowly add the curd and mix with a wooden spoon. Then add the water bit but bit and mix well with the wooden spoon. You shall have a sticky consistency and wrap it in your kitchen towel and leave it for 10 minutes. 

After the third kneading with butter 

Oil your palms very well and the work board you shall work upon and knead the bread gently and put it back in the bowl and repeat this process twice more with a 10 minute interval where you wrap the dough in the kitchen towel. After the last kneading in which you make sure every side is covered with butter leave the dough to rise for 45 minutes (that is exactly the time I required) to 50 minutes and in the meantime cube the cheddar , wash and pat dry your work-board and flour it well, use plenty of flour on your hands and then knead the dough and do it fast so that the dough does not stick to your hands. 

After the last kneading with butter and letting the dough rise for 45 minutes 

Cheddar being added 

Add the cheddar in the middle and cover it with the dough from all sides and pinch it to make sure nothing is sticking out. Leave it with the kitchen towel wrapped around it for another 45 minutes to 50 minutes and then preheat oven to 220 C. Make a pattern on your bread with a knife before baking if you want to. 

Before the patterns 

Final dough ready to be baked 

Bake your bread with the tray of water beneath the rack for 45 minutes to 50 minutes if using convection oven or 35 minutes to 40 minutes for regular ovens. 

Enjoy this hearty bread with some soup, all by itself or with some cold cuts or make a hearty sandwich the choice is all yours 

Of Breads Bombay and Health

"Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all food;    

and good bread with fresh butter,the greatest of feast" - James Beard 

Well I could not agree more with James Beard. For the better part of my years of growing up breakfast with bread was something which was a common sight at the breakfast table, be it the slice of bread toasted and buttered well with an omelette or fried egg sunny side up of the egg sandwich or the ever favourite French  toasts but the one type of bread which makes me think fondly of my great grizzly bear at home were these simple loaves of bread baked fresh at 6:30 a.m. which would inevitably reach our home by 7 a.m. and my father would go on to layer it with butter and sprinkle it with sugar. Times have changed and we have all moved on from the humble milk breads, casting it aside as the unhealthy demon, but oh what a treat it is to slather the freshest of soft fluffy white loaf with a generous layer of butter. Of course, the days when we would get our supply of cow milk from our village home, it would be a real treat with the addition of the thick natural cream on the buttered bread. This treat was of course limited because the village some 200km away from the City of Joy was far away. 

In recent times, we as consumers, have become quite conscious. There are innumerable articles which educate people and so we are horrified to know that, 'those who eat lots of white bread raises the risk of a cancer' as reported by the DailyMail from United Kingdom. Rows and rows of multigrain bread and wholewheat bread and names I don't even remember but all claiming to be the healthiest of breads occupy shelves of bakeries. 

Kolkata Food Bloggers have decided to keep this week and the coming week as the 'Yeasty Feasty' week and while there are delicious recipes of bread you can find on the page I shall try and share my experience and tips on purchasing good quality bread. 

To be fair I haven't had the best of breads in Calcutta and after my tryst with the bread that is on offer in Mumbai the erstwhile  Bombay my love for bread wakes up whenever I reach this city and it leaves me sad whenever I leave the city. This story takes us to the by-lanes of Old Bombay. While you are mesmerized by the beauty of the architecture that the city has to offer you cannot miss the little bakery tucked away in-between two buildings in Fort, the famous 'Yazdani bakery' , started in 1951 it is a bread lover's paradise and the prices will astonish you in the happiest way possible. They open up in the wee hours of 5:30 a.m. and close down at 7 p.m. in the evening. 

The entrance with its tiled roof is a beauty itself. The place is tiny rustic and mesmerizing. So you have fresh bread being made on one side of the room you share the wooden benches with strangers and the peeling walls adorned with pictures of bodybuilders is hard to miss. The menu is written in colourful chalks on a blackboard and the waiters simply ask you, 'Kya doo?' (What shall I give you?) If you are lucky enough the old man at the cashier will indulge in a little small talk and quite frankly if you have not been lucky enough you sure are missing something. His ever smiling robust presence is so cheerful that the Grinch who stole Christmas would be a changed Grinch.  

When in Bombay you just cannot miss the buns and bruns on offer. You see while these soft fluffy buns are moist and pillowy its harder cousin the bruns are soft inside with a beautiful crust outside. So throw caution to the winds and enjoy it like you should by slathering it with butter and dipping it in some Irani chai. And one brun maska (maska meanign butter) can keep you full for a good 3 hours to 4 hours . Wake up early and head straight to Cawasji Patel Street and sink your teeth in fresh from the oven brun with a cup of irani chai. You see enjoying the brun without dipping it in tea is quite possible and so dunk and feel the magic of these crusty yet soft inside delights. 

For your regular use try the multi-grain bread Soft, dense and full of flavours this healthy bread is perfect for your taste buds and your health. You see, the whole wheat releases sugar slowly and just one slice is enough to fill you up. At Rs70 for 600gm it is quite a delight. Try their Laadi pav one half of the infamous Pav Bhaji or Vada Pav from Bombay, These soft delight are not just for your regular Bombay street food, slicing it in the middle and adding a bit of jam Homemade Strawberry Jam is what a good morning or a beautiful afternoon paired with a cup of tea is all about.

While not all of us have access to Yazdani bakery or cannot always bake fresh delicious bread at home all of us can make little differences to our regular affairs and indulge once in a while :-

You do not have to shun bread altogether simply try and pick up 100% whole wheat bread which is not brown bread. Brown bread is made with all purpose flour and whole wheat .

Healthy bread is supposed to be dense. So try and give your loaf a gentle squeeze before buying to ensure you get your whole grains. Most manufacturers make soft pillowy bread  with the use of all purpose flour.

Here are a few tips on how to buy bread and keep it fresh  which might interest you.

Don't forget to visit Kolkata Food Blogger's for some Yeast Feasty Treats 

This is part of the Yeasty Feasty Celebration