“Lady, you have been staring at me since last fifteen minute”, said handsome fellow with twinkle in his eyes.
“No I am not!” I said indignantly.
“Oh yes, you are. I am quite sure of it”. He was amused.
“Excuse me! You are imagining things”, I said trying to avoid his eyes.
“Its not the first time I noticed you looking at me ‘that’ way you know. I think I know what you want”, he said looking deep into my eyes.
“Oh, really? So you think you can read my mind? Tell me what’s in mind?” I challenged him as I was quite sure that he was bluffing.
“It’s very easy to read your mind. Well, I know for fact that you want to master me!”
And that’s exactly what I wanted to do all these years even when I was kitchen virgin!
I wanted to master him…
And at last I am happy to announce that I am no more a virgin, ahem, baking virgin is what I meant!!!
Ta-da… I baked bread!!! I did it!!! And how I did it!!!
I didn’t follow any recipes or cook books or any cookery shows to bake my first bread. Since my last successful story of baking Poolish Focaccia, I wanted to bake another batch of bread but I have been putting it off for long. Then last week I felt like baking something, anything from scratch! Since I was short of sugar and eggs, this idea of baking bread came to my mind. I sat back and thought of ingredients that go into baking bread: flour and yeast. Well, for the first time in my mind the thought of baking bread didn’t scare the hell out of me! My fear of handling yeast is wearing off as I am quite confident in making good batch of Naans and I felt pretty confident at using it in baking bread. It didn’t take me long to decide what I wanted in my bread and how I am going to bake it. And rest, as we say is history!!! ;)
I decided to stick with whole wheat and ditched the thought of using plain flour as I find the whole wheat flavour to be more to my liking and quite earthy. I decided to flavour my bread with sun dried tomatoes (as I had this bottled sun dried tomatoes nearing its expiry date), garlic (can’t get enough of it) and some dried Italian herbs. Since I was baking it for lunch of big bowls of Roasted Pepper & Tomato Soup, and since I also happen to love the flavour of olive oil in breads, I used good amount of extra virgin olive oil. So the end product is Sun Dried Tomato & Garlic flavoured Whole Wheat Bread. I wanted my bread to be pretty basic and rustic looking, something that I buy from farmer’s market every weekend. So I shaped it into rough circle and made few incisions with knife and sprinkled generous poppy seeds on top of it. After few minutes of baking in my ancient oven, my kitchen smelled like bread shop that made us twice hungry! The upper crust was golden brown and little hard and the inside was spongy and well, bread-y ;) It’s a miracle we didn’t start tearing it off as soon as it came out of oven and stuff our mouth with freshly baked goodness! And boy!!! Did I master him or what!
Sun Dried Tomato & Garlic Flavoured Whole Wheat Bread
Print This Recipe Sun Dried Tomato & Garlic Flavoured Whole Wheat BreadPrep Time: 15 mins (excluding resting time)
Baking Time: 35-45 mins
Serves: 4-6
Recipe Level: Basic/Beginner
Spice Level: Low
Serving Suggestion: With Soups & Salds
Ingredients:Sun Dried Tomato & Garlic Flavoured Whole Wheat Bread before Baking
2½ cups Atta/Whole Wheat Flour
1 tsp/1 sachet quick action Yeast
¼ cup warm Milk
1 tsp Baking Powder
6-8 Sun Dried Tomatoes, chopped into ½ cm pieces
¾ - 1 bulb Garlic, crushed to rough paste
1-2 tsp Dried Italian Herbs or any herbs of your choice
1-2 tbsp + ¼ cup or less Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tbsp Black Poppy Seeds or any topping of your choice
Salt to taste
Water to knead
Method:
Preparing Dough:
Mix dry yeast in warm milk and keep it aside for 10 mins, by when the yeast would have started to react and bubbled.
Sieve whole wheat flour, baking powder and salt to taste in a large mixing bowl. Mix in chopped sun dried tomatoes, Italian herb mix and crushed garlic.
Make small hole in the centre and add yeast dissolved in milk along with olive oil and start to mix them well.
Slowly start adding water as and when needed and form smooth, pliable dough.
Cover the dough with cling film and let it rest for minimum 1½ hours till the dough starts to rise and doubles in volume.
Baking the Bread:
Preheat the oven at 220 degree C.
Line parchment paper on baking tray and spray it with oil.
Gently transfer the dough into centre of baking tray and shape it either square or rectangle or circle as I have done here.
Using a large knife, lightly press the surface horizontally and vertically forming squares.
Brush the surface with 1-2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, coating the top surface well and sprinkle poppy seeds or topping of your choice.
Place the baking tray in mid rack and bake it undisturbed for 35-45 mins depending on the type of oven. The bread should be backed well and the surface should turn golden brown in colour.
Place the backed bread on cooling rack and let it cool for 15 mins before cutting them into desired shape. When tapped, the bread should produce hollow sound which assures that the bread is baked well.
Cut bread into desired shapes and serve as it is or with hot bowl of your favourite soup and enjoy!
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Dried,Tomato,Garlic,Flavoured,Whole,Wheat,Bread,Baking,Virgin
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