WHAT DO YOU NEED ?
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All purpose flour (maida) 500 gr
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Corn flour 100 gr
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1 and ½ teaspoon Active Dry yeast
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300 ml Water
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Salt
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Bowl
(I am not endorsing these brands, just they are easy to find in any grocery store around Delhi as the principle of my blog ""ingredient which are healthy and easy to find, no fancy stuffs :-) !)
HOW TO MAKE ?
Keep 300 ml water in a small bowl, warm it up a little bit, about 30-40
oC, test with your finger, sprinkle the dry yeast on the water and cover it for
5 minutes. Mix 300 gr all-purpose flour, all corn flour (corn flour to help
your bread fluffy and light) , salt, together in a bowl then pour over the
mixture of yeast and water, use a spoon to stir up the flour paste until well
mix. You can use the hand mixer with dough hooks for 2-3 minutes (I always use
hands – best tools -).
If use mixer, add 50gr of dry flour while you mix. If knead by hand, use
this 50gr to dust the surface, fold in the dough and press it out with your
palm.Then cover with plastic or just put the lid on. Keep it in the warm place for 2 hours or till
it double the quantity.
Then take the dough out on the clean surface and knead
it with the rest of dry flour for another 5 minutes. Remember just fold in the
flour, using your fingers to fold in and palm to press out. If you already know
how to make atta for roti then this is just a joke to tell you how to knead the
flour. Only with bread you do not need to knead it too much.
Cut the dough into 2 or 3 or 4, depend on the size of the bread you want.
After cutting, fold each of dough into a ball and cover it with damn cloth. Let
these ball rest for 5- 10 minutes.
Now take the dough, flatten it with your palm then make the French bread
shape using your palm to roll it (see photo), carefully lift the roll up and
put it on baking tray where you should already have dusted with dry flour.
Remember to keep gap between the rolls so that they will not stuck together
when it raise.
Cover the whole tray with plastic sheet or polybag, keep it for 30 min or
till it double the size. Then remove the plastic sheet and use sharp knife or
blade to slit the bread.
Turn on the oven in 15 minutes at 250 degree, place a small steel bow of
water in the bottom of the oven.
By the time the oven reach to desired temperature, the bread should look like the photo above. Spray the bread and oven with water before you place the tray in oven to bake to create the moisture environment to help the steaming process. Adjust
temperature to 220 or 200 oC, bake for 20 minutes. Then open the oven door and
leave it ajar, continue to bake for 10 more minutes with the top heat on (toast
mode). When the bread become nice golden, take it out and keep it on the net to
cool down.
My husband never want to wait till it cool down a bit, he always
wait their and grab it immediately. winter. We always finish one bread stand
right next to the oven, just eat plain… Nothing beat the smoky hot bread just
comes out from the oven in winter. Try yourself. It is not difficult at all.
TIPS
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When you buy the active dry Yeast, check for the expire
date, it should be 3-4 months old from the manufacturing date only. Even though
it always written on the box, best before 12 months but with the condition of
storage in India, you never know what you have got. If the yeast is not good,
the whole process is just waste. So when you sprinkle the yeast on water, after
2-3 minutes, the water will turn opaque, if it is still clear water, the yeast
might gone so just throw it. To keep the yeast in good condition for the next baking, keep the book in the fridge so it always handy whenever you want to bake bread.
This is the basic recipes for bread, the moment you are success with this try, you can use the same for pizza and stuff bread, Swiss sweet roll or Greek Olive bread.. Yummy !
