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Whole Wheat Flaxseed Bread

June 21, 2012 in Bread, Recipes

A delicious and easy to make whole wheat bread

Those who know me well enough know that I have been off of store-bought bread for a while now. But that means that I have to make my own bread else I have to go without bread for a few days. So after a long break and not having bread for a while now, I decided to bake some bread for myself today. This is another treasure from the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It is just five minutes of work mixing the bread and another five minutes to shape it. And obviously it takes as long as it takes to bake the bread. And yes the flaxseed flavor is an acquired taste but it is extremely healthy and contains tons of omega-3 fatty acids, yeah the same stuff found in seafood. I am told that omega-3 fatty acids are a very healthy form of polyunsaturated fat. So all in all, this bread is extremely healthy, contains whole wheat, so there’s your fiber and then the flaxseed. And there is no oil or butter used! Now let me get to the ingredients. This makes about two 1-pound loaves. Now if you want all the detailed instructions that the authors of the book give, you will need to buy the book. It is a treasure trove of awesome instructions and little details that make your bread baking experience a really incredible one.

Ingredients:

  1. 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
  2. 3 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (subdues the whole wheat flavor)
  3. 3/4 tbsp granulated yeast
  4. 1/2 tbsp salt
  5. 1/8 cup vital wheat gluten
  6. 2 + 1/8 cup lukewarm water

Directions:

  • Mix together all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl of lidded container. Do not knead the dough, just mix it well together and set it aside in the bowl.
  • Let the dough rise for about 2 hours. Let the dough rise and collapse.
  • Now you can either make the bread the same day after the initial rise but it tastes better if left in the refrigerator for atleast 24 hours.
  • When you are ready to bake the bread, dust the dough with some flour and cut off a grapefruit sized dough. Quickly shape the dough into a ball by bringing together the ends of the dough together underneath the dough and turning it to shape it.
  • Allow the dough to rise on a pizza peel prepared with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap. Or you can use a greased cookie sheet or a silicone mat to let the dough rise.
  • Next place a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 450 F for about 30 minutes. Also place an empty metal broiler tray on the bottom shelf of the oven.
  • Slash the top of the loaf with a serrated knife (parallel cuts) just before moving the dough into the oven. When you transfer the dough into the oven, pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and shut the oven dough.
  • Now bake the bread in the oven for about 30-35 mins till the bread is nicely browned.
  • Cool the bread in a cooling rack before slicing it.

Hope you enjoy baking bread at home as much as I did. I promise, you will love this bread and this recipe is a keeper for sure. If you do try the bread, please do let me know whether you like it. Thank for reading my blog and happy baking!

Shilpa

 

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Whole Wheat Bagel

April 27, 2012 in Bread, Breakfast

Never thought I would Bake Bagels at home…

Baking bagels is really easy…. I never thought I would say that. But seriously they are. I love bagels anytime of the day, breakfast, lunch, snack or dinner. I love them with cream cheese, with pesto or even as a sandwich. So when I saw a show on TV the other day where the cook was baking bagels, I thought that I could do that. Sorry, but I do not remember the show or the cook’s name. I remembered the technique he used and just used the bread from the whole wheat bread I made the other day. The dough for these bagels was made using the recipe here. And sorry about the pictures, I was in a hurry and did a rather bad job with the pics. But the bagels were awesome!

The dough was in the refrigerator for two days after I made the whole wheat bread. I used the other half of the dough that was left in the refrigerator to make four bagels, 1 1/2 of which I finished before I actually took the pictures. Therefore the 2 1/2 bagels in the pictures. Well I am allowed to have more than one, I had a very light lunch. :)

Directions:

  • Make the dough as instructed in the whole wheat bread recipe, here.
  • The day you are baking the bagels remove the dough from the refrigerator and separate the dough into peach size balls.
  • Take each ball of dough and bring together the ends under the ball.
  • Next make a hole in the center of the ball, about 1.5″ – 2.0″ in diameter.
  • Place the bagel on a parchment paper. Place a plastic wrap over the bagels and let it rise for about 20 mins.
  • About 15 mins in to the rising time, place a large saucepan filled with water and bring to a boil.
  • At the same time place a baking stone (if you are using one) in the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425F. Let the oven pre-heat for about 30 mins if using the baking stone, if you are using a baking pan lined with parchment paper for baking the bagels, you will not need 30 mins.
  • Once the water come to a boil, add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 tsp of baking soda to the water and reduce the boil to a simmer.
  • Add the bagels one at a time (or more) making sure that the bagels are not touching each other.
  • Cook the bagels for one minute on each side and take it out of the water and place it on a parchment paper sprinkled with cornmeal.
  • I sprinkled some sesame seeds on top while the bagels were still moist (right after removing from the boiling water).
  • Once the oven is pre-heated, move the bagels from the parchment paper to the baking stone (if using one). Else just transfer the baking pan to the oven and bake the bagels for 20-25 mins or till the outside is browned and crisp.
  • Voila, the bagel is ready to be devoured warm. These can be baked and toasted when ready to eat as well.

The bagels were delicious, chewy inside and crispy crust on the outside. I promise, you will love these homemade bagels. They are healthy as well, whole wheat, and yes just a little bit of all purpose flour. The texture was brilliant and the taste was awesome too. Give it a try and I promise you, the store bought bagels will never taste good enough. :)

Thanks for reading my blog.

Shilpa

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Whole Wheat Bread

April 25, 2012 in Bread, Recipes

At last a successful everyday bread with 5 mins of prep time.

Somehow store-bought bread and I just don’t get along well anymore. My stomach knows exactly when it is store-bought and decides to punish me for it… :( So that’s when I decided to try making bread at home. I have tried a number of recipes and white bread is easy to make, but then that’s not healthy. So I read and read and re-read during my lunch and dinner breaks and realized that the secret to whole wheat bread is vital wheat gluten! Once you have this, you can make brilliant whole wheat bread at home… And to add to it, you need only 5 mins of your hands on time. Just mix the ingredients together and the next day you have fresh out of the oven healthy, no preservative bread! Now why on earth would I buy bread anymore? Well I am going to avoid it as far as I can now. And this has now given me the opportunity to try out different variations. I have a million ideas in my head and you guys will know of all my successful attempts right here…

A very useful resource I found online is the King Arthur Flour website. They have a brilliantly written blog as well, very detailed and very nice recipes. At least the two recipes I have tried till now are perfect and I am going to make them again and again. That’s where I discovered the brilliantly written book - Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day: 100 New Recipes Featuring Whole Grains, Fruits, Vegetables, and Gluten-Free Ingredients by Zoe Francois & Jeff Hertzberg MD. They have very nice recipes and they also give very detailed instructions on what kind of flour to use and how to handle the dough etc. A must buy book if you are interested in baking bread at home. Now let’s get to the recipe. This makes about two 1 pound loaves.

Ingredients:

  1. 2 3/4 cups whole wheat bread
  2. 1 cup all purpose flour
  3. 3/4 tbsp instant yeast (1 packet)
  4. 1/2 tbsp salt
  5. 2 tbsp vital wheat gluten
  6. 2 cups warm water (115F)

Directions:

  • Mix all the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl or a dough tub.
  • Cover the bowl and keep it outside for 2 hrs at room temperature. I left it outside overnight and let it rise.
  • The next day morning before leaving for work, I moved it into the refrigerator.
  • In the evening or anytime in the next 14 days cut out a grape sized piece of dough and form a ball of it without kneading or punching down the dough. You want all the air to remain in the dough, this leads to a nice light loaf.
  • Stretch the dough out a little to form an almond shaped loaf.
  • Transfer the dough ball onto a silicone mat, pizza peel sprinkled with cornmeal or parchment paper.
  • Now let the dough rise for about 90 mins. About 60 mins into the rising time, place the baking stone in the oven and pre-heat the oven 450 F.
  • Place an empty metal broiler pan below the baking stone.
  • At the end of the rising time, place the bread on the baking stone. If using the silicone mat, transfer the bread into the baking stone directly after 2/3 time into the baking time.
  • Bake the bread for 30 mins or till the bread crust is browned.
  • Cool the bread on a cooling rack for about 20 mins and then cut it into slices.

Voila here’s the bread ready to be devoured any way you wish. I made some pesto egg salad and made an egg salad sandwich. The fact that this is fresh bread, elevated a simple egg salad sandwich to a whole different level! And this tastes good just toasted with soe butter.

And you can use the rest of the dough as and when you want or bake it all in one go. I can bake fresh bread at home anytime I feel like now. Thanks for reading my blog and hope you enjoy this recipe.

Shilpa

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Whole Wheat Dutch Crunch Bread

April 4, 2012 in Baked Treats, Bread, Recipes

Daring Bakers March Challenge

I made this bread without the topping though about a month back and then I was supposed to complete the challenge but then a ton of things happened last month and this got pushed to the back burner. But there was no way I wasn’t gonna make it ultimately, it just looks so awesome and I have overcome my fear of baking yeast breads now so I had to try it. The daring bakers version was made of all-purpose flour. I decided to make the bread with whole wheat flour instead but stuck to the recipe for the topping as is. The result was a beautiful looking tiger bread and a bread made of whole wheat flour!

Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!

I have here first the recipe for the dutch crunch topping and the second recipe is for the bread itself.

Dutch Crunch Topping

Servings: This recipe should make sufficient topping for two 9×5 loaves (23cmx13cm) or 12 rolls. If you make only 6 rolls in the first soft white roll recipe, you can cut the topping recipe in half.

Ingredients:

  1. 2 tablespoons (2 packets) (30 ml) (15 gm/½ oz) active dry yeast
  2. 1 cup (240 ml) warm water (105-115º F) (41-46°C)
  3. 2 tablespoons (30 ml) (30 gm/1 oz) sugar
  4. 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
  5. ½ teaspoon (2½ ml) (3 gm) salt
  6. 1½ cups (360 ml) (240 gm/8½ oz) rice flour (white or brown; NOT sweet or glutinous rice flour) (increase by 1 cup or more for home-made rice flour)

Directions:

  • Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat with a whisk; beat hard to combine. The consistency should be like stiff royal icing – spreadable, but not too runny. If you pull some up with your whisk, as shown below, it should drip off slowly. Add more water or rice flour as necessary. Let stand 15 minutes.
  • Coat the top of each loaf or roll with a thick layer of topping. We tried coating it with a brush but it worked better just to use fingers or a spoon and kind of spread it around. You should err on the side of applying too much topping – a thin layer will not crack properly.
  • Let stand, uncovered, for any additional time your recipe recommends. With the Soft White Roll, you can place the rolls directly into the oven after applying the topping. With the Brown Rice Bread, the loaves should stand for 20 minutes with the topping before baking.
  • When baking, place pans on a rack in the center of the oven and bake your bread as you ordinarily would. The Dutch Crunch topping should crack and turn a nice golden-brown color.

Whole Wheat Bread:

Servings: Makes six sandwich rolls

Ingredients:

  1. 1 tablespoon (1 packet) (15 ml) (7 gm/ ¼ oz) active dry yeast
  2. ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water (105-110º F) (41-43°C) (No need to use a thermometer – it should feel between lukewarm and hot to the touch)
  3. 1 cup (240 ml) warm milk (105-110º F) (41-43°C)
  4. 1½ tablespoons (22½ ml) (20 gm/ ⅔ oz) sugar
  5. 2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil (plus additional olive or vegetable oil for greasing bowl during rising)
  6. 1½ teaspoons (7½ ml) (9 gm/⅓ oz) salt
  7. Up to 3 cups whole wheat flour

Directions:

  • In the bowl of an electric mixer or large mixing bowl, combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes (The mixture should start to bubble or foam a bit and smell yeasty).
  • Add in vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of flour. Using the dough hook attachment or a wooden spoon, mix at medium speed until the dough comes together. (The photo to the right is with the first 2 cups of flour added).
  • Add remaining flour a quarter cup at time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl, as shown in the photo below (For us, this usually required an additional 1½ to 2 cups of flour).
  • Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
  • Place in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled (or more) in size
  • Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into 6 equal portions (if you’d like to make rolls) or 2 equal portions (if you’d like to make a loaf) (using a sharp knife or a dough scraper works well). Shape each into a ball or loaf and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet (try not to handle the dough too much at this point).
  • Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.
  • Coat the top of each roll or loaf with the topping as described above. While the original recipe recommends letting them stand for 20 minutes after applying the topping, I got better results by putting them directly into the oven.
  • Once you’ve applied the topping, bake in a preheated moderately hot 380ºF/190°C/gas mark 5 for 25-30 minutes, until well browned. Let cool completely on a wire rack before eating.

If you make the bread with all-purpose flour this is a soft sandwich roll. I decided to use whole wheat flour because I am on a healthy eating spree. Hope you enjoyed this recipe. I loved it and a big thank you to Sara and Erica from Baking JDs. Their instructions and recipe were both brilliant and thanks to them now I can make this pretty looking bread at home anytime I wish.

Shilpa

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