Baking – I have to admit, I am not very good at it but I love it (smiles). Infact, I should say that I never took it very seriously until last month when I really felt like learning this skill. The taste and aroma of a freshly baked bread or a cake is beyond any other. I have already shared how big a fan of breads I am and so are my daughter and hubby. (smiles) I somehow have not been very happy with the kind of whole wheat/ multigrain bread I am buying from the market and so all the more reason I wanted to try some home made healthy breads!

My first serious try - Whole Wheat Garlic Bread. Turned out nice to my suprise! I attended a 3 hour bread baking session recently and learnt a few tricks on how yeast should be treated and bread dough should be kneaded. However, there were some ingredients added to the recipe in that session, like glutin, bread improver etc., that I did not want to use. So I modified the recipe a bit, took some inspiration from Divya’s Easy Cooking and then went ahead with my own recipe.

Pre requisites: For baking, you must have measuring cups and spoons. The measurements should be accurate in this process.

Ingredients

For Batter

• 1 tea spoon Dry Yeast
• 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 tea spoon Sugar
• 2 tea spoon Olive Oil
• 1/2 tea spoon Salt (modify as per taste)
• 1 cup Water

For Seasoning

• 4-5 Garlic Cloves
• 1/2 tea spoon Oregano

For Basting (applying a coat of liquid at the bread surface to retain moisture and to add a glaze to the crust)

• 2 table spoon Olive Oil
• 2 table spoon room temperature Milk

Preparation Steps

If we divide on the basis of time, the entire bread baking can be divided into primarily  5 slots,

Yeast proofing – 20 minutes

1st rise – 1 hour 15 minutes

2nd rise – 30 minutes

Baking – 30 minutes

Cooling time – 1 hour

Note: I have tried to mention each step in detail. It was my first try so I was more engrossed in making the bread and could not take many pictures. In the next bread recipe, I will add more pictures to the prepration steps.

1. Take 1/4 cup water and microwave it for 10 seconds. The water should be just luke warm. Sprinkle yeast over it and keep it inside a pre-heated microwave for 20 minutes. After 10 minutes, check if the yeast is rising and bubbling. If not, throw away this water and try again. If the yeast doesn’t rise properly, bread will not come up properly. If the yeast is bubbling, just stir your finger in the solution and let it sit for another 10 minutes.
2. In the mean time keep the flour ready. Make a well like hole and add the yeast water, sugar, salt and oil. Mix with light hands. Make a rough dough ball.
3. On a floured surface, stretch and beat this dough for 10 minutes. When you stretch, a mesh like structure should be visible in the dough.
4. Once through, make a smooth ball of the dough. Grease the dough with Olive oil and place inside a big greased container to rise. Cover the container with a wet cloth.The container should be big enough as the dough would rise more than double its original size.
5. To provide consistent temperature, place the container inside a microwave.
6. After 1 hour 15 minutes, take out the dough bowl from microwave. Punch it from the center and fold the sides inside.
7. On the floured surface, use your knuckles to release the extra air from the dough. Use light hand movement.
8. Roll the dough into a circle and spread garlic and Oregano seasoning. Close from side and form cylinder shaped dough.
9. Place it inside the greased baking tin.
10. Grease the surface of dough. Cover it with a wet cloth.
11. Let it rise for 30 minutes inside the microwave.
12. After 30 minutes. Pre heat the microwave at 180 degrees C.
13. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the dough to add flavour and look.
14. Bake for 30 mins at 180 degrees C.
15. Mix 2 table spoon milk Milk and Olive oil in a bowl. After 15 minutes, spread some milk-oil solution on the surface of bread.
16. Place the bread tin back in microwave and now place a small bowl of water inside microwave to retain the moisture in bread.
17. Let the bread bake for another 15 minutes.
18. Take it out from microwave and let it cool for 1 hour.

Eat as-is or grill it. You may also add some butter and bread seasoning!

Try it once, and trust me, you would love the experience!

It would be real fun for kids 5+ year age who are interested in cooking/baking etc! My little one is too young for this right now (smiles)! My 6 year old niece, Pari, tasted the bread. She not only wants me to bake some more for her but also wants to join me when I make it the next time!

I really have realized, the satisfaction and nutrition of a hand made dish is far more than an instant buy machine-made product!