Herb, Cheese and Veggie Pull Apart Bread

I am baking a bread today after a very long time.  Even though I like baking and making my own breads, somehow kept running away from baking breads for quite somewhile now.  So from this new year I have decided to bake as much as possible, atleast for this year. And to my luck Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen started Bread Baking event for this year. So I wanted to participate in it and sent a request to her yesterday. She was very grateful to let me participate. But since this month is already on going to end, so she wanted me to post it immediately.

And here I am baking this months Bread, that is, The Pull Apart Bread. I have followed the same recipe she gave us. Except that for the filling I added some veggies. Thats it.

I was so excited about baking a bread after a long time that I totally forgot I didn't have a Bread load tin or the normal rectangle high raised tin. So I looked and looked for sometime all my baking tins and then decided to bake it in this oven proof glass dish. And that is why my bread got flattened because it took spread and took the shape of the container during the second proofing.

For the Dough: 

1/2 cup warm milk

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp active dry yeast

2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

25gm butter, soft at room temperature

3/4 to 1 tsp garlic paste (I used 1 t.sp Garlic Powder)

3/4 cup milk (+ a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread)

For the Filling:

15 to 20gm melted butter

2 tsp dried Italian mixed herbs

1 medium onion finely chopped

1 medium carrot grated

1/2 cup olives chopped

Crushed pepper/ red chilli flakes to taste

1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/4 cup grated mozzarella cheese

Method:

1. As almost always, I used my food processor but you may knead the dough by hand.
2. In a small bowl, dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside for about 5 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.
3. Put 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, softened butter, and garlic paste in the food processor bowl (or a large bowl) and pulse a couple of times to mix. Then add the yeast mixture and the 3/4 cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour if your dough is sticking,but only just as much as is necessary.
4. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until almost double in volume.
5. Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Deflate the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter.
6. Evenly sprinkle the herbs, pepper/ chilli flakes, the veggies and then the grated cheese. Use a rolling pin to very lightly press the topping into the dough to ensure the topping doesn’t fall off when you are stacking the strips.
7. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips – they do nothave to be perfect. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips.
8. You can put the 2 strips cut from the sides in the middle of the stack so it looks neater. Using a pastry scraper or a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks).
9. Grease and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. Butter and lightly flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. I didn't have a loaf pan and so baked it in a glass dish.
10. Cover the loaf tin dough with a towel and allow the dough to rise for an hour. 
11. Preheat the oven a 180C.
12. Lightly brush some milk over the top of the loaf.
13. Bake the dough at 180C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is goldenbrown. It took me 60 minutes to bake, maybe because of the glass dish.

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

Baking Partners: A new Baking Group

A group of home bakers helping each other to achieve perfection.

Baking a home made Baking a homemade bread, cake or cookies will give the best outcome. However in order to achieve the best results, a perfect recipe and right techniques are required.

We are a small group of home baker friends, who love and want to learn more about the nook and corners of baking.  We are planning to try out recipes from books/magazines and cooking shows.  Every member gets a chance to present their choice of recipe and share important points with the rest of the group.

Main purpose of this group is to learn the techniques, critic the procedure if there are ways to improve, and to eat a delicious food.

Rules are simple, we will choose one recipe and send it out to the group by 16th of every month and the reveal date will be 15th of the next month. On that day we will blog about it. A linky tool will be open during that time and each member can link their post.

First month we are going to do a recipe, 2nd and 3rd month will be a theme and the 4th month we will be back at a recipe. By doing in between recipes, we will able to learn more.

All enthusiastic bloggers interested in baking are welcome, please email Swathi  of Zesty South Indian Kitchen  at favoriterecipes12@gmail.com.

We will appreciate the use of logo or worded link that will help to spread the word.  A bunch of thanks to Tina for designing this beautiful logo

If you   want to make it a gluten or vegan free diet, you can do those modifications also.

Hefezopf - Yeast Braid

Hefezopf (In German) is a soft spongy bread. We get it here in almost all the bakery and supermarkets. There are many versions of it like they come stuffed with nuts or have nuts, poppy seeds etc strewn on them. Whenever I see them in the shops I always wanted to try them at home. One day I saw a recipe of its simpler normal version in a german magazine. With the toota-foota german I know, I read it & tried it out. It came out real superb. Infact much better & soft & spongy than the shop-brought ones. I am not a baker very often. Just sometimes I keep trying something. I bake biscuits very often. Cakes & breads very rarely.

So anyone new to the baking field also can try it out. It does not need much of baking knowledge & requires very minimum ingredients.

Here is the recipe for the Hefezopf (Yeast Braid)
Ingredients
All purpose flour - 450 gm
Fresh Yeast - 42 gm
Lukewarm Milk - 150 ml
Sugar - 75 gm
Butter - 100 gm (at room temperature)
Egg - 1 (at room temperature)
Salt a pinch.

For coating
Egg yellow - 1
Milk - 1 tb.sp

Method
1. Take the flour in a big bowl & make a well in the center. Add the yeast crumbles,50 ml of the warm milk & 1 tb.sp Sugar to the flour. Add some flour on the top of this mixture.

2. Close the bowl and leave it undisturbed for about 20 minutes. 

3. Add the butter, egg, rest of the milk, pinch of salt & rest of the sugar to the yeast-flour mixture. Add knead into a smooth dough. Keep the dough covered in a warm place for about 15 min.

4. The dough becomes almost double than before. Knead it slightly once again & you get a soft & fluffy dough.

5. Spread some flour on the working area & make 3 portions of the dough. Roll the 3 portions to 50 cm long strands. Preheat the oven to 175 F.

6. Using the 3 strands form the braids. Place it on a backing tray lined with a backing sheet. Cover it with a clean cloth and wait for 15 min.

7. Mix together the egg yellow & the milk in a bowl. Brush the Braid with this mixture. And bake it for about 30 min at 175 F.

Sending this post to the event 3rd World Bread Day hosted by Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte

Nutty Oats Bar

Oatmeal cookies are a proverbial favorite with both kids and adults. This sweet and buttery flavored Oatmeal Bar recipe is loaded with oats, which produces a crisp and chewy bar that you can also fill with chocolate chips (white or dark chocolate), dried fruits, and/or chopped nuts. 

I have used Almonds in my recipe. And so here goes the recipe .......

Nutty Oats Bar

Ingredients :

Soft Butter / Margarine - 150 gm
Brown Sugar - 150 gm
Bitter Almond Essence - 6-8 drops
Eggs - 2
Oats - 200 gm
Powdered Almonds - 150 gm
Backing Powder - 1 t.sp
Grated Lemon Zest - 1 tb.sp

Method :
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until creamy and smooth (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the Almond Essence. Add the eggs one by one. And beat to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the Oats , Almond Powder, Baking powder, Lemon Zest. Add 3/4th of this mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until incorporated. Add the rest of the Oats mixture and incorporate it with your hands. Cover the dough with a foil and refigerate it for about an hour or over night.

Spread the dough on the lining sheet and back at 180° C for about 12 - 15 minutes.

After it is done, remove it out and cut it with knife when it is hot. Let it cool.

Nutty Oats Bars are ready. Preserve them in an air-tight box.

This post is off to "JFI – Whole Grains" event, hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes . JFI - Jihva for Ingredients is an event initially started by Indira of Mahanandi .