Semolina/Chiroti Rava Bread

“Anyone can bake this bread” this title suits so well for these gorgeous Semolina/Chiroti Rava bread slices. You can’t go wrong with this Semolina bread recipe if you are a beginner in baking bread.

Your hands must be itching to try by seeing wonderful pictures of home baked breads on Google, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram and many Facebook groups. But somehow your first attempt didn’t go so well as per your expectations. So all your confidence and excitement died down. Don’t worry…. it’s just one attempt… there many attempts are needed to get that perfection behind those wonderful pictures of breads. And other than a good recipe you need to know how your oven works. Each oven has different settings, so what temperature and time will be good for you…… you will experience it by some trials, it wouldn’t happen only with one bake. Love your oven and it will return your love with wonderful results….

 

When I was trying my hands on baking, which was completely a new experience to me, I saw a picture of this wonderful loaf of bread with the title, “Semolina bread by Sandhya Ramkrishna”. That time I was learning the vocabulary of the baking world. I had to Google to figure out the meaning of, Ganache, Fondant, difference between frosting and filling, are mocha cake and coffee flavored cake two different things and so on…….. Sandhya had baked this bread with semolina flour. Now, from where can I get semolina flour in India? So, I gave up the thought of baking this bread.

After some time I was going through a blog by Harini Sankaranarayanan . She is one of those bloggers whose write ups I really enjoy. In her blog she has posted same semolina bread but instead of semolina flour, she had used chiroti rava. I was so excited to try this bread now!! Surprisingly, if you will google for semolina/chiroti rava bread, you will find same recipe everywhere.

Before trying this chiroti rava bread recipe the first doubt arises that can rava/suji be kneaded like a bread dough? Don’t worry, chiroti rava works like a charm!! It’s so forgiving that it wouldn’t let you face a failure.
The only problem you might face is that you might not find chiroti rava in your city. Chiroti rava has very fine granules compared to regular rava …that’s why it gets bound as dough. In south India chiroti rava is easily available. So if you have relatives or friends in south India, tell them to gift you chiroti rava instead of kanjivaram sarees 😀😀😂😂and you can treat them with home baked fresh bread….

 

 

Ingredients :

Samolina/Chiroti rava     3+1/4 cups
Instant dry yeast     1 tsp
Sugar           1tbsp
Salt             1+1/2 tsp
Water(lukewarm)      1+1/2cup
Olive oil     1/4cup

Tips:

I used Gloripan brand for instant dry yeast. You can use dry active yeast also, increase the quantity 1/2 tsp more.

I didn’t use complete 1+1/2 cups of water as the dough was becoming too wet, so I reduced 1+1/2 tbsp water from the whole quantity of water.

I have reduced oil also to 1/8 cup.
But it is not necessary that your dough will be too wet as water absorbing quality of rava/suji might be different.

Dough should be wet but not so much that you can’t handle it.

Buy one bread cutting serrated knife for getting neat slices.

The measurement of bread tin is 10 by 4.

Process :

Mix all dry ingredients in a broad vessel so that it’s easy to knead.

Slowly start adding water and collect all ingredients into the shape of dough. Knead this dough for ten minutes and keep greasing your palms with oil in between to make your kneading easy.  Keep adding oil by greasing your palms.

After ten minutes kneading leave the dough for 2-3 minutes. It will be very smooth. Just knead it for a minute and transfer it into an oil greased bowl.
Apply some oil on top of the dough, cover the bowl with thin cling wrap and keep it in a warm place for first proofing (dough becomes double in size).

First proofing might take one hour or probably more or less than an hour. If kitchen has cold temperature, proofing might be done in 1+1/2 hours. During summer dough doubles in size in 45-50 minutes. So instead of fixing a particular time for proofing, it’s better to keep an eye on dough after 50 minutes.

Once dough gets double in size, take it out on a clean oil greased kitchen counter and punch it gently.

Collect the dough together and spread it in a rectangular shape with a rolling pin or with your palms.

Start rolling it tightly and give it a shape of log. Seam the edges by pinching them tightly.

Keeping the seam side down, place this log in an oil greased bread tin. Apply some oil on top of the log to avoid it drying and cover the tin for second proofing. Second proofing gets over in 20-30 minutes.

Just 10 minutes before second proofing is done, start preheating your oven at 190 degree.

Once preheating is done give milk wash to the log and keep it for baking for 35-45 minutes at 185 degrees. If the top of the bread is becoming brown very fast, follow tenting method I have mentioned in White Sandwich Bread. Tap the top of the bread – if it sounds hollow, bread is done!!

Take out the bread tin from the oven, apply some butter on the bread to keep it soft and keep it on a wired rack for 10-15 minutes till the tin cools down to touch comfortably.

If you had oil greased bread tin nicely, bread will come out easily. But sometimes it gets stuck from the sides, so clean the sides with the help of a knife, take out bread loaf and let it cool down completely on a wiring rack.

Don’t leave bread inside the bread tin for a long time. Steam from hot bread will turn the loaf soggy.

Once bread cools down completely, wrap it nicely with cling film and keep it in the fridge for 3-4 hours.

I know, it’s too difficult to control your urge for slicing this wonderful semolina/chiroti rava loaf of bread, but in the fridge crumbs of bread will be tight and later while slicing you will get very neat slices.

Always cling wrap your left over bread and keep it in the fridge because we are not adding any preservatives.

Enjoy your fresh home baked Semolina/ Chiroti Rava Bread!!!