brown bread Archives - Dees Platter

Remember my post forWhite Sandwich Bread(2) I had mentioned that I had bought local made bread tins for getting square bread slices rather than buying expensive branded tins. Again I used the same local made bread tin, but this one is slightly different than the previously used. This tin has tight lid and is slightly bigger. Because of tight lid you can get very neat edges in your bread.

Initially I had baked all purpose flour bread with 3+1/2 cups of flour in this tin. Loaf came out perfect, so I tried wheat flour sandwich bread with the same amount of flour.

Bread was really good.

Beautiful slices and very soft bread.

But neat edges were missing!!

I realized my mistake!

Wheat flour doesn’t rise as much as all purpose flour, so to achieve neat edges I have to increase the flour quantity.

So I used 4 cups of wheat flour and voila!! I got what I was looking for ….!

If you are new in bread baking and planning to buy bread tin, I will suggest you to buy tin with the lid. If you are interested to bake a loaf without lid and want to witness the beauty of bread rising in your oven, just remove the lid and use this tin. And if you want to try neat edges in your bread, then also use this tin with its cover.

Ingredients :

Wheat flour 4 cups
Milk powder 4 tbsp
Salt 1 +1/2 tsp
Sugar 3 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1 +1/2 tsp
Oil/butter 4 tbsp
Water/Milk 2 cups+ 2 to 4 tbsp (reduce or increase as per the absorbing quality of flour) slightly warmer than lukewarm.

Bread tin size : width: 10 inch height: 3 inch depth 4 inch

Tips :

1. All ingredients should be on room temperature except water.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or can take both milk and water in 50:50 ratio.

3. Every oven is different – so baking time may vary.

4. Dough proofing time depends a lot on the temperature of your kitchen. In colder temperature first proofing can take 60 to 90 minutes. In warmer temperatures it might get over in 40 to 50 minutes.

5. Wheat flour dough is slightly delicate than all purpose flour dough. So after first proofing don’t knead it much. Punch it and bring it back together to roll the log.

6. If using dry active yeast take 2+1/4 tsp.

7. Don’t compare the result of homebaked complete wheat flour bread with market bought wheat flour bread. We are not adding any artificial gluten, emulsifier, or bread enhancer. We are trying to bake a healthy bread of loaf, so it might be slightly heavy and dense. For better results try to use milled flour than packed ones.

8. For more tips on bread baking you can check my post on Wheat flour buns with pizza spices (2) (basic tips to follow if following a bread /buns recipe)

Process :

Collect all dry ingredients in a big size vessel so that it’s easy to mix and knead the dough if you are not using a mixer.

Make a rough dough by mixing all ingredients together with the help of water/milk…don’t use entire quantity of water/milk in this step.

Now start kneading the dough and keep adding remaining water/milk along with oil/butter for 15 – 20 minutes or till dough becomes smooth.

Keep this smooth dough in an oil greased bowl. Apply some oil on top of the dough and cover it with wet kitchen towel or cling film. Keep this bowl in a warm place for first proofing (the dough rises up and doubles in size). (check tip #4)

In the meantime grease bread tin and its cover with oil.

Spread some flour on clean kitchen counter or grease it with oil. After first proofing take out the dough and punch it gently.

Collect the dough together, gently knead it and spread it in a rectangular shape as per the size of your bread tin.

Start rolling it and prepare a tight log.

Seam the edges by pinching them.

Keeping the seam side at the bottom, place the log in oil greased bread tin. Apply some oil/melted butter on top of the log to avoid it drying. Cover the tin and and keep it for second proofing.

Second proofing will be over in 20-30 minutes…just 10 minutes before second proofing is getting over, preheat oven at 190 degrees.

Give milk wash to the log, cover it with tin cover and bake it on the same temperature for 40-50 minutes or while tapping, the top of the bread sounds hollow.

If top of the bread is not brown enough, uncover the tin and bake with the top rod on for 5-7 minutes or till you get the desired brown beauty!!

Take the tin out of the oven, apply butter on top of the bread so that it can remain soft and keep it on the cooling rack for 5-7 minutes and then take out the bread. Don’t leave bread in the tin for longer than this. Heat trapped inside the bread will turn bottom of the bread soggy. Once bread cools down completely, give 2-3 cling wrap folds and keep it in the fridge for 4-5 hours.

Later with a bread cutting surrated knife, neatly slice your beautiful loaf of bread .

Long time back I read an article in newspaper regarding wheat flour bread in Bangalore bakeries. That time I didn’t know much about bread baking but according to the article bakery baked wheat flour breads are actually not made from whole wheat flour. And even some popular brands in breads cheat customers with their wheat flour bread. Wheat flour breads are not very popular, so very few selected bakeries bake them on customer’s demand only and they are costly too.

Don’t know about the authenticity of the article, but when I started learning baking bread myself, I learnt about the difference of bakery bread and homebaked bread. You can read the ingredients of store bread on the pack and now see what ingredients you are using to get a homebaked loaf….. Flour, water/milk, yeast, butter/oil, salt and suger….that’s all…..so choice is completely yours!!

I guess that for the last one year I didn’t buy my breads and buns from the market!

Baking all purpose flour or maida bread gives us immense confidence in the process of baking homebaked bread, and after learning successfully white sandwich bread you automatically move to bake wheat flour bread.

But again second step should be to try first half maida and half wheat flour bread. And finally you can switch over completely to wheat flour bread.

(In my blog there are recipes with all purpose flour breadWhite Sandwich Bread and mix flour bread tooBread with wheat flour along with all purpose flour (maida)).

To bake wheat flour bread, the best flour is if you get your own milled flour. In Jaipur, my home town, when wheat crops are ready in the nearby villages, farmers come to Jaipur to sell wheat. That time my parents buy wheat for whole year. My father used to take 20 kg wheat every month to get it grinded for flour to the nearby mill.

Once in Bangalore I tried to replicate the same and bought wheat. When I opened the pack, wheat had holes and inside the holes were dead insects….. which means that it was completely laced with pesticide.

After that I am always buying packed Ashirwad Aata, though not sure about the quality of packed packs also.

The recipe which I have given here will give you a very small loaf.

As a beginner you can try this recipe, and later can go for bigger loaves.

Before we start the process of baking, remember some tips for baking bread.

Tips:
Wheat flour absorbes more liquid than all purpose flour (maida).

Don’t follow blindly the quantity of liquid given in the recipe because the absorbing quality of your wheat flour might be different than mine.

In the same way timing for proofing the dough might not be the same for you as given in the recipe. If my kitchen has cold temperature, proofing will take more time compared to a warm kitchen. So if your dough has doubled in 50 minutes, start with the next process.

Don’t be lazy for kneading the dough.

Buy one serrated bread cutting knife, you will get beautiful slices!

Bread can be baked in microwave also on convection mode.

Ingredients :

Wheat flour 2 cups (250ml cup)
Milk powder 2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1/2 tsp
Salt 1tsp
Sugar 2 tsp
Oil/butter 1+1/2 tbsp
Water milk mix 1+1/4 cup

I have used 7 by 3 inch bread tin.

Except water milk mix, all ingredients should be on room temperature.

Process :

In a big broad vessel add all dry ingredients.

Prepare half water half milk mix…it should be slightly warm. You can use only water to knead the dough but my preference is always 50:50 milk water ratio. Milk helps to keep the bread soft.

Now slowly start pouring this mix in dry ingredients and prepare dough. Do not use whole water given in the recipe now. We just need to collect all dry ingredients and prepare dough. You still have enough liquid to knead this dough.

Start kneading the dough by pouring little quantity of water. While kneading, you will notice that dough keeps becoming hard because wheat absorbes a lot of liquid. So keep on adding one tbsp at a time and continue kneading for 15-20 minutes. This dough will be sticky; so keep on greasing your palms with oil or butter.

After 15-20 minutes of kneading, dough will be very smooth – add some oil/butter.

Place this in an oil greased bowl, apply some oil on top of the dough to avoid it drying and cling wrap the bowl.

Keep this bowl at some warm place for first proofing/till the dough doubles in size. If my kitchen is cold then I keep this dough in switched off microwave.

Proofing time is never fixed. If your kitchen is cold, it will proof in 1 hour to 1+1/2 hour but during summer dough might be double in 45-50 minutes. So my suggestion is that don’t follow any fixed time – sometimes within that fixed time dough gets over proofed or not proofed properly. After 50 minutes poke your finger in the dough – if this hole doesn’t fill up, your dough is ready to start for next process. But if it fills up, dough still needs some more time for proofing.

When first proofing is over, place the dough on clean oil greased kitchen counter and punch it gently.

Knead it softly and spread it in a rectangular shape.

From the top start rolling tightly and shape it like a log.

Pinch and seam the ends of log.

Place it in a well greased bread-tin keeping seam side at the bottom.

Brush it with oil to avoid drying; cover it (I always cover it with a bigger tin) and keep the tin at a warm place for second proofing.

Second proofing gets over in 20 to 30 minutes.

Ten minutes before second proofing gets over, start preheating oven for 10 minutes at 190 degrees. Give milk wash on top of the log. Place the tin in the oven and bake it at 185 degrees for 30-40 minutes. If top of the bread is becoming brown very fast, then follow the tenting method I have given in my earlier post of sandwich bread.White Sandwich Bread

Follow same temperature if you are baking in microwave convection. If your oven or microwave is very small in size then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees.

At the end of baking time, tap the top of the bread – if it sounds hollow, bread is ready.

If you have greased the tin properly, you can de-mold the bread immediately and place it on a cooling rack till it cools down completely.

But if you are not able to de-mold the bread immediately, don’t worry. Still keep the tin on cooling rack for 10-15 minutes; then clean the edges of the tin with a knife and bread would be de-molded easily now. Apply butter on hot bread to keep it soft and let it cool down completely.

Once bread cools down completely, don’t start slicing it. I know it is very difficult to subside the excitement, but you will end up with crumbled bread slices. Instead, cling wrap the loaf nicely and keep it in the fridge for 3 to 4 hours so that crumbs settles down.

Generally, I bake bread in the daytime and keep in the fridge till 10 pm. Then I cut the slices, cling wrap them and keep them back in the fridge.