Tag: How to bake home baked bread

Have you ever baked bread with wheat flour and rava? Wheat flour and rava combo gives you wonderful bread with good rise and it boosts our confidence for baking wheat flour bread.

Baking your own bread is good in many ways.

You get fresh bread without adding any harmful ingredients for your breakfast. You love the whole process of bread baking, especially watching it rise in the oven; it calms down our nerves. Kids sometimes join you in rolling the dough, greasing the pan, and through this we bond with them. And in the end while serving sandwiches or toast from your own home baked bread, whole family praises you and that makes your day very very happy 😊 😊

I started baking bread with white flour, then slowly started shifting towards wheat flour. Wheat flour is a bit tricky as it gives you slightly dense and heavy bread compared to white flour. Many people immediately compare home baked wheat bread with market bought bread without realizing that we are not adding any artificial gluten or bread enhancer. The common reason people hesitate to bake wheat flour bread because wheat bread doesn’t  get a good rise in wheat bread as we get in white bread. Well, we can increase the quantity of yeast here, but then the bread has too much smell of yeast.

To solve this problem, we are adding rava with wheat flour in this new bread recipe. If you have tried cooking any dish with rava, you must have seen that rava puffs up nicely. So here rava helps wheat flour to rise up and we get good height in our bread loaf.

Did you like the idea? Well, if we can bake a complete loaf of bread with rava, Samolina/chiroti rava bread (anyone can bake this bread) then we can definitely add it with wheat flour.

What is chiroti rava and how it is different from normal rava?

The difference lies in the size of granules. Chiroti rava has very small granules compared to normal rava. Because of these tiny granules, chiroti rava gets bind very well in shape of the dough.

I have a few recipes with wheat flour bread in the blog. If you are interested, can check these links also…

Wheat Flour Sandwich Bread(1)

Wheat flour Sandwich bread (2)

Wheat flour Sandwich Bread(3) cylindrical shaped

Wheat flour spicy turmeric bread

In South India, chiroti rava is easily available. But if you are not able to find this variety of rava in your city, you can order it through Amazon or Big Basket.

Ingredients :

Wheat flour 1+1/2 cups (200 gms)
Chiroti rava 1 +1/2 cups (250 gms)
Salt 1 tsp
Sugar 1+1/2 tbsp
Instant active yeast 1 tsp
Oil 2-3 tbsp
Milk /water 1+1/2 cups minus 2-3 (1 cup measures 250 ml)

Bread tin size (in inches) –  length 8, depth 3+1/2, width 3+1/2

Please go through all the tips carefully before you start the process of baking bread.

Tips :

1. Except water, rest of the ingredients should be used at room temperature. Water/milk should be slightly warmer than lukewarm.

2. Instead of water, milk can be used to knead the dough. Or you 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. The same logic will be for second proofing time also.

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

6. To achieve best results in wheat flour bread, don’t be lazy in kneading. I always knead wheat flour bread dough for almost 20 minutes.

7. Absorbing liquid quality of flour varies. So don’t follow blindly the quantity of water/milk given in the recipe. If required, add or reduce 1-2 tbsp of water.

8. Don’t compare the result of home baked 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 loaf, so it might be slightly heavy and dense. For better results, try to use milled flour than packed ones.

9. Don’t get discouraged if your first loaf of bread is not as good as you had expected. Try to find out the problem, sort it and with the same excitement, give another try, and you will surely get it!

For few more tips you can check this link also… 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 vessel.

Slowly start pouring water and collect dry ingredients together in the shape of a dough. Don’t worry about loose or tight consistency of dough at this stage.

Now start pouring remaining water one tbsp at a time and  knead the dough for 15-20 minutes by adding oil simultaneously.

Initially, kneading will look messy and sticky, but slowly dough will become smooth.

Keep the dough in an oil greased bowl for first proofing (bowl should be big enough to have extra space for doubled up dough). Apply some oil on top of the dough to avoid it drying. Cling wrap the bowl and keep it at a warm place for first proofing. I generally keep my bowl in the switched-off microwave. First proofing takes 1 to 1+1/2 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen.

In the meantime, apply oil to bread tin.

Once dough doubles up, sprinkle some flour on clean kitchen counter or grease it with oil. Take out the dough and punch it softly.

Knead the dough very softly and spread it in a rectangular shape according to the size of the bread tin.

Start rolling it tightly in the shape of a log.

Seal the edges by pinching them tightly.

Keep this log into the tin by keeping seamed side at the bottom and apply oil on top of the log to avoid it drying. Cover the tin with wet kitchen towel (don’t let towel touch the dough) and keep it in the switched-off microwave or any warm place for second proofing. Second proofing generally takes 15 to 20 minutes but if it’s cold temperature in the kitchen, it might take some more time.

Just 10 minutes before baking, preheat your oven at 185-190 degrees for 10 minutes. Give milk wash to proofed dough and bake it in a preheated oven at the same temperature for 40-50 minutes, till the bread  becomes evenly brown and while tapping the top, it sounds hollow.

Apply butter on hot bread. Butter will be helpful in keeping the bread soft. Take out the bread from the oven and let it cool down completely on a cooling rack. Don’t let the bread stay in tin for long as steam from hot bread in the tin for a long time will make the bread soggy from the bottom.

Once wheat flour rava bread cools down completely, you can slice it. But if you can control your temptation for a few hours more, you will get the best slices!!

Once bread cools down completely, wrap it in 3-4 layers of cling film and keep it in the fridge.

This will tighten the bread crumbs making it easier to slice it with bread cutting serrated knife.

Don’t you love these wonderful slices with beautiful brown edges!!!

Now who wants to buy bread from the store if you can provide your family home baked healthy bread. I am sure you would be thinking to give this recipe a try. 

Would love to hear from you about this recipe and if you have any doubts, feel free to ask through comment box.