WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

I started baking bread more than 15 years back.

We like bread, but we prefer whole wheat bread to that made using maida/refined flour,

It is very difficult to find whole wheat bread in the market. Even the ones we get with the label `Wheat bread’ are also a mix of maida and wheat flour, I guess.  Because if it is only wheat bread, it feels heavy to handle whereas the only maida or wheat-maida mix bread is lighter. A local baker even told me that one has to add 50% maida or else the bread will not rise!

Once I came across a recipe for whole wheat bread in a news paper.  And that was the take off point for my bread making! I tried it and on repeated trials, succeeded in getting a perfect loaf of bread! And it does rise without adding maida!

If you go through the recipe, you may feel that it a difficult task. But it is not so. It is time consuming that is all. In the sense, you will have to wait for at least two to three hours for the flour to rise and nearly about half an hour for baking. Including the preparation time, the process takes about four to five hours.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour                                             4 cups

Dry yeast                                                           1 teaspoon

Jaggery powder/honey                                      2 teaspoons

Salt                                                                    1 teaspoon                  

Warm water                                                       About 1 ½ cups
Sesame seeds (optional)                                    2 teaspoons

Procedure:

Add salt to flour, mix well.

Dissolve jaggery in about ¼ cup of water. Heat this to a lukewarm temperature.  If you take honey, add lukewarm water to it and stir well.

Add dry yeast granules to this and mix well.  Allow it to rise. It takes about 15-20 minutes to rise.

Next add this to the flour and mix well.

Now add required amount of warm water and mix well. Let the consistency be a bit softer than the flour you mix for making chapathis. Now you have to knead this very well. The more you knead, the more it rises. I knead it for about ten minutes. 

After kneading, cover it with a warm cloth, keep it in a warm place and allow it to rise. If the room temperature is not warm, I keep this in the oven and turn the oven on to about 20 degrees Celsius and leave it for 2 to 3 hours. The flour should rise to nearly three times that of the original size.

Baking:

Keep a greased baking trey ready.

Now knead the flour again for one or two minutes. Better dip your hand in water once before you start kneading since the flour might stick to your hand and make it difficult to knead. Now roll the flour with hand to fit into the trey and then transfer this to the trey. 

Now again cover with warm cloth and allow it to rise in the trey for about half an hour.

Next sprinkle sesame seeds uniformly on the flour. These seeds give a good taste to the bread when they get roasted during baking. 

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius for five minutes. Bake for about 25 minutes at this temperature.

To check if the bread is done, insert a knife in the middle of the loaf. If it comes out clean it means that it is done. To check further, take out the trey and knock on the bread lightly with fingers. If it gives a hollow sound, it means the bread is done.

Now reverse the trey and transfer the loaf to a plate. Wrap the bread with wet cloth for about 10 minutes so that the bread crust doesn’t get hard.

Cut the bread to slices when cool.

PUMPKIN BREAD

This is the recipe I got from the land lady of the chalet amidst red wood trees, where we stayed during our Yosemite National Park trip. To welcome us to her holiday home, Ms.Debby had brought for us this hot,  freshly baked bread with an  appetizing aroma . The bread tasted just wonderful. I requested her for the recipe and it is really nice of her to share it with me. I baked it. It came out really great! You must try this. Cake recipes  usually have maida/flour as the main ingredient, but now a days I use it whole wheat flour. Cakes turn out quite well

You need:

Maida/whole wheat flour                                                 1 ½ cups

Sugar                                                                               1 ¼ cups

Egg                                                                                  1

Butter                                                                              ¼ cup

Cold milk                                                                         ½ cup

Baking soda                                                                     1 teaspoon

Baking powder                                                                 ¼ teaspoon

Pumpkin puree                                                                 ¾ cup

Salt                                                                                   ¼ teaspoon

Ginger grated/powder                                                      ½ teaspoon           

Clove ground                                                                   ½ teaspoon

Cinnamon ground                                                           1 teaspoon

Chopped nuts, preferably walnuts                                   ½ cup                      

Procedure:                   

To make pumpkin puree:

Take thin slices of pumpkin (sihi kumbaLakai) and microwave for 2 or 4 minutes till it is half cooked. Blend coarsely in a mixer.  If you need 3/4 cups of puree, you need to take about 1 1/2 cups of sliced pumpkin. Cooked pumpkin looks like this.

For the rest of the recipe:

Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger powder, clove powder powder and cinnamon powder. (If you take grated ginger, beat together with egg, butter etc.).


Now, beat the butter and sugar, preferably with an electric hand mixer. Add egg and beat well. Now add cold milk and pumpkin puree and blend very well. Blend in chopped nuts.

Pre heat the oven for about  5 minutes.

Add the sieved flour mixture to the egg mixture and blend them together. Pour the mixture into a 8" loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes at 180 degree Celsius.  Test whether the baking is complete by inserting a knitting needle or a knife in the middle of the bread. If the batter sticks to the needle, it means that the baking is not complete. Bake again for 5 or 6 minutes more. When done, cool to room temperature before cutting.

Now, ENJOY!!!!

CHRISTMAS CAKE

This wonderful cake needs some planning and the ingredients required are also more. The process of baking this is a bit laborious too, but I feel it is really worth the trouble. You know how happy I get watching people enjoy my cake.  This has made me bake more and more.  Anyway, I suggest you do try this out.

You need to take:

Maida/fine whole wheat flour                      1 cup
Baking powder                                            1/4 teaspoon
Sugar   powder                                            3/4 cup
Eggs                                                            2
Butter                                                           2 tablespoons
Vanilla Essence                                           5-6 drops
Dry fruits                                                      1 cup (like cashew, almond, walnut, dates, raisins, glazed                                                                                cherries, tutti frutti)                               
Rum                                                            About 100mls., to soak the dry fruits
Cinnamon powder                                      1/2 teaspoon
Clove powder                                              1/8 teaspoon
Candied orange peel                                   1 teaspoon, very finely cut.               
Instant coffee powder                                   3 level teaspoons
Sugar caramel *                                        (made from about 3 tablespoons of sugar)

                         

In this picture you can see the dry fruits I have taken :

Procedure:

Soak dry fruits and nuts in rum for at least 2 to 3 days.

Soak spices in warm water just before you start preparing the cake batter.

Sieve maida/wheat flour with baking powder.

Now preheat the open for 10 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. 

In the meanwhile get the batter ready. 

Break eggs into a bowl. Add vanilla essence and beat till fluffy using a hand mixer.

Add butter and whisk it well. Then add sugar powder and continue mixing. Add soaked spices, sugar caramel* and coffee and beat well.

Mix in maida/wheat flour.  If you feel that the batter is hard, add some milk to get a dropping consistency. When it is very well mixed, add cut orange peel, dry fruits and nuts. Mix them well with a spoon.

Transfer the whole mixture into a greased baking trey. 

Bake in an oven at 180 degrees C, for about one hour.

Allow it to cool. Loosen the sides of the cake from the baking trey. Reverse the trey,  tap the bottom and transfer the cake on to a plate. Reverse it again on the plate.

Your Christmas cake is ready! 

(* To make sugar caramel: Heat sugar in a pan. It first melts. In a while it starts turning brown and starts foaming. Immediately add water and turn off the stove. The resulting solution is the sugar caramel)

WALNUT DATES CAKE

Basically there is not much difference in the proportions of the main ingredients we use for any variety of cakes. This is what I feel. When you add different items like dry fruits and nuts, there is another small step to follow. For example, for this cake, I microwave the dates for just 10 seconds to make it soft. I soak crushed walnuts in two teaspoons of milk, mixing it often, again to make them soft. By doing this, you can cut the cake into neat slices, or else the hard nuts come in the way and crumble the cake. That is why while baking Christmas cakes or fruit cakes, all kinds of nuts and dry fruits are soaked in rum for two days. (Rum gives the cake the special flavor).

So, here is what you need for this cake.

Ingredients:

Maida 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup (here I add 3/4 cups instead of 2/3, because, the dates also give sweetness)

Butter 3/4 cup

Eggs 2

Essence (I use pineapple)-1/2 teaspoon

Baking powder 1/4 teaspoon

Walnuts about 100 gm or 1/2 cup- crushed to small pieces, softened with milk

Dates Cut to small pieces, eg. size of a peanut, microwaved for 10 seconds


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180 F

Sieve maida with baking powder. Powder the sugar.

Break eggs into a bowl and add the essence. Beat well with a hand mixer. Add butter and beat well. Add sugar, mixing it continuously with the mixer. Add maida, mix well. In the end add walnuts and dates and mix lightly till they are equally distributed in the batter.

Pour into greased tray and bake for about 50 minutes. (I love to sprinkle sliced almonds on the top. This is actually optional)

In spite of soaking in milk, you get crisp pieces of walnuts while eating and it is.............. just delicious! Let me see who will try this first........... :)

CHOCOLATE CAKE

There is not much difference between a plain sponge cake and a chocolate cake both in terms of ingredients and the procedure.

To make a chocolate cake, I add one heaped tablespoon of chocolate powder along with maida/wheat flour and baking powder while sieving. Secondly, instead of pineapple essence, I add vanilla essence while beating the eggs. I use both chocolate essence and vanilla essence.  But if you do not have chocolate essence,  just  vanilla essence will do. In bakeries they add chocolate colouring agent also and so those cakes look dark. Since I do not use that my chocolate  cakes are not that dark.

Ingredients:

Maida/wheat flour                                               1 cup

Egg                                                                      1 powdered

Sugar                                                                    2/3 cup (to be)

Butter                                                                   100 gms/2/3 cup

Vanilla essence                                                     Few drops

Chocolate powder                                                1 heaped tablespoon

Slivered almond/pista                                          1 tablespoon

Grated chocolate /choco chips                             1 tablespoon

Procedure:

Sieve flour with baking powder and chocolate powder.

Grind sugar to fine powder

Grease baking tray and dust it with flour (the aluminum/hindalium container used to make rice in a pressure cooker will do)

Preheat the oven for about five minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

Now break the eggs into a bowl, add essence and beat immediately till very light.

Continue to run the mixer while adding butter, sugar powder and the flour slowly and one after another. Continue whisking for 2 more minutes. The batter should have a dropping consistency, may be a bit thinner than the idli batter. If you feel it is hard, you can add one or two tablespoons of milk and beat.

Transfer this ready batter to the baking tray and sprinkle almond/pista pieces and grated chocolate and/or chocochips

Bake for about 45 minutes at 180 degree Celcius.  The top of the cake becomes dark towards the end. To confirm whether the cake is baked fully, insert a knitting needle or a sharp knife in the center of the cake. It this comes out clean, it means that the cake is done. If some batter sticks to it, bake for 5 or 10 minutes more. Leave the cake in the oven for four or five minutes. Remove from the oven,  cool it to room temperature and the, invert the tray and transfer the cake on to a plate and then reverse it again.

Your cake is ready!

SPONGE CAKE

Here comes the masterpiece of my culinary menu, the Cake! As you know, this is one thing that I prepare, that has won compliments from practically everyone who has tasted it. My cakes have received two universal/unanimous comments: `they never smell of eggs' and `the bakery cakes are very soft, but the softness of your cake is different and more likable'! And This has made me bake thousands of cakes so far. And you very well know, K1 and K2 greet me with `cake' instead of a hug or `Hi mausi' and this has made the aroma of cake coming out from my kitchen whenever there is an indication of them visiting us :) Whenever I visited home, tata never failed to ask, 'I am sure you have brought cake, right?'

This is the very first dish I learnt in the kitchen- even before I learnt to cook the basic  saru or uppittu that are typical in a South Indian family!  When I first attempted baking, in around 1968, the electric ovens were never to be seen in our family/friend circles, since baking was not popular in those days and the ovens were very expensive too. Seeing my interest ajji bought me an aluminum baking utensil that is kept on a sand bath on a gas flame to get light, uniform heat suitable for baking. After watching my successful attempts, she got me an electric oven. Now I use the convection mode of the microwave or an OTG to bake.

And I have been baking since 50 years!!

Many people who have taken the recipe from me or have seen me demonstrate it,  have tried to bake, but have come back saying, `it didnt turn out to be as good as yours'. But actually there is nothing very great about baking. There are a few very simple steps you should follow,that is all.

Firstly, to avoid the  smell of eggs in cakes, it is important to add the essence to the eggs immediately after breaking them, and then beat them. Beat very well so that you get a frothy consistency. At this stage the volume of the beaten eggs is more than four times the original volume.



Secondly it is important that all other ingredients are mixed very well. If you are very keen on baking quality cakes, having an electric hand mixer is a good idea. You can get one for less than Rs.2000, if I am correct.  I give all credit to this mixer, but people give ME the credit which I happily accept ! :) I have let out the secret now. Okay. Now about the ingredients. If the butter and the eggs are refrigerated, thaw them and bring to the room temperature. Hard butter or eggs will not get mixed well.

Of late I have started using fine wheat flour instead of  maida/refined flour.

Now here are the ingredients:

2 eggs
1 cup maida ( or fine wheat flour)
3/4 cup butter
few drops essence (I use pineapple flavour)
2/3 cup sugar (to be powdered)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
a few slices of badam or pista for decoration (optional)

Procedure:
Sieve flour with baking powder
Grind sugar to fine powder
Grease baking tray and dust it with flour (the aluminum/hindalium container used to make rice in a pressure cooker will do)

Preheat the oven for about five minutes at 180 degree Celsius.

Now break the eggs into a bowl, add essence and beat immediately till very light.
Continue to run the mixer while adding butter, sugar powder and maida slowly and one after another. Continue beating for 2 more minutes. The batter should have a dropping consistency, may be a bit thinner than the idli batter, I can say. If you feel it is hard, you can add one or two tablespoons of milk and beat.Put this in the baking tray and sprinkle badam, pista or cashew slices/pieces if you want. Bake for about 45 minutes at 180 degree Celcius.  The top of the cake becomes light brown at the end. To confirm whether it is baked fully, insert a knitting needle or a sharp knife in the centre of the cake. It this comes out clean, it means that the cake is done. If some batter sticks to it, bake for 5 or 10 minutes more. Leave the cake in the tray till cool and the invert in a plate and then reverse again.



If you follow all correctly, you are sure to get a wonderful cake. But remember one thing, for anything to become perfect, experience counts. You yourself will know how to improve your cakes.

So, HAPPY BAKING!