Why bake bread when it is available on the shelf of a grocery store?

Ingredients:

Preparations:

Take water in a microwave safe bowl and place this bowl in oven. Heat the water on high power for 15 seconds. Now if you measure the temperature it will be between 40^oC and 50^oC. Take sugar in a hand mixer bowl and add this luke warm water and dissolve it by stirring. Now if you measure the temperature it would have come down. Wait till the temperature is between 38^oC and 40^oC. Now add the yeast and stir to mix. At this (38^oC and 40^oC) temperature the yeast multiplies fast. So do not be in a hurry—let the temperature be right for perfect raising bread. After adding yeast allow the yeast to ferment. So leave this bowl aside for 10 to 15 minutes or till the mixture is foamy and bubbly.

Meanwhile take a deep bowl and add oil to it. Smear the oil all over the bowl and keep it aside. After preparing the dough we will keep it in this oiled bowl so that the dough will not get dried up. After 15 minutes, observe the yeast mixture. Now the yeast solution is foamy.

Fix a hand mixer to its stand and arrange flour kneading blades to it. Stir the yeast solution and add salt and oil and mix. Fix this bowl to the hand mixer stand and run it on low speed. Slowly add the flour while the machine is running. When half of the flour is added, increase the speed of the mixer to medium. After adding the entire flour, increase the speed of the machine to high and knead it. Observe that the dough is soft and sticky. Sprinkle a little maida from the extra maida taken on a clean platform. Transfer the dough to the floured platform and start kneading with hand till it is smooth. If the dough is sticky dust your palms with maida and start kneading it. Fold the dough and turn around a quarter and again fold it and turn around a quarter—like this repeat till you get smooth dough. When the dough is smooth place this dough in the oiled bowl and turn it so that the dough is covered with oil from all sides. Cover the bowl loosely with a plastic cover. Allow it to rise until doubled or even more, about one hour. In the video you can see that it has almost become three times

Method:

Place this pan in the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes at 180^oC in convection mode. Depending upon the color of the bread and the doneness, increase or decrease the time slightly. When done remove the pan from the oven and wait for few minutes. Loosen the sides with a knife and turn the bread on to a wire rack. Turn it around and tap to hear a hollow sound which indicates that the bread is baked properly. Apply ghee or butter on the bread so that it will not dry. Cool the bread completely on the wire rack before slicing it. When the bread is completely cooled off take a sharp knife and cut it into slices. Store them in a box till use.

We can prepare many dishes like sandwich toasts, bread rolls, French toast with bread. Enjoy baking bread for the nice aroma which fills the home while baking.

Points to Notice:

See that the yeast is not out-dated. The entire trick of this recipe lies in yeast rising. There are many types of dry yeasts available such as active dry yeast, instant dry yeast, fast action yeast etc.. Here, at the place where I reside, only one type of yeast is available among the dried yeasts. It is available by the name dry yeast. I have used this dry yeast for this recipe.

Yeast is temperature sensitive:

• At less than 10^oC (50^oF) the yeast is inactive.
• At 15^oC – 21^oC (60^oF – 70^oF) the yeast action is slow.
• At 32^oC – 38^oC (90^oF – 100^oF) the yeast is at its optimum temperature for fermentation.
• At greater than 40^oC (104^oF) the yeast action starts to slow.
• At 58^oC (138^oF) the yeast is killed.

So it is better to have a candy thermometer at home to find the right temperature to add the yeast. It’s advisable to invest in one thermometer. Gauging the temperature with bear hands is almost impossible. Since yeast is a living organism, it dies beyond 58⁰C which fresher’s to baking cannot make out.

Salt is used not only as a flavor but as a regulator of the growth of the yeast. Salt retards the action of the yeast. So use it only after the yeast is proofed completely.

Kneading the dough in a food processor or hand mixer eases the work. However if you don’t have one, knead it with your palms into a smooth dough with no streaks of dry flour or surplus liquid. Pull and stretch the dough, working on a flat surface so that you can push strongly. Fold the dough and turn around a quarter and again fold it and turn around a quarter—like this repeat till you get smooth dough.

Allow the dough to rise completely without bothering specified time. Rising is the first part of the yeast’s growth. The fermentation produces carbon dioxide that aerates the dough and it should double in size. Prevent a dry skin forming on the dough by rolling it round the oiled bowl, cover with a plastic cover and put in a warm place to rise.

Knock back the dough by punching it. The rise will collapse, flattening the large spaces previously filled with the aerating gases that will escape. After the second rising there will not be any yeasty flavor and the bread will be ready for baking. This second rising will produce the dough, resulting in even texture and a sweet mature flavor. This process is called proofing or proving.

Brush the raised dough with milk or give egg-wash to get a nice golden crust after baking.

When you can see that the dough is rising well during the proof and developing a nicely domed top, put the oven on to pre-heat. Yeast dough requires a really 'bold' start to kill the yeast as quickly as possible. This prevents large holes forming in the bread.

Baking time may vary with different ovens or OTG’s. So keep a watch while baking once the bread starts changing color. In ovens where there is no turn table then manually you may have to turn the pan in between for even browning. When removed from the pan and tapped underneath the bread, it should give a hollow sound for the doneness. Always cool the bread on wire rack or the condensed steam will make the bread heavy.

Always use gloves as the inside of the oven will be too hot.

It feels great when the room is filled with the aroma of freshly baking bread. As we are not using any improvers we know how fresh our bread is.

In this recipe I have given measurements in weights rather than in Cups. This I have standardized because always it remains a question as to what a standard cup measure is. To clear that confusion I have used only weights as measurements so that the recipe will never fail. Weights will be same all along the world but cups may differ. So it is advisable to weigh the ingredients to get the perfect bread. Similarly for seeing temperature a candy thermometer is a must. The right temperature of the liquid is necessary for the yeast to multiply. Then the recipe will never fail.

Here when I prepared this bread the room temperature on that day is 30^oC. During summers the time to heat the water in a microwave may be reduced further to say 7 or 10 seconds. So always it is better to measure the temperature just before

adding the yeast and that is the easiest way for baking good bread. 

Don't forget to keep the yeast in a sealed condition till next use. If it comes in contact with air and moisture, its action reduces.