Making Bread, Breaking Bread

Now that I have the first post out of the way and have actually begun, all those things that I felt like writing up about seem to have evaporated. I have things to write about. But the problem is, 'What do I write about these things ?' Nothing's so recent that I can write about it off the top of my head yet with all my heart.
So, I ask myself the painful question, 'What did you do latest ?'
The only good answer would be, 'Made Bread.'

I have been baking cakes since quite a few years now, but recently my baking (and cooking) repertoire has expanded considerably. More on that later! Finally, recently, during my baking rennaissance, I decided it was time I tried the most basic, everyday, down to earth piece of baking. Bread!

Usually I cook up something after spotting it somewhere - cookbook, blog, etc - while browsing for something else altogether. And checking out cooking blogs has always turned up a lot of interesting stuff.
So, upon deciding that bread had to be made for the Sunday take-to-trek, and an italian herb sort-of bread at that, to go with hummus, I did what has become a rather predictable first step nowadays. I googled it.
Found lots of recipes, from dedicated recipe sites as well as blogs. Finally I found one that looked interesting. Foccacia Bread. An Italian bread thats soft and spicy with herbs and other what-have-yous tossed in. Perfect for my Sunday take-to-trek. Coupled with hummus. Hummus was awesome, but more on that later, too.

I picked up the original recipe from Passionate About Baking...: LOAFING AROUND...FOCACCIA with garlic, onion & fresh basil who, apparently, has adapted it from Recipezaar.

I made that first bread, and it turned out decently well. Sunday was a success.
Kept making more on and off, putting in my own twists along the way as I gained more experience and had ideas to try.

Its been a while now since that first Italian herb bread with hummus or jam, take your choice, up on Porcupine point.
Not only have bread prices increased quite a bit along the way, there's the realization that if you can make it at home, why have manufactured stuff which is certainly not as good as home made, both in terms of taste and health. So I started making a couple of loaves every weekend. With variations. With cheese, onion and garlic, or plain, or herby. Sis liked it, Mom loved it. Once Dad (who is fussy about tastes) agreed it was fine, we decided to avoid store-bought. I've been making all our bread at home since the past couple of weeks. Almost every couple of days.

The benefits ?
It definitely tastes better.
It lasts longer, inside and outside the fridge. But that's only when it doesn't get eaten up within a day or two !!
Infinite variations - add singly or in combination - garlic, onions, cheese, basil, spices, carrots, pepper, even sugar and nuts for a sweet bread. Think up your own ideas.
Better quality - you know exactly what's going into it and how.
Healthier - the wholewheat flour(atta) is so much better than the fine flour(maida). And you can control the amount of fat you put in.
Not to mention, its cheaper.

The usual recipe I work with, as evolved from the original :

2 loaves

Yeast - 1 tbs.
Sugar - 1 1/2 tbs.
Flour - 4 cups.
Salt - 2 1/2 tsp.
Oil - 3 tbs.
Water - 1 3/4 cup.

• Mix yeast, sugar and lukewarm water in a large bowl. Let it stand for 15 minutes or so, until it starts foaming.

• Add oil and salt to the water and then mix with the flour to make dough.

Make the dough whichever way you are comfortable. Here's mine :
Add 1 cup flour to the water mixture. Stir it in. Don't worry about lumps. Add another cup or so and stir it in until it is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Take more flour in a deep dish or similar vessel and tip the bowl into it. Knead away till done.
The dough should be moist and sticky but not overly so. You may or may not end up using up all the flour, so add flour little by little towards the end. You can always add more oil or water if its too dry.

• Smear oil in a bowl and roll around the lump of dough in it until its thoroughly coated with oil on all sides.
• Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until it doubles its size.
• Grease 2 baking tins. Separate the dough into two loaves and knead lightly. Pat into shape and place in the tins. Cover with damp cloth.
• Allow to rise until double or 1/2 hr.
• Bake at 375 F/200 C for 25-35 minutes, until just done.
• Cool for about 10 mins in tin, then remove from tin and cool another 1/2 hr or so. Slice when cooled.

And that's it.

You can add all the other extra variations into the dough when first kneading it.

One variation I like is adding onion and garlic into the dough. Then add grated cheese. The cheese is not kneaded into the dough. Once the kneading is done, separate each loaf's worth of dough into two parts, flatten them out with your hands, and layer the cheese on them. Roll one up without leaving air inside. Place the roll on the other flattened-and-cheesed part, and roll it up again. Seal top and bottom ends. Put it in the pan. Allow to rise for the total 1 1/2 hour rise period or until double or so. Bake.

Another option is to make the dough in the evening and let it rise for 1/2 to 1 hrs till its not quite double, but still pretty expanded. Then pat it into the tin gently, and allow to rise for the rest of the night. Bake top of the morn, serve hot from the oven for breakfast!

And that's what I did now. Its so recent, its still in process! Made the dough, let rise while I wrote up the first post, put it in pans, and wrote up this post. Its a chunky onion and paste of green garlic version. To be baked in the morning. If I wake up in time, considering its already 4.30 am.

The bread's already risen. In a few hours, I must too !

What did I do latest ? Made Bread.