Imagine eating your own hand-baked bread toasted with butter and smeared with jam. The feeling is out of the world because you get to eat the fruits of your labour or should I say bread 🙂 I have added milk powder to this recipe, after I started adding milk powder to my baked goods like baked nippattu, I feel they turn out tastier. Adding milk powder to bread is also recommended by other food bloggers like ‘Sharmis passions’. Yogurt, is another ingredient I add to cakes, muffins and breads. A well received recipe from Veg Recipes of India also recommends adding yogurt to bread. It is tried and tested by many people.
Try baking bread at home, two things are for sure, your house will smell like the aroma of a bakery, all warm and toasty and two, you will once get to eat bread and like it like never before. I also have a recipe to post for whole wheat bread made with active dry yeast. For this recipe, make sure to use ‘easy-bake’ yeast now readily available in supermarkets. Free from preservatives, no unnecessary additives and no unhealthy oils like palm oil. Enjoy baked bread with jam or make toasties or sandwiches. Choices with bread are endless!
- 2½ Cups whole wheat atta/flour (300 Gm) + ¼ Cup to knead
- 2 Tbsp milk powder
- ½ Tsp crystal sea salt
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 Tsp easy bake yeast
- 2 Tbsp yogurt
- 1 Cup just warm water
- ¼ Cup olive oil + extra for kneading
- Measure out wheat flour into a mixing bowl
- With wheat flour add salt, sugar and milk powder. Mix well till combined
- Add yeast, mix well
- Take olive oil in a measuring jug or cup. Add yogurt into the oil. Lightly mix with a spoon. Add water and whisk lightly
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour wet mixture into the well of dry mixture
- Start mixing and it will start forming into a dough. Mix well to form a sticky dough
- Add olive oil and knead a bit till it feels less stickier
- Put it in a bowl and cover bowl with a cling wrap. Let it rest for 1½ hours in a warm place
- The dough doubles in size. Punch down the dough and knead well by adding little by little extra flour (about ¼ Cup overall) and oil into a stretchy dough
- On a working surface on the kitchen counter, take the dough and spread out lightly into a rectangle about the size of the loaf pan
- Bring up the sides on all four sides and fold onto the centre till you get an even seam
- Grease a 2 pound bread loaf pan. Put the dough, seam side down. Let it rise for an hour
- After rising for an hour in the loaf pan it again doubles in size. Brush with milk all over
- Pre-heat oven to 220 deg C for 10 minutes. Bake at 220 deg C for 10 minutes
- Brush with little more milk getting the bread out only a few seconds. Reduce temperature to 180 deg C and bake for further 15 minutes. The bread will be done when it has a golden crust and sounds hollow when tapped under base of the pan (tap in the centre)
- Cover with a damp kitchen paper towel for 5 minutes to set the crust
- Let the bread loaf cool completely on wire rack. Cut slices of bread with a serrated knife
- Enjoy! Here I have served them with homemade gooseberry jam
Use freshly milled wheat flour or good brands like Annapurna/Aashirvaad
Yogurt gives a nice soft crumb of bread
The dough that you mix initially will be very sticky. This makes bread softer
Kneading the dough is very important. This requires patience
Different wheat flours work differently as they have different gluten content in them. Here the recipe is for Indian whole wheat atta/flour
Add regular table salt if you want. You would require upto ¾ Tsp for this recipe
Make sure yeast is not very old after it was opened. Always store yeast in a cool place
When letting dough rise, keep it in a warm place for yeast to take effect
Use any other oil like sunflower oil, vegetable oil or even ghee instead of olive oil
Stepwise:
Measure out wheat flour into a mixing bowl
With wheat flour add salt, sugar and milk powder. Mix well till combined
Add yeast, mix well
Take olive oil in a measuring jug or cup. Add yogurt into the oil. Lightly mix with a spoon. Add water and whisk lightly
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Pour wet mixture into the well of dry mixture
Start mixing and it will start forming into a dough. Mix well to form a sticky dough
Add olive oil and knead a bit till it feels less stickier
Put it in a bowl and cover bowl with a cling wrap. Let it rest for 1 1/2 hours in a warm place
The dough doubles in size. Punch down the dough and knead well by adding little by little extra flour (about 1/4 Cup overall) and oil into a stretchy dough
On a working surface on the kitchen counter, take the dough and spread out lightly into a rectangle about the size of the loaf pan
Bring up the sides on all four sides and fold onto the centre till you get an even seam
Grease a 2 pound bread loaf pan. Put the dough, seam side down. Let it rise for an hour
After rising for an hour in the loaf pan it again doubles in size. Brush with milk all over
Pre-heat oven to 220 deg C for 10 minutes. Bake at 220 deg C for 10 minutes
Brush with little more milk getting the bread out only a few seconds. Reduce temperature to 180 deg C and bake for further 15 minutes. The bread will be done when it has a golden crust and sounds hollow when tapped under base of the pan (tap in the centre)
Cover with a damp kitchen paper towel for 5 minutes to set the crust
Let the bread loaf cool completely on wire rack. Cut slices of bread with a serrated knife
Enjoy! Here I have served them with homemade gooseberry jam and butter
