Saturday, June 21, 2014

How to bake bread

Tips for people like me who are new too cooking, and always get confused -
  • Tea spoon is the small one and table spoon is the big one. 
  • Remember to set the alarm every time you need to keep something aside for 15 minutes or half an hour.
  • Clean the bowls and pans as soon as you are done with them, cleaning them later when the dough has hardened is a big pain.
Stuff you need:
  • Flour
  • Yeast
  • Milk powder or milk
  • Oil or butter
  • A pan to bake bread in 
  • An oven
  • Warm water
  • Bowl
  • Table spoon
  • Tea spoon
  • Clean cloths
  • A nice warm place where the yeast can grow

Take a bowl and add two tea spoons of yeast, and a bit for luck. Add two table spoons of sugar and one tablespoon of milk powder (or two table spoons of milk), to feed the yeast.

If you are lucky enough to have 24 hours hot water at home, open the hot water tap, and wait until the water stays hot, then open the cold water tap, and make the water slightly warm to touch. Otherwise, find a way to make warm water. Make sure its not hot, or the yeast will die, and you'll end up making some terrible chapathis!

If you have a measuring jar, add one cup of water, if not, add a glass of water.
Mix well, until there are no clumps of yeast around.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and keep aside in a warm place for 15 minutes. When you take it out, you should see a frothy mixture and it should smell of yeast.

Add two tablespoons of salt and one table spoon of oil and mix well. Then add in maida or wheat flour and mix until it stops sticking to the bowl, but it still sticks to your hand. If that doesn't make sense, well, just don't make it too dry. You'll figure it out by the time you bake a few times.

Cover the bowl and with a cloth and keep it in a warm place for another half an hour.

Take a bread baking pan and spread oil on it. Transfer the dough from the bowl to this pan, cover with a cloth and keep aside for another half an hour. If you don't have a pan, don't worry, just oil a plate and use it. It won't be shaped like the shop bread, but it will taste the same.

20 minutes later, turn on the oven to Bake, and set it to 180 degerees Celcius.

10 minutes after that, take the pan with the dough and put it in the oven. You should start getting the sweet aroma of a bakery around 5 minutes later.

Wait for half an hour. Have a nice plastic or wooden spoon ready to help you scoop out the bread.

Take out the bread and turn it around, knock on it a few times and make sure it sounds hollow. If it doesn't, it needs more baking.

Cover the hot bread in a cloth and keep it till it cools. And if like me, you can't resist, every once in a way, cut out a slice and help yourself to it.

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