White bread with Tangzhong method

Baking with yeast has finally been conquered. Checkout the softest and spongiest milk bread ever eaten in our household and to top it all home-made. What better joy than seeing your efforts bear fruit? 

Baking a whole wheat loaf is not quite there yet. But I am trying... hang on... In the meanwhile, check this recipe out... 

I came across this recipe on Baking Partners, but at that time I did not have this wonderful yeast, so I missed that challenge. I finally made it when I got my packet of good yeast. I did not understand what the Tangzhong would do and how it would help, but apparently it acts as a dough enhancer. It produces really soft and spongy bread. 

Recipe source Christine's recipes

Ingredients for tangzhong: 

50gm/ 1/3 cup bread flour

250ml/ 1cup water (could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)
Formula of  1 parts of flour with 5 parts of water heat at 65 c/ 150F

Ingredients for 

bread:

350gm/ 2½ cups bread flour (I used Maida)

55gm/3tbsp+2tsp caster sugar

5gm/1tsp salt

56gm egg (equals to 1 large egg) ( If you want eggless, increase amount of milk or add a cooked potato) 

7gm/1tbsp+1tsp milk powder (to increase fragrance, optional)

125ml/ ½cup milk

120gm tangzhong (use half of the tangzhong you make from this recipe)

5 to 6gm/2 tsp instant yeast

30gm/3tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Method of making Tangzhong:

1. Mix flour in water well without any lumps. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring consistently with a wooden spoon, whisk or spatula to prevent burning and sticking while you cook along the way.
2. The mixture becomes thicker and thicker. Once you notice some “lines” appear in the mixture for every stir you make with the spoon. It’s done.  If you want to check the temperature of tangzhong it is 65 C/149 F.Remove from heat.
3. Transfer into a clean bowl. Cover with a cling wrap sticking onto the surface of tangzhong to prevent from drying up. Let cool. The tangzhong can be used straight away once it cools down to room temperature.  Just measure out the amount you need. The leftover tangzhong can be stored in fridge up to a few days as long as it doesn't turn grey. If so, you need to discard and cook some more. (Note: The chilled tangzhong should return to room temperature before adding into other ingredients. )

Method of making bread:

1. Combine all dry ingredients: flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Whisk and combine all wet ingredients: milk, egg and tangzhong, then add into the well of the dry ingredients. Knead until you get a dough shape and gluten has developed, then knead in the butter. Mind you, it’d be quite messy at this stage  Keep kneading until the dough is smooth, not sticky and elastic. To test if the dough is ready, you might stretch the dough. If it forms a thin “membrane”/ window pan test, it’s done. The time of kneading all depends on how hard and fast you knead.
2. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Place in a greased bowl and cover with a wet towel or cling wrap. Let it proof till it's doubled in size, about 40 minutes (Note: the time will vary and depends on the weather. The best temperature for proofing is 28C/ 80 F.) During summer in Bangalore, it only takes 30-35 minutes for the first rise.
3. Transfer to a clean floured surface. Deflate and divide the dough into eight equal portions. Knead into ball shapes. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 15 minutes.
4. Grease and prepare a 8" square pan. If you want to make a simple white bread roll without filling you can do that at this time. Roll each ball of dough into an oval shape. Fold the shorter edges of the oval and form a square roughly. Turn it over and roll it again into a rectangle or oval. Turn it over and then start rolling from the wider side of the two shorter sides of the rectangle. Place it in the prepared pan as shown in the picture below. 
5. Leave it for the 2nd round of proofing, about 40 minutes, or until the dough rises up to 3/4 of the height of the tin inside.


6. Brush some milk on the surface gently. Bake in a pre-heated 180C (350F) ovenfor 35 to 40 minutes. I baked for 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and tin. Transfer onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Slice to serve or place in an airtight plastic bag or container once it's thoroughly cooled.

Verdict: This is by far the best bread we have ever eaten at home. I first made this about 5 years ago, and Mom was thrilled at the sponginess of this fresh loaf. When I made this recently, both my daughters downed large chunks at breakfast and tea times. 

My daughter just slathered nutella and ate the chunk. For my husband, I just made a simple channa sandwich after toasting a couple of slices and stuffing some channa masala between. 

Pillow Cakes

Hello All! I am back from an extended hibernation mode.

Thank you so much for your patience and continued patronage. I see some likes cropping up on my Facebook page every now and then. I am very grateful for that and it is a reminder for me to share the joy of cooking with the online community.

Well, there really is no specific reason for being away from the blog, I think I was just overwhelmed with the entire parenting experience all over again!

I was just reminiscing to my elder daughter about all the yummy baked goods I used to make for her and ended up showing the blog, while my little one saw all these pictures for the first time, that I had baked cookies and cakes and brownies, she had a forlorn look on her face. At that instant I decided to resume blogging as she is now slightly older and independent and is also very helpful around the kitchen. She was thrilled.

Little tummies need to be filled and "yummy yummy food for the tummy" is always being cooked, but not being photographed and blogged about.

I did not have the luxury of plating up and photographing, simply for lack of time and/or not being able to find my phone. Two kids need digital baby sitters you see and my phone serves me well.

So what better way to get back on the blog than with a tasty and quick breakfast option for lazy Sundays!

I honestly wanted to make better use of the sandwich maker and was looking at recipes I could use it for and came across these easy breakfast/snack options.

The little one does not have a sweet tooth and is a very picky eater. But chocolates, cakes and ice-creams are always welcome on her palette.

So let us go back to the delicious pillow cakes baked in the sandwich maker.

I picked a recipe that called for whole wheat flour. I just omitted the sprinkles and used a piece of dark chocolate for the filling. You can skip this if you please.

Recipe

Ingredients
Whole-wheat flour - 1 cup 
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Egg - 1
Milk - 1/2 cup or as needed
Oil - 3 tbsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Chocolate pieces - if using

Icing sugar for sprinkling

Butter for greasing the sandwich-maker plates.

Method

1. Mix oil, sugar, vanilla and egg in a bowl until combined.
2. Now add in flour, baking powder and fold gently.
3. Pour milk and fold gently till smooth batter.
4. Heat the sandwich maker and grease with some butter.
5. If making plain cakes pour the cake batter into the moulds to the brim.
6. If using chocolate filling, pour a little batter, place a piece of chocolate and cover with another layer of batter.
7. Cover and let it cook for about 5-6 mins. 
8. Remove form mould, dust with icing sugar and serve. 

The sandwich-maker's ready indication may over cook the cake. Keep a watch on the progress and remove the cakes when they are golden brown. 

Verdict:
When served hot these cakes just vanish, each kid downs about two of these easily. Need I say more?

Cinnamon rolls and Nutella rolls (Tangzhong method)

 I had some leftover Tangzhong from the previous milk bread preparation. I decided to make fillings this time. We are not particularly fond of the sweet coconut filling (Dilkhush or Dilpasand). So I made large Nutella rolls and small cinnamon rolls.

Some variation to the proportions mentioned in the milk-break recipe.

Ingredients

350gm/ 2½ cups bread flour (I used Maida) 

1/2 cup of whole wheat flour (this is a variation) 

55gm/3tbsp+2tsp caster sugar 

5gm/1tsp salt 

56gm egg (equals to 1 large egg) ( If you want eggless, increase amount of milk or add a cooked potato)  7gm/1tbsp+1tsp milk powder (to increase fragrance, optional) 

1 cup milk (increased the quantity of milk) 

100 gm of Tangzhong (refer to milk bread recipe) 

5 to 6gm/2 tsp instant yeast 

30gm/3tbsp butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

Method of making dough: refer to the milk bread recipe.
Method to shape the dough:
After the first rise, gently deflate the dough and divide into two equal halves. 
For the Nutella rolls:
Take one portion and divide into 4 equal halves and make balls. Let the balls rest for 15 minutes. 
Roll each ball into an oval approximately half an inch think. Smear a table spoon of nutella evenly on the oval. Rolls it starting at the wider of the shorter sides. Place in a prepared loaf pan.
For the Cinnamon rolls:
Ingredients:
4 tbsp - cinnamon sugar - refer to cinnamon toast
2 tbsp - butter 
Cut the butter into cinnamon sugar and make a smooth paste.

Let the second portion rest as such for 15 minutes. Roll the ball into a large oval approximately 1/2 inch thick. Smear the cinnamon sugar paste onto the oval shaped dough. Roll the dough starting form the longer sides of the oval. Make long log. Cut the log into 8 equal sized rolls and place them on the a prepared 8" square pan.

Allow for a second rise. 

Bake each tray for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C.

When one is baking, keep the other tray in the refrigerator.

Verdict: 
You can also try to allow the second rise to happen in the refrigerator. Keep it in the refrigerator overnight for the second rise and bake the rolls fresh in the morning. Awesome soft and spongy flavoured rolls for yummy breakfast!

Home-made Pancake mix (Whole wheat)

Whole wheat pancakes are a welcome breakfast option when one is bored of the regular stuff. Kids especially are picky when it comes to breakfast. No one has the time to deal with one more tantrum during the morning rush before school. I am sure all you moms know what I am talking about.

So I keep some home-made pancake mix ready, just in case. Basically I make this with whole-wheat flour, add egg whites and milk powder with a tiny bit of sugar and a pinch of salt. When I need to make pancakes, I combine two tablespoons of the mix with 1/4 cup of milk, 1/2 tsp of melted butter and some optional top ups of fruits or chocolate.  This will make 2 pancakes.

Ingredients:

Pancake Mix:
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Egg white - 2 tbsp
Milk Powder - 2 tbsp (see note 1)
Sugar - 1 tbsp (see note 1)
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp

If using sweetened milk powder, use 3 tbsp of the milk powder and omit the sugar.

Sift these ingredients together, thoroughly. Store in an airtight container.

For the pancakes:

Pancake mix - 2 tbsp
Melted butter - 1/2 tsp
Milk/Buttermilk - 1/4 cup
Fruits - Mashed banana, orange juice or chocolate chips - 2 tbsp

Oil - for making pancakes (see note 1)

Mix these together and make a light pancake batter. Do not over mix, else the pancakes will be tough.
Heat a girdle and spread some oil. Pour two tablespoon of the batter. When the pancakes are browned on one side, flip them and bake the other side. Once done, transfer to the serving plate and top with some maple syrup, butter and/or fruits and cream. 

Verdict: Keep this option open for breakfast for kids. It is quite quick, simple and healthy as well.

Cinnamon Toast

Simple and quick breakfast options are always welcome at home.

Ingredients

Bread slices
Softened butter - to spread
Cinnamon Sugar:
Cinnamon powder - 1 tbsp

Powdered Sugar - 1/4 cup


Method:



Spread the butter on one side of the bread slices. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the butter. Heat the girdle and drop a teaspoon of butter. Place the bread slice on un-buttered side, on the girdle. When the bread is lightly toasted, flip the bread on the cinnamon side and let it brown. Remove from heat. You could either cut it in two and eat, or just toast two slices and make a sandwich. Serve with a teaspoon of butter. Simple and quick breakfast for children. 

Verdict:
You could reduce the proportion of cinnamon in the cinnomon-sugar as per your taste. I like it less sugary and more cinnamony and hence I used the above proportion. This is a very easy quick-fix breakfast option for kids.

Eggless Wheat pancakes

Pancakes are a hit with my little girl. She loves them, I can give one to her before she leaves to school, put one in her box and give her one more when she gets back from school. No other breakfast, except maybe French Toast goes down this well with her. But folks at home always complained of the eggy smell and taste of pancakes. So I decided to try an eggless one. I googled and found one recipe consistently on most websites.

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon butter

  

Method:

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk together. Add milk, oil, water and vanilla. Whisk together until just combined. Be careful not to over mix - it should still be slightly lumpy. Over-mixing will result in tough pancakes. Set aside to rest for a few minutes.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. While pan is heating, add butter. As soon as the butter is melted, add melted butter to pancake batter.

Return pan to stove and stir butter into batter.

When pan is hot, with a measuring cup or ladle, pour 1/4 cup of batter into the skillet for each pancake.

Cook until bubbles form on the surface. Carefully flip pancakes with turner/spatula and cook until golden brown.

Serve hot with maple syrup/honey/jam.

Verdict: This was loved by folks at home. But I felt the baking powder was way too high in this recipe. We can do with just 1 tsp of baking powder.

Raagi Rotti

Children grow up so fast! The infant in your arms who only wanted a few ounces of milk every now and then, suddenly starts taking thin porridge followed by lumpy thick porridge and finally rice and idli. By this time they are sitting on a chair and eating their meals from a bowl and spoon, with your help ofcourse. Then the much loved porridge becomes a horrible choice for a meal for them. They hate that bowl and spoon. They see your plate on the table, a large circular plate with atleast 5 varieties of such colourful dishes. And at that instant they hate you, as you are being very unfair to them...
It is a matter of time before they start demanding the same plate and the same items that you eat. Their porridge makes them feel so little in stature and they remind you "Hey I am a grown-up now! Treat me like one!". You were least expecting it. You have about 3Kg of porridge powder left. So either the entire family starts taking porridge for meals to convince the little one or we use that porridge powder for something else. We did the latter.

We had about 3-4 Kgs of Raagi porridge powder, when we realized that our little girl is suddenly a grown up. So we decided to make Raagi Rotti with that powder.

Ingredients:
Raagi Porridge powder - 1 to 1 1/2cup (Recipe here)
Onions, medium - 3-4
Green Chillies - 3
Coriander leaves - 1/4 bunch
Curry leaves - 8-10
Salt - to taste
Oil - for making rotti
Method:
I use the shredder to coarsely chop the onions, chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves and salt.
Add the Raagi powder to this mix and knead into a soft dough.
Take a handful of the dough and form a ball. Use oil to grease your hands.
On a greased piece of plastic paper, flatten this dough into a roti, approximately 4-5 inches in diameter.
Heat tawa and invert the roti onto the hot tawa.
Bake the roti until brown on both sides.
Serve hot with Chutney. We usually eat it plain with no sides.

Verdict: Simple and easy preparation and wholesome food. Makes an excellent breakfast/dinner item. Also makes a great lunch box item.

Methi Paratha

Methi Paratha is a common breakfast item at home. It is pretty simple to make once the leaves are prepared. 

Ingredients:

Methi -  1bunch

Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Wheat flour (Atta) - 1 cup

Water - to knead the dough

Method:

Wash and clean the Methi bunch, removing the roots. Drain the excess water and chop the leaves and the stalks fine. You can use the stacks if they are tender. Else take only the leaves and use the leaves with dal or for soup. I usually put the bunch in the shredder. 

 

Add the spices to the prepared methi leaves.

Add the wheat flour.















Mix the contents together. Using very little required water, knead the dough.

Make small balls the size of a golf ball and roll into 5 inch parathas. Heat a girdle and make the parathas usng very little oil, until cooked and brown on both sides. Serve hot with green chutney or raita. We always eat the paratha plain.

Verdict: You can prepare the dough the previous night and quickly make the parathas for breakfast.

Multi-grain Rotti

There are some easy and quick options for healthy wholesome breakfast or even dinner. I remember receiving one packet of Ashirvad multi-grain atta along with a larger Ashirvad atta packet. It was lying in the pantry for a long time, until mom gave me this idea of making this "rotti", that is what we call "roti" in Kannada and Tamil :)

Here is what we did:

Multigrain Atta - 250 g

Onions - 3 medium sized - chopped

Coriander leaves - 1/4 bunch - chopped

Curry leaves - 10 - 20 - chopped

Salt - to taste

Green chillies - 2 - chopped finely

Water to knead

We used the chopper to chop the onions, chillies, coriander and curry leaves. The water from the onions makes the atta resemble coarse crumbs. Add very little extra water to knead and make the dough.

 Make balls roughly the size of a golf ball. On a greased plastic sheet, with the fingers slowly flatten the ball, until it is about 4-5 inches in diameter. Grease your hands with a oil too.




















Heat the tawa and slowly lift the roti from the plastic bag into the palm of your hand and drop it onto the hot tawa. Allow it to brown on one side before turning to the other side. Let it turn golden brown on both sides. There is no need to add more oil to the roti.




You can serve it hot with chutney or even eat it by itself.

Verdict: This is a quick and healthy dinner/breakfast recipe. Great to pack and take along for journeys too.

Aloo-mattar Paratha

Parathas are usually time consuming in the morning. So I make the stuffing and the atta the night before and only do the rolling and assembling in the morning. Before my little girl, when it was only the two of us and I did not have the luxury of mom cooking breakfast for me, this is what I used to do. But now mom insists on making everything fresh in the morning. If we happen to make this on weekends, she waits for me to assemble and make the parathas, else she does that part as well. Lucky me :).
We usually add a twist to the usual Aloo paratha recipe by adding boiled peas with the stuffing.
This is pretty much a regular breakfast item. We make the stuffing with grated cauliflower, mooli etc. 

Ingredients:

For the stuffing:

Potatoes - Large - 2

Green peas - 1 cup

Garam Masala - 1 pinch

Chilli powder - 1 tbsp

Jeera (Cumin) powder - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

For the outer cover:

Normal Atta dough, enough to make 8 medium sized rotis.

Dry flour to roll out the rotis and seal the edges.

Ghee - 1 tbsp.

Method:

Peel and cut the potatoes into 4 large pieces and boil along with green peas. Allow the mixture to cool down. Mash the potatoes and green peas, and add the masala powders and salt. Mix well and keep aside.

Roll out two medium sized rotis (4 inches in diameter). Take a handful of the stuffing and place it on one roti. Spread the stuffing into an even layer to cover most of the roti leaving a small margin. Place the other roti on top of the stuff and seal the edges using some dry flour. Once completely sealed, roll out the paratha thin. Heat the tawa and place the paratha on the tawa. Let it brown on one side, while you apply a few drops of ghee on the other side. Turn the paratha over and let it brown the other side too. Serve hot with green chutney/pickle and curd. We usually eat it plain. This makes 4 parathas. These are usually heavy and one person can eat only 1 - 1.5 parathas.

Verdict: This is a great breakfast item. Make the stuffing and atta in advance and roll and assemble in the morning. It saves a lot of time.