Home-made doughnuts (kids can help!)

Last weekend we had a lovely Mother's day here. This week things are again back to normal and I had a request to make doughnuts/donuts for snack today. With the April showers lashing us, it did seem like a great idea to eat warm doughnuts with a good cup of hot chocolate while watching the rain through the windows. Anjalie as usual was very helpful and with the use of bread machine, we had more time to play together while the dough had time to rise. Anjalie helped cut the doughnut shapes and we were soon sinking our teeth into soft, melt in your mouth and yummy doughnuts with a cuppa. So here is the recipe...


You will need:
For the Doughnuts
1 packet (7 g) rapid rise yeast
220 ml whole milk
55 g sugar
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 eggs
40 g unsalted butter (skip the salt if using salted butter)
315 g plain/all-purpose flour + more for dusting
oil for frying

Home-baked Ciabatta

First of all, a very Happy New year to you all! Hope you had wonderful holiday season. Our holidays were so fantastic that I nearly did not want it to end. Much worse, after eating so much calorie-rich food for the holidays, we did not want to cook or eat again for another few years! But it never quite works like that and we were hungry again quite soon. So we decided to stick to simple food and sandwiches for the next couple of weeks. So that is one of the reasons I did not get much to write about in here. But today I got to try Ciabatta bread -which by the way is my favourite kind of bread. Personally, I love the crusty outside, extra-soft inside with those varying sizes of beautiful holes. I could it with pretty much anything, although, I tend to favour savoury food. With Anjalie wanting to help with the kneading of the bread I decided to try baking Ciabatta together with her. We are very pleased with how it has come out, which according to her is "perfect!" I did not need any further praise tbh, but, even my hubby who usually does not care for crusty breads said he enjoyed it and wants this exact same recipe repeated often. So I am one very pleased lady here. I have followed the measurements etc from BBC's Paul Hollywood continental recipes. Link here. But I just followed my own method that suits both Anjalie & my schedule.




You will need:
400 g white bread flour
300 ml water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp yeast
30 ml olive oil

Anadama Bread

After a little hiatus, that involved holidays with little to no internet access, time spent with Anjalie & family and starting new project at work and the stress that comes with it, I am back with more yummy recipes that is now approved by Anjalie (who is turning 4 this December- where did the time go!) and the rest of the family. It has been a while (2 months!) since I experimented with bread. So here it is- Anadama bread. This one uses corn meal/polenta and is traditional bread from New England. What attracted me to try this was the story of it's origin and the use of molasses as a sweetener instead of sugar. First the story- like many old recipes there are many, but, here is my favourite one- there once was a fisherman who lived in New England with his wife. All she ever fed him was polenta/cornmeal porridge sweetened with molasses. Eventually, he got tired of it and made bread with the porridge by adding bread flour, all the while saying, "Anna, damn her!" which became Anadama bread :)

Herbs and Cheese loaf

Here is another savoury bread that we enjoy. It goes great with barbecues as well as with pastas and soups. It is pretty easy to put together as well. The whole house smells fantastic when the bread is baking as well :) I tend to use red Leicester cheese for this bread since I like the lovely colour it adds to the bread along with the creamy taste. Buy any hard cheese will work fine. You can even try using soft cheeses like cottage cheese or feta cheese but add them to liquid ingredients (& count them for the liquids measure too!). I try to use fresh herbs as much as possible. But dried herbs will also work well for this bread. During the summer Anjalie & I love to go into the garden to "treasure hunt" for fresh herbs. But I have baked this with dried herbs before with pretty much similar results. When using fresh herbs, try to chop them coarsely to bring out the oil in them.

You will need:
1 and 1/2 scant cups lukewarm water
3 and 1/4 cups unbleached white bread flour
3/4 cup grated Red Leicester/cheddar cheese or any other hard cheese of your choice + 1/4 cup for sprinkling on the top
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cups fresh herbs such as thyme, oregano, basil and rosemary chopped coarsely or equivalent dried herbs.
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp milk powder
1 tbsp butter (at room temperature)
1 tsp instant active dried yeast

Baked Piroshki with Trinidad-style potato stuffing/filling

Piroshki are Russian-style (or mainly Eastern European-style) baked or fried buns with veggie and/or meat fillings. They are perfect for lunch boxes, travels, picnics etc or even as a snack/appetiser. We had a lovely sunny weekend at last, so, I baked these for a picnic at the park. After running around playing in the park, we pretty much finished the entire batch :) Anjalie is a big fan of anything potato and also loves my milky bread, so, it is not surprising that she enjoyed both of them put together. Piroshki can be either fried or baked. I always have gone for the healthy "baked" option. You can try frying with the same recipe for a variation.

You will need:
For the buns:
water roux prepared as shown here (optional)
1.5 to 2 cups milk (will need less if using water roux)
25 g butter
2.5 to 3 cups white bread flour
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
1 tbsp milk powder


For the Trinidad-style potato filling:
2 tsp oil
1 tbsp soft light brown sugar (optional)
small piece of habernero peppers (for adults - optional)
1 small or 1/2 large onion chopped
2 small tomatoes chopped
1 tsp tomato puree
1 stalk celery
1-2 stalks salad/green onions chopped (both white and green)
1 inch piece ginger grated
3 cloves of garlic grated
2 cups of peeled and cubed to bite size potatoes
salt and black pepper to taste
2 tbsps of milk for basting

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread

Cinnamon-Raisin Bread is a long time favourite for both Naz & me to eat with tea/coffee or for breakfast. It is no surprise that Anjalie loves it too. Before, tasting cinnamon-raisin bread, I never cared for sweet things with cinnamon. To me cinnamon was part of spices used in savory food like channa masala or biriyani. So tasting cinnamon raisin bread opened new possibilities of food with cinnamon. Did I say that it is favourite family snack as well? It is not too sweet, unlike cakes, and goes pretty well with spiced chai/coffee too. Nothing can compare to the soft crumb slightly spiced with cinnamon and biting into the plump raisins and then there is the cinnamon-sugar filling that just melts in your mouth, drool! I do use bread machine to do the kneading, but, then shape by hand and bake in conventional oven. However, you can mix and knead by hand as well. Here is the method (step by step) as much as possible.



You will need:
3/4 cup warm water
1 egg
1 tbl spoon softened butter/margarine
2 and 2/3 cups white bread flour
3 tbl spoon dry milk powder
2 tbl spoon sugar
1/3 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp dry yeast.

For the filling:
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp spoon cinnamon

Soft white bread (no water roux needed)

The last time I wrote about baking white bread, I had used water roux (well, pretty much for everything!). But with the entire family affected by flu this time, I really did not have time and energy to make the roux etc to make the bread. But after eating the softest loaf, we were not yet ready to go back to the French bread type loaves the bread machine usually makes. I need not say how great it is to be able to eat freshly baked bread especially when sick and how wonderful it is when we can chuck everything into the bread machine and press a button! Before I found out about the water roux method, I was trying out baking white bread using soya flour as emulsifier to soften the crusts and insides. After varying the amount of soya flour needed to replace my bread flour, today, I finally found the perfect white bread with softer crust and fluffy insides. All these without changing the taste and colour of the bread! Here is my recipe...


You will need:
1 and 1/3 to 1 and 1/2 cups warm water
3 cups+ 2 tbsp of strong bread flour
2 tbsp soya flour
1.5 tsp salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp milk powder
1 tbsp softened butter
1 tsp rapid raise yeast (bread machine yeast)

Cheesy Garlic Bread

Cheesy garlic bread are fluffy, cheesy, soft and garlicky, a perfect combination to make an excellent side dish to accompany pizza, pasta, soup or risotto or can be a part of healthy snack in the evening. Today, turned to be a lovely day with blue skies and warm sunny weather that we decided to take a walk together after lunch. So I expected that after a stroll we will all return home hungry and cannot wait for dinner time. So I decided to make cheesy garlic bread which as I had expected was very much appreciated by us all when we returned. It is quick and easy to make from scratch or it can be even more quicker if you use store bought pizza base. In fact, I made enough dough to make garlic bread for snack and pizza for dinner saving myself some time to enjoy playing with Anjalie :) For making two 12 inch cheesy garlic bread and/or Pizza

You will need:
For the base:
1.25 to 1.5 cups warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1.5 tsp salt
0.5 tsp sugar
1 tsp rapid raise yeast

Honey Partybrot/Partybread (water roux method)

Partybrot are traditional Swiss-German rolls, baked as one, in a round pan. As the name suggests partybrot is perfect for sharing. I received a new pot of home-made honey from a friend today and I really wanted to try it tonight (asap). I had wanted to make this tear off bread to share. I just used honey to make a sweet partybrot. It is a weekday but I could not wait to try the fresh honey. So, I quickly made a snack, veggie cutlets, for us while I prepared the partybrot. It was late dinner tonight but was well worth the wait :) I have had great success with water roux method so I used it for making this one too and the end result was perfect, fluffy and soft like cloud  bread that was sweet with great honey flavor. Anjalie loved the tear-off part and insisted on tearing off the bread for us too :)


You will need:
For water roux:
40 grams of bread flour
200 grams of water
For the dough:
Roux made from above
300 grams of bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg lightly beaten egg
1 tsp instant active dry yeast
225-250 grams**(yes, by weight) of lukewarm milk
50 grams of honey (add more if you like them sweeter)
30 grams unsalted butter + more to smear on top
Egg wash (optional): 1 egg + 2 tbsp milk

Malt-house Rye bread (no sourdough starter required)

It has been a while since I did any "bread experiment". The main reason for it is that both Anjalie and Naz have been asking for sandwiches and I was stuck with making sandwich (mainly white and potato) breads. I have been craving my rye bread as well. I was faced with 2 fold problem: 1) To get soft rye bread I need sourdough starter which means a lot of planning and Naz does not care for the sour taste 2) Anjalie & I love the tangy taste of sour dough :( To please everyone, the hamster in my brain came up with the idea of using yogurt instead of sourdough starter. This meant Anjalie & I get to enjoy mildly tangy tasting rye bread and Naz will not have a problem with the "yogurt tangy" taste since it is mild and he is used to that, whew! While, I was at it, I thought I will add in Malted flour for a good measure to get the slightly sweeter taste and darker color at the same time making it multi-grain and healthy. I usually add malt syrup (instead of sugar) to malt house bread. But I was all out of malt syrup though, so, I will have to try that one next time. Since it was the weekend, I hand-kneaded the dough on Saturday night and left it raise over night. I did the final shaping and proofing this morning (shown in the pics below). Unfortunately, with Anjalie around, I could not spend time to take step by step pics. Now for the recipe...


You will need:
2 cups white bread flour
1/2 cup rye bread flour
1/2 malted bread flour
1/4 cup wholewheat bread flour
1 cup non fat yogurt (at room temperature)
3/4 cup warm water + 1/4 cup warm water
1 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp sugar/malted syrup/maple syrup
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp active dried yeast (you can replace it with instant yeast)

Oats-Maple syrup Bread

We often hear the health benefits of Oats. See http://wholegrainscouncil.org/whole-grains-101/health-benefits-of-oats. But to me incorporating more than one type of wholegrain in the diet is more beneficial to replacing one by another all together. 

Ever since I tried to make a conscious change in my diet, whole meal oats has been part of the staple in our home. However, both Anjalie and Naz turn their nose up at cooked oat's gooey texture. So I try to come up with different ways of cooking and/or including oats that does not give the gooey texture. So far, I have had successes with Oats upma, oats bhel and oats dosa. But tonight I wanted to try oats in bread along with the perfect compliment for oats (IMO) and my personal favorite for flavor: Maple syrup. While, I would love to make bread with mostly oats, I am aware that oats does not contain much gluten and hence for a yeast bread I will need to use bread flour to provide the gluten. Here is a recipe that has wholemeal and white flour to provide the gluten. Using strong bread flour will give more fluffy and softer bread.

You will need:
1 and 1/2 cup warm water, 
2 tbl spoon Maple syrup (add an additional tbl spoon if you like sweeter bread), 
3 and 3/4 cup strong bread flour, 
1/2 cup strong wholemeal bread flour, 
1/4 cup rolled oats, 
1 tbl spoon oat bran, 
1 tsp salt, 
1 tsp granulated sugar, 
2 tbl spoon butter 
1 tsp rapid-raise yeast. 

Soft Basic white bread (with water roux method)

The greatest challenge with home baking our own bread is to get the bread to be as soft as possible without using any artificial emulsifiers that store-bought breads brands use. The Japanese milk bread turned out extremely soft and became a big hit with the family. I decided to try the water roux method for making a basic white bread and I have read that soya flour is a natural emulsifier and can be used to make bread softer  (add up to a maximum of 20% of the total flour) without changing the taste/colour of the bread. I had measured the ingredients this morning before going to work and placed them in the bread machine and set the timer. It was most wonderful to come home to the aroma of freshly baked bread and what a treat it was to spend Friday night dinner time together with the rest of the family and enjoy the softest home-made white bread ever! So here is the recipe...

You will need:
The water roux for a small loaf made as shown here
1 and 1/4 cups warm water (more or less)
3 and 1/4 cups strong white bread flour
1 tbsp soya flour
1 tbsp/30g butter/vegetable oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp milk powder
1 tsp active dried yeast

Light Rye bread with caraway seeds

Rye bread is one of my favorite. It gives a sour taste and an earthy flavor to the bread and I can't have enough of it! Usually Rye bread recipes, that I know, require sourdough starter and are denser than the normal white bread. Hence it is very unpopular among the rest of the family here. Then I found this recipe in a book for light rye bread loaf. So it was a win-win situation. The loaf turned out perfect and all three of us enjoyed it for breakfast this morning.  I was a little worried that Anjalie might complain about the caraway seeds. But it was sweet enough for her to get over the bread "having bits" in it :)

Additionally, rye flour is nutritionally better than wheat flour (especially the white flour). It is higher in protein, phosphorus, iron and potassium than wheat. It’s high in lysine, low in gluten and very low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol and Sodium. It is also a good source of Zinc, Copper and Selenium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber and Manganese. FYI: http://skipthepie.org/cereal-grains-and-pasta/wheat-flour-whole-grain/compared-to/rye-flour-dark/ So I am very happy to get everyone to enjoy a healthy breakfast which is the best start for the day!

You will need (for a small loaf):
1 and 1/4 cup of warm water
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil
3/4 cup rye flour
2 and 1/2 cups strong bread white flour
1 tbl sp dry milk powder
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp salt
2 tsp light brown sugar
3/4 tsp active dry yeast.

Japanese Milk bread (with water roux)

Ever since I realized how much Anjalie enjoys milk bread, I have been looking for Asian style milk bread recipes. During my childhood I remember sweet milk breads and buns from bakeries as well as "Milka" brand sweet milk bread. They had this "heavenly" sweet taste (sweeter than buns we get here) and a fluffy cloud like texture. While growing up "bread/bun butter and jam" as we used to call it were a treat which we only got on special occasions and trips. Typically, "bread" meant flat breads like rotis, chappatis and naans back home. I still remember looking at those drool-inducing milk-buns filled with fresh butter and mixed fruit jams lined up neatly in the display of local "Iyengar" bakeries. I desperately wanted to relive this part for myself and also wanted to see if Anjalie would fancy it as much as I did. That is when I came across the recipes for Japanese Milk bread from

http://www.the350degreeoven.com/2011/09/japanese-hawaiian/japanese-milk-bread-tangzhong-or-water-roux-method/

http://vivianpangkitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/loaf-bread-water-roux-method.html

I used Mika's website (the first link) to understand about the water roux/Tangzhong method, it's preparation and weight, flour-liquid ratios etc. But I wanted a bread recipe that I can easily translate to bread machine recipe for later on at least. I found the Vivian's website (the second one) to be better for that. Also I wanted to avoid using the egg since it will yield a bread with rich crumbs. My childhood bread had light fluffy crumbs as opposed to the rich crumb texture of egg breads.

Jalepenos-corn bread

This is one of my traditional part of Thanks-giving meals. It is usually very popular with my family and friends. It is fantastic and quite satisfying. Made with fresh sweet-corn and cornmeal and spiced with Jalepenos, it is sweet, soft, fluffy and has a good bite from fresh Jalepenos. I usually try to use 2-3 Jalepenos and mix both red and green ones to give it the pretty color.

 You will need: 3/4 cup water + (2 tblsps if needed)
3 and 1/4 cups strong white bread flour
1/3 cup corn meal
2 tblsp sugar
1 and 1/2 tsp salt
2 and 1/2 tsp active yeast
2 tblsp butter
1/3 cup corn (you can use canned or frozen versions too, just make sure it thawed out and drained)
2-3 Jalepenos chopped (de-seed them if you want milder taste). 

Carmalised onion and rosemary bread

With the remaining fresh rosemary, I decided to try out another savory bread that can go well with hummus and falafel for the lunch box tomorrow. As usual I tried to sneak in the whole-meal for the healthier option. You may add olives to this as well. I will give it a try the next time and get back to you. This bread was inspired by onion-focaccia bread which is one of my favorites. 

You will need:
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary chopped
For Bread:
1 and 1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 cups wholemeal bread flour
1 cup strong white bread flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoons fast-acting active dry yeast

Potato bread

Last time I made this was 2 yrs ago when my Dad & Mum had visited us. So I was a bit rusty. But got the hang of it pretty soon. So am pleased with my brain indeed. Potato breads have soft crusts, moist soft centre and are perfect for sandwiches. Naz described it as "as soft as cloud" today. This bread needs mashed potatoes, ermm, it is called "potato bread" after all. So wash, peel and cook 2 medium or 3 small potatoes in water (no salt). Drain and reserve the potato water and mash the potatoes. The mashed potatoes should make around 1 and 1/2 cup in measure. Now for the recipe

You will need: 
3/4 cup + 1 tbsp potato water (cooled down to room temperature)
2 tbsp sunflower oil
3 and 1/4 cup white bread flour
1 and 1/2 cup cooled cooked mashed potato
1 tbsp nonfat milk powder
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp rapid raise yeast

Sweet Potato-rosemary bread

Making potato bread gave me an idea to try sweet potato. Plus I had all those fresh rosemary that I wanted to use up. So I thought I will try out sweet-potato rosemary bread tonight to go with my ratatouille. This time of the year we can find sweet-potatoes fresh at the farmers market. So last weekend I was very tempted to buy a few and I kept 1 medium sized one for just this experiment. Personally, I prefer the deep yellowy sweet potatoes we get here rather than the white, batata (sakkarai kezhangu), version. The yellowy potatoes give the bread a golden lovely color (as you can see). The verdict first, it was delicious and moist and went extremely well with my ratatouille. In fact, I think I have found a new comfort food :) A definite keeper. 

Next for the recipe, I prefer a slightly savory bread for my ratatouille accompaniment. Despite using sweet potatoes, I have managed to turn the bread into savory bread. If you prefer a sweet bread, you can replace my brown sugar with granulated white sugar/honey and some of the water with warm milk. Make sure that the milk is warm. Cold milk will not allow yeast to grow. Here is the recipe. 

You will need: 
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, cooked and mashed (or if using left overs 6 oz of mashed sweet potato), 3/4 cups warm water
3 cups white-bread flour
2 sprigs of rosemary coarsely chopped
1 and 1/2 tsp milk powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbl spoon brown sugar
2 tbl spoon butter
1 teaspoon rapid raise yeast. 

Light Wholemeal Milk bread (bread machine recipe)

Once I started down the road of making sure Anjalie enjoyed Home-made meals, most of the days, the next step was to try baking my own bread. With a Bread machine to ease the process, I fell in love with baking fresh bread and, needless to say, both Naz & Anjalie enjoy them as well. Still, white bread is the most popular bread in demand here. But now and again, I try to sneak in a healthier version of bread such as whole-meal bread. One of the healthy, but, popular loaf at home is the light wholemeal milk bread. The light wholemeal bread uses a mixture of white and wholemeal flour thus yields a fairly light brown loaf. The use of milk means that the bread is soft and sweeter compared to bread made with water. The lactulose sugars in milk are not used by yeast so the bread tastes sweeter. But it will look darker than bread made with water. So set it to medium/light bread to bake in the bread machine. It is great for peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. It will be a hit with children due to the sweeter taste. Also due to the milk in the loaf it will keep good for longer, although, we usually finish ours within 2 days max. The recipe below is for a small loaf.

 You will need:
1 and 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
2 and 1/4 cups whole-wheat bread flour
1 cup white bread flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 and 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 and 1/2 teaspoon butter/vegetable oil
1 tablespoon milk powder
1 teaspoon rapid-raise active dry yeast