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

Moist Chocolate cake with Milk chocolate frosting - Fathers Day special

We three of us here at home do not have much of a sweet tooth except for chocolates. We enjoy them in any form or fashion. Moist chocolate cakes are both Naz and Anjalie's absolute favourites. So what other best way is there to say "Happy Fathers day" to Naz other than to bake one for him along with Anjalie? So I did just that! We totally enjoyed it, so, let me share the recipe with you. But before I go to the recipe, let me wish all dads and grand-dads a very Happy Fathers day! Hope you had a wonderful time with your families.

For the cake:
225g butter at room temperature
350g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
350-400 ml milk
300g plain flour
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

For the frosting:
60g butter, softened to room temperature
60g unsweetened cocoa
75ml milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g icing sugar
decorations like M&Ms, thousands and hundreds, sugar stars etc.

Healthier variation of Trinidadian (fry) bake- baked not fried

We all have childhood favourite dishes that we love very much and associate with comfort food. Some times, unfortunately, they are not the healthiest things around. Trinidadian fry bake is Naz's childhood favourite. Anjalie really enjoys them too. Unfortunately, it involves frying the bread dough which, naturally, is not very healthy. I have been looking and experimenting for a recipe that involves baking them instead of frying and still be able to achieve the same soft texture. The trouble is that the same recipe cannot be used to bake. It involves using baking powder, so, baking the dough will result in biscuits. Secondly, I have previously tried yeast instead of baking powder, but, could not get the pocket in the centre which we get when the dough puffs up during frying. I finally figured out the perfect recipe that gives the replica of "fried" bake, i.e., it is soft and has a pocket in the middle to scoop up tomato choka or to put butter and cheese in. But this version is  just healthier having been baked in the oven instead of frying. It only requires very little oil/butter. When I finally served them today, both Naz & Anjalie could not believe that they were not fried. Naz kept on going about how it tastes really great! Just what I wanted to hear :D So, I guess, from now on Trinidad bakes are going to be one of the regular dishes in our home. Again, this goes to show that Healthy food choices does not necessarily mean missing out on our childhood favourites. So without further ado...here is the recipe.

You will need:
2.5 cups all purpose/plain flour (not bread flour)
1 tsp instant dried yeast yeast
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 to 1.5 cups lukewarm water (use as required)
1/2 tbsp oil/butter

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

Soft Scottish dinner baps/rolls (perfect for burgers) -water roux method

Baps in Scotland are much like dinner rolls in the rest of the world, but, they are softer and larger (width-wise) and are not sweet (unlike the Irish ones). They are perfect for barbecue or for burgers. With Summer rolling on soon (hopefully), I thought I will share this recipe just in time for those special Summer barbecues. We love them as sandwiches/burgers or with soup or just steaming hot with butter for breakfast. The water-roux method gives extra soft crumbs and the butter gives great flavour to them. So without further ado, here is the recipe for 8 Baps/rolls.

You will need:

For the water roux:
25 grams of white bread flour
125 ml of water

For the bread dough
Water roux from above
75ml warm milk
225ml warm water (use more or less as required - this will be stickier dough than normal bread dough)
475 g white bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar (optional)
1 tbsp milk powder (optional)
2 tsp rapid-raise dried yeast
30g butter, softened
oil, for greasing baking pan

Madeleine Tea-cakes for Mothers Day

The rest of the world (except UK and few other countries in Europe) celebrate Mothers day in May. Today being the special day Anjalie & I (the women of the house - well, technically, girl and woman of the house) treated ourselves and Naz to sweet Madeleine Tea cakes. These yummy little things are absolutely melt in the mouth, buttery and sweet, aka, perfect for serving warm with a cuppa on Mothers day. Since it was the first time we tried, we only made 12 (for the 3 of us) and they were gone like hot cakes! (pun intended) :)

These little French butter-sponge cakes are perfect for any afternoon but they do make special days extra special :) Traditionally, these are baked in special Madeleine pans (which we did too) that give a scallop shaped sponge cakes that are soft in the centre and crispy on the edges. They are not too sweet and do not usually have icing. But do not let the "pan", or the lack of it, put you off. Try baking them in a muffin pan with foil lining (made into scallop shape if you want) instead. Anjalie loved them so much that she has requested these for her birthday in December :) Ahh...one has to be a 3 year old  to look forward to the next birthday with such enthusiasm.

I found the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-butter-cakes-madeleines/?scale=6&ismetric=0. I followed with some modifications. I changed the oven temperature to 180 instead of 190 degrees Celsius. Naz does not like sponge cakes that are too crispy. So change according to your preference. Also, I think UK cup size is slightly bigger since I ended up with more batter than needed for 12 cakes. But since I hate waste, I just poured them in anyway. If I had more time, and if Anjalie was not so very impatient to try them, I would have made baker's dozen instead of over filling them. But we did not mind eating larger cakes :) Also I used icing sugar to decorate instead of granulated sugar asked for in the recipe. I like the frosted look. I also added 1/4 tsp baking powder to give it a better raise and softness. So here is the recipe...




You will need:
2 eggs

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup white sugar (remember US cup measurement!)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup icing sugar for decoration

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)

Healthy Wholemeal Naan with sourdough starter (without tandoor oven)

Naan is a flat bread made from refined white flour that is leavened with yeast traditionally using wild yeast and lactobacilli from yoghurt. The dough is then cooked in Tandoor/clay ovens. However, it can made at home using conventional ovens by grilling or broiling the dough. It can also be made on stove top without oil and, personally, I prefer this method since it works out quicker for me. Naan can be found in most Indian restaurant and whenever we order a take out or eat out Naz usually prefers naan since it is "softer". I generally do not make it often at home and prefer to eat Tandoori rotis as a healthier option even when eating out. With all of us slowly getting better from the flu, I thought I will treat us all to soft Naan, but, with healthier wholemeal. The trouble with using wholemeal flour is that it does not have as much gluten as white flour and hence needs extra help to get it softer. So this wholemeal version works best with sourdough starter than with commercial yeast. This recipe can be adapted to make traditional Naan by replacing wholemeal flour with white flour and sourdough starter with 1 packet rapid raise yeast. Before I go to the recipe, I will tell you the end result of my experiment. All of us enjoyed the wholemeal naan very much with Naz commenting that he could not believe that it was wholemeal with it being "so soft". Nor could he get the "sourdough" taste. I had mentioned in the sourdough starter recipe that it is versatile and can be used in pretty much anything that uses yeast. This experiment of mine goes to show that it can be used even in recipes that are challenging for commercial yeast. Again, I have used my sourdough starter before and am sure that it works well. But if you are unsure about your starter or using it for the first time, you can add a 1/2 tsp of yeast to help with the raising just in case. Here is the recipe:


You will need:
200 g wholemeal flour
200 g white flour
200 g sourdough starter
salt to taste
water to make dough
1 tsp oil

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

Le Pain de Seigle de Thiézac (French Rye Bread from the Thiézac region)

You will need a sourdough starter for this recipe. If you are looking to make your own rye starter see here to find out how I did it. I actually enjoy rye bread more than wheat bread just because I love the taste. The fact that rye is more nutritionally better is just an added bonus. For more info read here. If you have been following the whole sourdough fiasco in this blog, you will know that I have been planning to make rye bread for a good few weeks now. One thing to note is that pure rye bread will not raise as much as wheat bread. So please do not be disappointed to see that the bread does not look all puffed up in volume. If you prefer a lighter bread you can mix rye flour or use rye starter with wheat flour to bake your bread. See here for a wheat bread recipe with rye starter.

Finally, I have had a chance to make pure rye bread with my rye sourdough starter. Although, I had initially planned on making German rye bread, I changed my mind once I came across the recipe for this French rye bread from the Thiézac region from Fresh loaf website. The pictures looked very inviting that I had to try it myself. For the original recipe look here. The only difference between the recipe given in the Fresh loaf and mine is that I skipped adding any commercial yeast. That is because I have regularly used and was sure of my starter. So I did not think I needed any extra help from the commercial yeast. However, if you are trying this out for the first time with your starter I suggest that you add the commercial yeast as well just in case. For this French bread it takes 3 or 4 days to slowly build the "levain" which is the yeast/leavening agent for the final bread. I started with 10 g of my rye sourdough starter and by the time it was 4 days I had nearly 700 g of the "levain" ready for my bread. This is a great example of how a little bit of sourdough starter can help with baking large quantity of bread. I ended baking 3 small loaves. If I am going to work on it for 4 days I thought I might as well make enough :) Also they can be frozen and keep very well for a good while.

Garlic bread sticks (Olive Garden style) with water-roux (Tangzhang)

Unfortunately, it is my turn to get the flu here. Today is the second/third day of it. I have had a lot of help and attention in the style of "Mr. Large in-charge" from Anjalie and Naz here. By now I felt that I can no longer expect them to do everything around the house. In fact, I myself was getting tired of those canned supermarket soups! So I decided to make my own soup and my personal favorite, minestrone, for dinner tonight. While we lived in the USA, Naz & I used to frequent the Olive Garden chain of restaurants. I loved their minestrone soup and garlic breadsticks. So I decided to make their style of garlic breadsticks to go with my soup tonight. Recently, you might have noticed, I have had great success with water-roux in achieving soft rolls, buns and bread. So, naturally, I used water-roux to give these bread- sticks/rolls the soft texture. I had to rush a bit since it is a weekday and I tried to get some work done from home in a bid to avoid spreading my flu to my colleagues. This meant setting the bread machine to finish the dough cycle at around 5 pm with a plan on getting dinner ready by 7:30 pm (barely enough time)!! But the garlic bread turned out great -golden brown top, soft insides with a chewy bite just the way we remember the Olive garden garlic breadsticks used to be. Anjalie loved it too as well. So a definite keeper that will please the entire family. Bread flour works out best for this recipe. But you can make it with plain/all purpose flour too. Here is the recipe I used...

You will need:
For water roux (Tangzhang):
1/3 cup bread flour
1 cup water
For the garlic bread sticks:
4 cups unbleached white bread flour
1.25 (scant) cups of lukewarm water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp milk powder
1.5 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter + 1 tbsp melted butter (for spreading on top after baking)
1 tbsp olive oil/butter ( I like the flavor of olive oil in my bread sticks)
1.5 tsp instant active dried yeast
1 tbsp garlic salt granules/powder

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)

Stuffed Jacket/Baked Potatoes

Both potatoes and rice are good sources of carbohydrates and minerals. However, compared to processed white rice baked potatoes are way better in nutritional values and fiber content. So, once in a while, I try to make dinner/lunch with baked potatoes instead of rice-based dishes. Baked potatoes are easy and need very little of your time. Most of the work is done in the oven so even young children can be involved in the preparation of it while the adult handles the oven. More over, baked potatoes offer a wide variety of choices in their topping. It is pretty much like rice and can be topped with anything making a wholesome filling meal. Tonight, Anjalie and I wanted to decorate the Easter bonnet. After all, Easter is just around the corner. So I chose to make baked potatoes for dinner since we can pop the potatoes in the oven while we worked on our bonnet. Instead of making mixed bean chilli/ the usual curry, for the topping, I decided to simply do stuffed baked potatoes with sweet peppers, cheese and sweet corn and served it with side salad making a very enjoyable meal for all 3 of us with very little effort. Best of all it does not use any oil and totally guilt-free. Perfect!

 You will need:

4 medium baking potatoes

100 grams grated Cheddar/Monterey Jack cheese/ Spicy Mexicana cheese

100 grams of sweet corn (I used 1/2 a can unsalted sweet corn and used the other half in the salad)

100 grams mixed sweet peppers

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2-3 tbsps of chopped fresh herbs of your choice -thyme/dill, coriander, oregano, basil etc

1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce (optional)

Sweet pepper macaroni and cheese/ macaroni pie

Macaroni and cheese or Macaroni pie in some parts of the world is a quick family dinner that everyone is bound to enjoy together. In Trinidad and Tobago, however, it is treated as a side dish and Naz usually likes to have it with red beans and rice during the weekends. Children often tend/want to eat the same food, they like, over a few days. Tonight, Anjalie insisted on wanting "white" pasta (cheesy pasta) again! So to cater to both of their desires, I modified the cheesy pasta into a Macaroni and cheese for Naz. Since we all enjoy Mexicano cheese, I used it and it does have a slight "spicy" taste. But you can use any cheese of your choice.

You will need:

250 grams dried macaroni pasta or pasta of your choice (I did use Fusilli since it is Anjalie's favorite)

4 tbsp of plain flour

1 tbsp butter/olive oil + for greasing

salt and white pepper to taste

100 grams of grated hard cheese of your choice

1 egg (optional)

1/4 cup sweet bell peppers (mixed colors)

2 cloves of garlic crushed

1/2 tsp oregano

500 ml whole milk/cream 

2 tbsps milk (optional)

Sourdough bread (Wheat + rye starter)

Coming from the South of India, where rice is the indigenous and most used grain, I am used to Indian flat bread regularly. But I got to try yeast bread only on rare occasions like when travelling or when sick. I had a real hard time adjusting to eating bread regularly when I left home for graduate studies. But while travelling in Germany, I got to try sourdough bread. That changed it all for me. I fell in love with German breads, in general, with my favorite being sourdough breads. I came to enjoy bread so much that I now bake my own at home every other day. In fact, I have fallen in love with bread baking as well. Sourdough bread making is as natural as it gets in the ingredients as well as the techniques. But it does require patience with a reward well worth all the effort at the end of it.

Now that my starter is doing well and thriving (recipe here and also to read the health benefits of sourdough breads), I was looking forward to making sourdough rye bread. However, when I took out the starter, to mix the dough, Anjalie (perceptive as always) said that she would like some of "Mummy's bread" (a name usually given to sourdough breads!). So I changed my recipe to include wheat flours (wholemeal and white bread flours) so that the resultant bread is more fluffy and soft than full rye bread and hence more appealing to Anjalie. The recipe here is for a most basic sourdough bread with natural emulsifiers like soya flour and milk powder. You can play around with the type of flour used or add seeds and/or fruits and nuts as you wish.


You will need***:
100 grams of starter (I used rye starter)
200 grams of warm water
200 grams of white bread flour +
100 grams of wholemeal bread flour^
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp soya flour
1 tbsp milk powder

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. 

Sourdough starter (Rye)

Sourdough bread is the oldest method of making yeast breads. In this method naturally occurring yeast in the flour and the air are captured and cultured on a basic flour-water combination called starter. This starter is then maintained with regular feeds until the yeast provides a perfect environment for lactic acid bacteria. Both lactic acid bacteria and the naturally occurring "wild yeast" then form a symbiotic relationship thus growing together. Such a starter can be maintained by regularly feeding them and can last as long as one wants. The commercially available yeast cannot survive in this environment. Certain types of bread such as rye-bread (without adding any wheat flour) come out much better with sourdough than commercial yeast. Due, to the presence of lactic acid bacteria, sourdough breads obtains a slightly fermented sour taste leading to an incredibly tasty tangy bread, yum!

Naturally occurring yeast are present in most of the flour we buy. So adding water to the flour and keeping it in a warm place is all that is needed to create a hospitable environment for the yeast to grow which then naturally offers a nice place for the lactic acid bacteria. There are more than one reasons for eating sourdough bread and not the least of them is the yummy sour taste! Sourdough breads have low glycemic index than bread made from commercial yeast. See http://www.simplebites.net/the-health-benefits-of-sourdough-bread-recipe-whole-grain-sourdough-bread/  For the more curious among you I will refer you to http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/05/food-for-thought-health-benefits-of-sourdough/ for the health benefits of sourdough. For more information on the techniques and details of sourdough starters and breads, please see, http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php

This time around (yes, I have done this before) my intention was to bake a sourdough rye bread this weekend. So I needed a rye-flour starter (I already have a white bread flour starter). So here is how I made my rye starter...

DAY 1 (05/03/2013):  I combined 2 generous table spoons (40 grams) of stone ground wholemeal rye flour with 40 grams of water in a clean (well washed, rinsed and sterilised container). I marked the level of my starter with a red permanent marker, covered the top of the container with cling film & rubber band and loosely placed the lid on top. Remember to use a clean spoon to mix the dough at all times. It is very easy to contaminate and introduce other organisms, like mold, into this environment. I keep a wooden chopstick for this use that I never use for anything else.

I left it in the warmest place in my house, i.e., on top of the refrigerator.

DAY 2 (06/03/2013): 24 hrs later, more or less, I felt incredibly lucky to spot a few bubbles in my starter indicating the growth of yeast. This has happened quite quickly for me. It can sometimes take up to 3 days for the wild yeast to start growing in the starter, so, patience is the key. I added another 20 grams of rye flour and 20 grams of water, mixed well, marked the level again and left it back on top of the refrigerator.

DAY 3 (07/03/2013): Another 24 hrs later, on day 3, I could clearly see (below) more bubbles formed by the yeast growth even on the side of the bottle, yay! There was also a slight sour smell indicating the lactic acid bacteria had joined the party! Fed my starter another 20 grams of flour and 20 grams of water, marked the level again and left it to rest.

4 hours later... the level of my starter had nearly doubled indicating my starter indeed was alive and doing well.

DAY 4 (today 08/03/2013): There is a distinct sour smell (like beer) and the top looks very frothy (see below).

So I gave it another feed and saw it come alive after 2 hrs

This probably will be my last feed without taking out any of the old starter. Mainly because I have reached the amount of starter I need, to bake my bread and then have a little bit left for maintaining it for future use, and if I keep adding any more there won't be room for it to grow! So the next time I feed, I will throw away 40 grams of my starter and add 20 grams of flour and 20 grams of water, leave it to rest and then pop it back in fridge after 2-3 hrs.

So this starter is now going to go into to the refrigerator (for storage) until I am ready to bake my bread (this weekend hopefully). This starter can be now maintained indefinitely for the future as long as I feed it regularly: everyday if it is outside (beware that mold can grow if we are not careful) or every other day in the warm part of the refrigerator or every 3 days in the coldest part. The day before I am ready to bake my bread, I will feed the starter a few times (about 4) by throwing away half of the starter and feeding with the exact amount of flour and water I removed. I will then use as much starter as I need for the bread (according to the recipe) and then replenish my starter by the same amount and leave it back in the fridge for future use. Pretty much this is my own personal yeast source that I can pretty much use it for making anything from bread to pizzas to pancakes, awesome!

Note: 

1. The starter is incredibly easy to make, but, it is not exactly guaranteed. It may take more or less time and the results may vary depending on the environment and a lot of factors. 
2. There are lot of advice against using starters that are less than a week old. But I have not had any problem before. Being a Physicist who works in Biological Sciences, I am pretty convinced that the symbiotic relationship between yeast and lactic acid bacteria once established will create an environment that may not be suitable for other organisms. Even if there is anything else, harmful growing, I am sure it will be killed at the cooking process. However, I leave it to your discretion. 
3. There are many different techniques to make sourdough. But I found this one the simplest and easiest to follow. 
4. Some people claim that the chlorine in the tap water kills the yeast and suggest using filtered water. But I have so far never had a problem with using tap water to make sour dough.

Update (over the weekend on 11/03/2013)):

I have kept the starter in the fridge. But took it out on 10/03/2013 and threw away 80 grams of the starter and replaced/fed it again with 40 grams of rye flour and 40 grams of water. I left the starter outside for 4 hrs and put it back in the fridge. On Sunday (10/03/2013) when I took it out of the fridge, to feed, the starter had a clear liquid on the top that had separated and smelled fantastic with sour taste (See left side pic). Wish you could smell it too! Anyway, the starter is now "ripe" and perfect for making sourdough bread. I had planned on baking sourdough bread this weekend. But it turned out that yesterday was Mothering Sunday and I had enough on my plate to worry about sourdough bread. So I just plan on continuing with the feeding every other day and bake the sourdough bread at the next chance I get. So please bear with me :)