Baking bread has always been a dream for me. I waned to never buy bread and over the years I have tried many recipes, some a success like ciabatta and jewish white bread and some breads are very elusive - like a whole wheat bread.
I attended a baking class some years ago, conducted by Mrs.Anitha Issac and she gave a simple recipe of white sandwich bread. But what I took away mainly from that class was how to fold the bread! The recipe was not really all that great.
Ciabatta recipe is easy and good. The bread is very tasty with many air pockets. But you do not knead the dough, so shaping it into a loaf is an issue.
Jewish white bread does not smell like the bakery bread which we enjoy a lot. (presence of egg?).
And then came the news in the papers that almost all the packaged bread is filled with chemicals and preservatives. My search was getting desperate.
Watch how industries make bread using machines : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-U-BHB-mrM
Around this time my husband ate 'the tastiest bread'. It was made by Mrs.Suman Kenny and when I messaged her she told me she made 'milk bread from the wok's life' blog. The recipe used both egg and heavy cream. I decided that I will use either banana or milk in the place of egg and since I did not have 'heavy cream' , I added 1 big tbsp butter to my milk.
Oven Temperature : 180 C
Ingredients (for 1 loaf or 12 pav):
All purpose flour / maida - 2 cups + some more
Sugar (powdered) - 2 tbsp (1/6 cup)
Yeast - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 3/4 tbsp
Milk - 180 ml (1/2 cup + 1/3 cup)
Butter - 1 tbsp heaped (room temperature)
Oil for greasing proofing vessel and bread loaf tin
Method:
Mix together the flour, sugar and salt.
Add in the yeast and mix well.
Add the butter and crumble it well to incorporate it into the flour.
Add the milk and start kneading. Add 1/4 cup more of flour if you feel it is too sticky.
Knead for 5 minutes.
Grease a vessel and place the kneaded dough inside it.
Cover and proof until doubled. (In South India = 1 hour)
After 1 hour, knead the dough for 5 minutes and shape.
Grease the loaf tin and set aside.
Shaping the loaf
Spread the kneaded dough into a rectangle and fold the thirds like an envelop. Bottom third towards the middle and top third on top of the middle.
Pinch the edges and place in a greased bread baking loaf tin with the pinched side down.
If you wish to make Pav bhaji bread then shape into small balls and place within 1 inch of each other.
Dust the loaf / pav with more flour on top.
Proof again under a damp cloth for 1 hour.
After proofing the pav will look like this.
Just before baking, slash 2 slits on top of the ordinary loaf with a sharp blade or you can try these designs too.
You might love to watch this slovenian chef make art on bread!
Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes.
Remove from tin and cool.
You can brush butter or sugar syrup on top to get a glazed look.
Once cool , use a serrated knife to cut into slices.
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