Soft Pretzels

Soft Pretzels 

(Launghenbrezel)

When I first saw the challenge for We Knead to Bake of this month by Aparna, I was sure that they are very difficult to make.. so I kept on sort of delaying them, but since I had not done last month's bread also and everybody's pretzels were looking so delicious and yummy I thought of tring them myself. Making the doiugh in a food processor is very easy (This I have learnt from Aparna). Keep the dough for rising ...shape them....dip them in soda bath...and bake them.....AND they R Ready..!!! Soft, Easy and delicious pretzels....!!

Ingredients 

2 1/2 tsp dried active yeast

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup warm milk

3 cups + 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

(For Soda Bath)

6 cups water

2 tbsp baking soda

1 tsp cornmeal or semolina

2 tbsp milk

2 tbsp white sesame seeds

1 tbsp chille flakes

Method

1. Take the yeast and sugar in a bowl and mix them with warm milk and allow that to stand for about 5 minutes.

2. Take the flour, salt and the yeast mixture in a food processor and make the dough by adding milk to it.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.

4.Form the dough into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl, turning to coat the dough with oil. Cover and allow the dough to rise for about 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

5.Deflate the dough, cover and let it rest 5 minutes. Divide dough into 12 equal portions.

6.Roll each portion into an 18-inch-long rope with tapered ends. Cross one end of rope over the other to form a circle, leaving about 4 inches at end of each rope. Twist the rope at the base of the circle. Fold the ends over the circle and into a traditional pretzel shape, pinching gently to seal. Place pretzels on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise 10 minutes (pretzels will rise only slightly).

7. Put the 6 cups of water and baking soda in a non-aluminium pan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer. Gently lower a pretzel into the simmering water. Cook on each side for about 15 seconds. The pretzel will swell/ puff up a bit. Remove from the water with a slotted spoon and place on a greased wire rack. This will prevent the pretzel from sticking to the rack. Repeat with the remaining pretzels.

8.Place the pretzels on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal or semolina. Brush with milk and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake at 220C (425F) for 12 minutes or until pretzels are deep golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

9. Serve warm with a dip of your choice or just plain. They’re best eaten fresh, and on the same day. This recipe makes 12 Pretzels.

Eggless Baked Doughnuts

 We Knead to Bake #6

Baked Doughnuts..??????  This sounded interesting when I saw June's Month Challennge for We Knead to Bake hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen ...Though I had made doughnuts before but they were fried...& using eggs... I had to try these Baked Doughnuts....Though Last Month I was very busy with personal involvements, I tried these and they came out FANTASTIC......They were liked so much so that My son has already told his friends that his Mom would be making doughnuts for the whole class for his B'Day tom..and have been asking their favourite flavour.......!!

Eggless Baked Doughnuts

Ingredients:

1/4 cup castor sugar

1 cup warm milk 

3/4 tbsp instant yeast (or 1 tbsp active dry yeast)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup cake flour (or 1tbsp cornstarch + enough all-purpose flour to make up to 1 cup)

1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

100gm cold butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

For the topping:

about 1/2 cup melted butter for brushing

1 cup castor sugar + 2 tbsp cinnamon (more or less, depending on your taste), mixed together

OR

Glaze of your choice

(I used dark & white chocolate and some sugar sprinkles)

Method:

1. Put the sugar, milk, yeast, salt and vanilla in the processor bowl and pulse to mix well. 

2. Add the cake flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and process, adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

3. Now add the butter pieces one at a time and process till there no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl. 

4. Now add a little more flour until your have a soft, pliable and elastic dough that is most but not overly sticky.

 5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. 

6. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl., turning it to coat well. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise till double in volume. This should take about an hour.

7. Punch down the dough and roll out to a thickness of 1/2" thickness. Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or whatever you have on hand to cut out 3” diameter with 1” diameter holes. 

8. Re-roll the scraps and cut out more doughnuts. 

9. Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size and then bake them at 200C (400F) for about 5 to 10 minutes till they’re done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.

10. Take them out of the oven and immediately brush them with the melted butter and then dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

11.  If glazing your doughnuts, let them cool completely and then dip one side of the doughnut in the glaze of your choice and let it set.

P.S. This recipe makes about 12 to 14 doughnuts and holes.

My Twisted Cookies

                                 

We Knead to Bake #4 : Torcettini di Saint Vincent
(Sugar twisted Cookies)





                                

This month Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen decided to make Yeasted cookies instead of bread. It was a welcome change for all of us in the group We Knead to Bake !! Though I was a liitle skeptical in the begining but when I tried them with family and friends..for their views.....to my delight everybody liked it!! My son even carried them in his tiifin for his friends....!!

The origin of these biscuits is believed to be from Grissini (breadsticks) which were made from the leftover scraps of bread dough. According to one story, a Grissini baker had some leftover butter which he needed to use up. Inspiration struck and he decided to add the butter to the last batch of his Grissini dough for the day. To be able to differentiate this lot of “breadsticks”, he rolled them in sugar and shaped them into loops, and the Torcetti was born. Torcetti/ Torchettini taste even better when they’re flavoured with lime/ lemon zest or anise.

These yeast-risen cookies are a cross between a bread stick and a caramelized puff pastry palmier. The cookies are crunchy – you can easily tell this by their look. 

Torcettini di Saint Vincent

(Adpated from A Baker’s Tour by Nick Malgieri)

Ingredients

 1/2 cup warm water

 1 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (or 1 tsp instant yeast)

 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cocoa powder (if making chocolate torcettini)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp lime/ lemon zest (replace with orange zest for the chocolate version)

 40gm unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces

 about 1/3 cup sugar for rolling the cookies

Method

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water, in a small bowl and keep aside.

2  Cut cold butter into small pieces and combine them well with flour and salt. Then add the yeast mixture to form a ball. On a slightly floured surface, fold dough onto itself 3 or 4 times or until it is smooth and no longer sticky.

3.  If making chocolate Torcetti, remove 2 tbsp all-purpose flour and add the 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder mentioned in the recipe. Don’t add the lemon zest/ anise. Use orange zest and maybe add 1/ 2 tsp instant coffee powder with the flour.

4..Place dough in the buttered bowl, turning it over so that the top is buttered. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise until doubled, about an hour. When you pinch off a bit from the top you can see the interior looking a bit like honeycomb. Press down the dough and deflate it, wrap it in cling warp and refrigerate it for at least one hour or up to 24 hours. 

5. When ready to make the cookies, take the dough out and lightly roll it out into an approximately 6” square. If the dough feels sticky, scatter a little sugar on it. Using a pizza wheel cut the dough into four strips of equal width. Cut each strip into 6 equal pieces, by cutting across, making a total of 24 pieces. The measurements are not very critical in this part because this just makes it easier to have 24 equal sized  of dough, as compared to pinching of bits of the dough.

6. Roll a piece of dough on a sugared surface to make a pencil-thick strand of about 4 or 5-inches long, then cross one end over the other about 1-inch up from the ends. Place shaped cookies on prepared baking sheet, spacing about 1-inch apart.

                          

7. Let  twisted cookies rest at room temperature for about  15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat  oven to 180 C.

8. Bake until they are lightly golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Hokkaido Milk Bread

Bread # 3 Hokkaido Milk Bread With Tangzhong

                                           

Ingredients

Recipe source http://www.mydiversekitchen.com/2013/03/we-knead-to-bake-3-hokkaido-milk-bread.html

For The Tangzhong (Flour-Water Roux)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

 1/2 cup water

1/2 cup milk

For The Dough:

 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

 3 tbsp sugar

 1tsp salt

2 tbsp powdered milk

2 tsp instant dried yeast

1/2 cup milk (and a little more if needed)

1/8 cup cream (25% fat, I used Amul)

 1/3 cup tangzhong (use HALF of the tangzhong from above)

1/4 tsp salt

25gm unsalted butter (cut into small pieces, softened at room temperature)

1/2 to 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips if making the rolls

Method

The Tangzhong  (Flour-Water Roux)

1. Whisk together lightly the flour and water in a saucepan until smooth and there are no lumps. Place the saucepan on the stove, and over medium heat, let the roux cook till it starts thickening. Keep stirring/ whisking constantly so no lumps form and the roux is smooth.

  

2. Cook The roux  until you start seeing “lines” forming in the roux/ tangzhong as you whisk/ stir it. Take the pan off the heat at this point.

3. Let the roux/ tangzhong cool completely and rest for about 2 to 3 hours at least. If not using immediately, transfer the roux to a bowl and cover using plastic wrap. It can be stored in the fridge for about a day. Discard the tangzhong after that.

The Bread Dough

1. Put the flour, salt, sugar, powdered milk and instant yeast in the processor bowl and pulse a couple of times to mix. In another small bowl mix the milk, cream and Tangzhong till smooth and add to the processor bowl. Run on slow speed until the dough comes together. Now add the butter and process till you have a smooth and elastic dough which is just short of sticky.

2. The dough will start out sticky but kneading will make it smooth. If the dough feels firm and not soft to touch, add a couple of tsps of milk till it becomes soft and elastic. When the dough is done, you should be able to stretch the dough without it breaking right away.  When it does break, the break should be form a circle.

 3. Form the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl turning it so it is well coated. Cover with a towel, and let the dough rise for about 45 minutes or till almost double in volume.  

4. This recipe makes enough dough to make one loaf (9” by 5” tin), 2 small loaves (6” by 4” tins) or 1 small loaf (6” by 4”) and 6 small rolls (muffin tins). Depending on what you are making, divide your dough. 

5. Roll out each portion of the dough with a rolling pin , about 1/8” thick. 

6. Take one end of the dough from the shorter side of the oval and fold it to the middle of the oval. Take the other end and fold so it slightly overlaps the other fold.

7. Arrange in a loaf tin and cover with a cling l and leave the dough to rise for about 45 minutes.

8. To make the rolls fold them in the same manner described above, but before rolling them up, place some chocolate chip on the dough. Roll the dough rectangles carefully and pinch to seal the edge. Place each roll of dough in a well-oiled muffin cup and cover with a towel. Allow to rise for about 45 minutes.

9. Brush the tops of the rolls and the loaf with milk (or cream) and bake them at 180C for about 20 to 30 minutes till they are done (if you tap them they’ll sound hollow) and beautifully browned on top.

Classic & Buttery Croissants

We Knead to Bake #2 : Classic Croissants

This month's challenge was to bake Croissants . Lovely, Buttery, Chocolaty.........Croissants. When I saw the text I felt I would not be able to do it. Though I have made Croissants before also ( a shortcut method) , this was the CLASSIC CROISSANTS.....But when I read the doc twice sent by our group leader, everyone's Fav ..  Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen, I knew that though its going to be a lengthy process, I'll be able to do it...... and I DIT IT !! Aparna has taken all the pain to write such a lenghty process in such a manner that everything is clear...with the help of her pics and the video it made simpler.....Hats Off to her for teaching us in such an easy way !!. I felt She was with me all the time guiding me.....After making these Lovely Croissants, I felt I have become a better Baker and a lot more confident..!!

I have followed the recipe as it was making no changes....I just halved the final dough made some 8 big croissants and a few small ones from the sides.....Kept the other half dough in the freezer for about a week... and made some more using chocolate and jam preserve for the filling this time..... They also tasted awesome though I was not able to take pics of those as something went wrong with the battery of my camera.....and they just vanished by some guests coming over who enjoyed then thoroughly.!!

 For the detailed recipe, pics and tips I think U should follow the link as I did.....

http://www.mydiversekitchen.com/2013/02/we-knead-to-bake-2-classic-croissants.html

and must try making these.........!!

Ready to go into the oven

Freshly Baked

My helping Hand

Buttery Croissants

Another useful resource which you can follow is by Fine Cooking.


Happy Baking !!

Herb & Cheese Pull-Apart Bread

Herb & Cheese Pull-Apart Bread

The moment I saw   Aparna 's invitation on the facebook for bread baking every month, I knew I had to do this. Though a baking enthusiast, otherwise being a lazy person, the list of bookmarked recipes ( to be tried )go on piling. This was the best opportunity for me to come out of my shell and bake with others. Making  Herb & Cheese Pull-apart Loaf  was so much fun. I absolutely enjoyed it. Though I have baked quite a few breads earlier also, but this was differrent. 

The recipe was quite easy to follow and I used Food processor to knead the dough for the bread first time. It was not sticky and came out very well. I followed it the recipe making very few changes. The most important thing everybody at home loved it too.

Herb & Cheese Pull-Apart Bread

 Ingredients

For the Dough:

1/2 cup warm milk
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp active dry yeast
2 3/4 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
25gm butter, soft at room temperature
3/4 to 1 tsp finely chopped garlic 
3/4 cup milk (+ a couple of tbsp to brush over the bread)

For the Filling

15 - 20gm melted butter
2 tsp dried mixed herbs/Oregano
Crushed black pepper/ red chilli flakes 
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese 

Method:

1.Dissolve the sugar and the yeast in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep it aside for about 5 -10 minutes till the yeast mixture bubbles up.

2. In the food processor  bowl, Put 2 3/4 cup of flour, salt, softened butter, and chopped garlic  in the food processor bowl (or a large bowl) and pulse a couple of times to mix. 

3. Add the yeast mixture and the 3/4 cup of milk and knead till you have a soft, smooth and elastic/ pliable dough which is not sticky. Add a little extra flour if your dough is sticking, but only just as much as is necessary.

4. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a well-oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat it completely with oil. Cover and let it rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until almost double in volume.

5. Dust your work surface lightly with flour. Punch  the dough, shape it into a square and roll the dough out into a larger square that is about 12’ by 12”. Brush the surface of the square with the melted butter. 

6.Sprinkle the herbs, pepper/ chilli flakes and then the grated cheese. Use a rolling pin to  lightly press the topping into the dough so that the topping doesn’t fall off. 

7. Using a pizza cutter, slice the dough from top to bottom into 6 long and even strips. Lay each strip on top of the next, with the topping facing upwards, until you have a stack of the strips.

8. Using a sharp knife, cut straight down through the stack dividing it into 6 equal pieces (6 square stacks).

9. Grease and lightly flour a 9” by 4” (or 5”) loaf tin. Layer the square slices, cut sides down into the loaf tin. 

10. Cover the loaf tin dough with a cling and allow the dough to rise for an hour or so. You can put a little grated cheese at this stage if you want it to be more cheesy kind. Lightly brush some milk or egg wash over the top of the loaf.

11. Bake the dough at 180 C (350F) for about 30 to 40 minutes until it is done and the top is golden brown.