Spiral Herb Bread-Part One

 Playing about with yeast has always been a fear for me but being the adventurous person that I am and in one of those "Come what may, I will fearlessly fight you" mood I got about with the preparation of this hot mama.

Those of you who chance upon this post of mine, please be equipped with a lot of patience and a lot of free time at hand with practically no one to disturb you. Although I had the husband up and about going about his chores, I ensured that nothing would come my way whilst kneading this dough.

My sister had bought me years ago a lovely book by Sanjeev Kapoor. When she saw my interest in cooking and baking, she randomly chose a couple of books to present me and I will always cherish this book as it has got some lovely recipes by him. Thus, while scrolling through some of his bread rcipes, I came across this and tallied with his check list of the available ingredients in my larder or in my fridge...WOW! I was actually well equipped to lock horns with this supposedly tough recipe.

I am glad I had everything, I hate getting out of the house in the middle of my prep stages to any recipe, realizing that something is amiss at home.

13 g of fresh yeast was combined with a tbsp. of sugar and one-fourth cup of lukewarm water, stir and set aside for ten to fifteen minutes. Do not place the yeast in hot water.It will not rise or froth.

 Two sets of flour were used-two and a half cups of refined flour and one and a half cups of wholewheat flour. They were sifted along with a tsp. and a half of salt. In a large bowl place the sifted flours and salt and make a well in the centre. Into this well, pour in the yeast mixture and approximately one and a half cups of water and mix into a rough dough. Take this dough to your work surface which is floured and knead this dough until smooth and elastic.

One has to know how to knead dough for bread, it is instrumental in getting a lovely loaf of bread along with good yeast! As I have attended a class on kneading bread back in 2009, I was aware of all the punching, stretching, pulling blah blah blah that goes into a fine loaf. My personal advice would be for you to watch a video of the same so that you have a basic idea of fighting with the yeast, the beast!

 Once this dough has been kneaded well for quite sometime, return it to its bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave it for about two hours until it has doubled in size and that is the work of your yeast and all your hard work while kneading.

I usually cling film the vessel and place it in a dark quiet corner and patiently await the yeast to awaken my dough and do its job of activating and doubling the dough.

 In this picture you would see the long baguette that I sliced and arranged with some spicy chicken and veggies along with garlic mayo.

 The recipe will continue...will scribble it down in the following post with more pictures. So let's wait for those babes right on top to prove and rise to double its size.

TO BE CONTINUED...