Breadmaking

Lifestyle Parenting, Household Affairs and Cuisine corner
1

Mods- Sorry, wrong forum. Please move it to Life 2.

After reading shehreen’s recipe on afghani naan, I’m thinking of getting into home breadmaking in a serious manner. I have absolutely no experience in making any kind of bread. I don’t even know what yeast is. I always that it was some infection women have to deal with.

How do I get yeast? (I mean the ingredient).

What’s the difference in flours - safaid aaTa, whole wheat, gaihoN ka aaTa, Maida, rice flour, etc.

What kind of utensils I need? Pans, trays, chimTa, tawa?. I would prefer not to use stove-top options. I have an electric oven, a small table top oven and a propane grill out in the patio. What would be the best option?

I don’t like too many seeds in my bread but do prefer the different kinds of grains. I like my bread fluffy inside out.

If you are a serious bread-maker or inspire to be one, please share.

2

Re: Breadmaking

[QUOTE]
Originally posted by funguy: *
**Mods- Sorry, wrong forum. Please move it to Life 2.*

After reading shehreen's recipe on afghani naan, I'm thinking of getting into home breadmaking in a serious manner. I have absolutely no experience in making any kind of bread. I don't even know what yeast is. I always that it was some infection women have to deal with.

How do I get yeast? (I mean the ingredient).

What's the difference in flours - safaid aaTa, whole wheat, gaihoN ka aaTa, Maida, rice flour, etc.

What kind of utensils I need? Pans, trays, chimTa, tawa?. I would prefer not to use stove-top options. I have an electric oven, a small table top oven and a propane grill out in the patio. What would be the best option?

I don't like too many seeds in my bread but do prefer the different kinds of grains. I like my bread fluffy inside out.

If you are a serious bread-maker or inspire to be one, please share.
[/QUOTE]

Funguy Bhai,

The easiest way is buy a Bread Maker, they go from approximately $100.00.

The Flour is available in all super markets, and the required yeast is also included, and you also get different kinds of Flour, white, Whole wheat, Rye etc etc.

Baking is the easiest, just follow the instructions on the package, it tells you exactly how much water, butter, dry nuts etc.

Just put everything in the bread maker, it will make the dough, ferment the dough and bake it for you.

I usually cook breakfast on the weekends, its either Paya, kheema or something like that with home made bread, and my mom, wife and kids just love the fresh bread.

HTH

Aejaz

3

Dried yeast is readily available in any supermarket, it come in granule form and you usually activate it by mixing into a smooth paste with a little tepid water and sugar. Fresh yeast is a little harder to get, usually most bakerys have it but it's hard to get in small quantities especially if you're only baking one loaf. And besides, you get exactly the same result whichever you use.

The flour you use depends on the type of bread you want to make, usually strong plain white flour is best for beginners as it contains a lot of gluten making it easy to knead.

When you do make th edough always knead it for as long as you can, the longer you do the better it will turn out. The dough should be smooth and stretchy and yield to the touch.

Best way to tell if your bread has cooked is to tap the bottom (the breads, not yours) and if it sounds hollow then it's cooked.

4

whenever I try to activate yeast it dies :frowning: Only ONCE did I succeed, never after that. You naan can be used for a pizza base too right? But its such a hassle baking the pizza. the tomatoe sauce, cut the toppings, warm the oven, bake the damn pizza, might aswell order some from pizzahut :yummy:

5

That's the tricky thing with yeast. If the water's too hot then it 'dies' and if the water's not hot enough then it won't activate the yeast. There's no real foolproof way, just practice I guess.

6

I do hope you keep your yeast in the fridge. It dries out and dies otherwise. Don't you wish all yeast died outside of the fridge!