Sometimes when my parents call me in the morning, they ask what I had for breakfast. If I happen to tell them, I had bread, they will be like why can’t you eat something “proper” like Puttu or Appam? For them, Bread is still a snack and not a main food item.
Apart from the occasional Bombay Toasts (same as French Toasts, but we call it Bombay Toast :)) and Bread Omelette that Amma used to make when our maid was on vacation, we never had Bread for breakfast while growing up.
One of our friend's reaction to Bread, ensured it was the same in their place too. Seeing bread on the spread for a dinner party, one of our friends got all worked up. He was like “pandokke kothiyode kazhichirunna oru sadhanamanu, pakshe evide vannu kazhinju ethu kaanumbo thanne veruppannu”. Let’s just say… he was fed up with eating Bread every other day for breakfast!!
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These days because of all the health concerns with the so called “white food”, everybody is buying brown bread. Honestly, eating Brown bread for breakfast is a depressing way to start your day. Once toasted it will be harder than Rusk and most of the time, the bread has nothing but big holes, may be because of too much of raising agent or what not!! Dont you think so??
Well, after torturing ourselves with this brown bread ‘rusk’ on a regular basis, I gave up. I thought we should eat bread only occasionally, but when we eat it, we will have the good wholesome “proper” bread! So these days, when we have bread, we eat Butter bread, slathered with another layer of Butter ;)
I've been planning to bake a bread for sometime and was on the look out for a simple bread recipe. I've tried a Honey Oats Bread before. Though I'm perfectly happy with that recipe, I wanted to bake a White Sandwich Bread this time, to recreate the taste of the ‘Borma’ bread which I used to eat during my school days.
My search took me here and after going through the recipe and the comments, I was all excited! Usually if the recipe is for a larger quantity, I cut down in half. Since I was overtaken by excitement, I decided to go with the full blast and baked two loaves!! No regrets, whatsoever!
Btw, this is Julia Child's recipe. This is the first time I'm trying one of her recipes. Baking a bread is always an experience in itself, I just love the whole process, be it kneading or punching down the dough and finally slicing the thick crusted bread… Hope you too will also try this recipe and enjoy a good hearty breakfast with some scrambled eggs and bacon on the side ;) You can have it as it is with some butter and jam or just dip the warm bread in melted garlic butter or make a grilled sandwichor a ribbon sandwich!
Here is the recipe…
Pour 1/2 cup of the water into a bowl and stir in the yeast and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes, unit foamy.Add the rest of the water and about half of the flour. Stir until well blended…
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Add the rest of the flour, the salt and butter and stir with the dough hook (or by hand) until well combined and shaggy…
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Continue to knead until it’s smooth and elastic.Shape it into a ball and put it back into the bowl…
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Cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, until it’s doubled in size.Punch the dough down…
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Pat each piece into a rectangle that’s about 9?x12? – or a bit bigger than a standard piece of paper.Starting at a short end, fold it in thirds, like a letter. Place seam side down in the loaf pans, tucking the ends in…
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Cover with the tea towel again and leave them for an hour, until they puff right up out of the pan.Bake for 30-35 minutes in the pre heated oven, until the loaves are honey brown…
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Recipe adapted from here
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White Sandwich Bread
Print Pin
Servings: 2
Author: Maria Jose Martin
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups Warm water
- 1 tbsp Active dry yeast
- 1 tbsp Sugar
- 6 – 6.5 cups All-purpose (plain flour)
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 cup Butter (softened, I used unsalted butter)
Instructions
Pour 1/2 cup of the water into a bowl (preferably that of a stand mixer) and stir in the yeast and sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes, unit foamy. (If the yeast doesn’t do anything, toss it out and buy fresh yeast.)
Add the rest of the water and about half of the flour. Stir until well blended. Add the rest of the flour, the salt and butter and stir with the dough hook (or by hand) until well combined and shaggy. Continue to knead (I let the dough hook go for about 8 minutes, poking it down once in awhile) until it’s smooth and elastic. You could do this by hand, too. If you used the dough hook, turn the dough out onto the countertop and knead a few times to make sure it’s evenly smooth. Doesn’t it feel great?
Shape it into a ball and put it back into the bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let it sit for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, until it’s doubled in size.
Butter two 4?x8? loaf pans. Punch the dough down (love that part!) and pat each piece into a rectangle that’s about 9?x12? – or a bit bigger than a standard piece of paper.
Starting at a short end, fold it in thirds, like a letter. Place seam side down in the loaf pans, tucking the ends in. Cover with the tea towel again and leave them for an hour, until they puff right up out of the pan.
Preheat the oven to 190 C, 10 mins before baking and put the rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until the loaves are honey brown. Immediately turn the loaves out of their pans and onto a rack to cool.
Makes 2 loaves.
Notes
Let the bread cool for a minimum of 10-15 mins, before slicing.
The original recipe says you can freeze the bread for later use. Once the bread is cooled completely, slice it and store it in ziplock bags in the freezer. You can store the bread at room temp for 2-3 days. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or at room temp, before using.
Make sure while slicing for toast, you dont cut it too thin or too thick.
Tried this recipe? Let others know by…mentioning @mariasmenu or tagging #mariasmenu
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