Baking butterflies?.and a Perfect Orange Loaf

It just struck to me that I have not posted any bread recipes using the yeast till date.  The first time I baked a bread was way back in 1984 during my 10th board exams. I wanted to divert myself to something more exciting  and appealing than  the boring and lifeless formulas and equations of chemistry   And bread making was one such area.

I did bake a bread and my mom took it to her office and asked  (or forced, should I say) everyone to taste and pass on the comments to me.  I came to know much later that while I passed in good colors in my board exams, my bread sank

Still whenever I bake a bread I have butterflies in my stomach. More often I opt for baking my breads with leavening agents (baking soda) which is much easier and quicker, rather than baking with yeast.

I just baked this egg less Orange Loaf without any measurements and any particular recipe. It is egg less and has very little oil in it. Hope I remember the ingredients correctly.

Ingredients;

1 cup of refined flour
1/2 cup of wholewheat flour
Juice of 1/2 orange
1 tsp. of orange zest
1 tsp. of active dry yeast
2 tsp. of warm water
2 tsp. of honey
A pinch of salt
4-5 tsp. of vegetable oil/olive oil

Method:  Heat 2 tsp. of water and mix with the honey. Add 1 tsp. of active dry yeast in the warm water mix and keep it aside for 10 minutes to let the yeast work. Bubbles will form in the water. Yeast is ready to work.

Instant yeast is much easier to work with than the dry yeast, it reduces the baking hours also.

Grate the orange peel and take out the zest, do not grate the white part of the peel. Squeeze the juice of half orange.

Take a big vessel and add both the flours, salt and the orange zest in it. Make a well in the center and pour the warm water mix, oil and orange juice in it. Start knead the flour into a dough with light hands.

The dough will be quite sticky, oil your hands and knead it for 10 minutes. Put the dough in a vessel and cover it with an aluminum foil or a lid and keep it away for 1 hour to let it rise.

After 1 hour the dough would have risen and will look light and soft to touch.

Punch the dough and knead it again using oil in your hands. Knead it lightly with your palm for 5-7 minutes.

Grease a bread tin and put this dough into it. Cover it again with an aluminum foil and keep it away in a warm  place to rise again.

Remove the foil after 45 minutes and brush the dough with milk. Bake it at 180°C for 25 minutes till done.

The perfect loaf fresh from the oven, wish I can simulate the heady smell of this bread.

My son could not wait to have a go at this flavorful bread. I sliced it as soon as I took it out from the oven. The slice did not come even, but my son just enjoyed and kept on telling, “mom you can bake a bread also, it tastes and looks same as bakery bread”  I got my medal there

Cool the bread before slicing to get even and thin slices.

The orange zests in this egg less bread makes it very flavorful and delicious.

I thought of taking the pictures the next day, as it becomes easy to slice a cold bread. To my surprise I got just 4 slices from my beautiful loaf !! In fact you will get about 12-14 thin slices from the same bread. The rest of the slices from this loaf tells the success story of this delicious egg less Orange Loaf

Note;

Can avoid orange altogether if you do not like any flavors in your bread, use the same amount of milk or water instead.
Cool the bread before slicing for getting the perfect slices.
Discard the yeast if it does not froth in warm water, else your bread will not have good texture.
Knead the dough with light and oily hands to remove any air bubbles trapped during the first rise.

When it comes to baking a loaf, I would rather let the Hen bake the bread and be one among her three little friends   On a serious note, bread making is really therapeutic and satisfactory. Shall bake many more and post it for you soon. Take care.

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