Monday, March 14, 2011

Batter White Bread - One Easy Loaf!


    Do you like what you see here? Please tell me that you do, and it looks like I have put in a lot of effort, it looks like its been baked by someone who's been baking breads for years! Because I did not! I mean I am new to baking breads and haven't baked scores of them, well, not just yet! And I definitely did not need to knead it with a stop-watch beside me. Yes, this is another no-knead bread or a batter bread.  No-Knead Spicy Buns were a revelation, getting great bread with almost no effort. That bread made me lazy...and then I came across this recipe on Allrecipes.com and decided to see how laziness would look in a loaf. And I must say, the bread came out pretty good!

All you need is a hand mixer or strong arms( In the latter case, you would want to post a blaster-comment here - when you recover from achy arms) So let me rephrase and say, you need a hand mixer and good yeast to make this bread. And then you can serve this to innocent folks and just pretend that you have slogged over the bread. Nice thought? You bet! And now let me share this recipe which will give you a light and flavorful loaf and confidence in baking breads if you have not baked bread yet...



Recipe from here. Please do read the reviews here for any variations you may want to try. Ahem..but don't forget come back here to read the rest of my post!


Apart from a reduction in the quantity of salt and sugar, the recipe remains the same. I wanted a bread which would be slightly salty. I made 1 loaf in a 9*5 loaf pan.


Ingredients:
Instant Yeast : 2 1/4 teaspoons
Oil - 2 tablespoons
Sugar - 1 tablespoon
Warm water - 1 1/4 Cups
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
All Purpose Flour, sifted - 3 cups( 375 grams) Please refer note
Melted butter for brushing - optional

Procedure: Grease a 9'' * 5'' loaf tin. Mix together the oil, sugar, salt, yeast and 1 1/5 cup of flour in a large bowl.  Add warm water and beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. I did this on low speed. The other option is 300 strokes with your hand. And I don't know if there is a third easier option. Tell me if you know:-)

Add the remaining flour and mix well till you get a smooth dough. The dough will be sticky, but not very loose. You could transfer the dough to an oiled bowl in which the dough will come half way up. This way you know that the dough has doubled when it reaches the top of the vessel. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rise till double in volume. With the mercury shooting up, this takes lesser time, say about 30-35 minutes. So keep an eye. You do not want an over-risen dough(if there is such a term!).

Once the dough doubles, gently deflate and transfer it to the greased loaf pan. You can oil your hands to pat the dough into shape. Cover with a greased aluminum foil and let rise again till double in volume. Its important to grease the foil or it will stick to the top of the risen dough. When you feel away the foil...aaagh!!! some part of the dough will come along with it. It happened to me..the torn loaf broke my heart :-) so I am telling you to learn from my mistake...

When the dough has almost doubled, pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C or 375 degrees F. The bread was baked in about 40 minutes. The recipe says bake for 45 minutes, I checked it 5 minutes earlier. The bottom crust must sound hollow when tapped. Or the reading on your instant read thermometer must be between 200F to 210 F. The bread did not brown much (probably because of less sugar?) and I put it under the grill for a minute.


Brush the top with melted butter and allow the bread to cool in the tin for 10 minutes. Remove it from the tin and cool completely on a  wire rack. Slice when it comes to room temperature.

The top is slightly uneven as the dough is too soft and sticky for shaping..



 The bread is light and airy and quite soft.  I should have probably checked for doneness even earlier. The slight saltiness makes it a perfect bread for savory toppings or just plain toast.

Note on APF measurement here:  The recipe calls for 3 cups of sifted flour. Which is flour first sifted and then measured and not the other way round. I have sifted, scooped into the cup and measured. Then weighed it to be doubly sure.

A closer look at the bread. Not bad at all for a no-knead recipe right?  Do try this out and let me know how you liked it..

If you are new to baking breads, do read the below posts for better success rates!.

Know Your Yeast
Basics About Yeast Breads


The bread goes to Susan's Yeast Spotting. And to Champa's Bake Off. Am also sending this to BBD#38, hosted by Cindystar, the theme is no-knead breads.



39 comments:

Champa said...

Looks really good. THanks for the entry.

Nithya said...

Looks fantastic and sounds simple too. Thanks for the recipe. Bookmarking it :)

Nithya said...

And I love the way you write :) Your page talks to me :)

Simplyfood said...

The bread looks perfect, spongy and soft texture.

Priya Suresh said...

Bread looks super prefect,soft and elegant..

Cool Lassi(e) said...

This bread indeed looks like its been made at a professional bakery! So soft and springy it looks!

harini-jaya said...

hmmm...nicely risen bread..shall give it a shot!

http://tamalapaku.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-event-announcement.html

divya said...

OMG .....its so soft and perfect dear....

Unknown said...

looks just perfect..wow..

Suman Singh said...

This is a beautiful looking bread, the slices look very professional..love the recipe..thanks for sharing!

Divya Kudua said...

Perfect looking bread..you have mastered the art so well!!

Seema said...

Suma,

Your loaf looks better than the store brought ones dear. A no knead one is absolutely welcome. Although my visit to GA is still pending to get Gloripan yeast :-(

Great going.

Regards,
Seema
amchi-bong-konnexion.blogspot.com
seemabbas.blogspot.com

jayashree` said...

It certainly looks like a professional.....

Unknown said...

Absolutely perfect and very professional looking :)

Saritha Thomas said...

awesome!way to go Baker!

Radhika said...

suma it looks like it has just come out from the bakery. Difficult to it is really so easy to bake a bread. You make baking seem a breeze

chef and her kitchen said...

looks damn good dear no doubt abt it.....will give a try sometime..:)

Sum said...

Wowwww!! Loooks great!!!

Mamta said...

That looks absolutely sumptuous....and yup, very very professional. Hey u know wut, im a fan....you blog and recipies are amazing, and what truly got me here was that post on baking supplies in bangalore. Im an aching bangalorean, because i was forced to get married and leave bangalore, and it was then that i started to go crazy about baking, but to my misfortune, this place where i put up now wont even sell good cocoa powder without a good hunt, much less any other baking supplies. waiting to come down to bangalore next month and squirreling up enough supplies for the year, thanks to ur info on the best stores.

And please excuse my boring long comment, its just that, bangalore and baking are the two things that get me carried away ;)

Jyoti Babel said...

Amazing! Another one to try:)

Prema said...

wow perfect bake,luks amazing...

Smita P said...

As far as breads are concerned i am still going by trial and error method and results are also like that hit or miss :)... looks like i can try this one...

Sushma Mallya said...

Tht is a perfectly baked loaf of bread, beautifully baked:)

Sweet Artichoke said...

What a perfect bread! Would love a slice for my breakfast!
The recipe looks really easy and fuss-free!!

Sneha Benny said...

Perfect Bake !!! I have got an award for you. Please come by and collect it. :-)

Seema said...

Hi Suma,

I have a few awards in my space for you. I would be honored if you picked them up.

http://amchi-bong-konnexion.blogspot.com/2011/03/100th-post-10000-hits-and-awards-i-am.html

Regards,
amchi-bong-konnexion.blogspot.com
seemabbas.blogspot.com

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

beautiful bread and am going to make this asap.

Shruti said...

ive never seen a blog with bread in it !! its great u posted this :D
happy cooking !!
do check out my food blog :
http://aspoonfulofyumm.blogspot.com/

S said...

Looks lovely ....Just tumbled into your blog ....lovely..:)

Shubha said...

such a lovely texture suma

Cindystar said...

lovely bread, Suma, very soft and yummie!
but I should not properly call it a no-knead bread as you beated for 3 minutes :-)
anyway, welcome to BBD#38, will a have a section for no-knead like breads! :-)
thanks for participating, recap will be on line in a few hours but will email you then.
have a nice week!

Archana said...

This looks awesome...can almost feel the softness of the bread...Sayantani sent me the link to you blog...I just bot some gloripan brand yeast and was looking for instructions to use that...i have used the regular dried active yeast earlier - is this very different ? do let me know if you have used gloripan...thanks a ton...

Suma Rowjee said...

@Arch - Thanks for dropping by my space! Instant yeast is different from active dried yeast in the sense, you don't need to proof it. You can mix it with warm water, sugar and proceed with the rest of the steps, no need to wait for the mixture to froth. Hope this helps..

Vidya Nayak said...

looks great.. i had tried making masala buns once but the crust was quite hard... any ideas why..

Dana said...

Thanks very much for this post. This was my 1st bread and even though I forgot to put in the salt (ha ha!), it still came out really nice and pretty. I was so proud I took pictures.

Your instructions were wonderfully easy to follow - especially the tip about greasing the foil before covering the rising bread in the tin.

Wonderfully painless experience, although I had to proof my yeast first - it's Instant but quite weird. >.< Thanks again, Suma ^_^ <3

Bharathi said...

Hi Suma,
I tried this recipe today. Wow! I can bake wonderful bread from now on. Thanks a lot!

meenakshi said...

mam on which rack of OTG should it be baked?

Unknown said...

Hi! I'm a 13 yr old girl from Mumbai and I love to bake :D I came across our blog and I was viewing some of the recipes when I saw this bread one :) I tried it the next day and it was so awesome!!!!!!!!!! Me and my family log e it as soon as I tasted it I made another loaf and put garlic and cheese and some seasoning in it and believe me there is nothing better :P thanks a lot 4 the recipe. xoxox shachi :)

Sum said...

Hey Suma!! I baked this... and without a mixer! It came out good... Have blogged it at my space.. Thanks!!