Green Peppercorn and Capers Bread

I enjoy all four seasons – but Winter most of all, especially when it’s snowing. Winter has its own special charm and fun. There are so many things one can do and of course, it is also the time we can eat a lot and still hide the results under layers of clothes . Unfortunately, it's just when the winter is about to get over, I start worrying about the extra weight and the calories.

Of course, there are a lot of activities which certainly help in keeping the balance – we went tobogganing and it was great fun, and very very tiring. We certainly selected a very good day for it, it was not too cold but snowing and fresh snow is not too bad at all. The scenic beauty was breathtaking, the fresh snow and the sledding, it was a great day.

By the end of the day, we were all kaput and really enjoyed a generous helping of a cake and hot cocoa on the way back.

Today's recipe Green Peppercorn and Capers Bread was baked a week ago - we had it with the Pineapple Soup. The idea came spontaneously, especially as I had not baked fresh bread for quite some time, and was also an attempt to use some leftover green peppercorns and capers. I also used a new kind of flour- grapeseed flour. It's supposed to be really healthy and it gave a very nice nutty texture to the bread. I am planning to experiment a bit with this flour in future. The pepper and capers flavours went very well with the  Hot and Spicy Pineapple Soup…hope you enjoy it as well!

Ingredients

210 grams - whole wheat flour + to dust the work top

15 grams - grapeseed flour

1/2 tsp - salt

1/2 tsp - baking powder

1 tsp - bicarbonate of soda

4 tbsp - olive oil

25 grams - capers

5 grams - green peppercorns (more or less)

1 1/2 tsp - dried italian herbs

100 ml - low fat yogurt

200 ml - water at room temperature

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl mix together the flours, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, dried italian herbs, capers and green peppercorns.
3. In another bowl, mix together the olive oil, yogurt and water.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add in the liquid mixture and mix lightly with a wooden spatula so that everything just comes together.
5. Generously dust the work top with some whole wheat flour.
6. Gather the dough into a ball on the floured work top and with floured hand flatten the ball and try and give a round shape. 
7. Using a sharp and floured knife slit the dough. Don't push down into the dough. 
8. Transfer the dough to the lined baking tray and place the tray in the centre of the preheated oven. Bake for approximately 30 - 35 minutes.
9. Serve with Hot and Spicy Pineapple Soup or with any other soup of your choice.

Enjoy!

Coriander Mint Bakes with Cheese Dip

Savoury muffins and other such stuff are always a big hit with me and my family - especially when they go with lots of yummy dips.

Coriander leaves are my all time favourite herb, and I use tons of it per week - and have a big problem if my refrigerator runs out of the fresh green coriander leaves. It combines well with mint for a variety of recipes - coriander and mint, I feel, enhance each other's flavours and produce something unique in combination.

Ingredients

140 grams - whole wheat flour

1/2 tbsp - baking powder

1/4 tsp - red chilli flakes (adjust according to your taste)

7 tbsp - low fat yogurt

3 tbsp - olive oil

1/3 cup - coriander leaves and mint leaves, finely chopped

5 tbsp - water (its an approx measurement, may need more or less)

2 tbsp - pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp - ginger, peeled and grated

2 - low fat cheese slice

salt to taste

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C and grease a sqare 20 cm pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, red chilli falkes, cheese slice, mint-coriander leaves and salt.
3. In another bowl, mix together yogurt, olive oil and water.
4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add in the liquid mixture and mix lightly with a wooden spoon so that everything just comes together. (add 1 tbsp of water at a time if required)
5. Spoon the batter in the greased pan and sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over it.
6. Place the pan in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for approx 20- 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. When cool, cut into squares and serve with a dip of your choice.

Cheese Dip

2 - low fat cheese slice

1/3 cup - low fat milk

a pinch of cinnamon powder

salt and pepper to taste

Method 

1. Place everything in a pan and cook, stirring continously, until the cheese melts. 

My husband spontaneously made a cheese dip to go with the bakes, and it turned out to be really amazing as well. 

Enjoy!

Multi Grain Cumin Bread

I have had this recipe for quite some time now on my "drafts" folder.

The idea came when I opened up my kitchen cabinet, took out all the different types of flour I had in stock, and mixed them into the dough. And I was going through an oat phase at that time - so of course I took some oat flakes, grinded them to flour in the mixer and added them to the mix. And some add-on flavour is never bad, so in came the cumin seeds.

Best served hot, with the smell of freshly baked bread still wafting through thte apartment - but the sandwiches on the next day turned out to be as good.

Ingredients 


60 gram - all purpose flour
60 gram - whole wheat flour
60 gram - rye flour
60 gram - spelt flour
60 gram - oat flakes (crushed to the consistency of semolina in a spice jar)
2 tbsp - dried yeast
3 tsp - sunflower oil
1/2 tbsp - salt
1/2 tbsp - cumin seeds
210 ml - warm water
oil to grease the bowl and bread form


Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C and grease a bread form.
2. Place the warm water, yeast in a bowl and leave in a warm place until frothy. (10 - 15 minutes)
3. Sift the flour, slat and cumin seeds in another bowl, rub in the oil until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and knead to form a dough. (add 1 tsp of whole wheat flour if the dough is too sticky, but avoid adding too much of flour)
5. Place the dough in an oiled bowl (grease the bowl generously) and knead the dough in the oiled bowl for 2- 3 minutes. Cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (approx 1 hour)
6. Knead the dough again on a lightly floured surface for a minute and give it a rectangular shape and place it in the greased bread form, cover it with a plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (approx 1 hour)
7. Place the bread form in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 35 minutes.
8. Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack completely and then  cut into slices. 

Enjoy! 

Fenugreek Coriander Muffins

Coriander and fenugreek are a couple of the most commonly used herbs in indian cooking. I had a lot of fenugreek leaves lying around in my refrigerator ( and I always have a lot of coriander leaves lying around in the refrigerator) so I decided to bake something different with 'em. And the result was, indeed, quite satisfying. We had these muffins with a Starfruit Apple Dip 

Ingredients

7 tbsp heaped - whole wheat flour (atta)

3 tbsp - fenugreek leaves (methi), finely chopped

3 tbsp - coriander leaves,  finely chopped

1 tbsp - ginger, finely chopped

1 - green chilli, finely chopped (adjust according to your taste)

13 - 15 tbsp - buttermilk

3 tbsp - low fat milk
3 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil

1/2 tsp - baking powder

1/4 tsp - salt

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degree C and line a muffin tray with 6 paper cases.
2. In a bowl, mix together the oil, milk and buttermilk.
3. In another bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, fenugreek leaves, coriander leaves, chilli and ginger.
4. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture and mix lightly. Do not overmix.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Place the muffin tray in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
7. Allow the muffins to rest in the tray for a couple of minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Enjoy with the starfruit apple dip or any dip of your choice.

Makes 6 muffins

The  slight bitter taste of fenugreek in the muffins and the tangy fruity dip complemented each other really well.

Enjoy!

Portuguese Sweet Bread

Portuguese Desserts are often seasoned with spices such as vanilla and cinnamon...This Cuisine has so many wonderful dishes and the choice is enormous...so after reading a number of recipe books and with a little bit of google search, I finally decided to make the famous Portuguese Sweet Bread. The bread is usually served simply with butter and is sometimes eaten with meals, (breakfast in particular) but often as a dessert.

The recipe is from here  The recipe was for the bread machine but since i dont have one, i baked it in the oven. I made the bread eggless, used half wheat flour and half all purpose flour and also added a dash of cinnamon... 

Priya, thank you for hosting such a wonderful event, I definitely learnt a few new things and we thouroughly enjoyed this sweet bread.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup - whole wheat flour

1  1/2 cup - all purpose flour (maida)

1 cup + 2tbsp - warm low fat milk

2 tbsp - melted butter 

1/3 cup - castor sugar

3/4 tsp - salt

2 1/2 tsp - dried yeast

1 tsp - cinnamon

oil to grease 

Method  

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C and grease a loaf pan.
2. In a bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Add the melted butter and rub until it resembles fine bread crumbs.
3. In another bowl, add the milk and yeast and mix. Leave in a warm place until frothy (approx 10-15 minutes)
4. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and knead well.
5. Place the dough in a well greased bowl and knead again for a minute. Cover with a cling film and leave it to rise in a warm place (approx 1 1/2- 2 hrs)
6. Knead lightly on a floured surface, give a rectangular shape and place it in the greased loaf pan and cover with a cling film and leave it to rise again in a warm place. ( approx 1 hr)
7. Place the loaf pan in the centre of the preheated oven and bake for abt 10-15 minutes or till the top is nicely browned or until a toothpick inserted through the centre of the loaf comes out clean.
8. Cool the loaf in the pan for a couple of minutes and brush the top with a little melted butter. Transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

The bread was sweet and soft with a lovely cinnamon flavour...

Went really well with a cup of tea...

This goes straight to priya's AWED Portuguese event and to DK's AWED page

Enjoy!

Spinach Coriander Chive Bread

Having widened my horizons from eating just white toast bread until a couple of years ago, to the wonderful wide world of the almost endless varieties of this very versatile staple, all the way to starting baking bread myself a few months ago, I'm pretty new to the bread baking businesss. 

However, after starting late, I have caught on with fervor, and love trying out new variations. Whenever I bake bread, and see it rising in the oven, my heart does a little tapdance and a smile visits my face. 

I started with standard bread recipes, and this was my first own variation. It turned out to be a hit with the neighbours and my hubby, and I hope you like it too! 

Ingredients                         

100 gram - all purpose flour 

100 gram - whole wheat flour 

10 tbsp - low fat milk

1 1/2 tbsp - sunflower oil 

1 tsp - dried yeast 

1/2 tsp - white sugar 

3/4 tsp - salt 

2 tbsp - chives, finely chopped 

2 tbsp - coriander leaves, finely chopped 

3 tbsp - spinach, shredded 

some milk to brush the bread 

a few assorted seeds to sprinkle on the bread (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower etc) 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degree C and grease a baking tray. 
2. Place the milk, sugar and yeast in a bowl. Mix well and leave in a warm place until frothy, about 10 - 15 minutes 
3. Sift the flours, chives, coriander leaves, spinach and salt into a bowl. Rub in the oil until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
4. Add the yeast mixture to the flour and mix to form a soft but manageable dough( add 1 tbsp of flour at a time, if the dough is too sticky, but avoid adding too much of flour). 
5. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise in a warm place until double in size (about an hr).
6. Turn out onto a floured surface, knead again lightly and shape the dough into a loaf. 
7. Allow the loaves to rest on a greased baking tray, covered loosely with a plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. 
8. Remove the plastic wrap. Brush the top of the loaves with some milk and sprinkle the seeds. 
9. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes. 
10. Allow to cool on a wire rack completely. 

Makes 4 small buns

Enjoy!