Home Made Brown Bread

We were planning to bake bread at a friend's house.. her mom in law said" why work so much when you can easily get a bread for 15 bucks at the bakery." quite famously I told her " coz we are wonder women.. baking, working, nappy changing, house keeping all at one go..;).."
On a more serious note i feel baking bread at home has more to do with satisfaction than taste.. since we don't generally have enough muscle power to knead the atta well.. resulting in a heavier bread than commercial bakery breads. so if you can build bread muscles bread baking is for you..:)
This one is a good recipe that I have adapted from http://www.chefinyou.com/

You need
2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/ tsp salt
2 tbsp brown sugar( can use normal sugar color wud be lighter though)
1 tsp active dry yeast
4 tbsp butter
7/8 cup lukewarm water ( almost a cup of water)
How to Proceed
Mix salt in the flour and Rub in the butter with your fingertips making it grainy mix.
In about 1/4 cup water out of the total , mix sugar and yeast. Be careful about water not being more than 26 deg Celsius. Let the mixture stand until it becomes frothy.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour and make a soft dough using rest of the water.
The dough has to be soft and not sticky..knead using all the muscle u can develop :)
Put the smooth dough in a oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap or towel.
Let it rise until doubled in a warm air draft free space.
Once doubled punch down the dough and knead again.
Make it into a smooth cylinder shape and place it in a loaf pan and again cover and let it rise again in the pan until almost double in height.
Bake in a preheated oven at about 200 C or 425 F for 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden. Make sure not to over bake or the bread will be hard and brittle.

BANANA BREAD

I've recently found the joy of baking quick breads.. they are basically sweet loafs.. somewhat similar to a cake in making... they can be excellent to serve as a tea time snack as they are definately less sweet than cakes and less buttery too:)... thank god for that or while collecting recipes for this blog I would pick up 2-3 pounds while tasting.. hehe

Back to recipe.. while searching the net I found quick breads using absolutely anything.. bananas, berries, evn zuchini and pumkins: eek.. american's love pumpkins in everything pie, tarts and cakes.. tell this to an Indian and they would bolt out of the door without tasting even :)

I am here giving two recipes .. 1 using eggs and other eggless.. the result is ALMOST (i mean of course egg one has better texture) the same..:)

BANANA BREAD

YOU NEED

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas, pureed (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

METHOD
· Pre- heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
· In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
· In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla.
· With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky.
· Scrape batter into prepared pan. Bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.

EGGLESS BANANA BREAD

YOU NEED
1 1/2 cup All-purpose flour
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
5 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3 ripe bananas, pureed almost 11/2 cup

STEPS
Preheat Oven to 400F. Grease a bread/loaf pan. It is a rectangular pan .. glass or tin.. i use a glass one.
Sift the flour along with baking powder, salt, cinnamon in a bowl .
In another bowl cream the butter along with sugar and beat till light and fluffy.
Add the pureed bananas and mix.
Now add the flour mixture and stir to incorporate all together. Make sure you don’t over beat the batter. It may seem thick and chunky and you would need spoon to take out.
Pour them into the loaf pan
Bake for 45-50 min or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool and serve.