Homemade Brown Bread

Bread making at homes have become so popular now because of news about factory bread baking around. Everyday we are finding out that the food we have thought as healthy is not even healthy but poisonous too. When brown bread came into market I was hoping that it can be the best replacement of junks and I can make sandwiches out of it to curb Gauthu's junk cravings. But the findings of Potassium bromate and Iodate as per research are cancer causing substances. Now how can we trust a single store brought thing, if our very own simple bread is this dangerous.

So I started baking bread by my own, I know we cannot stop all poisons around, because we cannot make everything at home, but at least can be reduced. My first bread baking experience was really good, and I got my white bread soft and tasty the same as store brought, so made me curious to bake more of it. Only thing to take care is the shelf life of home made would be max 3 days, 1 day outside and then refrigerated if egg is used and 2 days out and 2 days refrigerated otherwise.

I love the smell of freshly baked breads, the yeast and sugar when baked , oh it's such a divine smell, subtle but enhancing the taste buds to drool. That's why I love making donuts, cinnamon rolls, croissants and all.

This time during Christmas I thought I will try out my first brown bread. When I say brown bread I used 80 percent wheat flour and 20 percent all purpose flour. It took more time to proof than its white counterpart, but taste wise it was awesome. A small addition to it was flax seeds, which added the nutty crunchy texture to it and you know flax seed's benefits.

This brown bread was planned for Christmas breakfast with duck stew. All I could say is wow. I had a heavy breakfast that day, with my favorite curry stew and of course duck is something to spoil ourselves for.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour - 3 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Yeast - 2 tsp
Luke warm water - 1/2 cup
Milk warm - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Sugar - 3 tbsp
Egg - 1
Butter - 3 tbsp
Flax seeds - 2 tsp
Olive oil to spread

Sesame seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Keep yeast, sugar and luke warm water to proof the yeast. Put butter in warm milk, so that it melts.  Pour both in a deep bowl along with one egg. Add salt to flour and add the flour 1 cup at a time to the yeast and milk mixture. Mix it thoroughly until there are no more dry flour. Add flax seeds and give a mix. Take the dough out from bowl into a platform or wooden board and keep kneading. Knead 50 times, that's the count I maintain every time. Or you can knead for almost 10 minutes. Keep the dough in the bowl back, smeared with olive oil. Allow it to proof till double in size. Punch down and shape into a log tucking the sides inside and place it in a loaf pan. Add sesame seeds if needed.  Allow it to rise above the edges of pan. You can egg wash the top now before baking. Now bake it in preheated oven at 180 C for 35 minutes. Apply butter as soon as it comes out of the oven. This makes sure bread remains soft. When it is completely cooled down, cut into pieces.

Note: you can make eggless version by adding 2 tbsp of yogurt.