So I am the wholegrain enthusiast right? Then what makes me resort to Maida/All purpose flour (APF) bread from time to time? Well at times I like to gift my bakes to people and for first time recipients I usually go with refined flour unless I know them to be wholegrain fans 😎

Today is Ramzan Eid and in this Corona era, it has been a dull festival for my Muslim friends, just like all our preceding Ugadi, Easter etc have been, ever since the calamity that has befallen the earth since Feb 2020.

Despite that, one of my dear friends Fazi Khan told me that he would come to my house (with all corona protocols in place) and bring me his famous home made biryani. Fazi is a great cook and wonderful person too and I wanted to make a few things to give him in return.

A nice, soft milk bread loaf was one of them, since he has always admired my bread bakes on Facebook. The other things I made for him were buttery Sourdough crackers and also my famous Whole wheat Christmas cake which I had been promising him since last Christmas 😎 This cake is much better with whole wheat and has been tried and trusted and tested and tasted by many. Hence the elimination of maida here.

So now let us get back to our Milk loaf and see what I did with it. Yes I added a twist (literally) and inserted a layer of soaked Christmas fruit, which serendipitously turned out looking like the Eid ka Chaand … the crescent Eid moon 🙂

The Process – 

This loaf is a simple one that uses commercial yeast and maida and is simple enough for a beginner to try out. I have used egg, milk and butter but those who wish to eliminate these ingredients can replace butter with the same weight of oil, replace the milk with water or juice or any vegan milk and add an additional 1/4 cup of that liquid to avoid the egg.

For pictures of the process, you can refer to a similar process that I shown in this post on the Simple Sourdough Loaf -2, since I have not captured the process visually for this bread.

I have also added the dry fruit layer but you can totally skip that and make a plain loaf too.

Recipe for Simple Milk Loaf – 

Time –

Approximately 3 hours from start to finish.

Makes – One 9x5x3 inch loaf

Ingredients – 

1. Maida/All purpose flour (APF) –  400 gm (See Notes)

2. Yeast – 2 teaspoon (See Notes)

3. Sugar – 2 tablespoon

4. Milk, lukewarm – 200 gm

5. Salt – 1 teaspoon

6. Butter, melted – 50 gm

7. Egg – 1

For the filling layer –

Mixed fruit (Christmas fruit) soaked in rum or orange juice – 100 gm (you can also used just raisins or any dry fruit of your choice)

Ghee or butter or oil – 1 – 2 teaspoon

Other ingredients –

– Oil (any neutral type. I used Sunflower oil) – 2 teaspoon

– Egg (lightly beaten) – 1/2 (omit if vegan and brush with water)

Equipment that I used – 

Kitchen Aid Bowl Lift Stand Mixer

Kitchen Aid Professional Grade Loaf Pan 9x5x3 inches

You can hand knead it just as easily and use any shape of pan or even bake a free form bread.

Method –

– In the bowl of the  Kitchen Aid Bowl Lift Stand Mixer, add the  ingredients 2 – 7. Mix the ingredients together with a spatula.

– Add the maida and mix with the spatula again.

– Run the mixer for around 2 minutes starting from speed 1 for a minute and ending with speed 2 till the wet and dry ingredients come together.

– Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides with the spatula.

– Run the mixer for a total of 8 – 10 minutes, stopping from time to time to scrape down the sides with a silicon spatula.

– When the dough comes together into a smooth, cohesive mass, gather it out of the bowl.

– If you are not using a stand mixer, follow the same process and knead with your hands.

– Shape the dough with your hands into a round ball and place it in the same bowl. Coat the dough with 1 – 2 teaspoon oil. Cover the bowl with its own lid or plastic wrap. Keep the bowl in a warm place till it doubles approximately 1 hour

– Gently deflate the dough and roll it into a rectangle to match the length of your baking tin.

– Brush ghee or butter or oil on the entire surface and sprinkle the cinnamon powder evenly. Avoid at least 2 cms of the border on all 4 sides. Spread the raisins or mixed dry fruits to create the filling (Omit this step if not using any filling).

– Roll up the dough gently.

– Grease the Loaf pan with 2 teaspoons of oil line the base with parchment paper. Place the dough log into it, seam side down.

– Cover the pan loosely with cling film. Keep in a warm place for 30 min or until it rises an inch above the rim of the pan (approx. 30 min)

– Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees Celsius (or 250 if your oven permits)

– Brush the top of the dough lightly with the beaten egg (or water for vegan), using a silicon brush.

–  Score the surface evenly with a Bread Lame or regular razor blade. Make 4 – 5 slanting slashes.

– Place the loaf pan in the pre heated oven.

– Reduce the temperature to 180 degrees C after 10 minutes or after the top of the loaf gets brownish

– Bake for another 25 – 30 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Please note that temperatures and timings are highly oven dependent.

– Remove and invert immediately onto a wire rack to cool.

– Slice only after it cools completely to room temperature.

Notes – 

1. The amount of flour may depend on several factors like the quality of your flour, the accuracy of measuring ingredients, the liquid used etc. The measure given in the recipe is a guideline. Please use less or more depending on how your dough turns out.

2. Instant or rapid rise yeast can be used directly along with the other ingredients as mentioned above.

If using granular active dry yeast, the you have to proof the yeast before using it.

Proofing – Add the yeast to a medium sized bowl and mix in 50 gms of lukewarm water (from the 200 gm). Add 1 teaspoon of sugar (from the 1 tablespoon). Cover the bowl and let it sit for around 5 min. It should now appear frothy and well risen. You can now continue as per the recipe. If the mixture remains flat and does not bubble, that means your yeast is dead and will not help your bread to rise. This yeast should be discarded.

 

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I hope you will successfully try this recipe and I would really appreciate if you leave your feedback in the Blog comments.

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May 25th, 2020