A fellow blogger Champa from Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen was kind enough to reply to my SOS email and inform me that the yeast is probably the culprit, since the dough never actually doubled in size :(. I was using the standard dry yeast that you get in most supermarkets. These are very tricky to use and for a newcomer fresh yeast is the best bet. However i did not know where to get hold of fresh yeast.
Champa also put in a post on Yeast Basics , which was helpful for people who really don't understand baking basics like "proofing", etc.
As luck would be i attended a bread baking class here in Pune and not only did i learn to bake lovely breads, but also got hold of addresses of shops where fresh yeast is available. One of those shops in Pune is Chandan Stores (right at the end of MG road). I got a sizeable qty of yeast for 20Rs. The only thing to be taken care is that they need to be refrigerated - 15 days in the fridge, 1 month in the freezer.
Anyway with the yeast bit sorted out,i very tepidly started the baking process. The first sure sign of success came when my yeast did double. Later after kneading the dough, i checked it in 45 mins and lo! the dough had doubled. Yippee!!! My family was super-excited at this stage (more than actually baking the bread) .
Since it was a first time for me, i was overzealous in my kneading process and banged and kneaded the sticky dough with gusto. I think i quite frightened my helper (my sister-in-law - Div)with the heavy duty stuff :). Since i don't generally knead chappati dough as well, my arms were paining like hell the next 2 days. I was planning to drop the entire bread baking experiments. But then 2 things helped me overcome this issue
1. My grinder - which has an attachment to knead dough. With the main part taken care of in the grinder, i now knead only for about 5 mins. Also the dough is not very sticky since you can easily control the water content. My cooking teacher - Rajul gave us this idea in class.
2. Confidence and Practice :) - now i know that i don't really need to knead for 1 hour - i know when to stop by looking at the dough consistency.
anyway to cut a long story short- this was the start of my baking journey. Now i am able to churn out stuffed kheema buns for dinner, to the absolute astonishment of my mom, who just cannot fathom how i learnt all this things. Which brings me to topic of cooking gurus - my cooking class teacher, cyber gurus - all have helped me in this culinary journey and would like to thank all of them.
The events which make this whole journey worthwhile is when
- Approval from hubby that it is indeed like shop-bought - albeit in different shapes & sizes
- My little niece Anna , reaching out for a bread and munching on it happily - since children are the best and most honest critics. Though some of my friends would also fall in this category.
- Look of reluctant respect on my moms face after looking at the end product - she does not like to spend too much time in the kitchen , so finds the whole baking process tedious.
- Comment from my sister-in-law in mumbai - "You can now open a bakery from home!"
Some of my recent attempts are displayed below.
Focaccia
This was taught in the cookery class
Garlic-Butter Bread Swirls and Stuffed Buns
This was taught in the class and i was also inspired from Suhaina. The look is quite juvenile (rolling and cutting is tricky) but the taste and the aroma was spot on. Now no more ordering from Dominos or Pizza hut :)
Mutton Kheema Stuffed Buns
A non veg variation to the above recipe
Thanks.
