BREAD… 

This is totally out of my list. (To remember one day) I’m posting this during quarantine 2020 due to covid 19. I tried making Sri Lankan roast paan three times in these quarantine days. First time I failed, totally. And then second time it was somewhat success (I think) but I failed to separate those without breaking. So couple of weeks later I did it again. The same loaf pan I use here, used for my roast paan even. With the help of aluminium foil papers made it little bit high, because when the loafs gets rise this hight is not enough. So I prepared my loaf pan for roast paan at the second time. Then couple of weeks later when I was redoing it for the third time, I totally forgot to prepare the pan. Bread came out, over the pan. But if I prepared the pan with aluminium foil, I know that was the best roast paan I’ve ever did. But sadly it wasn’t. So I gave up on making roast paan even though I wanted to do it again, badly. 

Few days ago when hub went for grocery shopping I did asked him to buy bread flour. I know this makes him totally confuse. Because he dunno anything about cooking. There were left few types of flour in the supermarket and he bought me 2kg of “pane Nero ai 7 cereali” PANE NERO…. is one of the typical healthy bread mostly famous in north Italy consist of rye and more other healthy grains. Once I had some delicious dark breads top was coated with sunflower seeds in here north Italy where I live. I haven’t had French breads yet but here in Italy they got hundreds types of delicious bread recipes. Among all breads I had in my entire life that dark bread with sunflower seeds on top was the best. I can eat just the whole loaf without anything else. When I was kneading my first bread the picture of my favourite bread came to my mind, luckily I got some pumpkin seeds at home and baked my bread with it. I knew how to make normal classic bread. It is just flour, yeast, olive oil, water and salt. I got to know most of the Italian foods by an old Italian nonna when I was in Palermo. So with the current situation of these days we all started to make almost everything at home. And we mostly bought those sliced bread for sandwiches comes in packets these days instead of fresh breads. But at last I thought I should do my own bread for our consumption.

These types of bread probably you can see in north Italy. these black multigrain breads are very famous in north Italy. These breads are packed with grains, seeds and wholemeal flour. moist and one of the delicious bread that I’ve ever had. i sprinkled some dry pumpkin seeds on top, because I had some sunflower seeds sprinkled bread from one of the store nearby I live in north Italy. so as how I got some pumpkin seeds, used it for my bread. Then few days later when I was kneading my fourth bread I had some sesame seeds that I bought to sprinkle when I’m redoing bread again. So did pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds bread with with the same bread dough. Honestly this is the best bread that I’ve ever baked. And simply feel proud on myself. Self teaching is the best thing. this bread proved it to me. (Sorry for being emotional) I tried, failed, gave up and then I started again. 

The amount of water we use to mix the flour may be less or more. So don’t fix with water that given here. Add as much as you need to get the right constancy of the dough. Not a dry and not either sticky dough. If you have a stand mixture use it. But here I mixed all by my hands. And knead the dough by hands also. My bread is so soft even though I knead it by hands. And the next important thing is always pre heat your oven before you bake. And remember to place a water tray at the bottom rack of the oven before you bake the bread. It helps to create steam in the oven and your bread won’t gets dry. And let the baked loaf to rest on a wire rack, slice it down and place the extra/leftover bread slices in a zip lock bag and freeze it. Whenever you need bread, thawed and re heat in oven or a pan before consume. 

1.mix 7g brewer’s yeast with 25ml lukewarm water and 14g sugar. 

2.in a large mixing bowl mix 450g wholegrain cereal flour ( I will post the pic of the packet below but you could use any type of healthy bread flour ) with 12g salt. 

3.then add yeast to the flour along with 1tbs olive oil and mix using wooden stick/chopstick/fork. 

4.then start to add water little by little and make the dough. It was around 275ml water for me. 

5.transfer the dough to the working board and knead. Knead around 10-15 minutes or until it is soft and smooth. grease a large mixing bowl with 1tsp of olive oil and place the dough. Cover with a cling wrap and leave it to rise 2-3hours. I always prefer to use switched off oven. 

6.after 2-3hours, punch to the dough to release the air. And transfer it again to the working board and knead 5 more minutes. Then flatten it to a thick round shape by your hands gently. Then bring the top and bottom sides inwards to the dough. And then right and left again. Now dough looks like a loaf. Shape the edges also to look like a nice and firm loaf. 

7.prepare a loaf pan with parchment paper or lightly grease it with 1/2tsp olive oil. Mine is L31 X P11.5 X H17cm. And I always grease my pan with olive oil. 

8.place the loaf gently in the pan. Lightly brush the top with 1tbs water and sprinkle the handful of dry pumpkin/sunflower/sesame/chia or any other seeds you prefer. Gently press each seed to the dough, get attached with it and cover with a cling wrap. Leave it to rest more 50-60minutes. 

9.pre heat your oven up to 200’C about 10-15 minutes and place a tray with water at the  bottom rack of the oven. 

10.bake your loaf in pre heated oven about 35-40 minutes in 200’C. Take out and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack. 

11.slice it, serve with your favourite topping/curry. Freeze the leftovers in a zip lock bag.