TGIF: Wholewheat Bread In Rice Cooker

Wholewheat Bread In A Rice Cooker

Let me admit right at the outset that I’m not an experienced nor an accomplished baker. I have been experimenting with baking brown on and off. At times, I baked soft bread while other times the bread was hard, which was a bit putting off.

But now I’m on a serious mission to bake soft, wholesome nutritious and tasty wholewheat bread.

I wanted to start again with baking bread in a rice cooker. I’ve been obsessed with it ever since I stumbled upon this method last week. And yes, I have seen people using different liquids – milk, curd, warm water or whey to make the dough. I opted for whey since I always store the whey formed when I make paneer.

And I must say the result wasn’t disappointing at all. The bread turned out nice and soft and tasted good especially when eaten fresh and warm.

Then I got a little adventurous the second time and stuffed the bread with peanut butter and chocolate. It turned out like a chocolate peanut croissant, a slightly stout version, but yummy nevertheless.

So here’s the basic bread recipe. Of course, there are different ways of making the dough but right now this is the one I’m comfortable with. Soon I will use different methods.

Ingredients

For the dough

Wholewheat flour – 1 cup

Salt – ¼ tsp

Jaggery powder – ½ tsp

Whey – ¼ tsp

Oil – 1 tsp

To activate the yeast

Dry yeast – ½ tsp

Sugar – 1 tsp

Lukewarm water – 2 tbsp

Method

Take yeast and sugar in a bowl

Add lukewarm water and mix

Cover and keep aside in a warm place for about 20 mins

The yeast is activated when you see a white film like frothy layer floating on the surface

Making the dough

Sieve the flour at least once

Add salt and Jaggery powder to it

Add the activated yeast and mix either with hand or with a spatula using the cut and fold method like for cake making

The dough will be sticky

Add a bit of flour and start kneading it with your thumb and forefinger for about 5 to 10 mins

The dough should not be sticky any more

Cover with a cloth and keep it in a warm place

(I kept it in the microwave with the light switched on)

I kept it for almost two hours. Today I kept it for almost 5 hours for the first rise and 2 hours for the second rise. I made Mint and Cheese stuffed.

The dough had risen and I could see the frothing action of the yeast

Again sprinkle with little flour and knead it really well till it becomes nice and soft

Add little more oil and shape it

Brush a little milk on top for the brownish colour

Place it in the rice cooker. Switch to cook mode and let the it cook for about 30 mins

Keep an eye on it

When it is done on one side, turn it over and cook on the other side for about 20 to 30 mins

Turn to the other side again and brush with little butter for the shine

(The thing about rice cooker is it has to be monitored. It tends to switch to warm mode when it gets heated up. Turn it to cook mode then and continue)

Fresh Mint and Cheese Stuffing

Add fresh mint leaves and bits of cooking cheese after the first rise.