Bake your own bread...

On Tuesday noon at the modern and cozy APB cook studio, the centre of attention (and conversation) is no doubt, Saee Koranne-Khandekar. She's about to teach us the art of bread-making to launch her newly published cookbook, Crumbs! Bread stories and recipes for the Indian kitchen. How many of us had made bread earlier? Only two out of 20 raise hands. Indian Food Freaks' Supriyo Bose recalls his first tryst with roti: most of the dough got stuck to his hands and the rest on his friend's, who tried to rescue him by pulling it off. We crack up. With Crumbs!, Saee aims to prove that bread-making is easy. "It's in our genes. We make roti everyday, we instinctively know how to get dough consistency right."

So why do so few of us venture into western breads? Saee says the only beast scaring away the Indian home chef is yeast. "Most people buy commercial, dry ones sold by Blue Bird, Crown, etc. The size of granules in one pack itself differs, so you can't tell how much to use. Most people end up using more, so their bread smells like beer, causing them to think it has gone bad. I recommend fresh yeast (it's messy and comes in slabs, so it's more for commercial bakers), and instant yeast (it's standardised). Flours like super white, high gluten, etc. in international recipes also deter people. But the same breads can be made with regular atta," says Saee.

So the workshop starts with us attacking the fear of yeast. Saee mixes yeast with sugar and luke warm water in a glass bowl and points "look how it's frothing, it's good news—the yeast is active." A few minutes later, she adds maida, after a gap salt (it stops yeast's activity) and eventually, olive oil that gives the focaccia she's making, its softness. "You can use a blender, but newbies should knead with hand to understand how the dough reacts to yeast and changes in character, spongier and springy."And so she kneads. "There are different techniques," she says, demonstrating one by slapping the dough on the platform and folding it "this is done when the atta is too wet to push with the palm, but for focaccia you can pull like this" she stretches the dough by hand, folds and repeats. "Place it in a glass bowl to check for airy pockets that signal that you're on the right track."

She breaks the dough into balls, pours some olive oil on it, flattens it with her fingers in a push-and-spread action and creates dimples to place olives, garlic, sliced onions and herbs on. "I also like to make sweet ones with black grapes and rosemary." Now the most fun part: we get to flatten, poke and garnish our pre-kneaded dough; I load mine generously with all toppings and chilli flakes. I'm tempted to eat it raw! Baked, it looks even better, but hasn't risen well — I guess I flattened mine extra. Do I foresee a good future with my new bread-baking skills? You bet. And the future of bread-making in India? Saee is optimistic. "Soon people will bake more international and regional breads; Mumbaikars may try sheermal and North Indians, thalipeeth."

Crumbs! Focaccia Recipe 

INGREDIENTS

10 gm sugar
15 gm yeast
500 gm maida
10 gm all-purpose flour
15ml good olive oil
220ml lukewarm water
A small handful each of pitted black olives, sundried cherry tomatoes, basil torn off and garlic cloves (unpeeled are great too – just bash to let the juices ooze through)
Sea salt for sprinkling

METHOD

1. Place sugar and yeast in a mixing bowl, add 1/3 of the lukewarm water and leave to froth in a warm spot for 10 minutes 2. Place the flour and 2 tsp salt in a blender. Blitz for a moment 3. Once the yeast froths, slowly pour the yeast mixture in the blender. Knead at low speed till it combines. As required, add more water (little by little) for a homogenous dough 4. Turn up the blender speed and whir for 2 minutes 5. By now, your dough will be sticky. Don't panic or add extra flour 6. Add olive oil, give it 20 seconds 7. Remove the blender lid, cover the blender with a plastic wrap or damp muslin and leave the dough to rise for an hour or till it doubles in size and forms irregularly sized holes along the blender's sides 8.Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly to ensure the dough is completely knot free 9. Place on a greased and floured baking sheet, square cake tin, or thali with tall sides and flatten with greased hands. The dough will offer some resistance and shrink from the edges, but flatten as much as possible; it's going to be almost double the height when baked 10. Make dimples by prodding the flattened dough with your finger tips. Stick the olives, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic cloves in them; leave a few empty for oil drizzle 11. Sprinkle the basil and sea salt. Drizzle olive oil 12. Lightly cover with plastic wrap and leave to proof for 20 minutes 13. Bake in preheated 200°C oven for 20 minutes, until golden and done 14. Remove, cool for a bit, cut into squares and serve warm.