Baked Bread Rolls

Made this for after-school snack yesterday. Really easy to make and you can sneak in as many veggies as you like :-)

Here's how I make Baked Bread Rolls:

For the filling -

1/2 cup mashed potatoes (I used 1/2 cup boxed potato flakes and added 1/2 cup water, mixed and microwaved for 1 min.); tomato, green onion and green bell pepper - all chopped fine; carrot and cabbage - shredded. All veggies also came to about 1/2 cup. You can vary per taste or availability.

Seasoning the filing - Add about 2 tsp soy sauce, 1/2 tsp salt, pinch of sugar, 1/2 tsp black pepper pwd, pinch of paprika. Yesterday I also added 1/4 tsp Thai seasoning paste, this is optional. Sometimes instead of soysauce, I give it an Indian flavor with some coriander-cumin pwd, garam masala pwd or pav bhaji masala pwd. Mix well.

For the bread roll - I used 4 slices of whole wheat bread. Sprinkle few drops of water evenly on each slice. Lay it on a damp paper towel.

Cover with another damp paper towel and roll slightly with a rolling pin using gentle pressure.

Put 2 tbsp of the filling on the bread. 

Using the damp paper towel, roll the bread to form a roll. Seal edges with water. Lay seam side down on a baking tray.

Bake in a pre heated 400F oven for about 15 mins, turning them over once. Serve warm with tomato ketchup.

These Baked Bread Rolls are off to the 37th Bake Fest at Cooks Joy.

Bread Dosa

Bread Dosa is a good way to finish up slices of bread that have been sitting around for a while. It is quick and easy to make and tastes delicious too.

Here's how I make it:

4 Bread slices - I use whole wheat or multigrain bread (usually the slices at the ends of the loaf)
1/2 cup fine rava (semolina)
1 tbsp rice flour
1/2 cup yogurt
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1 green chilli
few curry leaves
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Sprinkle 1 tbsp water or buttermilk on each slice of bread and keep for 5 mins. Then mix the soaked bread with all the other ingredients from rava to curry leaves above. Add 1/2 cup water and grind in a blender to get the bread dosa batter. Consistency should be like regular dosa batter, so add little more water if needed. Then add the salt, cumin seeds, finely chopped onions and cilantro.

To make the dosa/pancake, heat a non-stick tawa on medium heat and pour a ladleful in the center. Quickly spread it into a circular shape. Dot the edges with little ghee and let it cook for 2-3 mins. Flip over and cook the other side, till both sides are golden brown.

Serve hot with ketchup or chutney.

This make about 4 dosas. These dosas are soft/fluffy inside and crispy outside.

Bread Upma

Bread Upma is a breakfast dish, quick to make and good way to use up old bread/bagels etc.

Here's how I make it:

Roughly chop the bread pieces. Sprinkle with buttermilk that has been seasoned with salt, red chile pwd and turmeric. For about 5 bread slices, I use 1/2 cup buttermilk. Mix gently. The idea is to slightly moisten the bread pieces and spice them, so do not add too much that the bread is soaking in the buttermilk.

Heat oil in a wide pan and make the tempering by first dropping some mustard seeds. When they stop spluttering add cumin seeds, asafotida, chopped curry leaves, chopped green chiles to taste, broken dry red chiles to taste. Saute a couple of mins. Add chopped onions and fry till they turn light golden brown. Add chopped tomatoes and other veggies as desired. In the above picture, I have only added frozen peas, but potatoes, bell peppers, carrots are also good options. Cook till tomatoes and veggies soften. Add the bread pieces, salt and sugar per taste. Stir gently to coat the bread with the onion/tomato/veggies. Cook uncovered on medium high heat for 5 to 10 mins, gently stirring once in a while.

Serve hot garnished with chopped cilantro. Goes well with a cup of chai.

Stuffed Bread Buns

Since last year I have started baking different kinds of breads at home. I've already blogged about a couple of them - braided bread and zucchini bread. I just enjoy the whole process - kneading the sticky dough, watching it rise, the aroma filling the whole place as it bakes and finally ofcourse the taste of fresh, homemade bread.

This time around, we wanted to have some hot fresh stuffed bread buns for breakfast...right after we rise late on a lazy Sunday morning. But who will get up early enough to knead the dough, let it rise (twice) etc? Certainly not lazy me! I vaguely remember reading someplace that the twice risen bread can be refrigerated, then brought to room temp and baked before serving. So thats what I did this time, with great results. Infact, I didn't even completely bring it to room temp, just left it out for 5 - 10 mins, before sticking it in the oven. So the buns were ready right as the tea was boiling - what great timing, if I may say so myself! From now on, this will be the way to go for me.

I followed the bun recipe from Versalite Kitchen, which I have used a few times in the past, always had good results. I just halved it to make about 7 buns. For the stuffing, I just made a simple potato-onion mix.

These Stuffed Bread Buns go to the Only Cooking with Bread event at Foodelicious.

Whole Wheat Savory Zucchini Bread

I had made Zucchini Bread a few months back based on this recipe from Chef In You. This time I thought of making it in a loaf form using whole wheat flour. I tried it once last weekend, but my yeast gave me trouble and the dough did not rise as required. I tried it again this weekend, keeping a bowl of hot water in the oven along with my bread dough. I kept heating the water a coupl more time during the 2 hrs of rising time. This seemed to do the trick, since the dough rose beautifully.

So here's how I made the Whole Wheat Savory Zucchini Bread:

1 heaped cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup grated zucchini
1 packet active dry yeast
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper, pinch of sugar and Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning Blend

Grate the zuchhini, sprinkle a little salt and place in a colander to drain for 1/2 hr. Do not throw away the drained zucchini juice.
In a mixing bowl, put the wheat flour, yeast and seasonings, stir to mix. Add the oil and grated zucchini. Add a few tbsp water to the zucchini juice, warm it up and use this to knead the flour into a soft smooth dough. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and keep in a warm place to rise for 2 hrs.
Then gently punch down the risen dough and knead it lightly again. Shape into a loaf and keep it in an oiled loaf pan. Cover again with the plastic wrap. Let rise for another half hr.
Brush the top of the loaf with a little milk.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400F for about 30 mins till the top lightly browns.
Cool slightly, cut into slices and serve it slathered with some butter.

This Whole Wheat Savory Zucchini Bread goes to the Whole Wheat Breakfast event at Lite Bite.

Stuffed Braided Bread

Recently, inspired by various blogs I frequent, I have started baking breads. I find it very relaxing working with yeasted dough, kneading it, watching it swell, punching it etc. And the aroma of freshly baked bread is so heavenly.
I started with Pumpkin Bread that I have blogged about earlier. It has become a fall favorite in my kitchen.
I've made wonderful Zucchini Bread from Chef in You and Plain Flour and Whole Wheat Pav (Dinner Rolls) from Chef in You.
Getting a little more daring, I made Buns with Potato - Paneer Stuffing from Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen. Infact I made these for one of our Diwali potlucks where the hostess had a bread theme this year. They created a wow factor and went down very well with every one - young and not-so-young.
I have even made a Braided Bread with Mushroom stuffing from Super Yummy Recipes. Recently I saw another Braided Bread with Pizza style stuffing on Pari's Foodelicious.
I instantly decided to try it.
I had 1/2 a bottle of tomato and basil pasta sauce sitting in my fridge that needed to be finished before our upcoming Mumbai visit. So for the pizza-style stuffing for my bread, I cooked this down till thickened, it took over an hour on medium low heat. For the topping I used onions, colored peppers and shredded mozarella cheese.
For the bread recipe, I actually followed the Stuffed Buns recipe from Versatile Vegetarian Kitchen as it worked so well for me earlier.
For the stuffing, my inspiration was ofcourse Pari.
And for the idea of making a stuffed braided bread, I'd give the credit to Satya.

This Pizza style Stuffed Briaded Bread actually fit in great in my Thanksgiving menu. This year I had determined to try some of the traditional dishes cooked at this time. So instead of stuffed turkey, it was this pizza style Stuffed Braided Bread on my vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner table!

This pizza style Stuffed Braided Bread also goes to Nupur's Holiday Buffet table for the BB9 event.

I also made green beans casserole - could not believe how easy it was to make - just mixed lightly steamed grean beans with mushroom soup, fried onions, seasonings - salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg, topped wth more fried onions and baked at 400F for 15 mins. - turned out so delicious and was polished off along with the bread.
Made a mashed potatoes dish also, from a recipe I had cut out long back from my newspaper. I'll leave you with a picture of these items.