Sunshine on a cloudy day

Down foodpath

Cooking never came naturally to me. I started learning how to work around in the kitchen only after my marriage. Since my husband is a big time foodie, I figured this was a good opportunity to explore interesting recipes.

At the time, I worked for an MNC where work was quite tedious. Despite this, I would make time to look for new recipes to try at home. I would experiment with a variety of them and hope my husband gives me a good feedback. I even moved on to relying on my friends and neighbours for feedback on the dishes that I prepared. I quit my job when I was pregnant with my son. This gave me a lot more time to spend in the kitchen. Though I am still learning how to cook, baking is something that I have become an expert at.

Before my son was born, I would make desserts with most of the regular ingredients. But I realised that I should cut down the fat content and learn to make healthier versions of delicious desserts for better nutrition. My husband and I were also enthusiastic to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Today, I use alternate ingredients to regular ones and create healthier versions of the sweets.

When I first started baking, I used a microwave. I didn’t know that the mid-level of baking was important. This would always result in an underbaked dish which wasn’t what I intended to make. I learnt my lesson the hard way.

Though many would think that baking is an easy task, I truly believe that baking a cake and baking a bread are completely different. For a cake, you can follow the recipe from anywhere and know you will get a final ingredient. But with bread making, you are working with a living organism, yeast, and you can never be too sure how it will work with the ingredients. It requires a lot of patience, skills and time management to bake the perfect bread.

I started ‘Bake Me a Bread’ to showcase my recipes of glutton-free and no
preservative bread. Though I know the shelf life of my product is very limited, I know that what I’m consuming is not unhealthy. In the future, I want to be able to take classes on how
everyone else can also learn to make these healthy bread at home. It’s important that we take care of ourselves and watch what we are eating.

The recipe that I’m sharing today is ‘Orange and cranberry loaf’. I call this a ‘sunshine loaf’ as the orange zest and the juice yield a beautiful golden crumb. The sweet and sour flavours of the cranberry make for a wonderful combination with the orange flavour. It is perfect to indulge in on a cloudy day with a hot cuppa.”

Priya Arora
(As told to Anila Kurian)

Orange and cranberry loaf
Recipe
Ingredients
*Whole wheat flour,  2 cups
*All-purpose flour, 1 1/2 cup
*Sugar, 4 tsp
*Salt, 1 tsp
*Instant active dry yeast, 2 tsp
*Juice and finely grated zest of one orange
*Dried cranberries, 3/4 cup
*Eggs, 2
*Warm water, 2/3 cup

Method
*In a big bowl, combine the flours, sugar and yeast.
*In another bowl, combine  lightly whisked eggs with orange juice and zest
*Pour the liquid mix in the flours and use the lukewarm water to knead a smooth dough. Use more water if you feel the dough is too dry.
*Sprinkle the salt on the dough and knead for another five minutes until the salt is fully
incorporated.
*Place the dough in a greased container in a warm place for an hour or till the dough doubles up.
*Once the dough is doubled up in volume, bring it out to the work surface. Gently deflate it with your hands and fold in the cranberries.
*Shape it into a loaf and place it in a greased loaf pan with the seam side down. Rest this loaf in a warm place till it rises double in volume again.
*Preheat the oven to 180 degrees for 10 minutes. Bake the risen loaf at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes.
*The loaf should sound hollow when you tap as you bring it out of the oven. Brush the hot loaf  with butter for a nice shine.Cool completely before you slice.

Note
*Do not use hot water to knead the dough. It will kill the yeast. Use lukewarm water only.
*The salt should not come in touch directly with yeast. Hence add towards the end of kneading.
*If you are not using instant yeast, it is a good idea to prove the yeast in half cup of lukewarm water with one tablespoon of sugar stirred in. Use the resulting frothy liquid to knead the dough.
*If you are looking for a softer and spongier version and use of maida is not a problem, then skip the combination of whole wheat flour and use all purpose flour entirely.

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