Ah! The delectable aroma of freshly baked delights

Breads and more

We might not have a culture of walking into bakeries early in the morning to emerge out gorging on freshly baked breads in the morning. Granted!

But Christmas without the alluring aromas of the specially baked breads is incomplete. As the chefs in Delhi roll out some scrumptious variants of breads ranging from the regular garlic breads to the exotic Dresdner Stollens, Metrolife tries to figure what’s cooking in their kitchens!

To complement your elaborate Christmas dinners with bread, Chef Santosh Reddy from ‘The Chocolate Box’, gives us a peek into the art of making breads. “What we use as our special ingredients are buttered ghee (made from clarified butter) and cointreau (orange flavoured liquor) and marzipan logs). These are the ingredients that make Christmas stollen special in taste and appeal.”

There signature bread this season is Stollen. It is a very special sweet yeast bread blended with a mix of dry fruits and nuts soaked in alcohol, traditionally made for Christmas, says the chef, adding, “Baking breads is an art, it is something that comes from the heart and we chefs put a lot of innovation into the preparation of breads. It involves a scientific approach and product innovation. Some of our special breads usually are ciabatta bread, gluten free bread, vasilo pita, focaccia and fougase.”

Chef Swasti Aggarwal from Foodhall says, “We are doing a variety of artisanal breads including herbed pizza base, pita bread, whole wheat pita breads, flaxseed bread, gluten free bread, panini bread, onion and thyme croissants, and ciabatta.”

Sharing that their steam ovens give the country breads a fine crust and maintain moisture inside the bread, Chef Surajbir Singh from Hinglish: The Colonial Café, says, “Normally with all the preparations for Christmas, we use a mix of dry fruits such as pitted prunes, pistachio, glazed cherries and soak it in rum along with dry spices such as ginger powder, clove powder, cinnamon powder, green cardamom powder
and big cardamom powder a month prior to Christmas. This mix is usually used in
all the breads and desserts for Christmas to get that special flavour.”