Bready Steady Go!

Hello Friend.

This is my first instructable and I would like to show you a very easy way to bake bread as this recipe only requires ingredients that you can find easily in your pantry!

Do note you can bake the dough made following this recipe to make beautiful bread, or even steam the dough shaped into smaller round balls to make soft and tasty baos!

To make the bread you will need:

Milk - 3/4th Cup

Yeast - 2 Tsp
Butter - 3Tblsp (1 Tblsp melted, remaining qty at room temp)

Sugar - 1 Tblsp

Salt - 2 Tsp

Flour - 1 3/4th Cup

Once the dough is made, you can stuff it with all kinds of stuffings sweet or savoury, for this recipe I will be making one plain plaited bread , one round bun and one twisted bread stuffed with Nutella.

All of these are topped with sesame which is optional. Also I have used a little egg as an egg wash to help brown the bread on top, you can skip it for a vegetarian option and instead brush a mix of a little butter and milk to help in the browning.

A Bowl for mixing all the ingredients. The dough made in this recipe can be baked in an oven at 180C for 20 mins .

Mix the melted butter with the room temperature milk and sugar in a bowl. Add in the yeast. Cover this bowl with a cloth and leave it aside for 10 mins.

After 10 minutes the yeast should come alive and you will see signs of life in the way the mixture bubbles or froths.

Once the yeast has been activated keep it aside. In a bigger bowl mix in the flour and salt and make a well in the centre. Pour in the activated yeast mixture and then mix it with a spoon or by hand (Warning: It could get sticky!).

Once the dough comes together, you can then place the remaining butter in the centre of the dough and fold the dough on top of it like an envelope. Then knead it by hand by stretching it and folding it back together a few times till the dough is soft. It will gradually get elastic and soft as you knead.

Once the dough comes together, shape into a ball and cover the bowl and let it sit for 30 minutes to proof , till it becomes double its original size.

Considering the weather conditions where I live, this took 25 minutes.

Once the dough has doubled in size, it will be puffy. This is a great opportunity for you to vent out your frustrations by punching the dough with a fist (picture your boss).

Then look at the fist impression on dough and know what you're capable of doing. Feel good about it. You Do you Man!

Once you're done punching stuff, portion the dough based on how many portions you would like to bake. I wanted to make 3 , one twisted bread stuff with nutella (with two portions), one plaited and one round bun.

For the stuffed nutella bread:

Take two of the round portions and roll them out and slather on the nutella and roll them into cigars. Then wrap the two cigars around each other to form a twisty sort of shape. You can shape them anyway you want. They will rise so pinch in the ends to seal the joints.

Take one of the two remaining round portions and divide it into 3 portions and just roll them into three cigars.

Then join the three of them at the top and plait them and seal in the ends by pinching.

Once done with all the shaping, you can place the shaped dough on a baking tray (lined with parchment paper or just greased with butter or ghee).

For browning the top of the bread you could use an egg wash (egg+some water) or you could just use a tblsp of butter mixed with a tblsp of milk. Brush this mixture on top of the breads.

After the eggwash, sprinkle black and white sesame seeds on top of the bread.

Then bake these in a convection oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 20 mins.

Once done, the bread will be soft and fluffy and best enjoyed with a cup of coffee . Enjoy!