Earning My Bread And Butter

It's official! I am open for business. I had 3 cake orders, one order for cupcakes and one order for cake toppers this month. It happened overnight. I have turned out to be one of those people who don't procrastinate. Who would have thought! I think I may have surprised even myself. Till last month I had absolutely no intentions of ever selling cakes but after some friends (you know who you are), all but sat on me, I thought, well what the heck! So here we are. 

I don't have a name and I am not sure I want one. What if I get bored of it in a month? As of now it is more like funding my hobby. I can try new things and not have to eat them.

Speaking of bread and butter, We have been having a lot of that too. Usually at midnight when the late night hunger pangs strike, while watching The Good Wife. Yes, I am the good wife, dutifully eating all that my husband cooks and (now) bakes. Bread is his latest fad and I must add that he has become quite good at it too. 

It all started because our little girl D who is allergic to everything, can't eat store bought bread. She got by without it for the last two years but now suddenly she is desperate to have it and so now like good indulgent  parents who (thank the lord) know how to bake, we give her what she wants.

Since bread is now made in our house like Roti is made in yours....that is every day, we have to keep it simple. A (the husband, in case you forgot) has devised his own recipes and I am sharing the one photographed above, with you and we shall call it Double-Roti (heh!)

DOUBLE ROTI

Ingredients:

750 grams flour

7 grams of instant dry yeast

250 ml lukewarm water

200 ml lukewarm milk

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

30 grams melted butter

Method:

- whisk together flour, salt,sugar, yeast and melted butter.

- Add the warm milk and water and knead for 2-3 minutes

- Put the mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer and knead with a dough hook for 5 minutes at medium speed.  If you don't have a stand mixer knead by hand for 10 minutes.

- Put in a greased bowl, cover the bowl with cling wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour till the dough has doubled.

- Knock down the dough and knead lightly for 30 seconds or so to take the air out.

- Put in a greased loaf tin

- Cover the loaf tin with a cloth or greased plastic bag and let it rise again for another hour till doubled.

- In the meantime preheat the oven to 230 degrees C

- Once the dough has risen, bake for 30-35 minutes till the crust is the colour you want it to be.

Here are a couple of photographs of the buns we eat with butter every night.

If you have never baked bread before, just try the recipe, even if only to smell the divine smell of a loaf of bread in the oven. 

And the best part is these breads have almost no fat, no preservatives, no junk...except the refined flour of course. I will post recipes of bread made with whole wheat flour soon so stay tuned.