Bread Loaf with Dry Fenugreek Leaves
Easy Bread with Kasoori Methi Leaves
Mamta Gupta
Kasoori methi leaves give this bread a lovely, earthy flavour. It makes lovely toasts but is also good for eating fresh sliced or making sandwiches. You can also add some fried onions before the last rising of the dough. Just spread them evenly once you have flattened out the dough, and then fold the dough over it. Here I have used Dan Lepard?s Easy Bread method to make the dough.
Ingredients
3 cups white strong flour (you can use a mix of white, whole meal or chapatti and mixed grain bread flour)
1 1/2 full tbsp. dry fenugreek or methi leaves
1 cup hand warm water (I start with 1 1/2 cups and use what is needed out of it)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 packet or 1 level tsp. fast acting or rapid rise dry yeast
2 tbsp. olive oil
Instructions
Measure all ingredients.
Place flour, yeast, salt and fenugreek leaves in a large bowl and mix.
Add enough liquid from the jug to make soft dough. You don?t need to knead it much, just bring it together.
Cover the dough (I use a shower cap or kitchen towel for covering) and leave it on a kitchen top for 10 minutes.
Oil a work surface and your hands with olive oil.
Take the dough out on the oiled surface, flatten it with your hand into a rectangle. Now fold it inwards from both sides, edges overlapping. Turn it around half circle and flatten it again. Now fold it again same way. Leave it for 10 minutes.
Repeat this process two more times. Fried, sliced onions can be added during the last folding.
Now lift the folded dough onto a baking tray or into a loaf tin.
Cover with a towel and leave until double in size again and it feels springy.
Preheat oven to 200?C or 400?F, gas mark 6. Reduce temperature by 10-15?C if using a fan oven.
Make a few slashes on the top of the bread.
Bake in the centre of the oven for 45-50 minutes, checking after 35 minutes, because oven performances can vary and you don?t want to end up with a burnt bread.
Allow to cool on a wire rack.
Placing a bowl of water at the bottom of the oven will give you a crisp, crusty bread.
