Kasoori-Methi Parathas

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! I am sorry for my unexplained absence from blogging! My parents are visting from India for a couple of weeks (yay!!), but since the visit is really short (just for 3 weeks!), I am keeping back from blogging. Thank you for all your concerns and wishes!

Most of you would be busy over the long weekend, going on a quick getaways, whipping up a great thanksgiving meal or having guests over. Well, we have a Thanksgiving get-together at the place of a great friend of mine! But I just thought I would post a quick recipe which has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but is a recently discovered favourite of mine. I've never used kasoori methi (let alone methi leaves!) in my cooking before and this was a welcome treat for me. I absolutely loved the parathas, wish I'd come across it earlier. Again, this is a very common recipe, but still wanted to share with you, my new found love!

I also would like to give all of you a hint that something special is brewing on Tasty treats! The announcement will be made sometime next week. So stay tuned for the exciting and fun activity that I am putting together with a lot of help from my dear friend, Bhags of Crazy Curry!! So friends, please do check back next week and join in the fun!

Recipe:

Wheat flour (Atta) - 2 cups

Kasoori methi - 1/2 cup

Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp

Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Water - to knead into a dough

Method:

Put all the ingredients together into a bowl.

Add just enough warm water to make into a dough which is smooth (but not sticky).

Keep aside for 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8-10 balls.

Roll out each dough ball into a circle of about 6-8 in.

Heat a griddle and place a dough circle on the hot griddle.

Cook until light brown spots appear on the first side.

Flip the paratha over and cook until the second side is cooked, showing light brown spots.

Drizzle a bit of ghee/butter/oil if needed on both sides and flip again.

Serve hot.

Hope you all enjoyed your visit to Tasty treats. Please do check back next week for the special announcement!

Date-Nut Bread

Welcome back to Tasty treats! I know I was not actively blogging over the past few weeks. I am sorry for the inactivity on my blog and I would like to thank everyone who extended their support and wishes to me over the last few weeks. Eventhough I am not posting on the blog, I still do try out recipes occasionally and am reserving them for sharing with all of you later on. One of the recipe I tried recently is the Date-Nut bread which I made after weeks of drooling, on coming across the recipe! ;-) Just like expected the bread was fantatsic, with lots of dates and nuts in each mouthful. It sure was soft, moist and flavorful. We had it with a bit of chocolate syrup drizzled over the slices and it was simply out-of-the-world! Yum-yum!!! Do try this out and you wont be disappointed! Dont forget to let me know your thoughts and suggestions!

Recipe (Makes 1 loaf):

Chopped pitted dates - 1 1/2 cups
Butter or margarine - 6 tbsp, cut up
Boiling water - 1 1/4 cups
All-purpose flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1 large, lightly beaten
Walnuts - 1 cup, coarsely chopped



Method:

In a medium bowl, combine dates and butter, stir in the boiling water and let stand until cool.

Preheat the oven to 325F.

Grease a 9" by 5" metal loaf pan.

In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Stir egg into the date mixture.

Now, stir the date-egg mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.

Stir in the walnuts.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Cool loaf in the pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.

Remove the bread from the pan and cool completely on wire rack.

Source: Great Baking from Good Housekeeping.


Tips:

1. I used about 1 cup (8 oz) of chopped pitted dates.
2. Instead of walnuts I used about 1/2 cup of slivered almonds with a few sliced almonds on top.
3. I baked the bread for about 1 hour 10 minutes. It is advisable to check the doneness around the 1 hour mark.
4. Variations of the recipe include prune bread (using 1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped pitted prunes instead of dates) and fig bread (using 1 1/2 cups of coarsely chopped dried figs instead of dates).

Hope you all are having a great time, and see you all real soon!!

Betty Crocker's Crescent rolls & Strawberry Preserves

The last Daring Bakers challenge had left me with a craving for Danish pastries, but thinking of the effort and the calories, I had decided to leave it alone for a few more weeks. The croissants that I came across on several blogs were haunting me in my dreams, and finally I decided to make something that atleast remotely resembled these pastries, atleast in their shapes - crescent rolls. From the day I saw this recipe on Betty Crocker's cookbook, I wanted to make them, but was too lazy and impatient when I saw the dough - rising step. But after completing the Danish Braid challenge, this wait seemed like nothing, and yes, it was a cake-walk! I made only half the recipe and everything turned out perfectly!! JM and I actually ate it as the evening snack and dinner, with homemade Strawberry jam. It sure was yummy!! With just a wee little butter in the whole recipe, we didnt cringe as we ate, and enjoyed it immensely. This recipe can be used to make dinner rolls, crescent rolls and cloverleaf rolls. The crescent rolls are given as the variation of the basic dinner roll recipe. It sure made a tasty set of rolls, please do try them, they were perfect!! Yumm!

Recipe (Makes 32 rolls) :

All-purpose flour - 3 1/2 - 3 3/4 cups
Butter or margarine - 1/4 cup (4 tbsp)
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Quick active dry or regular yeast - 1 package or 2 1/4 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup, very warm (120 - 130 F)
Milk - 1/2 cup, very warm (120 - 130 F)
Egg - 1 large
Butter or margarine - melted, if desired



Method:

In a large bowl, stir 2 cups of flour, the sugar, 1/4 cup of butter, salt and yeast until well-mixed.

Add warm water, warm milk and egg.

Beat for a minute with an electric mixer on low-speed, followed by 1 minute on medium speed, both times scraping bowl frequently.

Stir in enough remaining dough to make dough easy to handle.

Place dough on lightly floured surface.

Knead for about 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and springy.

Grease a large bowl with shortening.

Place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides.

Cover bowl loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

The dough is ready when indentation remains when touched.

At this stage the dough can be used to make any of the specified rolls.

For making crescent rolls:


Grease cookie sheet with shortening or cooking spray.

Push the fist into the dough to deflate and cut the dough in half.

Roll each half into a 12" circle on a floured surface.

Spread with softened butter.

Cut each circle into 16 wedges.

Roll up each wedge beginning at the rounded end (broad end).

Plcae rolls on the cookie sheet, with points underneath and curve the edges slightly.

Brush with butter (I didnt) and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Let rise in a warm place about 30 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.

Heat oven to 375 F.

Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm or cool.

Tips:

1. I did not brush the shaped rolls with melted butter.
2. I only made half the recipe to yield 16 rolls.
3. If using self-rising flour, omit salt.
4. For the dough to rise, I usually switch on the oven at 200F or so for a minute or two, switch it off, and place the dough in the oven to rise.
5. I had actually stuffed a single roll with jam, as you can see in the picture below, to see how it would turn out. Experiment with more stuffings.

I am sending these crescent rolls to the "Bread baking day - Small Breads" event at Aparna's My Diverse Kitchen. The event was started by started by Zorra at 1x umrühren bitte.

I am also sending these Crescent rolls to the "Healthy Cooking" event over at Mansi's Fun and Food. I feel that these rolls are very healthy because it has a very low fat and sugar content. It is a leavened bread and is baked so that no additional fat is introduced. The recipe actually mentioned smearing the rolls again with butter before baking. I actually omitted that step and still the rolls turned out perfectly browned. The rolls can be eaten on their own because they taste great!! It would also go well with soups, salads or preserves!!

Source: Betty Crocker Cookbook : everything you need to know to cook today.

We had the rolls with home-made strawberry preserves. The preserve was made from a recipe on Sunita's blog. Here's a pictorial step-by-step instructions on the process. We had gone strawberry picking two weeks before and I used up our hand-picked berries by making this Strawberry Preserves. I am sending this Home-made Strawberry Preserve to "Eating with the seasons" event at Maninas : Food Matters.

Through and over the weekend, I am glad some of my fellow bloggers remembered me, because I again have several awards to share. Veda of Iyengar's kitchen passed me the "Blogging with a purpose" award. Srilekha of Me and My Kitchen and Hetal of Isha's kitchen passed me the "Yum-Yum Blog" award. Thanks a trillion for remembering me, you guys! I really appreciate your gesture. I would like to pass these onto,

Asha of Foodies Hope
Ranji of Ranji's Kitchen Corner
Roopa of My Kitchen Treats
Rachel of Tangerine's Kitchen
Cham of Spice-club

Enjoy your awards!! And come back to Tasty treats for more recipes through the week.

Danish Braid with Butterscotch and Apple Filling - My First Daring Bakers Challenge

There it is... My first Daring Baker's challenge - Danish Braid. It looks lovely, doesnt it, or is it just me? I am so happy that I got to finish my first challenge, even if it did not turn out perfect. It is supposed to be a closed braid, but mine opened up while baking, but it sure tasted awesome!! Now I can say that I love danish pastry a lot!! Well...it was not a lovey-dovey relationship from the start. This is my second braid, after the super disappointment on my first try.


FLASHBACK: It all started when Kelly of Sass & Veracity, and Ben of What’s Cookin’? announced the June 2008 edition of Daring bakers - Danish Braid using Sherry Yard's recipe from "The Secrets of Baking".

I was very nervous when I started on my first braid on Tuesday last week. I felt that this was one very-tough challenge. I did everything according to the recipe, made enough dough for two braids. I decided to make one a vanilla-creme braid with chopped strawberries and lychees. The second braid was to be a savory one with curried onions and boiled eggs. The only thing different from the assembly was that I made the cuts for the braid at an angle and only made about 5 cuts. I spend the entire day doing the pastry turns and finished baking the braids individually by about 9.00 at night.The sweet braid actually became over-proofed and had risen a lot. The savory one was just right and I finished baking it perfectly. While I was baking the sweet one, I did a few mistakes and it browned a lot, but still was ok. But when I took it out of the oven, it slipped from my hand and fell on the floor!! It broke in half and was on the floor before I could take any pictures!! GASP!!! I actually shed a few tears. A whole days work down the drain! Only because JM encouraged me, did I decide to try making another sweet braid, from scratch! The pictures below show the savory one that I made with curried onions and boiled eggs (much like the egg puffs that we get in the bakeries of Kerala).



The second time, I decided to do the braid in two days - making the dough and completing the turns in one day and the proofing and actual baking on the second day. So I made half the dough enough for a single braid and reduced the amount of orange zest. I actually ran out of yeast (I usually have several packets, so I hadnt bothered to check) and added about 1 1/4 tsp where I needed 1 1/2 tsp. When it was time to make the butter block, I see that my butter stock is almost over. Is this some kind of a joke!!? Is this really happening to me!? But I dont know why, I was kind of cool with the setbacks (when compared to the previous days disaster and tears!)! I decided to go through with it anyways, and used only 3 tbsp of butter in the place of 8 tbsp (1/4 cup) that I needed. I did all the four turns as specified in the instructions given and let it rest overnight in the refrigerator.


The next day I had finalised a different filling for my second sweet braid - butterscotch and apple filling! I made the butterscotch filling using this recipe. I only made half the amount and that too was a bit too much. The braid was rolled out to 7 1/2" by 10" rectangle and I spread the butterscotch filling in the middle third of the pastry. Then I placed the fresh chopped fuji apples (about 1/2 an apple) on top. I braided the pastry according to the instructions. This time I made closer cuts perpendicular to the filling. I kept the braid for proofing for about 2 1/4 hours, because 1) I could see that it wasnt rising as much as the previous one did 2) it was refrigerated for almost 16 hours 3) that was the time specified for proofing the refrigerated dough at 75F. I made sure that it didnt over-proof by checking it at intervals. Some of the butterscotch filling leaked out during proofing, which I just cleaned off before keeping in the oven.


I baked the braid at 400F for only 7 minutes on one side (instead of 10 minutes). I could see that the braid had actually opened up (it was perfectly closed even after proofing)! Then reduced the temperature to 350F and sprinkled a few almond slivers on top. I turned the baking sheet 180 degrees and baked for about 12 minutes (instead of 15-20 minutes) for a total of 19 minutes. The braid was baked to perfection with crisp and browned pastry which was flaky (even with a lot less butter than specified!!) I waited for JM to come home from his office to enjoy it, and enjoy we did!! As I write this, I only have less than a quarter of the braid left! :-) I am glad I could make it atleast healthier by even a bit by reducing the amount of butter, eventhough it was quite unintentional! So finally I can say that I am proud to be a Daring Baker and I completed my first challenge with some satisfaction. Eventhough the first trial of making the danish bread ended in a mishap and I vowed that I will never make this again, the bounce-back on the second day has made me atleast consider making this again! :-)


I am sorry for my rambling, but this IS my first challenge!! :-) Please take a moment to check out the wonderful creations of the other Daring Bakers!! Email me if you would like to see the entire recipe.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Dont forget to leave your thoughts on my Danish braid.

Lucchi (Bengali fried bread) and an award!

Poori-masala is one of the most welcomed food combo in our house. Infact it is JM's one of the favourite foods (and he doesnt have that many favourites!). But we make them at home less often. That actually make them all the more special. After coming to US, I stuck to just the basic Indian recipes like rice and a curry or something. But later on I started making most of our Indian specialities. But only recently did I REALLY know that JM loved this combo A LOT!! This time I decided to try out Lucchis which I came across in a cookbook. Lucchis are basically pooris with semolina added to them, which actually gives them a slight resemblance to baturas. The semolina also helps to hold the puffed up shape of the pooris longer than the regular pooris would. The lucchis also have fennel added to them for fragrance. And they taste phenomenal! It would go well with any curry, we had it with some beef curry and onion salad. Enjoy!

Recipe (Makes 8 lucchis) :

All-purpose flour - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Fine semolina - 1 tbsp
Fennel - 1 tsp, dry roasted and ground
Oil - 1 tbsp
Water - 1/4 cup
Oil - for frying

Method:

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

Add the semolina and fennel and mix well.

In another bowl combine water and oil.

Mix together with the dry ingredients.

Knead well to make a smooth dough, adding more water if necessary.

Cover the bowl with a cloth and set the dough aside for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into eight balls, flatten slightly and then roll them out in the shape of disks (4-5" diameter).

Heat the oil in a wok/kadai until very hot.

Fry the breads one at a time, flicking the hot oil over the top so that it puffs up.

Turn and cook on the other side until golden brown.

Drain on paper towels.

Serve hot with Indian curries.

Source: Authentic recipes from India by Brinder Narula.

Tips:

1. I made 1 1/2 recipe to get 12 lucchis.
2. While frying the pooris, push down the bread under the oil so that it will easily puff up.
   

Once again, I have an award to cherish and share! Neha of Tasty recipes passed me the Nice Matters award. Thank you so much Neha, I am happy to know that I am in the thoughts of a few blogger friends. It feels great to be appreciated, and thanks for being nice and for making my day!! :-)

"Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”

I would like to pass this onto

Purnima of Cook
Roopa of My kitchen treats
Hetal of Isha's kitchen
Vani of Illatharasi

Enjoy your awards! :-)

I am sending this to the Roti mela hosted by Srivalli at Cooking 4 all seasons.

Missi roti

Being a South Indian, rice was the staple of our diet during my childhood. The only Indian breads that we would make at home were chapathis and puris, with the occasional indulgence in naan when we would go out to eat. I was content with chappathis and puris, to tell you the truth. Nowadays as I am looking for simple recipes to try out, I am more willing to give other rotis a chance. Browsing through Suneeta Vaswani's cookbook, I was kind of surprised by the array of Indian breads popular in the North. As this recipe appeared to be very simple and almost like that of chappathis (the difference being the addition of chickpea flour), I tried it out first and finished effortlessly. They were perfect with the potato-green peas curry I made. This is a good replacement for chappathis when you want a change of taste. Enjoy!

This is also my entry to the Roti mela hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons, along with the Kerala porottas.

Recipe (Makes 8 rotis):

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Chickpea flour (Besan) - 1 cup
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Water - as needed

Method:

Mix the wheat flour, chickpea flour, oil and salt together using a spoon.

Add just enough water to form a single ball of dough.

Knead for a minute or two until the dough becomes smooth.

Cover with a kitchen towel and keep aside for 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy skillet over medium high heat.

Meanwhile, knead the dough again for 2 minutes.

Divide it into 8 equal portions.

Roll each into a ball, cover and set aside from heat.

Dust the work surface with flour.

Flatten a ball of dough between your palms.

Roll each disc into a 7"-8" circle, turning frequently to prevent sticking.

Dust with more flour if needed.

Transfer to the hot skillet and cook until puffy spots appear (~1 1/2 minutes).

Flip the roti over and cook the other side, pressing down on the edges with a spatula (~1 minute).

Lightly oil the roti on both sides and keep warm.

Repeat with the remaining dough balls.

Source: Complete book of Indian cooking By Suneeta Vaswani.



Tips:

1. Aloo-mattar (potato-green peas curry) is a good side dish.
2. To the basic dough, chopped onions, chillies and spices can be added to spruce it up.
3. The cookbook tip suggests that if need be, the rotis can be wrapped in foil, placed in a resealable bag and refrigerated for upto 4 days or frozen for upto 3 months. Reheat in the microwave before serving.
   

Kerala porottas ( Kerala Griddle fried breads)

Kerala porotta is a griddle-fried bread which is widely available in all regions of Kerala. It is made using a dough which basically has flour, eggs and ghee. A few recipes for the porotta with slight variations are available across the web. I dont know which recipe is the exact one, but this one gave me a very pliable dough which was easy to work with. The method of shaping the porottas from this recipes was also something new to me. Eventhough the preparation is a little bit time-consuming,you will definitely be pleased with the end result. My college cafeteria also had the 'porotta-beef' special for which all we had to do is to say "Achayaa, oru porotta-beef porattay! (Brother, we'll have a plate of porotta-beef combo!)." I never knew the work that went into making it.

When I got married, I got to hear a good story about my husband JM, his brother GM and porottas. Moms try to reduce the frequencies of their kids eating porottas since they do not have much nutritional value because they are mostly flour and fat . My mom-in-law is a good cook and she used to "try" to cultivate healthy food habits on her sons, but these two had insatiable appetites. One day my brother-in-law GM snuck into the local restaurant to have some porotta-beef and lo-and-behold, there he was, his elder brother JM (my husband), already enjoying some!! Eventhough alarmed to see each other there, they just nodded at each other and continued as if nothing happened. Because of the unsaid pledge between the brothers to not rat each other out, they didnt say anything at home. But the restaurant owners were aquaintances of my in-laws and they came to know about this in the passing. I dont know what happened after that, but I think from that day onwards, my mom-in-law was more liberal with her food choices for her sons, so that they wouldnt act desperate as if they get nothing at home!! Anyways, I looove this story, particularly the part of nodding at each other and gobbling the food as if nothing happened, eventhough their hearts probably were in their throats, and they were thinking up of ways to defend themselves in the event of a stab in the back!! So now everytime somebody talks about porottas, this story comes to my mind. Once in a while, when I am in a mood for cooking, I make these and reminisce about the good days when all we had to do was to go to a restaurant, for these yummy porottas.

Recipe (Makes 8):

All-purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups

Granulated sugar - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Plain yoghurt - 1/4 cup

Milk - 2 tbsp

Ghee (Clarified butter) - 2 tsp

Egg - 1

All-purpose flour for dusting

Melted ghee - 1/4 cup

Method:

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor or using a spoon.

Add yoghurt, milk, ghee and egg, process to make a smooth dough and continue to process for 2 minutes, to knead. (You can also knead by hand).

Lightly oil hands, and shape the dough into a ball.

Place in a bowl, cover with a slightly damp towel and let rest for 4-5 hours.

Heat a dry non-stick griddle or heavy skillet for 5 minutes over medium heat.

Knead the rested dough by hand for 2 minutes.

Divide into 8 portions and shape each portion into a ball.

Place in a bowl, cover and set aside, away from heat.

Dust the work surface lightly with flour.

Working with one ball at a time, flatten between the palms to make a disc of about 2".

Roll it out on the floured surface to a 6"-7" circle. Brush generously with melted ghee.

Shape into a cigar by rolling it tightly.(Refer to the tips).

Wind the 'cigar' into a coil, placing end under dough to secure.

Roll it out again into a 6"-7" circle, lifting and dusting surface if necessary.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Set aside, but do not allow them to come into contact.

Place the porottas on the heated griddle and cook until brown spots appear, about 2 minutes.

Turn and cook the other side, pressing down with spatula for 1 minute.

Brush the top side with a bit of ghee.

Turn again and brush the second side with ghee.

Turn once more and cook, pressing down with spatula, until browned and crisp, about 1-2 minutes.

Transfer to a foil to keep warm.

Repeat with the remaining dough balls and ghee.

While still warm, hold a stack of 4 porottas vertically between your hands and crush sideways so that layers appear seperated. (They would not be evenly separated).

Source: Complete book of Indian Cooking - 350 recipes from the regions of India, by Suneeta Vaswani.

Tips:

1. I have come across another method for shaping the porottas. It involves pleating the rolled out dough after brushing generously with ghee to form a pleated-fan-like arrangement and then winding it into a coil. Lets call that the pleated method and the one given in the above recipe as the cigar method. For the sake of experimenting, I shaped half of my dough using the pleated method and half using the cigar method. Then wound them into coils and followed the rest of the recipe. I didnt find any significant difference between the two methods in terms of flakiness/layers, but the cigar one was easier to shape. In the cigar method, you can see the coils more distinct than the other one.
2. In the cigar method, once you roll the dough to form a cigar shape, you get a short cylinder. I stretched the cigar lengthwise by rolling the cylinder on the work surface with my palms, starting at the centre and then gently sliding your palms towards the edges. This way, you end up with a longer cylinder and hence more coils in your finished porotta. Brush this elongated dough roll with ghee and then shape into a coil so that the layers will come apart easier.
3. The final step of separating the coils is not necessary since it does not add to the taste in anyway.
4. They taste the best served with Indian curries with gravy.

I am sending this to the Roti mela hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons.

Banana bread

I am very enthusiastic when it comes to trying out different recipes, especially if it involves baking. Most of my days are spent wrestling with a toddler at home and doing just enough cooking to get by. Occasionally, a day comes along when I cant seem to sit still and have enough energy to try out some of the tempting dishes from the Internet. One of the easiest and healthy recipes that I've tried is for banana bread. The recipe is from joyofbaking.com. The golden- brown bread with chopped nuts and moist bananas make the bread so tempting, you just have to take a bite..Mm Mmmm... Happy baking !!

Recipe (Makes one 9" by 5" loaf bread):

All-purpose flour - 1 and 3/4 cup
Large ripe bananas - approx 1 lb or 1 and 1/2 cups mashed or 3 nos
Granulated white sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2 lightly beaten
Walnuts or pecans - toasted and chopped - 1 cup (optional)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
Melted unsalted butter - 1/2 cup

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a 9" by 5" loaf pan and keep aside.

Toast the nuts by placing them on a baking sheet and baking for 8-10 minutes. Coarsely chop.

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nuts.

In a separate bowl combine mashed bananas, melted butter, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla.

Lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, until just combined and the mixture is thick and chunky.

Transfer the mixture into the loaf pan and garnish with banana slices or untoasted nuts.

Bake until the bread is golden brown and a tooth-pick inserted into the centre comes out clean (approx 55-60 minutes).

Cool on wire rack and remove from the pan.

Slice and serve! Bread-elicious!!

Tips:

1. The pictured bread was done in about 45 minutes. It is advisable to check for the done-ness before the given baking time (55-60 min).
2. Chopped nuts in the recipe is optional. The picture shows a few almond slivers on top, added before baking.
3. The batter should not be over-mixed or made smooth. Over-mixing results in tough, rubbery bread.