Whole Wheat Bread with Sundried Tomatoes and Herbs

Well, I maintain my list of bookmarks very nicely… I usually make separate folders like blogger, wordpress, fb, others and save blog-links accordingly! Also, I keep 2 separate folders like ‘Cook’ & ‘Bake’ where the post-links goes… Whenever I’m in mood to try something from a fellow-blogger’s kitchen, I access these tags and look out for the recipes I can make :) And Sonal of Simply Vegetarian is one of those fellow-bloggers… Her simple comforting food impresses me everytime she posts!!! Aah… I still need to ask her the reason behind keeping her blog-name ‘SimplyVegetarian777’ :P

Actually, I barely remember such stuff but yes, she’s one of my first few friends at wordpress… I was under impression that she’s a recently married lady who loves cooking n sharing but later when I got a chance to connect with her via social media network, I came to know that she’s a mum of 2 little ones :D Gosshhhhh… It was hard to believe for me!!! But truly, she’s the one who loves making dishes to fall in comfort series always… Least ingredients, yummy food and quite easy to follow method – that’s what I always see in her posts <3

Welcoming on my space – Sonal Gupta, who’s a fellow-blogger and now a good friend too :) Let’s see what she has got for all of us today…

Hello lovely readers of Cooking with SJ,
I cook, create recipes, click, write and mumble along the way :). Cooking and creativity involved is very therapeutic to me. I am a native to northern India, raising my 2 daughters with my husband in USA. My recipes are healthy with a tag line of “cooking with 1 tbsp oil or less for the family of 4”. I love global cuisine and always try to recreate the recipes in their vegetarian avatar. It’s good to meet all of you in Shruti’s place! Have fun!
I met Shruti through wordpress, no wait through Facebook! Oh no…can’t remember! But does that matter? Her personality charmed me immediately and I got hooked to her page and recipes. Earthen simple and rustic recipes! The way she connects with her audience and mumbles along…she is totally my kind of a girl :). I wish her all the best in her endeavors and adventures of blogging! All the best mate!

A rustic Italian bread flavored with sundried tomatoes, rosemary and thyme!!! The sundried tomatoes give it a nice tang in the bite and basil, rosemary and thyme together lend it a rustic aroma! An easy recipe which any bread novice can follow too.

COOKING TIME: 2 hrs 50 mins

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup All purpose flour
2.5 cups Whole wheat flour + 1/2 cup for kneading
1 tsp heap-full Instant yeast (7 gms)
1 tbsp Sugar
1.5 tsp Salt
1.5 tbsp Sundried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp Basil, dried
1/2 tsp Rosemary, dried
1/2 tsp Thyme, dried
1 tsp Garlic powder
1 tbsp Oil + 3 tbsp (Vegetable or Olive Oil)
1 cup Warm milk
1&1/3 cup Warm water
1/4 cup Buttermilk or yogurt, to brush the loaves

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. Take a big and wide mouth bowl. Add flours, salt, sugar, instant yeast,sundried tomatoes, basil, garlic powder, rosemary and thyme. Mix all the dry ingredients with a fork.
2. Add 1 tbsp oil and warm water. Add the water. Bring everything together. It will be a very sticky batter like dough.
3. Clean the kitchen counter. Sprinkle some flour on the clean counter. Transfer the dough to the floured counter.
4. Keep 3 tbsp oil from the ingredients nearby along with 1/2 cup of flour.
5. Start kneading this dough. Oil your hands. Sprinkle some flour all over the dough. Knead it in this motion : press from the center, stretching the dough outwards. Then bringing the dough back to the center from all the sides. Knead like this for good 10 minutes. This will incorporate the air and elastic in the dough to rise. Use oil and dry flour as required to tame the dough. By the end of it, it will be a nice elastic dough.
6. Now transfer the dough in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap or wet muslin cloth. Place in a warm place and let rise for 1hr to 1&1/2hr, till the dough doubles in size. I often place my dough in oven and put the light of the oven on.
7. Once the dough doubles, take it out. Punch it down gently. Do not knead again. Just flatten it with a light hand. Now shape the to your desire. You can make small loaves, bread sticks, buns or bread with it. I made some wide bread sticks as shown in the pics.
8. Take a baking sheet. Sprinkle it lightly with dry four. Place the shaped dough on the sheet to rise for second time. Brush it with buttermilk or yogurt. Cover and let it rise for another 45 minutes to 1 hour till it looks fluffy and ready.
9. Preheat the oven at 400*F/200*C. Bake them for 18-20 minutes till they turn slightly golden. Don’t over bake them or they will turn dry.
10. Take them out and enjoy the warm and flavorful bread with some olive oil salt and pepper or plain butter.

Sonal’s Note:

• You should store them in brown bags or foils while still warm to maintain the moisture.
• You may use a good Italian herbs seasoning in case you don’t find any of the herbs individually.
• Good salting is necessary for bread baking.
• You may use any kind of seasoning if you like something else.