Ragi wholwheat bread

So this Sunday I tried my hands on ragi cake for a potluck with friends with my fingers crossed and it came  out very good . Everyone liked it and didn't believe it was made from ragi! Which was a big achievement considering cakes are thought to be very unhealthy and ragi not so delicious. So this encouraged me to try other conventional recipes replacing the white flour with ragi, in moderation to start with. I bought sprouted ragi flour long back and used it to make cookies . Rest of it was lying in my kitchen cabinet waiting for its turn to be transformed into something appeasing to my pallet! Well I ended up using all of it with this second recipe and look forward to get more to experiment.

But be aware this bread is not very light like the one using wheat flour but it tastes good and can be used simply by toasting and putting some olive oil or butter. Its full of nutrients from ragi and wholewheat and you won't have to think twice before eating. What more one wants! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon active dry yeast 

1 cup ragi flour 

3/4 cup wholwheat flour 

4 tablespoon white flour 

2 tablespoon oil

1 tablespoon jaggery

1 tablespoon salt

1 cup water 

1 tablespoon oats , flaxseed, melon and sunflower seeds to coat

Recipe:

The very first step in any recipe calling for dry yeast is to proof it. This is done to make sure that yeast will work in the recipe. To proof the yeast add it to warm water with jaggery and keep aside at a warm place for 5-10 minutes. Water needs to be lukewarm and not too hot to kill yeast action. Once it is bubbled up it is ready to be added to the recipe.

Mix together all flours and salt in a bowl . Add oil and yeast mixture. Put it together using a fork adding yeast mixture in smash amounts.

Now using hands knead the dough . Dont be too harsh on dough and do this with medium pressure until it comes together as a smooth texture.Brush a bowl with oil and place dough in it. Rolling it over to its covered woth oil all over and doesn't dry up.

Now this has to be kept at a warm place for an hour or until it doubles up. I always preheat the oven to 250c and keep it there. After 30-45 minutes it would rise up. Take it on dusted work surface and knead again removing the air and rise. Shape into a loaf and roll on the oats and seeds. Brush the loaf pan with oil and keep the dough in it. Let it sit in warm place again for 30-45 minutes so that it rises again as in picture below. Once done,  bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about an hour.