Millet Bread Recipe

Health is Wealth

This Millet Bread recipe is a part of my Bread Baking series.  Leading a healthy lifestyle is a passion for me. In the last week, I realised the true meaning of the term “Health is Wealth”. This is because for the past seven days, my mother was in the hospital. We admitted her in the emergency ward last Tuesday. This is the first time my otherwise healthy mother got seriously ill. We prayed and prayed and God listened to us. Thankfully,it was neither the dreaded coronavirus nor dengue. I am very grateful to God that she is much better now. The doctor is going to discharge her tomorrow. We will truly celebrate Vijaya Dashami by welcoming Maa back home. After this sudden shock, my zeal for health has increased many folds. I made a promise to myself that I will make several lifestyle modifications to achieve this goal.

Millet Bread

Now, as you might know from my Bread Bug post, we as a family have gotten into baking bread. After getting my hold on the wheat bread, I thought of moving onto the much healthier Millet Bread. Millet is a cereal grain that is gluten-free and is packed full of nutrients. But gluten is one of the foundation pillars of a good loaf of bread. So to get around that problem I have used organic whole-wheat flour and multi millet flour in 3:1 ratio and 50% hydration. I hope someday I will get it down to 1:1 ratio.  

One basic difference in this dough is that I had to knead it for a much longer time than a normal bread dough. Also, the use of buttermilk and olive oil in this recipe has upped the health quotient of this bread recipe. You can replace buttermilk with curd if you wish to.

Ingredients:

 3 cups organic whole-wheat flour

1 cup Multi Millet flour( Jowar, Bajra, Ragi, Foxtail, Little millet and Tapioca flours)        

2 tsp Instant Yeast/Active Dry yeast

50ml lukewarmwater+100 ml lukewarm water

150 ml buttermilk( I used Amul)

½  tsp raw organic sugar

Salt 1 tsp

Olive oil 75 ml

Oat flakes for topping (optional)

Milk and melted butter mixture for brushing the top

1 cup= 150 gms

Method:

• The first step is to accumulate all the ingredients and all the pots and pans

Mixing the Ingredients

• Take 50 ml of lukewarm water in a small bowl.  For proofing the yeast you need warm water and the perfect temperature is such that it is hot is enough for you to just dip in a finger. Add in the yeast in the warm water together with ½  tsp sugar(this is food for the yeast), mix and leave it for a few minutes. The mixture will become light and frothy when it is ready to be used. While the yeast is proofing measure out all the ingredients and keep them ready.

• Next in a big bowl mix the wholewheat flour, the millet flour and the salt.

Kneading the Dough

• Once the yeast is proofed mix it into the flour and mix with clean hands. Add in the remaining water bit by bit and knead the dough.
• Next add the buttermilk and continue to knead.
• This dough does not get sticky immediately like other yeast doughs. That takes some time in this dough and happens after a while.
• For the gluten to develop properly you have to knead for a minimum of 20 to 25 minutes.
• In the meanwhile, incorporate in the olive oil bit by bit.

The Proofing and the Baking

• At the end of 25 minutes, you will have smooth multi millet bread dough. Roll it into a dough ball and put it into a greased bowl, cover it with cling film and let it rise for 90 minutes in a warm place in the kitchen.

• After 90 minutes, the dough will rise to double itself.
• Remove the cling film, mildly punch out the air from the dough. Reshape it into a loaf shape and place it gently in the pre-greased tin in which you will bake the bread. To make the bread pretty I have sprinkled some oat flakes on the top surface of the bread.
• Cover the dough and let it and let it rise again for 30 to 45 minutes.

• After the second rise, pre-heat your oven to 180-degree Celcius. Brush the top surface of the bread gently with the melted butter and milk mixture. Bake in the oven for a total of 35 minutes at 180 and 3 minutes at 200 degree Celsius. Your bread is done when the base of the loaf sound hollow when tapped.
• In the half time mark i.e after 15 to 20 minutes, stop the oven and brush the top surface with the milk and butter mixture and continue baking.
• If the millet bread feels a bit hard on taking out from the oven please follow the steps explained here for a super soft loaf.

Enjoy your Millet Bread with spreads of your choice, hummus, jam or make it into a sandwich. It will taste delicious I guarantee you.

P.S

My sister baked this bread and sent it to me as “Guru Dakshina” (her words not mine!) with a sweet note made by my darling niece. This is one of the sweetest gesture that lifted my mood in the moments of extraordinary hardness.

This post is a part of my series of bread baking recipes as I’m taking my blog to the next level with Blogchatter’s #MyFriendAlexa. Also due to Maa’s hospitalisation, I thought of giving up on the MyFriendAlexa challenge. But I don’t know I suddenly got a surge of strength from within that prevented me from giving up. Maybe it was Maa Durga who helped me be strong.  So, here, despite the extreme emotional turmoil of the last one week, this is my seventh post for the challenge.