Semolina Marble Sandwich Bread

One can go really overboard with bread baking, isn’t it? I think I am not only passionate about bread baking, but quite obsessed with it 🙂 We had planned a trip for the long Pongal holidays (5 days) and Neha being in nineth class, such holidays are gonna be rare from now on. We had an early morning flight to catch and generally I prefer to carry some homemade sandwiches with us rather than buying it from the airport or on flight. And during the last couple of times, hubby would usually buy these marble bread

sandwiches. Since then I have been wanting to try it out. So, finally baked these pretty looking marble bread using some cocoa powder and made sandwiches using a cheesy spread, onions, bell peppers and paneer.

Generally, the day before any trip, my hands would be full with packing and arranging stuffs, emptying the veggie stock and so on and so forth. But somehow I manage to find time for baking a batch of bread. I freeze the remaining bread and this takes care of our breakfast when we are back from any trip. The best bet was to try this marble bread using semolina. Yes, I know by now, you all would be knowing about my love for semolina bread. And to make these sandwiches look exactly like store bought ones, I had to bake it in my Pullman loaf tin with the lid. Oh my God ! I love my Pullman loaf tin. It gives such a beautiful colour to the bread anf the bread beautifully comes out of the tin. No sticking on the sides or lid or whatsoever. Infact I don’t even need for 3-4 minutes after taking the bread out of the oven. That’s the beauty. It’s worth every paisa.

To get perfect square slices, you need to get the amount of flour perfect. If it’s a bit less, you end up with a round edged bread and if it’s more, the dough will ooze out of the lid while baking. Using my past experience and intuition, I decided to use around 450 grams of semolina in my 9 by 4 by 4 inches USA pans Pullman loaf tin. And viola !! my judgement turned out to be accurate. I got a perfect sharp edged bread. You can check out my post on semolina bread in the 13 by 4 by 4 inches Pullman loaf tin. Also you may like to have a look at apf sandwich bread, apf-wwf pain de mei both in the bigger Pullman loaf tin. I have mentioned the recipe in detail and every time I have got perfect flat topped breads.

So here goes the recipe. My cup is 240 ml.

Ingredients:

• Semolina/chirotti rava 450 gm
• Salt to taste
• Brown sugar 1 tbsp
• Instant yeast 1 tsp
• Cocoa powder 3/4-1 tbsp
• Milk 240 ml (1 cup)
• Water as required
• Olive oil 2 tbsp

Method:

• Mix the semolina, sugar, salt and instant yeast in a big mixing bowl.
• Add milk and mix well.
• Transfer the dough onto a clean kitchen counter and start kneading.
• Now slowly add lukewarm water and start kneading using the stretch and fold method.
• After kneading for 2-3 minutes, sprinkle little olive oil and continue to knead.
• If the dough is too sticky, either moisten your hand a bit or drizzle some more oil. Use a bench scrapper when the dough sticks on the counter.
• After kneading for 10-12 minutes, the dough would be very soft, elastic and supple.
• Divide the dough roughly into two parts. Keep one part in an oiled bowl and cover it with a moist cloth.

• Take the remaining part of the dough and add the cocoa powder to it.

• If required, moisten your hands with a teaspoon of water and knead the cocoa powder into the dough.
• Keep this brown coloured dough in an oiled bowl and cover with a wet cloth.
• Allow both the dough to double in size. In cold weather, it might take longer time to double. That is perfectly ok. Do not see the time, check when the dough doubles in size.
• Once the dough is doubled, take it out on the counter and knead it for a minute separately.
• Shape both the rolls into long logs.

• Place the logs close to each other and try to fold the two over each other or simply twist both like a rope. (I promise to take more pictures of this step next time). As promised, here are some more pictures (28/07/2019)

• Take a 9 by 4 by 4 tin and grease the tin and the lid nicely.
• Place the shaped log into the bread tin and press it evenly.

• Cover and allow the dough to almost rise till the brim of the tin.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven at around 180-200 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Bake the tin with the lid fully covered and bake for 25-30 minutes.
• Now remove the lid and bake for 15-20 minutes more.
• Remove the tin from the oven and wait for 3-4 minutes.

• Transfer the bread onto a wire rack and cool completely for 3-4 hours or preferably overnight.

• Slice it thinly with a long serated knife and make yummy toasted sandwiches of it.

• I made some cheesy onion-bellpeppers-paneer sandwich.
• Some more pictures of today’s (29/07/2019) marble bread.