Vegan Bell Pepper Swirl Bread

Remember, my hubby and Neha had surprised me with a 9 by 4 by 4 inches Pullman loaf tin a few weeks back. Along with that they had ordered this cylindrical bread tin too from Amazon. As with any bread tin with a lid, you need to judge the amount of flour accurately to get the perfect shape. My earlier experiment didn’t give me an exact cylindrical bread. So, this

time I increased the flour a wee bit and lo!! I got a perfect cylindrical bread and just look at the slices!! They are perfect circular discs. Don’t they look pretty?

Now coming to the flavour used in the bread. The swirl is made with roasted and pureed red bell pepper. Didn’t want to make an entire orangish-red bread, so thought of making this swirl bread. You can actually feel the taste of roasted bell pepper. Be creative and replace bell pepper puree with beetroot puree or spinach puree or carrot puree or tomato puree or pumpkin puree. Keep experimenting and share your experiences.

This bread toasts well and is a perfect accompaniment with a bowl of hot soup. I made some garlic-oil-butter dip and toasted these slices. They tasted very good. Add the puree and liquid according to how much your flour absorbs. You can add some garlic powder and red chili flakes too along with the bell pepper puree. This is infact a vegan bread. So, why don’t you try it? As always, I have used a 240 ml cup. You can get this bread tin from Amazon by clicking here.

Ingredients:

• Semolina 160-170 gm
• Whole wheat flour 160-170 gm
• Salt to taste
• Sugar 1 tsp
• Instant yeast 1 tsp
• Red bell pepper 1
• Lukewarm water ~120 ml
• Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds as required

Method:

• Wash and dry a red bellpepper and grill it over the flame till the skin is charred.

• Remove from fire, cool and scrape the skin. Wash it well and remove the seeds.
• Chop it roughly and puree it in a mixer.

• Mix the semolina, whole wheat flour, salt, sugar and instant yeast and mix well.
• Take some flour and keep it aside.
• Knead the flour with some lukewarm water. Drizzle olive oil while kneading.
• Make sure that the dough is soft and elastic. Place it in a well oiled bowl and cover it with a moist towel.

• Allow it to rise till it’s double in volume.

• Take the remaining dry flour mixture and add the puree as required.

• Knead and repeat the process.

• When both the doughs are double in volume, punch out the gases and knead them separately for a minute.
• Roll each of them into a rectangle. Smear some water on the white roll and place the other dough roll on top.

• Roll it tighly into a log. Pinch the seams properly.

• Grease the bread tin with butter or oil and dust it with semolina. I have used my cylindrical tin of height 8 inches and diameter 4 inches.

• Place the log into the tin and brush some water and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

• Cover it and allow it to proof till it almost touches the lid.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven at around 180-200 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Bake the bread for 40-45 minutes or till the top is golden.
• Remove the tin from the oven and wait for 2-3 minutes.

• Transfer onto a cooling rack and apply some butter or oil on top.

• Cover with a moist cloth and allow it to cool completely.
• Slice (only after 3-4 hours) and serve with a soup of your choice.
• I toasted them with garlic butter and served it with warm tomato soup.