Before Christmas, I replaced my breadmachine with a stand mixer. Since I never used my breadmachine to actually bake the bread in, it made more sense to me to have a kitchen appliance that did more than just knead bread. Well, I have had SO MUCH trouble trying to get my recipe to work out. I remember that it took me quite awhile to get that recipe right, and now I am back at square one. It won't rise, if it does it sinks, too much flour, too much water... dead yeast?? I don't know. Anyways, a friend gave me a recipe that works for her, so I thought I would try it out. I was so excited... the yeast bubbled... it rose in the bowl.... I divided it into two regular loaf pans, two small round communion loaves, and a half dozen mini buns with the rest... they rose in the oven for an hour... I pulled them out to preheat the oven, they didn't collapse... I told Jeff my life was amazing... they baked, looked delicious, and then disaster struck:
That's right, I tried to shake it out of the pan and it broke in half! What does this mean? For the record, the other one came out in one piece, but Jacob saw me picking and eating at the broken one so when I wasn't watching he picked chunks off the good loaf to eat.... But WAIT! The disaster isn't over yet. But I have to backtrack again. While the bread was baking I was making soft fajita shells. I did burn one really well, I was busy being excited about my bread rising, so my house was full of smoke already. Anyways, I had put the buns on a wooden cutting board to cool. I looked over and wondered "Why are my buns smoking?" and went back to dealing with my stupid bread. I looked over again and wondered "That is so weird, why are my buns still smoking?" Back to the stupid bread... "Why does it smell like campfire in here???" That's when I realized I had put the wooden cutting board right on top of the just vacated burner. I seriously looked at those smoking buns 3 times before I realized it was the cutting board smoking and not the buns. I was right on time too, because the charred cutting board was just starting to spark.
In conclusion, I don't know if this was an epic failure or not, because we got one good loaf of bread out of it, but it came pretty close.
Indian Chapati Bread (Tortillas)
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I triple this recipe and actually prefer it with all white flour, but I use the brown anyways.
Serving Size: 8
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup hot water or as needed
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, stir together the whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour and salt. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the olive oil and enough water to make a soft dough that is elastic but not sticky. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth. Divide into 8 parts, or less if you want bigger breads. Roll each piece into a ball. Let rest for a few minutes.
2. Heat a skillet over medium heat until hot. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin to roll out the balls of dough until very thin like a tortilla. When the pan starts smoking, put a chapati on it. Cook until the underside has brown spots, and top starts to puff up, less than 30 seconds, then flip and cook on the other side. Continue with remaining dough.
