Merry Tummy: Red Wine Walnut Bread, No Knead Bread

How was the weekend ladies? What did you do? We had friends at our place and so it was lot of fun. Lot of chit chats, games, football match and yes food. How do you decide what to serve your guest? For me it always depends on the weather. When it is raining I would probably go for some mixed daal pakoras (mixed lentils fried balls) or spicy pav bhaji (spicy vegetable mashed curry served with bread). This weekend sun was crisp and shining without a little haze of rain, so the menu had to be simple, cold and not fried. After lot of discussion with Mr. Husband I decided to serve orange lemonade in drinks, spinach muthiya with green chutney as mains and chocolate brownies with ice creams in desserts. For starters I decided to bake bread.

Who will not like the recipes that is not elaborate, doesn't have tons of steps to follow? Well I am that kind of a person who tries to stay far from complicated recipes. Bread is one such product that needs lot of preparation, too many ingredients and an expensive kitchen aid. So no knead bread is what I am always looking to bake at home. I looked for recipes depending on the ingredients available in the kitchen and then I discovered one amazing RED WINE WALNUT BREAD recipe. My world stopped-my heart, tummy and soul just wanted to make it. I did make lot of changes to the original recipes and it turned out to be absolutely fine, if you want original recipe, click here.

Now, imagine- soft bread with hard crust, crunchy walnut bits and hint of red wine-sounds exciting right?? Oh yes red wine walnut bread is beautifully pink inside and brown outside and those of you who don’t like red wine don’t worry the final taste is so mild and subtle that you won’t even notice. We were left with crumbs, the bread finished in one go. I served it with fennel roasted cherry tomatoes like bruschetta and everyone loved it. You go ahead serve with roasted tomatoes chutney, chocolate spread or as a side with tomato garlic soup. Who said making bread is technical and complex-try this may be you change your mind (like me)

Ingredients:

200g all purpose flour and little to dust
100g strong whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 sachet active yeast
1 glass red wine (125ml), plus water to make total 200ml
50g whole walnuts, plus 100g coarsely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Lightly mix the flours, salt and yeast in a bowl.

In a blender, blend wine, water and the whole walnuts and the oil until smooth, then pour into the flour. Add the chopped walnuts and stir briskly to make a soft, sticky dough. Cover and leave for 10 minutes.

Rub a spoonful of oil on the work surface and a bit on your hands. Remove the dough and knead on the oiled surface for 10-15 seconds. Return to the bowl, cover again, and leave for another 10 minutes. Finally, repeat the light knead, put the dough back in the bowl and leave for 45 minutes, or until almost doubled in height.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll the dough to desired shape. I made into triangle with some walnut bits in the centre.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Lightly dust the top of the loaf with flour and. And Bake for 40 minutes until the bread pulls away from the baking tray. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a rack.

Notes:

Make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature.

You can use any red wine. I used Codici Negroamaro Puglia, italian red wine from waitrose

Use pecan, pine nuts or almonds instead of walnuts if you wish.