Monday, May 4, 2009

Not really a "Foot Long"

Bakeries are very popular here in Bangalore, and have been around ever since I remember, but till about 15-20 years back, they weren't so many hip ones that served up croissants, fancy breads, pastries and exotic looking sandwiches.

They were more the 'Iyengar' bakery types that had fresh bread, puffs, cakes with pink and green icing (!!), buns with various fillings and the open bread sandwich which has a slice of bread, with a topping of carrot, onion, chillies and coriander -a pretty popular snack and cream rolls, which was my all time favoutire.
There is also this disc shaped pastry filled with coconut and cherries and called 'dilkhush', which translates to 'happy heart' !! Ma bought it last week for old times sake and my dil was really khush
For the ones who are not familiar with 'Iyengar bakeries', Iyengar is a Brahmin (vegetarian) community in South India and I am not sure how many bakeries were owned by Iyengars, but people felt they were in safe vegetarian hands if they bought from an Iyengar bakery and so the term is still very popular.



The nicest bakery at that time was 'Nilgiris' and 'Sweet Chariot'.
Then came the spanking new and hip 'Hot Breads' - I must have been in school that time and it was a very very popular place to hang out, order cakes, buy some nice fancy bread, croissants, cheese cakes...
They had this really nice bread called 'footlong'. Like you must have guessed, it is a roll which is a foot long. The bread was generally spiced with some herbs/garlic or chillies.



When I made the broccoli and pasta bake the other day, I made a footlong(thats more the name, it really wasnt a foot long) with onions, garlic, herbs and roasted tomatoes. Made thick slices and toasted it with some garlic salt and butter...



What you need -

1 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup lukewarm water
1.5 cups maida / flour
1.5 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil

Filling and Topping

1 tbsp oregano
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp crushed pepper
1 firm tomato sliced
1 tbsp olive oil

What you do with it -

In a bowl, stir together yeast, sugar and the lukewarm water and proof yeast for 10-15 minutes, or until foamy.
(I had made my last bread in a really hot weather and here, its nice and pleasant and yeast just wouldn't foam up, so I pre heated the oven to 180 deg C and turned it off and kept the bowl of yeast in it)
Stir in flour and wheat flour, 1 tbsp olive oil and the salt, adding as much of the flour as necessary to form a soft and slightly sticky dough
Transfer to a lightly-oiled bowl, cover with cling film or a muslin cloth and let it rise in a warm place(popped it in the over again) for 1 hour until double in size
Meanwhile, chop the onions and garlic lengthwise
In a small pan, heat a tbsp olive oil and fry the onions and garlic
Add the oregano, crushed pepper and salt
To make up for sun dried tomatoes, I cut slices of the tomato, add some oregano, sprinked a pinch of salt and some olive oil
Grilled it for 10 mins in the oven at 200 deg C
Once the dough has risen well, knead it down and press with lightly-oiled hands
Fold in the roasted onion mix, leaving a little for the topping
Make into a long roll and place it on a greased pan
Keep this for about 30 mins till it rises again
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Set rack in center of oven.
Smear a bit of olive oil on top of the dough and sprinkle this fried onion mix on it
Place the tomato slices on the roll and bake for 30 mins

14 comments:

Deepthi Shankar said...

Do you remember Dilpasand, iam not sure if its the same as dil khush .. dunno where they have disappeared now ... I guess swanky bakeries have taken over

Archana said...

i think its the same...the smaller bakeries still have it - just had one a few days back...yum crunchy cherries and coconut :)

SJ said...

I want dilkush!!!!!!!!!!!! Sweet coconut and all that kishmish in a soft bun YUM!!! The 'foot long' looks very interesting.

FH said...

Mera dil bhi khush hua, looking at that bread this morning! :D

I used buy a big loaf of Russian bread from Nilgiris once a week and eat that for at least 3 days non-stop. Yes, I was skinny then, so I could afford to eat all the bread I wanted. Not anymore!Hahaha!

That looks wonderful haven't eaten this at Iyengar's, must be new. Yeah, "5 dollar...5 dollar foot looooong" is playing in my head!:D

Usha said...

That bread looks really fantastic, wish I could taste some of that right now :-)

Thanks for trying my molaga pudi and cumin cookies, I am so glad that you liked it........

Vanamala Hebbar said...

ya nilgiri backery was good...nice recipe

Pria@HC said...

Foot long looks good and will make a yummy sandwich for lunch

Indus said...

Oh the Foot Long looks absolutely delicious! :)

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

Love your naration on Iyengar bakeries... Never heard of it - but I understand the feeling...
Love this bread!

Cham said...

What an interesting bake!

Miri said...

Croissants etc by the Narangs was the place in Mumbai for the choiciest baked stuff and also to hang out....I discovered Hot Breads when i moved to Chennai.
And what is it with the Iyengar bakery down south - how on earth would a vegetarians bake with eggs ;)

The footlong looks very interesting - was it dry?

Miri

Kana said...

I have always wondered what Iyengar meant. When I was in India a few years back I could not stay away from all the mithai shops...This time around will have to try some bakeries :)

Archana said...

@SJ I think you should try out dilkhush - u get pastry sheets in your part of the world, use that, I'm sure it will work

@Asha This footlong is what we got at Hot Breads, Iyengar bakeries havent started this, not yet :)

Thanks you Le, Usha, Indus, Oriyagirl, Cham, Vanamala

@Miri, it wasnt dry - the tomatoes perhaps look that way...the olive oil and onions made it nice and soft actually

@Maya There are a huge number of really neat bakeries now, u should visit them...will give u a list when u plan to come down

amna said...

looks so good! baking bread is a huge task for me!

dilkush in my town was a round thing and YUMMMY!!

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