Vegie stuffed plaits

Having baked the coconut fruit plait, I was wanting to try the savoury version. Then when Niki was home she suggested we try that. We decided to go with the recipe of the fruit plait, but make it with a vegetable stuffing. I had seen a similar braided bread in Vcuisine.

So between Niki and myself, we baked these savoury braids. We tweaked the earlier recipe with a mix of the flours.

Ingredients:

Flour (We mixed all purpose flour, wheat flour and powdered quick cooking oats) 500 grams

Dry active yeast 1/2 tablespoon

Salt 1 teaspoon

Butter 60 grams

Water 250 ml to mix the dough

Milk 1 tablespoon

Sugar 1 teaspoon

Oil few teaspoons

For the stuffing:

Boiled vegetables of choice, beansprouts and paneer 1/2 cup

Garam masala 2 teaspoons

Salt to taste

Chopped onions 2 teaspoons

Oil 2 teaspoons

Prepare the stuffing by cooking the vegetables and mixing them with the rest of the ingredients for stuffing.

Add sugar and lukewarm milk mixed with warm water to the yeast. Cover and allow the yeast to rise.

Mix the flours and salt in a bowl. Add the risen yeast to the dough and the butter. Knead to a soft and smooth dough. Knead well for about 12 minutes.

Place the dough in a slightly greased utensil and cover. Allow the dough to develop. In about an hour and a half, the dough would have doubled.

Punch the dough down thoroughly on a surface sprinkling some flour. This kneading is important as this allows the gluten to develop.

Divide the dough into 9 parts. Flatten each in an ablong shape. place the filling along the length of this ablong. Gather the ends to cover and seal the filling.

Repeat with two other parts of the divided dough.

Using three of the thus filled and sealed rope -like dough, braid in a plait. Seal the ends of the plait.

Repeat with the remaining six parts to form two more plaits.

Place the prepared vegetable plaits on the baking tray, well apart.

Allow another half an hour for this to develop.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 210 degrees centigrade.

Brush some butter on the top of the plaits.

Bake them for 20 minutes or about 2 minutes more until they have a brown crust on top.

Allow to cool and turn them on to a wire rack, until cooled well.

Serve with some butter or can be had with any thin soup.