Sheermal - a Mughalai bread

Bread baking is addictive, meditative, relaxing.. I could go on and on, but will stop now. Some of you had been asking me about the bread posts that have been far and few this year. Yes, this blog has been on the back burner for a while now. Thankfully, my oven wasn't. Its just that I never found the time to take pictures of the final product before my family descended and polished it off. November is coming to an end and thankfully the non-posting inertia is also fading away.. This month's to-do bread (in the bread baking group I belong to, We Knead to Bake) was a rare delicacy called Sheermal. According to what I read up - Sheer means milk in Persian. This bread is kneaded using the moisture only from Eggs, milk and ghee. Ghee gives this bread a wonderful taste, so don't skimp on it, go for an extra walk instead. This is one of the easier breads to bake, so even if you are new to bread baking, I don't think you could go wrong with this bread.
Find the original recipe here

I used only Kewra water to flavour this bread, although many use rose water, elaichi (cardamom)and even orange blossom water. Who is to stop a baker on roll ;) The toppings can also vary, I've seen folks top it with a generous portion of almond shavings, other nuts... My family loved the mild fragrance of Kewra in the bread....
I didn’t make any changes to the original recipe except to increase the sugar and decrease the salt. And the plan was to have it for evening tea - this bread is a traditional accompaniment to Korma and Nihari. If you'd rather have it in a restaurant, you might have to search hard and probably might find it in a humble eatery somewhere in your city, I haven’t seen in any of the mid range or higher end restaurants menus yet.

Ingredients

1 tsp active dried yeast
3 tsp sugar (Aparna’s recipe uses only 2 tsps)
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (I had to use a little more)
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup ghee (I used home made ghee)
1/2 cup milk (or more, as required for kneading)
1 tsp kewra water (screw pine essence)
¼ tsp saffron strands soaked in 2 tbsp warm milk
Ghee, for brushing


Method
Activate the yeast by mixing in warm water with sugar in the bowl of your mixer. It starts frothing in 5-10 minutes, in the meantime get ready with the other ingredients.
Sift flour and salt in a bowl and set aside. Lightly whisk the egg and keep aside.
Add the flour and the beaten egg to the mixer bowl of your stand mixer and ensure that the dry and wet ingredients are mixed. Then add the ghee and ensure that it gets evenly distributed. I did this process by hand.
Attach the dough hook and start adding the warm milk, follow it up with the kewra water.
You will notice that the dough starts to pull away from the sides and gets a smooth texture. This takes about 8 minutes. Knead by hand to get the final consistency. I found that I needed a bit more flour (2 tbsp) more than the recipe mentioned. You will get a smooth, silky dough (due to the milk and fat) that is quite sticky. Shape into a ball and proof it in a greased bowl. Cover it with a damp cloth and proof it till doubles (it took the dough about 1 hour or so).
Knead the dough again (dust the worktable with a little bit of flour if required). Shape into a ball, lightly coat all over with a little ghee, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for about 15 to 20 minutes. You can preheat your oven now.
Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and using your fingers/rolling pin, press out each portion into a round of approximately 4” diameter (about 1/8” thick). Place the rounds on a parchment lined or lightly greased baking tray and using a fork, dock (prick holes) the whole surface of the dough rounds. Brush the surface of the bread liberally with saffron milk
Note: I tried lining the pan with parchment paper for one lot and greased butter paper for another. The bread got stuck in the butter paper lined tray.

Bake for 15 minutes @180C. The bread has to be lightly browned, The more it bakes the crisper it gets and we don’t want that. A well-made Sheermal is soft not crisp.
Also remember to brush the baked Sheermal with ghee as soon as its out of the oven.

We had this aromatic bread with a cup of tea. You can try it with a spicy gravy. If so, then reduce the sugar and increase the salt by a notch.
Let me know if this bread was a hit with your family