680. Avocado and Nut Bread

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   Traveling back home is always heart breaking for me. Our trips abroad are usually to visit family. Its always a joyous time when we travel to them but heart breaking when we have to get back. This year we spent nearly 2 months in Montreal and I so didn't want to come back. I miss my son(shhh hope the other 2 kids are not actually reading the post!). I miss him more so because he's still single and not really ready to mingle so forget about having a soul mate, best mate etc etc. We don't have any relatives or family friends in Montreal. The couple we had have moved to other cities. He has his friends, but not really close ones. He keeps on insisting that he is an adult and absolutely fine but hubby and I worry like typical Indian parents. While he insists he is fine, we insist that we have every right to worry!

   Leaving him and his cat Pumkin (yes, I'm finally friendly with her), the beautiful city of numerous parks, where pedestrians are respected and not treated like cockroaches, where one feels the urge to walk, run or cycle as others are doing it, was depressing. 

   Near my son's home, which is not even a 5 minute walk is the huge Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park. Its about 27acres, dotted with numerous maple trees. This park is full of life with people, cycling on the cycling paths, swimming in the pool, sitting on benches, people enjoying picnics, football, dog park, children play area, table tennis, sleeping on the grass, reading a good book or just watching the world go by. Named after the 7th Prime Minister of Canada, this park has something for everyone. Hubby and I have spent many days walking round the park, enjoying a lunch picnic or just sitting and chatting. 

   I'm back to a mega supermarket that resembles as though its just been through a war! Empty shelves and more empty shelves. This is all because someone somewhere got just too greedy, expanding and expanding beyond their means. The other supermarket I went to, I came out all depressed...no order whatsoever, goods on shelves just thrown, the staff were busy on their mobiles, a huge refrigerator operating with nothing in them, no systematic aisles, goods dumped on the floor where one needs to access essential goods, floor tiles coming off, and yes still didn't find any butter. Should I have travelled back home with some???  One just gets the feeling that this country is properly one of the few where consumers are treated so badly. I miss shopping in the Freshco in Bangalore and Metro in Montreal :( When I got back from the supermarket, I was so angry and depressed that for a while hubby couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. 

   Well enough of my home coming, lets get down to the task at hand. For the month of August, the Shhh Cooking Secretly group   started by Priya Suresh of Priya's Versatile Recipes decided on Baked Recipes, where the dish actually had to be baked and not one that is cooked on the stovetop and then baked.  My partner for this theme was Anu Kollon who blogs at Ente Thattukada. Her blog is full of South Indian recipes, so do check it out. Anu gave me avocado and nuts as my secret ingredients and I had given her carrots and coconut. 

   I readily accepted the avocado, I love avocado but have not baked with it. Baked avocado does not sound appealing at all and my family didn't want anything sweet so avocado brownies were out. Then I began my hunt for the avocado bread. I came across quick breads but none with yeast. I thought that if I can bake a bread with pumpkin and sweet potato puree, then why not avocado? The first thing that comes to mind when one mentions avocado is guacamole, so my avocado bread is based on that flavor. The added nuts and seeds made the savory bread just perfect. The bread came out soft because of the avocado. Avocado on its own is pretty tasteless but the flavors of the chillis and lime popped up. Perhaps next time I would add more coriander. The photos really don't do justice to the beautiful minty green color of the loaf.

Thank you Anu for challenging me to think out of the box for this theme.

Laurier Park

AVOCADO AND NUT BREAD

3½ cups all purpose flour (plain flour)

2¼ tsp instant active dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 cup chopped avocado

½ cup chopped fresh coriander (cilantro)

1-2 green chilli or jalapeño

1 tbsp lime juice

1½ tsp salt

1 tsp coarse pepper powder

1 tbsp olive oil

½ cup hot milk

¼ cup chopped walnuts

¼ cup chopped almonds

¼ cup pumpkin seeds

¼ cup sunflower seeds

extra flour for dusting

extra oil for greasing

1. Put avocado, coriander and chopped chilli in a food processor. Process to get a smooth paste. 
2. Add lime juice, oil and milk to the paste and mix well.
3. Add flour, salt, sugar, yeast and pepper into a big bowl.
4. Mix well. 
5. Add the avocado mixture and form a dough.
6. Dust the worktop with some flour.
7. Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes till its smooth and silky. If it’s too sticky, add little flour. Its best to work with a dough that is a bit sticky but manageable.
8. Shape the dough into a ball.
9. Grease the bowl with oil.
10. Rub oil over the dough and place it in the bowl.
11. Cover the bowl with cling film or a tea towel or a lid.
12. Let the dough rise till its double in size in a warm place. Mine took about 1½ hours.
13. Gently remove the risen dough onto a lightly flour dusted worktop.
14. Bring the dough together and roll it out into a thick rectangle. One side should be the same length as the loaf tin.
15. Sprinkle the nuts and some of the seeds over the dough.
16. Lightly press it into the dough using a rolling pin.
17. Grease the loaf tin 9" X 5". 
18. Roll the dough like a Swiss roll. Pinch the seams. Tuck in the ends.
19. Place the dough in the tin.
20. Let it rise for 45-50 minutes or till the dough is 1' above the rim of the tin.
21. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
22. Brush the top of the risen dough with some milk.
23. Sprinkle the remaining seeds.
24. Bake the loaf for 30-35 minutes or till its golden brown in colour.
25. Remove the bread from the tin.
26. Let it cool down completely before you slice it.
27. Serve the bread with some soup or enjoy it on its own with some butter or as a sandwich.

Tips:

• I used hot milk because once you add it to the avocado paste it makes the whole mixture a bit warm.
• You can use the same recipe to make buns.
• Add nuts of your choice. 
• Since this is a savory bread you can add extra chili or jalapeño if you like. Can used chopped chillis.
• Check out this video to learn how to shape a sandwich loaf.

You may want to check out my other bread recipes:

Pogaca

Chilli and Cheddar Potato Rolls

Leopard Spots Bread

Challah bread



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