Vishnu Priya Chellasamy carefully spoons sauteed paneer into oval wheat flour cases and turns them, as chefs do, into small masterpieces that are also called braided buns. There’s a meditative quality to the process, even though, the young mother of two admits, she’s running late for an order.
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For four years now, Vishnu Priya has been experimenting and inspiring others, to discover the joy of baking without the usual suspects: refined flour (maida), white sugar, baking powder and soda and vegetable shortening or margarine.
Instead what you get will contain homemade flours of whole grains and sprouted millets, unrefined sweeteners from palm and sugarcane, cold pressed oils, farm-fresh butter and ghee. And out of deference to her customers, she also avoids using eggs.
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Through her cloud kitchen Zhagaram Bakes functioning from her home in Tiruvanaikovil, Tiruchi, Vishnu Priya has created a menu that is more about staples like breads, buns and cookies than celebration cakes. She chose to name her enterprise after the letter ‘Zh’, of the Tamil alphabet, because of its uniqueness, that reflects on her own work.
“Though novelty cakes look lovely, they are not the healthiest of food choices. It is always better to pay attention to the ingredients before one cooks,” she says.
Avoiding additives
Vishnu Priya began to get interested in healthy baking after her children were born.
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“When trying to buy commercially baked goods for my son and daughter, I realised that most of them were full of chemical additives. The huge demand often leads to bakeries using large amounts of improvers and flavour enhancers to pump up production. As a mother, I was obsessed with giving my children only the healthiest of ingredients. I also found that slow fermentation was key to avoid additives,” she says.
Through trial and error, she developed her own recipes, such as baby cereal made by powdering sprouted ragi flour cookies, and ragi brownies.
In 2018, Vishnu Priya turned her attention to conducting baking classes, first offline, and then, after the pandemic lockdown, online.
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“Teaching others the basic chemistry of food preparation and then watching them become accomplished bakers, is very gratifying. While I made batches of cookies and cakes for my family and friends, I never really thought of launching it as a business until two years ago,” she says.
Spreading health
Today, while Vishnu Priya continues to conduct classes online for basic and advanced levels (admissions for seven students per course), she also keeps a steady hand at Zhagaram Bakes’ orders, which are shipped outside Tiruchi as well.
She uses her Facebook and Instagram accounts to coordinate orders besides the help of two assistants and her family. Social media also helps her share posts about healthy baking with a wide group of people.
Zhagaram Bakes is venturing into Christmas hampers this year, with healthy versions of plum cakes, cookies and brownies.
“My products are a little costlier than what is available in the shops. Despite this, many customers have encouraged me with their repeat orders. ,” she says.