I’ve never made the bread equivalent of a braid of hair before.

Though I make challah and other lovely enriched breads regularly, I’ve never made zopf before. Zopf is a traditional Swiss Sunday bread that appears to have an interesting story behind it, as with all great breads. The story goes that widows used to cut off a braid of their hair to be buried with their husbands, but this gradually evolved into burying a loaf that is braided like their hair would be.

I’m delighted to share with you a recipe from Salome’s mother. Salome is a young, very talented Swiss baker whose breads look mouthwateringly delicious! She was also kind to post her recipes on The Fresh Loaf for all of us to try and has recently started her own blog at OvenTV. I’m looking forward to reading more about her baking adventures in her future posts.

This version of zopf is not sweetened so Salome explains that it will pair well with butter/jam, butter/honey, butter/cheese, and more cheese, and again more cheese or even dried meat. I had it plain too and it was every bit as good as with blackberry jam. And honey. And butter. And cheese.

Salome’s Mom’s Zopf

From the original TFL post, here.

Makes two large loaves.

Ingredients

- 900 g all-purpose flour or bread flour
- 100 g whole wheat flour
- 50g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 150g Quark* (I used homemade whole milk yogurt)
- 1 large egg
- 20g salt
- 40g fresh yeast (I used 20g active dry yeast)
- 1 tbsp glucose (I used honey)
- 500mL milk (I used whole milk)
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten + 1 tbsp little water for the egg wash

*Quark is a fresh cheese common in Europe, and much less so in the States or Canada. Salome suggests if you can’t find Quark, you could substitute with whole milk ricotta or whole milk yogurt, which is what I used.

Directions

1. Mix the yeast with a little bit of the milk and the sugar. When dissolved, add the rest of the milk.
2. Add the flour, the egg, the Quark and the butter pieces into a mixing bowl.
3. Add the milk mixture and knead the dough in a machine or by hand to a smooth dough. Add some flour or additional milk during the mixing, if required.
4. Let the dough double in size in a nice, warm, draft-free spot. This took around 90min. for me. I put mine in a bowl, covered, and also gave it a fold halfway through (at the 45min. mark).
5. Divide the dough into two pieces, and braid the Zopf. I gave the traditional two-stranded braid a whirl: you can look it up in Hamelman’s Bread on p.297 or watch this video with funky music to boot. I think my strands could probably have been rolled out a little more though because my loaves ended up very “stumpy”!
6. Let the dough rise under a piece of cloth. When the dough seems to be ready (little less than double in volume – this took me around 45min.), brush it with the egg wash.
7. Bake in 400°F until the zopf seems to be ready, around 40min. (Since my oven is small and the loaves nearly filled up my entire pan by the end of the final proof, I was concerned that 400F might scorch the ends of my zopf before the inside was fully baked. I ended up baking them at 350F for 40-45min. instead, until the bread was a nice, golden brown and sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom.)

Delicious!

* * *

This is my submission for BBD#23 – “something you’ve never made before”

I’m sending this zopf to Nick of imafoodblog for hosting BBD23, the BBD founder Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte, Salome at OvenTV for graciously sharing her mother’s wonderful recipe, and Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting.

Update: the roundup has been posted.

Baked red bean buns

and this is how I like my red beans

Molecular biologists love genes, and how different gene products interact with each together to generate many of the complex biological processes that keep our body in one piece (or in the case of disease, how all of this falls apart). Why does someone behave in a particular way? It’s because of his or her genetic makeup, some say. Others say there is an equal influence from the environment, or what the individual is exposed to.

I’d like to argue that this is particularly true with first impressions. As a young child in Hong Kong, there were certain smells and sights and sounds that flooded my senses: the freshly steamed rice noodles drizzled with soy sauce, peanut sauce, hoisin sauce and lightly toasted sesame seeds wrapped in paper from the street vendors, the dazzling array of colours from the fruit and vegetable stalls, the constant buzzing and honking from people riding bicycles, buses or taxis, and of course, the aroma of just-baked buns and loaves, wafting from the bakeries.

I’m going to paint in broad strokes and say that Hong Kong bakery-style buns are, in general, very different from those that you can find in European bakeries. True, both place an emphasis on texture and flavour and shaping, but with Hong Kong style buns you’re looking for more pillowy-soft crust and crumb, often flavoured with additional ingredients like coconut or sweet pastes or cubed ham and shaped into individual serving buns.

While I have been on a preferment/sourdough, blistering crust, multigrain kick lately (more on this in future posts), Shiao-Ping’s recent TFL post on Chinese Po-Lo Buns (Pineapple Buns, or 菠蘿飽) evoked memories of these buns that I love so dearly. Some impressions just die hard.

These baked red bean buns (焗豆沙飽) are for those who love Hong Kong bakery-style breads, and for those who sometimes complain that my loaves of bread are “too crackly and crusty.” (“How come they don’t taste softer, like cake?”)

Baked Red Bean Buns

- basic sweet dough, like this one, this one or this one
- lightly sweetened red bean paste
- egg wash: 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- sesame seeds, optional

I used the canned, ready-to-use paste but you could definitely make your own:

I divided my dough into eight portions of ~45g each, and shaped them as follows thanks to a great photo tutorial posted by hidehide here:

Add ~1 tbsp of filling:

and shape away!

Now flip the little bun over to the other and smoother side. Your seam should be on the bottom. Using a bottle cap (I used the lid of my container of vegetable oil…), lightly score the top:

That way, you’ll know how far into the bun your six cuts will have to go:

Yes, this is a 29-cent plastic pan scraper that I'm using instead of an actual dough scraper.

and do the same for the rest of the buns:

Proof for ~30-40 minutes, brush with egg wash, top with sesame seeds and then bake in a preheated 350F oven for 17-20 min until golden brown.

Here’s a closeup:

* * *

This is my submission for Bread Baking Day #22 – Sweet Breads.

I’m sending these to Stefanie at Hefe und mehr for hosting BBD#22, Zorra our lovely BBD founder of 1x umrühren bitte, hidehide for the great shaping instructions, and Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting.

Update: the round-up has been posted!

Note: Red beans, by the way, are also known by their Japanese name, azuki beans.

How do you get people to polish off nearly 4 lb of bread in an evening? In this case, it’s all about the spice and bacon.

Some of my favourite things about baking bread are being able to decide exactly what to put in it, and how I want it to turn out (or attempt to control the latter, anyway). These also happen to be my labmates’ favourite things about my baking too – besides the fact that I’m addicted to baking bread, and that I share all of my baked goods with them, of course.

My labmate Tilley designed this particular formula for his birthday bread, which is chock full of bite from spicy peppers and manliness from all the bacon, cheddar and potatoes. I didn’t have any of the final product because I was already in tears after trying a small cube of the habanero cheddar, but it’s apparently very, very good. So good, we’ve named it the ultimate Man Bread.

Tilley’s Ultimate Man Bread

A transformation of Potato, Cheddar Cheese, and Chive Bread from Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté

Makes two very large loaves

For the liquid sourdough starter:*

Ingredients

*if you don’t have a sourdough starter, use the following instead:

Liquid sourdough starter directions:

1.Place the liquid starter (or active dry yeast) in a bowl. Pour the water over the starter (or active dry yeast) and stir to dissolve. Add the flour and mix until thoroughly hydrated.

2. Place in a bowl and cover. Let stand at room temperature for about 24 hours before using in the final dough.

For the final dough:

Ingredients

**This appears to be less salt than expected, but I reduced it to account for the saltiness of the bacon.
***Remember to wear gloves while mincing the jalapeño!

Tilley’s Ultimate Man Bread Directions:

Boil the potatoes. In a medium saucepan, bring about 3 cups of water to a boil. Add the coarsely chopped potatoes and simmer until soft. Drain, reserving the water. Let the potatoes cool completely while you prepare the jalapeño and bacon.

Pan fry the bacon and jalapeño. In another saucepan, fry the pieces of bacon just until they are starting to turn crispy. Add the minced jalapeño and continue to fry for an additional minute or two. Set aside (including all of the bacon grease) in a small bowl to cool while you start to make the dough.

Mix. In a large bowl, mix together the sourdough starter, half of the flour, half of the lukewarm potato water, yeast, and the cooked potatoes until evenly incorporated. Try to mash the potatoes into the dough at this time. (I left very small bits of potato in the dough.)

Rest. 30 minutes.

Mix. Add the rest of the flour, lukewarm potato water and salt. Continue mixing until a shaggy ball of dough is formed.

Knead for 6 to 8 minutes. Add the scallions, cheese, bacon and minced jalapeño towards the end of kneading. The dough will be on the sticky side and barely come together with all of the additions, but should still be manageable.

Ready for first rise: the gluten doesn't look very developed at this point, but we'll work on that by incorporating some stretch and folds during the bulk fermentation.

Bulk fermentation. 90 minutes at room temperature, or until about double its original size, with stretch and folds at 30 min. and 60 min.

After the first fold: see how the dough is starting to gain more volume and look like it's "coming together"?

After the second fold: the dough should now have even more strength and volume to it.

Prepare a sheet pan lined with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Divide and preshape. 2 pieces as lightly shaped boules.

Shape. Shape into bâtards (tight ovals).

Final proof. 60 minutes at room temperature, or until about 1 1/2 times its original size. (I shaped mine in brotformen, or in baskets with the loaves placed seam side up to help them keep their shape.)

Score. 2 slashes nearly parallel to the long axis of the loaves.

Bake. Bake in a preheated 450F / 230C oven with steam for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating the loaves halfway through baking if necessary. I actually baked mine in a cold oven (no preheating) cranked up to 500F with a cup of boiling water in the bottom of the oven, and then turned it down to 450F when it had reached 450F. This cold-start method will extend the baking time so watch until the crust turns golden brown, or until the loaves register about 200F/93C in the center.

Cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing and serving.

Ultimate Man Bread, ready to be eaten

* * *

I’m sending this loaf to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting, to Jude at Apple Pie, Patis, and Pâté for giving me starting material for building the formula, and LDT for his birthday bread challenge. Happy birthday, Tilley!

Time for a pizza party!

This month marks the two-year anniversary of Bread Baking Day, so Zorra, the founder of BBD and this month’s host, decided to throw a pizza party:

Since she asked us to pay special attention to the crust, I wanted to try making one with sourdough because that’s what happens when you feel adventurous and still not quite  over the excitement of making your very first loaf of sourdough.

Here we are:

The sourdough crust was topped simply with a bit of tomato sauce, monterey jack and fresh basil. You can see the crust got nice and puffy in spots (and it tasted great!) but the cheese separated at the high baking temperature (as high as your oven can go, until toppings get bubbly and crust is golden brown) so there were puddles of oil in places, which in turn made the basil turn dark. Next time, I’m going to remember to pick up some fresh mozzarella instead of resorting to whatever brick of cheese I have at home.

Did I mention the crust was delicious?

This photo reminds me of pancakes.

Still lots of room for improvement, but I like to think I’ve come a long way from heating up Boboli crusts for homemade pizza.

Update: the roundup has been posted!

* * *

I’m sending this pizza (pie?) to Zorra of 1x umrühren bitte for BBD#21 and Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting.

Norwich Sourdough

I’m so giddy I can barely type.

It’s been a little over a year and a half since I started baking [edible] bread, and here we are at last, a naturally leavened loaf! I decided to stick with a basic sourdough recipe to start and halved it, but next time I’m going to make the full batch for sure.

Norwich Sourdough

From Wild Yeast’s Norwich Sourdough

Yield: 2 kg (four or five small, or two large, loaves)
I halved the recipe and made one large, round loaf with some dough left over for pizza.

Time:

Mix/autolyse: 35 minutes
First fermentation: 2.5 hours
Divide, bench rest, and shape: 20 minutes
Proof: 2.5 hours (or 1.5 hours, then retard for 2 – 16 hours)
Bake: 35 minutes

Desired dough temperature: 76F

Ingredients:

900 g (450 g) white flour (I used King Arthur Flour unbleached all-purpose flour)
120 g (60 g) whole rye flour (I used Hodgson Mills stone ground rye flour)
600 g (300 g) water at about 74F
360 g (180g) ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter*
23 g salt

*Mine is actually a 100% hydration sourdough starter with 1/3 rye and 2/3 all-purpose, instead of an only white-flour starter. Don’t ask.

Method:

(These instructions are taken from Susan’s post, but know that I made this using only a mixing bowl, a spatula and my hands, so it can be done!)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flours, water, and starter on low speed until just combined, about one minute.
2. Let the dough rest (autolyse) for 30 minutes.
3. Add the salt and continue mixing on low or medium speed until the dough reaches a medium level of gluten development. This should only take about 3 or 4 minutes.
4. Transfer the dough to an oiled container (preferably a low, wide one so the dough can be folded without removing it from the container).
5. Ferment at room temperature (72F – 76F) for 2.5 hours, with folds at 50 and 100 minutes.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Divide it into 400g – 500g pieces. I usually make four 400g loaves and refrigerate the rest to use for pizza dough later. [I made one large boule (~700 g) and saved some dough (~300 g) for pizza another day.] Preshape the dough pieces into light balls.
7. Sprinkle the balls lightly with flour, cover loosely with plastic, and let rest for 15 minutes.
8. Shape into batards and place seam-side-up in a floured couche or linen-lined bannetons. [I shaped mine into a boule and let it rise in a makeshift banneton dusted with wheat bran.]
9. Slip the couche or bannetons into a large plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap and proof at room temperature for 2 – 2.5 hours. [I proofed it at room temperature for 2.5 hours.] Alternatively, the loaves can be proofed for about 1.5 hours at room temperature, then refrigerated for 2 – 16 hours and baked directly out of the refrigerator; this will yield a tangier bread with a lovely, blistered crust.
10. Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 475F. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.
11. Turn the proofed loaves onto a semolina-sprinkled peel or parchment. Slash each one with two overlapping cuts that are almost parallel to the long axis of the batard.
12. Once the loaves are in the oven, turn the heat down to 450F. For 400g loaves, bake for 12 minutes with steam, and another 15 – 18 minutes without steam. I leave the oven door cracked open a bit for the last 5 minutes of this time. The crust should be a deep brown. Then turn off the oven and leave the loaves in for 5 minutes longer, with the door ajar, to help them dry. Larger loaves will need to be baked longer. [Since my loaf was larger, I baked it for closer to 14 minutes with steam, and another 20-22 minutes without steam. I also used the Magic Bowl method instead of baking on a baking stone.]
13. Cool on a wire rack. Try not to cut until the loaves are completely cool.

For the blister-inclined

I’ll have to post a shot of the crumb later, after I bring it to the lab to share tomorrow. This is taking all my will power not to slice it and try now.

Norwich Sourdough crumb

This loaf had a nice tang to it in addition to a very wheaty aroma and flavour. I can’t wait to bake another loaf with my starter!

* * *

I’m sending this loaf to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting, sharing her version of Hamelman’s Vermont Sourdough and her fabulous post on raising a starter, and Bill for his excellent post on starter basics via The Fresh Loaf.

Buttermilk and Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

Does it make sense to call a loaf “rugged”? Because that’s what would say about this bread: it’s simple and hearty and rugged, like a sandwich bread with character that won’t squish between your fingers like really soft, pillowy breads. I like the bit of twang that the buttermilk lends but at the same time, it’s balanced by the touch of sweetness from the honey, all in a 100% whole wheat loaf of bread.

JMonkey’s Buttermilk and Honey Whole-Wheat Sandwich Bread

from this post on The Fresh Loaf, adapted from The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book

Ingredients

- Whole wheat flour : 500 g or about 4 cups
- Salt: 10 g or 1.25 tsp
- Instant yeast: 3 g or 1 tsp
- Water: 185 g or ¾ cup + 1 Tbs
- Buttermilk: 185 g or ¾ cup + 1 Tbs*
- Honey: 42 g or 2 Tbs
- Unsalted butter: 14 g or 1 Tbs

*I substituted 185 g of milk with a bit of yogurt mixed into it (and let that stand for about 5-10 min) for the buttermilk.

Overall Formula

- Whole wheat flour: 100%
- Salt: 2%
- Instant yeast: 0.6%
- Water: 38%
- Buttermilk: 38%
- Honey: 8.4%
- Unsalted butter: 2.8%

Directions

Mix: Add the salt to the flour. Mix them thoroughly and then add the yeast, also mixing. Melt the butter and mix it with the buttermilk and water in a separate bowl. Add the water, buttermilk, melted butter and honey to the flour, mixing well until everything is hydrated.

I then kneaded this dough by hand until it was relatively smooth and slightly sticky but not very tacky. This will feel less smooth and a bit wetter than a dough made with all-purpose flour, but I tried to avoid adding more flour at this point because I didn’t want the loaf to become overly dense from using too much flour.

Bulk fermentation: 2 – 2.5 hours at room temperature, with a stretch-and-fold at the halfway mark.

Shaping: I shaped these into two sandwich loaves and placed them into 9″ x 5″ loaf pans (though 8.5″ x 4.5″ would probably be better).

Final rise: until slightly less than doubled.

Bake: 350F for about 50-55 min.

Great for toast, especially with some homemade plum jam.

* * *

I’m sending this loaf to to Susan at Wild Yeast for YeastSpotting, and to JMonkey at The Fresh Loaf for sharing his version of this recipe in the first place. Thanks!

Sunday was Day 10 for the Amish Sweet Friendship Bread, as in the day when you share the yeasty baby with three friends. However, you’ve probably figured out by now that the cake on Day 10 didn’t get baked. Here’s what happened instead:

Day 3: Bud developed a alcoholic liquid layer a.k.a. hooch.

This means he’s not very happy. I stirred him down as per the instructions and tried to ignore the fact that he might be dying on me.

Day 4: more hooch

At this point, I decided to try and switch Bud to a mix of 1/3 rye and 2/3 white flour in water in a ratio of 1:1:1 (starter:water:flour) by weight, the method that Susan of Wild Yeast describes for capturing a wild yeast starter.

Here’s Bud on a more healthy diet (instead of living on 1 cup flour + 1 cup sugar + 1 cup water every five days).

Morning of Day 5: he looks kind of… dead, except for one or two lonely bubbles.

I just kept feeding him roughly every 12 hours in the 1:1:1 ratio and hoped for the best.

End of Day 6:

Some more bubbles, but he still wasn’t doubling in volume every 12 hours like a healthy and active starter would. So I kept feeding him and prayed some more.

Then suddenly, on Day 9:

Bud pulled through! (The mark is how much starter there was after I fed him, and before I let him rise.) Ladies and gentlemen, we have a sourdough starter! I fed Bud twice more with the mix of rye and white flour, and tonight switched him to white flour only, but with more “food” (1:2:2 ratio, so there’s twice as much water and flour per part of starter) to see if he can still double in 12 hours or less. If Bud is still bubbling away happily tomorrow morning, then I can try him out in my very first bread recipe that calls for levain, or starter. Maybe some Norwich Sourdough?

*Note: for a more detailed description of how to capture a wild yeast starter, do visit Susan’s how-to post. The only difference in my case is that I used 20g starter : ~6 g rye flour + ~13 g white flour : 20 g water (1:1:1) instead of 75 g starter : 25 g rye flour + 50 g white flour : 75 g water that she uses; i.e., I’m just doing it on a slightly smaller scale.

“…we’re gonna be arrested.”

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve watched this video of Paula Deen’s heart attack burgers. Hey, if they cut the Krispy Kreme doughnuts in half and only use half of one for each of the buns, it could be the diet version!

Then, of course, the next recipe she’s making is a fruit yogurt parfait. Nicely done.

Go UVM!

http://tierneylab.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/dancing-scientists-revealed/

Here’s a direct quote from the post:

…Besides gathering online responses, Dr. Bohannon also administered the quiz to eight live audiences in North America and Europe. For some reason — perhaps because they were more focused on the task — the live audiences were generally more accurate overall than the online audiences, although there were exceptions: a live audience at Harvard was less accurate than the online readers of Science, and did only about half as well as a live audience at the University of Vermont. I will leave it to others to explain Vermont’s superiority to Harvard, and whether it has more to do with dance or with science.

Bud didn’t rise very much overnight.

I stirred him down with a chopstick and the foamy parts quickly sunk back to the level that it was at yesterday evening.

(I’m so tempted to discard most of it and then feed it 1:1:1 — 1 part starter, 1/3 part rye flour, 2/3 part white flour, and 1 part water by weight. Say what?)

* * *

Amish Sweet Friendship Bread, Jackie’s Way

started 06/05/09

Day 1     Do nothing with starter Degas starter (mash bag) and transfer to a clean mason jar with the lid loosely screwed on.
Day 2     Mash bag and let out air Stir down starter