Celebrating 500 with Painted Bread

This is a special post for me because it’s my 500th post since I started blogging in 2008. I’ve been doing this for almost five years and I’m still going strong.  Thanks to all of my visitors and the community of bakers that keep me motivated to stay the course. Whenever I get discouraged, I’ll get a comment or feedback on my site that let’s me know that it’s all worth it. 

I launched the Bread Experience Memorial Day Weekend in 2008 and started the blog in July 2008. At that time, I just wanted to demonstrate how to make bread as an extension of my site. I had a passion for bread baking and I wanted to share my experiences. Over the years, I’ve grown with my audience and other bakers. I never imagined that the blog would take on a life of it’s own and that I would get the opportunity to interact with and bake with so many fabulous chefs and bakers from all over the world. It’s been a rewarding journey so far and I hope to have many more posts.

To commemorate this occasion, I decided to do something totally different and create a new tradition. I made Painted Sweetheart Bread to celebrate my 500th post and Valentine’s Day.  I started with a simple, yet Classic French Bread. Then decorated it with edible paint. I got my inspiration from Chef Tess of Chef Tess Bakeresse.

 

Painted breads can be created for any special occasion or just because, but I think it’s particularly appropriate for Valentine’s Day. In fact, in many parts of Europe, there is an ancient tradition of giving Lover's Bread. These breads were usually heart-shaped gingerbreads that were elaborated decorated with spun-sugar flowers. This sort of gift disappeared from France around the time of the First World War but in other European countries, the tradition still exists.

This was my first attempt at painting bread, but I’m very pleased with the way it turned out. I started out using a stencil on top because I hadn’t drawn in so long, I wasn’t sure if I could do it, especially on bread.  The stencil didn’t work exactly the way I expected so I ended up filling the design in by hand and then just creating the rest freehand. It was so much fun!

So how do you make painted bread?

First Step: Make the Bread 

You can make any shape bread you like, but I chose to make a round bread. I thought it would work better with the heart stencil.  I was going to try baking it without scoring it, but I scored it at the last minute because it was looking really plump. Turns out, there was so much oven spring it would’ve cracked at the seams I think if I hadn’t scored it. I’ll have to experiment with different types of bread to see which one works better.

This time I chose an easy and delicious French bread that can be made in an evening so you have time to make the bread and paint it too.

 

Classic French Bread

Makes: One 8-inch Loaf

Adapted from: Wine, Food & Friends by Karen MacNeil

Ingredients:

French Bread:

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F.)

Decorating the Bread:

• 1 large egg white, for egg wash
• edible paint, different colors

 

Directions:

1) Whisk together the dry ingredients.  Then add the water and mix with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk.

 

2) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until it is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large greased bowl and turn it to coat the top.  Cover and let it proof in a warm place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.

 

3) Punch the dough down and shape it into a round ball.  Place it on a baking sheet coated with spray oil or onto a piece of parchment.  I decided to bake it on parchment.  Cover the dough and let it rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size.

 

4) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Score the loaf in the pattern of your choice using a serrated knife or lame. If you just want to bake the bread without painting it, go ahead and add the egg wash.  If you plan to paint the bread, then don’t add the egg wash at this time, you will do that later. I chose this scoring pattern because I thought my heart stencil would fit perfectly in the square.

 

5) Bake the loaf at 450 degrees F. until it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees on an instant read thermometer if you will be painting it.  If you just want to eat it, then bake for 20 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.  I baked this loaf on a baking stone with a steam pan underneath, but you can easily bake it on the baking sheet without the baking stone.

 

Next Step: Paint the Bread

After the loaf reaches the correct internal temperature, paint it, then finish baking it.

I learned how to do this on Chef Tess’s blog.  She’s amazing!  You need to check out all of her gorgeous painted breads. She has some demos so be sure to watch them to find out more about her methods.

For the paint, I attempted Chef Tess’s method of roasting the grains and steeping them in water. I used roasted purple barley grains so it turned out to be a beautiful color. However, I had a hard time getting the liquid to cook down to a concentrate. I mixed it with egg yolk, but it was still too runny. I want to try that method again, but for this special bread, I went with plan B and used colorful edible paint.

I used the parchment paper to mix the paint and test the stencil. I was hesitant to start painting because I didn’t want to mess up, but once I got going, it was fun.  I did mess up a little bit and the paint is smudged in a couple of places, but I learned a lot.

 

I painted the stencil first.  Then I put the loaf back in the oven for a few minutes to let the paint set.

 

Then I painted the design around the top and baked it another minute or so. 

 

Final Step: Finish Baking the Bread

I thought I was done so I brushed the loaf with egg wash and baked it a little bit more.  It got a little bit smudged when I brushed the egg wash on it.

 

After I baked the loaf the final time with the egg wash, I looked at it and realized it wasn’t complete so I painted a little bit more. I didn’t put it back in the oven because I thought it might burn, but it really needs the time in the oven for the paint to set otherwise it smears.  You can see the smudges in the photo below.

This bread has been YeastSpotted in the weekly bread roundup hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast.

 

I had so much fun making this bread.  I’m definitely going to try painting some more breads in the future and giving them away as gifts.

I hope you’ll try painting bread for Valentine’s Day or another special occasion or just to show someone you love that you care.  I think you’ll enjoy it!

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Italian Chocolate Chip Bread with Spelt

February is Chocolate Lover’s Month.  Have you celebrated yet?  I’ve been celebrating all month.

Since chocolate and Valentine’s Day go hand-in-hand, I decided to celebrate Chocolate Lover’s Month and Valentine’s Day by making some Italian Chocolate Chip Bread for two of my Sweethearts – my youngest son and my boyfriend.  My oldest son and his girlfriend got the Panda Bread.  As for me, I got the satisfaction of making bread and giving it away. 

The original version of this bread calls for all-purpose flour, but I decided to make it more nutritious (shhh…don’t tell!) by adding some spelt flour.  Spelt is one of the super grains and can be used in anything in which wheat flour is used so I figured I’d share the love with chocolate and spelt. 

I doubled the recipe for this Chocolate Chip Bread so I could ship one loaf to my son at college and give the other to my BF.  My son really enjoyed the Whole Wheat and Spelt Bread.  He said it was really good, but he wished he hadn’t eaten all of the Homemade Strawberry Jam.  Hint, hint… 

Yeah!  I’m a sucker.  I sent him more jam when I shipped him this bread.

 

Italian Chocolate Chip Bread

Adapted from: Making Fresh Bread from your oven to your table from LOVE FOOD

Makes: 1 loaf

Ingredients:

• vegetable oil, for brushing
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1/2 cup white spelt flour
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
• pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter; plus 1/2 teaspoon melted butter for brushing
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 1 envelope active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup lukewarm water
• 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  

 

Directions:

Brush a cookie sheet with oil.  Sift the flour, cocoa, and salt together into a bowl. 

 

Add the butter and cut it into the dry ingredients.

 

Stir in the sugar and yeast.

 

Gradually add the lukewarm water, stirring well with a wooden spoon until the dough begins to come together.

 

Then knead with your hands until it leaves the side of the bowl.

 

Turn out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for about 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.

 

Knead the chocolate chips into the dough, then form into a round loaf. 

 

Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap.

 

Let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. About an hour.

 

Shape the loaves into rounds and place onto the prepared cookie sheet and put the cookie sheet into a plastic bag or cover with plastic wrap.

 

Let rise in a warm place for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, until doubled in volume.

 

Preheat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC.  Bake the loaf for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 375ºF/ 190ºC, and bake for 15 minutes more.

 

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and brush the top with the melted butter.  Cover with a dish towel and let cool.

 

At this point, I was ready to pick up one of the loaves and just take a big bite, but I refrained. The loaves actually made it to the intended recipients.  Although I did slice one so that I could get this crumb shot, but I didn’t eat the slice.  Aren’t you proud of me?

 

Thanks for celebrating Chocolate Lover’s Month with me.  There’s still time to make your own chocolate bread this month.

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Panda Bread

A few months ago, my oldest son’s girlfriend posted a photo of Panda Bread on Facebook and asked me if I could make it for her. I thought it was adorable so I decided to take up the challenge. I did some research and found the recipe on Perfect Pandas.  The original recipe was from an Asian web site called Taro Taro. It had been translated by wlteef.blogspot.com.  The version on Perfect Pandas had been modified for use in a bread machine. I followed their version of the recipe for the most part.

This is the second time I’ve made this bread.  I made it the first time over the Holidays. I didn’t have the right kind of green tea at that time so I wasn’t very pleased with the resulting color or shape of the bread. So, I ordered some green tea powder and decided to try again. This time, I made it for Valentine’s Day. I was fairly pleased with the results this go round so I decided to post about it.

 

Panda Bread

Makes: 1 Loaf

Recipe found here http://perfectpandas.com/2008/01/08/panda-bread/

Here is the step-by-step process I followed to make this Panda Bread:

Method:

Heat up milk and yolk to temperature of 38C. (I beat the yolk lightly with milk and sent it to the microwave on HIGH for 40 seconds or so).

Put everything in bread machine and set to dough cycle. Let it knead for 20 minutes. Stop the cycle and restart the dough cycle and let it knead for another 15 minutes.

Divide dough (about 560g) into 3 parts: 75g for the chocolate, 210g plain and the rest of the dough which is less than 280g for the green tea.

Add chocolate to the 75g dough and knead till the color is even. (I began this process using an electric mixer, but the dough ball was a little too small for the mixer to incorporate thoroughly so I finished working the chocolate into the dough with my fingers).

Add green tea mixture to the 280g dough and knead till color is even. I was able to use the mixer to incorporate most of the green color, but I still had to do the last bit with my fingers. It was a bit messy but fun.

Prove all 3 pieces of dough on separate greased plates covered loosely with oiled cling wrap for 30 – 40 minutes.

Punch air out of dough and prove for another 20 – 30 minutes.

Use 90g plain dough for the face and 2 pieces of 27g chocolate dough for the eyes. (I referred to photo guide in Step (7) on TARO’s site for the shaping).

Fill the hollow of the eyes with 30g plain dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (8) on TARO’s site).

Roll remaining plain dough over the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (9) in TARO’s site).

Divide the remaining chocolate dough into 2 pieces (17.5g each) for the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (10) in TARO’s site).

Use 70g of the green tea dough to fill up the hollow between the ears. (Refer to photo guide in Step (11) in TARO’s site).

Wrap the rest of the green tea dough all around the patterned dough. (Refer to photo guide in Step (12) in TARO’s site)

Place dough into a well-greased loaf pan and cover it with a lid and prove for 50 – 60 minutes in an enclosed area. I put it in my oven with the light on. I didn’t have a small pan with a lid on it so I just covered it with plastic.  I used an 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” loaf pan and it was a bit too small.  I believe a 9” x 5” loaf pan would’ve worked better because the dough didn’t have enough room to rise in the pan while proofing so it rose unevenly when baked.

Bake at 200 degrees for 25 – 30 minutes. I baked at 350 degrees F. for 25 – 30  minutes.

When I first took the bread out of the oven, I was disappointed. As you can see, it cracked at the top. 

However, once I cut into the bread, I realized the slices looked fine.  Even though the outside doesn’t look perfect, it’s what’s on the inside that counts, right?  Isn’t it cute (even with the lopsided eyes)!

 

The original instructions didn’t provide much guidance regarding how long the dough pieces should be rolled out, it only gave the weight.  I think it will help to roll the dough pieces out a little bit longer. I also think baking it in a larger loaf pan will help with the cracking issue.  I’m not sure there is enough dough, but if there was, I think this bread would look really cool baked in a Pullman pan. I may try it sometime.

All said, I had fun making this bread. So I’m sending it to be YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Valentine Bread with Cherries and Almonds

February is the month for love and lovers. Did you know that in many parts of Europe, there is an ancient tradition of giving Lover's Bread?

These gingerbreads were heart-shaped and extravagantly decorated with colored spun-sugar flowers. As the tradition goes, once the gingerbreads were given, the heart was bespoken and the young man who ate them with the woman who represented his heart's desire was committed for life.  This sort of gift disappeared from France around the time of the First World War but in other European countries, the tradition still exists.

Source: The History of Bread by Bernard Dupaigne

For Valentine’s Day, I decided to recreate this old tradition and give the gift of bread to my Sweetie.  Rather than trying to make an elaborate gingerbread heart, I chose this beautiful Lacy Valentine Bread Heart. It’s made with enriched dough, filled with chopped cherries and slivered almonds and glazed with a delicious almond glaze.

 

Lacy Valentine Coffee Cake

Printer friendly version

Source: Recipe Courtesy © 2010 ACH Foods. All Rights Reserved.

Makes: 2 coffee cakes

 

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water (100 to 110^oF)
• 2 envelopes Active Dry Yeast
• 1/2 cup warm milk (100 to 110^oF)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon butter or margarine, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4-1/2 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries, drained
• 1/2 cup chopped slivered almonds, toasted

Almond Glaze: In small bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted; 1/2 teaspoon almond extract; and 2 to 3 tablespoons milk. Stir until smooth.

 

Directions

Place warm water in large warm bowl. Sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Add warm milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/4 cup butter, eggs, salt, and 1-1/2 cups flour; blend well. Stir in enough remaining flour to make soft dough.

Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 4 to 6 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Pat maraschino cherries between paper towels to remove excess moisture. In medium bowl, combine maraschino cherries, almonds, and 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.

Punch dough down. Remove dough to lightly floured surface; divide in half.  Roll 1 half to 24 x 7-inch oval. Melt remaining 1 tablespoon butter; brush half over dough to within 1/2 inch of edges.

Sprinkle half of cherry mixture over dough.

Beginning at long end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll.

Pinch seam to seal;

gently roll back and forth to stretch to 26-inch rope. Place, seam side down, on greased baking sheet.

Form into ring; pinch ends together to seal. Shape into heart.

 
With sharp knife (I did this with scissors), cut slits, starting at outside edge of heart, two-thirds of the way through dough at 3/4-inch intervals. Turn each section on its side to show filling. Cover with plastic wrap.

Let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Bake at 350^oF for 20 to 25 minutes or until done, switching positions of sheets halfway through baking time for even browning. Remove from sheets; let cool on wire racks.

Frost with Almond Glaze. 

Then decorate and give the bread to your Sweetheart and watch him or her smile.  I added some candied hearts because I like them.  :o)

 

Instead of making two heart coffee cakes, I used the rest of the dough to make sweet rolls (buns actually) for my other two sweeties (aka my sons).  The buns were really good, but I didn’t get a photo.

 

This bread has been YeastSpotted.  Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining me today in the bread-baking blog.  I hope you enjoyed your bread experience.

Happy Baking!
Cathy