Braided & Ready for the Bread Fashion Show

This Braided Poppy Seed Loaf is dressed and ready to go to the Bread Baking Day #56: Bread Fashion Show hosted by Jenni from The Gingered Whisk. 

Poppy, as this beautiful braid is affectionately called, has a golden brown crust bathed in egg wash and dotted with poppy seeds. Underneath her crust, you’ll find a delicious crumb with black sesame seeds scattered throughout.

 

Although Poppy has a beautiful coat on already, she’s a little shy so she tried on this bamboo bread bag for size.  She liked being all snuggly inside the bag, but decided she wanted to shine and not be hidden inside a bag. She’ll wear that one another day.

 

Since it’s so close to Valentine’s Day, and all those beautiful breads will be vying for attention, Poppy decided to arrive at the fashion show in a big red bow. She decided being shy wouldn’t win her any fans.

 

I had fun with this bread. My version is made with Graham flour and white bread flour, but you can substitute regular whole wheat flour for the Graham flour or use all white flour.  I didn’t have enough poppy seeds to use in the dough and on the crust so I used black sesame seeds in the dough. Feel free to use all poppy seeds or a mixture of poppy seeds and sesame seeds or a different mixture of seeds if you prefer.

 

Braided Poppy Seed Loaf

Makes: 1 Loaf

Adapted from: Making Fresh Bread: From your oven to your table by Love Food

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1/2 cup Graham flour
• 2 cups white bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk
• 1 1/2 tablespoons superfine sugar (I used organic pure sugar)
• 1 teaspoon instant yeast
• 3/4 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for brushing
• 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds

Topping:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon Almond milk
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds

 

Directions:

1. Mixing the Dough

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl and stir in the milk, sugar, and yeast.  Add the lukewarm water and oil.  Mix well with a Danish dough whisk or wooden spoon until the dough starts to come together.  Add the poppy (or sesame seeds) and knead them into the dough into they are fully incorporated. 

 

2. Kneading the Dough

Once the dough leaves the sides of the bowl, turn it out onto a lightly floured counter. Knead well until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.

 

3. Proofing the Dough

Form the dough into a ball and place in a greased bowl.  Cover with a damp dish towel or plastic wrap and let is rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has doubled in volume.

 

4. Braiding the Loaf

Grease a baking sheet with oil.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly flour surface.  Punch it down and knead it for a couple of minutes. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and shape them lightly into balls.  Let the balls rest for 5 minutes.

 

Shape each ball into a rope about 10-12 inches long.

 

Place the ropes side by side and press them together at one end.

 

Braid the dough, then pinch the other end, and tuck it underneath.

 

 

Place the loaf on the greased baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

 

5: Prepare the Loaf for Baking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Beat the egg yolk with the milk and sugar to make the egg glaze.  Brush the egg glaze over the top of the loaf and sprinkle with the poppy seeds.

 

6. Baking the Loaf

Bake the loaf for 30-35 minutes, until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom.  Partway through the baking cycle, rotate the bread for even baking.  This bread will burn on the outside due to the sugar in the egg wash so keep a careful eye on it.  If the bread starts to brown too much before it’s finished baking, tent the loaf with aluminum foil and continue baking.

 

7.  Cooling and Serving the Loaf

Transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing and serving.

 

 

8. Slice and Enjoy!

This isn’t an enriched dough so it doesn’t taste rich and eggy like challah.  It has a little bit of sweetness but it mostly just tastes like a light grain bread.  It’s good for toast (and fashion shows).

 

Happy Baking! 

Cathy

 

Thanks to Jenni from The Gingered Whisk for hosting BBD #56: Bread Fashion Show. I had a ball with this one.

Sourdough Fantans Filled with Jam and My Favorite Things

These pretty little Lemon and Strawberry Vanilla Jam Fantans are so good, they inspired a song.  You can sing along if you like. It’s sung to the tune “These are a few of my favorite things” from the Sound of Music. Here we go,

Sourdough starter, and jam, and sweet rolls,

Mix them together to make something delightful! 

Enjoy them with coffee, or tea or just plain,

These are a few of my favorite things …

When the starter dies, when the yeast fails, when the dough is bad,

I simply remember how to restart the start & then I don’t feel so sad.

 

Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms chose Jam Fantans as the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. I’m glad she did. These yummy rolls include several of the things I’ve been working on this month: namely sourdough starters and jam.  When you add maple syrup, nutmeg and vanilla to the mix, the result is simply delightful.  

If you remember, when I activated my apple starter (2 posts ago), I doubled the feeding because I couldn’t bring myself to discard 1/2 of the jar of the culture. Now you know what I made with the rest of the culture proof.

Like the Cheesy Brioche, this rich dough isn’t something you would normally think of using sourdough in but it works really well.  If you don’t have a sourdough starter, you can use a mixture of yeast and warm water (see Elle’s instructions), but I would recommend the sourdough. It gives it a unique flavor.

Here is my adaptation of Elle’s recipe.  Be sure to refer to her post for more helpful tips.  She has some additional information if you don’t have a sourdough starter.  I didn’t include that info since I used my starter.

 

Lemon and strawberry Vanilla Jam Fantans

Adapted from: Jam Fantans for January by Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms

Makes: 12 Rolls

Equipment

• mixing bowl and wooden spoon
• large mixing bowl, lightly coated with cooking spray
• 12 cup standard muffin tin, buttered

 

Ingredients

• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided (plus extra for sprinkling)
• 1 cup whole wheat bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 cup sourdough starter
• 1 cup almond milk
• ¼ cup (1/2 stick) butter
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 6 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, divided
• 1/3 cup lemon jelly, warmed
• 1/3 cup strawberry vanilla jam, warmed

 

Preparation

1) Sift 1 cup of the all-purpose flour, the 1 cup of whole wheat bread flour, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. Stir until well blended. Set aside.

 

2) Placed milk, butter and maple syrup into a saucepan and heat until butter is nearly melted. Remove from heat. Stir a few minutes to help mixture cool. Let cool to 110 degrees F.

 

3) Add sourdough starter to milk mixture, then add milk mixture to flour mixture; beat well. Add egg and vanilla; stir until blended. Add 1 cup all-purpose flour, stir until thoroughly incorporated. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that is rather sticky.

 

4) Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead 3 minutes or until dough is smooth and silky. (Add additional flour if needed while kneading, but only enough to keep it from sticking a lot.) Place in oiled bowl, turn dough to lightly coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise for 1 ½ to 2 hours.

 

5) Dust your work surface with flour. Punch down the dough, then halve it. Wrap one half in the plastic wrap and set aside.

 

6) Roll the other half into a 12×12-inch (30.5×30.5 cm) square. You may have to roll slightly larger, and then trim the ends to even out the square. Brush dough with half the melted butter.

 

7) Spread the surface of the dough with about 1/2 the warmed jam, leaving 1/6 strip plain. This will allow you to have a plain side of dough on each side of the roll touching the muffin cup.  I marked six slices with a ruler, then scored the dough partway down using my bench knife so that I would know how much room to leave for the 1/6 strip.

 

8) Cut into 6 equal strips.

 

9) Then stack the strips on top of each other with the plain strip on top.

 

10) Cut through the layers into 6 equal pieces.

 

11) Place each into a buttered muffin cup, standing up so the layers are visible. Gently fan them open. Each will have six dough pieces with marmalade or other filling in between.

 

12) Repeat with the remaining dough and the rest of the jam for the other six cups of the muffin tin.  I spread six of the rolls with lemon jelly and six with the strawberry vanilla jam.  You can use whatever flavor you like.

 

13) Cover with a tea towel and let the rolls rise in a draft free spot at warm room temperature until the dough doubles, about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. (You might want to put a piece of plastic wrap between the rolls and the towel because of the sticky jam.)

 

14) Place the rack in the middle and preheat the oven to 375° F/190° C.  Remove the towel and bake the rolls until they are golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes. Be sure to watch the fantans while they are baking or they could burn. Mine got a little bit brown, but they didn’t burn.

15) Cool in the pan ten minutes, then transfer to a rack and allow to cool for about another 20 minutes before serving.

 

If desired, drizzle a glaze of 1 teaspoon milk whisked together with enough confectioners' sugar (icing sugar) to make a drizzle that will not spread too much. Use the tines of a fork to drizzle it on. Let dry before serving the rolls.

I didn’t use the powder sugar glaze.  These rolls didn’t need it.

 

These Jam Fantans are fun to make and even more enjoyable to eat.  I tried a couple – one of each flavor. Well, I had to make sure they tasted okay.  I’m happy to say that they did!  Then I froze the rest of them for snacks. Now when I want something to munch on with my coffee, I just take one out of the freezer and warm it up.  Yum Yum! 

Thanks BBBs for letting me join the party.  I had a great time!

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Lemon Sunshine in a Jar

The fruit of the month for the January Can It Up! challenge is citrus. I love citrus fruits!  They taste so clean and fresh.

This Lemon Jelly reminds me of golden sunshine. It was cloudy and cold the day I made it, and when I walked into the kitchen, it smelled like the fresh scent of sunshine. I know sunshine doesn’t have a scent, but lemon is one that I associate with it. So I named my jelly Lemon Sunshine in a Jar.

It has an interesting flavor. It tastes like lemon marmalade without the rinds. It’s a little citrusy and a little sweet, but at the same time, a little bit bitter like marmalade. It takes a little getting used to, but I like it. It reminds me of summer and during the cold months of winter, we can all use a little pick me up.

 

I have a lime tree that has a lot of tiny buds, but no blooms yet. I would’ve loved to have used some of the limes for this challenge, but they’re not ready yet. I’m looking forward to canning something with all of those limes, but it will be a couple of months.

 

I also have a lemon tree, but it hasn’t figured out that it’s supposed produce lemons. So for this challenge, I had to use lemons from the farmer’s market.

 

Lemon Sunshine in a Jar

Makes: About Four 1/2 Pint Jars

Adapted From: The Joy Of: Jams, Jellies, and other Sweet Preserves by Linda Ziedrich

 

Ingredients:

• 1 pound of lemons (I used 3 large lemons) *
• 7 cups water
• About 3 1/2 – 4 1/2 cups sugar (depends on how much liquid you have after the jelly drips in the jelly bag)

* You can substitute limes for the lemons in this recipe

 

Directions:

1) Wash the lemons 

My lemons were not organic so I poured boiling water over them and scrubbed them really well before slicing them.  If you use organic or home-picked lemons that aren’t covered in pesticide, you can skip this step.

2) Slice the lemons

Slice the lemons into thin slices – about 1/8 – 1/4-inch thick.  Put the slices into a non-reactive pot and cover them with water.  I used non-chlorinated water.

 

3) Soak the lemons overnight

Cover the pot with a kitchen towel and let the lemons soak in the water for 24 hours at room temperature to bring out the flavor of the lemons. 

While the lemons were soaking, the aroma was delightful and brightened things up. The kitchen smelled like sunshine.

 

4) Cook the lemons

Bring the sliced lemons and water to a boil over medium-high heat.  Reduce the heat and let the mixture simmer for 40 minutes.

 

5) Let the jelly drip

Get out a container and rest your chinois inside. Line the chinois with damp cheese cloth. Pour the lemon mixture into the chinois and use your wooden tool or the back of a spatula to press all the juice out of the mixture. 

 

Or if you prefer, pour the cooked mixture into a damp jelly bag over a pot or bowl. Let the liquid drip for several hours.

 

6) Measure the liquid

I ended up with about 3 1/2 cups, you might end up with more. Pour the liquid into the preserving pan. If you end up with more liquid, you should do this step in two parts. Since I only had 3 1/2 cups, I did it in one step. I added 3 1/4 cups of sugar and stirred the mixture over medium heat until all of the sugar had dissolved.  Then I raised the temperature to medium-high heat.

 

7) Boil the mixture

Boil the mixture until it reaches 221 degrees F. on a jelly thermometer.  Once you reach 221, shut the fire and let it rest for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, turn the fire back up to reach 221 degrees. This little rest ensures a good gel. 

 

8) Ladle the jelly into jars

Ladle the jelly into hot, sterilized half-pint canning jars. Release the trapped air using a Bubble Remover and Headspace Tool. Then add the lids and rings, and process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes. For more information on water-bath canning, refer to the National Center for Home Preservation web site.  

 

9) Let jars rest on counter overnight

Turn the heat off. Remove canner lid. Wait 5 minutes, then remove the jars, and let them sit on the counter for 24 hours to cool and ensure they are sealed correctly. You should hear the lids pop if they are sealed properly.

 

10) Store jars in a cool, dry place.

Place the sealed jars in a cool, dry place for storage for up to a year. If any of the jars do not seal properly, place them in the refrigerator. They will last for a couple of months in the refrigerator.

 

Thanks to Hima of All Four Burners for hosting the Challenge. It’s time to Can It Up!

Happy Canning!

Cathy

 

Here are some of the other citrus jams I’ve made over the past several years:

• Orange Marmalade
• Grapefruit Marmalade
• Festive Marmalade
• Christmas Marmalade
• Citrus Marmalade
• Lime Marmalade

 

Canning resources:

• Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
• The Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving
• Keeping The Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs
• National Center for Home Preservation

A Buttery and Cheesy Sourdough Surprise

I recently joined Google+ and have been enjoying connecting with old friends and making new ones and hanging out in hang outs. In the process of adding new friends to my circles, I ran across a new baking group called Sourdough Surprises. They’ve been having fun using their sourdough starters with friends all over the world for the past several months, but I just found out about them. 

Since I’ve been focusing on sourdough this month, I decided it would be fun to join them. Their challenge for the month was to make sourdough brioche dough and then make babka using the brioche dough. I love sourdough and brioche so I figured you couldn’t go wrong with that combination.

 

It took me a little while to figure out how I was going to accomplish this, but I finally found my inspiration in the Classic Sourdoughs’ method for making cheesy sourdough brioche and Peter Reinhart’s method for shaping bapka in Artisan Breads Everyday. 

I utilized the Classic Sourdoughs’ method for activating the culture and creating the culture proof and referred to their ingredients for the Cheesy Brioche.  However, I used my own process for mixing and fermenting the dough. They only proofed the brioche dough once, after it had been shaped and placed in the brioche pan, and didn’t allow any time in the refrigerator (which I thought was rather odd for brioche) so I did my own thing and let it bulk ferment in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. After the bulk fermentation, I followed the process for shaping bapka in Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Everyday.

The Classic Sourdoughs’ method involves several different steps so I broke it up into two different posts. The first post focused on Activating the Sourdough Culture and Creating the Culture Proof.  This post focuses on making a delicious brioche dough using the culture.

 

Cheesy Sourdough Brioche/Bapka

Adapted from: Classic Sourdoughs by Ed and Jean Wood and Artisan Breads Everyday by Peter Reinhart

Makes: 2 Loaves

Ingredients:

• 2 cups (480 ml) culture from culture proof *
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces (115 g) Gruyere cheese, grated
• 4-5 cups (560 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 6 eggs (I used 6 large eggs, but I think medium would work better or only use 5)
• 1 cup (240 g) butter
• 1 egg yolk (for the egg wash)
• 2 teaspoons water

 

Process:

* Begin by activating the culture and creating the culture proof. Then use the culture to make this bread. 

1) Mixing the Dough:

Place the 2 cups of culture in a large mixing bowl. 

 

Add the sugar, salt, cheese and 2 cups of the flour to the bowl and mix well.

 

I mixed the dough by hand using a wooden spoon to begin with, then I switched to a Danish dough whisk. You can use a stand mixer if you prefer.

Mix the dough until it forms a sticky mass. Then mix in the eggs one at a time.

 

2) Kneading the Dough

At this point, you can turn the dough out onto a floured surface to knead it, but my dough was so sticky that I kept it in the bowl.  Add 2 more cups of flour and knead until the dough is elastic, about 10 minutes. You want to make sure the gluten is sufficiently developed before you add the butter or the dough won’t be able to support it.  My dough was still quite sticky so I let it autolyse (rest) for about 45 minutes before adding the butter.  With that much better, it needed all the help it could get.

To add the butter, break off quarter-size pieces and work it into the dough using your hands and a dough scraper. I added an additional 1/2 cup of flour during this process because the dough was really soft and sticky due to the butter.

 

3) Bulk Fermentation

After I finished kneading the dough, I put it in a clean bowl, covered it with plastic and placed it in the refrigerator to ferment for a couple of hours.

 

4) Shaping the Bapka

After 2 1/2 hours, I removed the dough from the refrigerator and divided it into two balls.  I let the balls rest on the counter dusted with flour for a few minutes.

 

Then, I shaped each ball into a batard shape by spreading the dough out into a rough rectangle and bringing the edges up to meet the center and gently pinching the seam closed.

 

Next, I turned the dough seam side down and carefully rolled the dough out to form a long log.

 

Coil the log into a circular snail shape. The dough was still sticky so I was sprinkling flour as I was doing this.

 

Then you’ll want to stand the coil shape on its end so that it is perpendicular to the counter rather than lying flat.

 

Press down on the coil to compress it into a loaf shape then place it in a greased loaf pan.  I used 8 1/2” x 4 1/2” glass loaf pans.

 

5) Proofing the Loaves

Cover the loaves with plastic wrap or a towel and let them proof for 2 to 3 hours until the bapka fills the pan or has increased in size about 1 1/2 times.  By the time mine finished proofing, the nice coil shape was gone.  I didn’t coil it tightly enough because it was so sticky and kept sticking to my fingers.

 

6) Baking the Loaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Whisk the egg yolk and 2 teaspoons of water until frothy.  Brush the loaves with the egg wash right before baking. Bake the loaves for 20 to 25 minutes, the rotate pans for even baking.  Bake until the top is golden brown and a wooden skewer stuck in the middle comes out clean. 

 

7) Cooling the Loaves

Remove the loaves to a wire rack to cool.  Cool before slicing and serving.

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

 

10) Slice and Enjoy

This Cheesy Sourdough Brioche/Bapka is buttery smooth and delicious.  I used gruyere cheese, which is the same color as the dough, so even though I rolled the dough into the babka shape (which was no easy feat with this sticky dough), you can’t see the spiral pattern very well.  In hindsight, I should’ve spread it with jam so you could’ve seen the coils, but I was having too much fun with the cheesy dough.

The good thing about this buttery and sticky dough is that it makes a great tasting loaf whether you call it babka or brioche.

 

I’m a little late to the party, but I really enjoyed baking with the Sourdough Surprises.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy