My extremely skilled-at-bread friend Katrina posted about this beautiful bread at the start of the month, and I was so awed that I just had to add it to my to-do list.
Apparently, it’s Swiss, and is generally eaten as a part of Sunday brunch. Any Swiss people got anything to add? I know mine doesn’t look as shiny as the ones I found in google images. Kinda like it that way, though …
I had sort of decided I was a bit crap at bread, though, so I put it off for a while.
Turns out I’m really not … this turned out beautifully!
I used Katrina’s recipe but omitted one ingredient – the 2T of brandy. If I’d owned brandy, I probably would’ve used it. However, I don’t.
Anyway, I suppose I better throw a quick idea of the recipe in here because you guys seem to like that sort of thing:
2tsp dried yeast
300mL (ish) of milk
500g flour (I’m actually unclear on whether this ought to be plain or high grade. If I am honest, I used plain)
1.5 tsp salt
60g butter
1 tsp sugar
Warm 100mL of the milk to yeast temperature and stir in the yeast. Leave until it froths, and then pour into a well in the centre of the flour. Draw in some of the flour to form a paste with the yeast mixture, and then leave that to rise. Katrina said 20 minutes for that, and 20 minutes worked perfectly. Meanwhile, cream the salt and sugar into the butter. Once the yeast paste is risen, mix in the butter mixture and the rest of the flour, then add milk, mixing, until a firm dough is achieved. This seems to take between 100 and 200mL of milk (and you’d hope so, seeing as the recipe calls for 300mL in total), but I’m really not sure how much we added in the end.
Proof the dough for 1.5-2 hours, or until doubled in size, then knock back and rest for 10 minutes before dividing into three segments and rolling them out into long, plaitable strips.
To plait, make a cross out of two strips and then add the third down the middle of the right angle formed. Plait from the middle to one end, and then turn around and plait from the middle to the other end. If you get stuck, there are plenty of youtube videos.
Proof, plaited, for 35-45 minutes (to be fair, I got impatient and so it only got a half hour).
Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for about 40 minutes, or until the bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped.
Eat hot, with jam or hummus. I tried both, and both were delicious.
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interesting method w/ creaming the sugar & salt into the butter…looks yummy.
yeah, i didn’t really want to add the butter in melted as it would mess with the consistency of the finished bread, and I didn’t want to contaminate the yeast sponge with salt and sugar either. So … solution! It took a lot of kneading to get it worked through but came out beautifully.
Very, very impressed.
Thank you!!! I’m rather impressed with myself to be honest.
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