Teleidoscope

Sun, Dec 23, 2007

Holiday Bread

Posted at 12:38 pm MST to Technology

I've got two batches of bread rising. One is the first batch of bread made with the new sourdough starter. The other is a holiday bread.

Nonna used to make a holiday bread with rains and citron, but I never knew the recipe for that one. I know it was kneaded and didn't have an over night rise, and the texture was more breadlike than some holiday breads. So I'm improvising based on stollen and recipes I've found for panettone..

My recipe so far:

Put 1/4 cup warm water, a pinch of sugar and about 2.25 teaspoons of dry yest in a custard cup and let it proof.

Cream 1/2 cup each room temperature butter and sugar.

Mix in three eggs

Add 1/5 teaspoons pickling salt, the yeast mixture, 1 teaspoon lemon peel,and 1/2 teaspoon each vanilla and fiori di sicilia.

(Note 1: Fiori di sicilia is a flavoring blending citrus oil and vanilla, but I wanted more vanilla in the balance.)

(Note 2: Pickling salt is very pure and fine-grained, but like kosher salt, the quantities need to differ from table salt. I suspect I will need to adjust the salt in the future.)

Mix in about 1.5 cups of flour and leave the mixer on medium high for a few minutes to stretch the gluten.

Put about a half or three quarters cup each of citron and raisins in a bowl with about three quarters of a cup of flour and stir so that the fruit and coated, add to the mixer bowl, blend it in, then switch to the dough hook.

Keep mixing in flour until the dough ball cleans the sides of the bowl, then turn it out and finish kneading by hand.

I'm going to give it two room-temperature rises plus the one after the loaf is shaped. (The plain bread will get only one rising before shaping: the sourdough critters tend to digest some of the gluten so the dough has less spring.) Maybe I should try a holiday bread using the starter later in the week.

I'm pretty sure this is a richer dough than my grandmother used...I may back off on the eggs, butter and sugar if I make it again. I should ask my Aunt whether she remembers any of the details. But Aunt Irma was never really into cooking.

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