Dear Bakers,
Pastry vs. Bread. I think people are often put off by baking bread than pastry...at least I was. Especially as a poor student with a limited budget on buying baking supplies (ahem...stand mixer), kneading by hand did not seem to be worth the energy.
Ingredients:
1 large egg
2 Tbs of melted butter
3/4 cup of warm milk
2 3/4 cup of flour
2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast
1 Tbs of sugar
1 Tbs of salt
1/4 cup of pesto*
*you can make your own basil pesto, but I just bought mine off the shelf.
1. In a large bowl, put the flour and salt together and stir with a silicon spatula.
2. In a microwavable cup, pour 3/4 cup of milk and microwave for 30-45 secs until the milk feels lukewarm.
3. Add the sugar and yeast in the milk and stir until thoroughly dissolved.
4. Add the egg* into the milk mixture and stir until incorporated.
*Make sure to leave you egg at room temperature before use.
5. Add 2 Tbs of melted butter into the wet mixture and stir.
6. Make a crater in the middle of the bowl with your mixture of flour and salt. Pour your wet mixture into the bowl. Stir with a silicon spatula to scrape off all the flour from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, add 1-2 more Tbs of flour and knead until the sides of your bowl are clean.
7. Gently knead your dough (press on the flour-milk mixture until it comes together into a ball of dough) and grease the surface of the dough with olive oil or vegetable oil to prevent crust formation.
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and poke few holes to get the pressure out. Place a wet towel over the plastic-wrapped bowl and keep the bowl in a relatively warm place for an hour. (Yeast will be activated and start to rise the dough at this time ^^)
Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) during this waiting time.
9. After an hour, your dough should have doubled in size. Poke a hole in the middle of the dough. If the indentation remains in the dough, it's ready for kneading and baking!
10. Punch your dough to get the gas out. Flour your working board and take the dough out of the board.
11. Gently knead the ball of dough for 3-5 minutes. To knead, fold your dough ball in half, press and push the folded-dough with the heel of your hand. Repeat for about 15-20 times.
12. Flour your roller and roll your kneaded dough into a rectangle about 12'' x 20'' (30cm x 50cm), about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. If you want more layers to your braid, you get cut the dough-ball in half and roll our the dough thinner. I wanted mine to have more body so I used the entire dough.
13. Spread your pesto to cover surface of the rolled out dough. Leave about an inch at the end so it will be easier to close the dough roll. Tightly roll the dough from the length (longer side) of the rectangle and close the dough.
14. Leaving an inch at the end, vertically split the rolled dough into half by cutting through the dough with a serrated . Braid the split dough by sequentially tucking in the halfs under each other until you hit the end of the splited halves.
15. You can bake your braid in this long, braided form OR you can close it up into a wreath like I did. To close the bread into a ring, just put the two ends together.
16. On a baking pan lined with aluminum foil, baking sheet, or greased with oil/butter, bake at 180 C (350 F) for ~20-25 minutes until golden brown.
This bread was so moist, chewy and aromatic. This braided-bread recipe can also be applied to making a dessert, with cinnamon sugar filling instead of pesto.
Hope you all can break out of your fear of baking bread with yeast with this recipe! If I can do it...you can to. ;)
Happy Baking!
2016.01.18
2. In a microwavable cup, pour 3/4 cup of milk and microwave for 30-45 secs until the milk feels lukewarm.
3. Add the sugar and yeast in the milk and stir until thoroughly dissolved.
4. Add the egg* into the milk mixture and stir until incorporated.
*Make sure to leave you egg at room temperature before use.
5. Add 2 Tbs of melted butter into the wet mixture and stir.
6. Make a crater in the middle of the bowl with your mixture of flour and salt. Pour your wet mixture into the bowl. Stir with a silicon spatula to scrape off all the flour from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too wet, add 1-2 more Tbs of flour and knead until the sides of your bowl are clean.
7. Gently knead your dough (press on the flour-milk mixture until it comes together into a ball of dough) and grease the surface of the dough with olive oil or vegetable oil to prevent crust formation.
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and poke few holes to get the pressure out. Place a wet towel over the plastic-wrapped bowl and keep the bowl in a relatively warm place for an hour. (Yeast will be activated and start to rise the dough at this time ^^)
Preheat your oven to 180 C (350 F) during this waiting time.
9. After an hour, your dough should have doubled in size. Poke a hole in the middle of the dough. If the indentation remains in the dough, it's ready for kneading and baking!
10. Punch your dough to get the gas out. Flour your working board and take the dough out of the board.
11. Gently knead the ball of dough for 3-5 minutes. To knead, fold your dough ball in half, press and push the folded-dough with the heel of your hand. Repeat for about 15-20 times.
12. Flour your roller and roll your kneaded dough into a rectangle about 12'' x 20'' (30cm x 50cm), about 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick. If you want more layers to your braid, you get cut the dough-ball in half and roll our the dough thinner. I wanted mine to have more body so I used the entire dough.
13. Spread your pesto to cover surface of the rolled out dough. Leave about an inch at the end so it will be easier to close the dough roll. Tightly roll the dough from the length (longer side) of the rectangle and close the dough.
14. Leaving an inch at the end, vertically split the rolled dough into half by cutting through the dough with a serrated . Braid the split dough by sequentially tucking in the halfs under each other until you hit the end of the splited halves.
15. You can bake your braid in this long, braided form OR you can close it up into a wreath like I did. To close the bread into a ring, just put the two ends together.
16. On a baking pan lined with aluminum foil, baking sheet, or greased with oil/butter, bake at 180 C (350 F) for ~20-25 minutes until golden brown.
This bread was so moist, chewy and aromatic. This braided-bread recipe can also be applied to making a dessert, with cinnamon sugar filling instead of pesto.
Hope you all can break out of your fear of baking bread with yeast with this recipe! If I can do it...you can to. ;)
Happy Baking!
2016.01.18
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