Bread making is an excellent opportunity to cultivate patience. I tell myself this every time I start a sponge, and one of these days I'm going to actually cultivate some patience. Haha. Maybe. Anyway, this recipe is very similar to most basic white wheat breads, but the sponge in this recipe is set aside at room temperature for three hours. That's a very long time!
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| Sponge: before |
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| Sponge, after 3 hours |
So, to start off, two cups of flour and two measures of yeast (about a scant tablespoon each) are measured into a bowl. This is mixed with two cups of hot water until smooth, and then a light layer of flour is sprinkled on top of the gooey sponge. This then rests for three hours, covered, at room temperature. Fortunately, I don't start classes until next week, so I spent the time working on a couple of small, unfinished sewing projects that have been sitting around waiting for me to complete. Huzzah for hand work! So, at the end of the three hours, I braced myself, and uncovered the bowl where, to my delight, there was a bubbly goo! The resting period allowed for some fairly impressive gluten formation, apparently, as I found as I stirred the sponge down into a manageable gloop. (That's the technical term, I swear!)
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| Before rising |
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| After first rise |
Oil, salt, a little warm milk and about two more cups of flour were mixed in, and then I began the process of kneading in the remainder of the flour, about a quarter-cup at a time. I like to knead my dough on the counter, occasionally throwing it down onto the counter during the process. It took about ten minutes, and the dough was very silky, with a lot of life to it. This recipe calls for the dough to be greased and put into a bowl to rise. Honestly, I normally skip this step, and just throw it back in the mixing bowl. This dough was very springy, though, and I was curious to see what would happen, so I washed the bowl, and tossed the dough back into it with a little olive oil, turning it a couple of times, and then covering it with a clean kitchen towel. Most modern bread recipes call for the dough to rise under plastic wrap, waxed paper, or some other modern material. I prefer a clean kitchen towel, and always use that instead. This dough rose quickly, easily doubling in size, with visible air bubbles under the surface.
This recipe also calls for two rising periods before shaping, one for an hour, the second for about twenty minutes. I punched the dough down, re-covered it, and then the fun part! The author suggested placing a small "can of ashes" in the oven while baking, apparently to replicate the "wood fired oven" flavour in the bread. We have a fire pit outside, but it's also the middle of winter, and it's been snowing all day, of course! I'm a Norsewoman, however, and, undaunted by a little snow, I headed out to the back yard and rummaged in the fire pit for some ashes. Unfortunately, the ashes were all cemented into a solid block of ice. I did manage to chip out some charred wood, which I put in a small make-shift foil container and set on the floor of the oven, as recommended. (Note: In the future I will use actual wood ashes, and lots more of them. In the end there was minimal aroma of wood smoke noticeable and almost no impact on the final flavour, sadly!)
Now, this bread is named for the shape of the loaves, and this is one area I need more practice on, but I managed to divide the dough into three sections and shape it into roughly the "slender football" shape recommended by the author. After another period of rising under the kitchen towel, the loaves were slashed, brushed with salt water, and baked at 400°F for about 45 minutes, brushed with the salt water every fifteen minutes during the process. They came out beautiful, if a teensy bit lopsided, with a nice brown crust.
After the required "cooling off" period, we sliced into them, and they were really lovely. The salt water created a nice, chewy crust, and the crumb was slightly irregular, but very tender, with small air pockets throughout which give it a nice rustic look and feel. This bread is good enough to eat as-is, with a nice flavour from the salt water, and my kids quickly demolished half a loaf. (Luckily, this recipe makes three loaves, so we have plenty for dinner tonight still!)
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| Mirianna enjoying the Viennese "zeppelin" bread. |
My 11 year old daughter, known in Society as Mirianna, was happy to pose for a picture, as long as I let her have yet another butter-slathered slice as a bribe. A small price to pay! This is another excellent recipe for a feast, with a more rustic look and feel to it which would be an enhancement to any feast table!
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