All Time Bread adding sweetness to your festivities
As we get set for the important Durga Puja, the mood
is already upbeat. Our nation's traditional desserts are distinctive from
others. Making our exquisite mishtis takes a lot of time and work, which
perfectly encapsulates what a labor of love is all about. We frequently balk at
making these at home due to the laborious process. But what if I told you that
you can easily make delicious delights in your own home?
It's time to bake during the holidays. Rich sweet
breads like stollen, panettone, babka, and brioche are deeply ingrained in this
heritage.
However, these loaves can be projects, let's face it.
Additionally, they may be so daunting as to make you hesitate during the busy
holiday season.
But it doesn't have to be that way. Any baker,
regardless of experience level, can create lovely holiday sweet breads with the
appropriate information. I'll outline all you need to know to master these
traditional breads, from having the correct ingredients on hand to adding the
final touches to each loaf (and how to keep calm in the process).
First
things first:
fill your
kitchen with the necessities! Yeasted doughs that have been enhanced with fat
(usually butter or oil), eggs, sugar, milk, and other ingredients are used to
make sweet (or enriched) breads. Sweet breads are made pillowy soft and supple
with the help of these components. Before beginning, make sure you have plenty
of them on hand, along with flour, salt, and yeast.
You'll note that in some recipes we specify Baker's
Special Dry Milk or nonfat dry milk in place of liquid milk. This ingredient's
convenience alone makes me a big fan.
Milk powder softens and tenderizes sweet breads
exactly as well as liquid milk when combined with water. However, dried milk is
shelf-stable and will remain fresh for months, unlike its liquid equivalents.
All of this does not obligate you to use milk powder,
though. Almost any recipe that asks for it can be omitted by replacing the
water with liquid milk in a 1:1 ratio.
Knead
repeatedly.
Along with keeping your kitchen well-stocked with
ingredients for sweet bread, you need schedule some time into your hectic
holiday schedule. Sweet breads need a lot of kneading and resting
(fermentation), even though they don't necessarily require a lot of manual
labor. Fortunately, this gives you the opportunity to complete other holiday
to-do lists or just relax.
The finest tools for combining and kneading enriched
dough are a stand mixer and time. After combining the ingredients, many
enriched doughs need a lot of kneading (up to 20 minutes in a mixer) because of
their high fat content.
Despite some bakers' claims that you could knead by
hand, I strongly support the use of a stand mixer. This time of year, you need
to be more careful with your precious time and energy!
So why does enriched dough need so much time to be
kneaded? The same fat responsible for the soft, sensitive texture of the
resulting sweet loaves provides the solution. Fetters like as butter, oil, and
egg yolks bind the flour, which slows down the formation of gluten linkages.
However, you want the gluten to develop into strong
connections. Sweet breads require all the power they can get to hold all that
fat in place and retain their structural integrity.
testing
the gluten's composition
By doing a windowpane test, you can make sure that
you've successfully formed robust gluten. You can see through the dough (or a
piece of dough) if you stretch it thin enough. Before the dough tears, this
"window" should last for many seconds. You'll need to mix a little
bit longer if it doesn't.
Consider our Christmas Stollen as an illustration. The
dough is about three-quarters of the way through the kneading process in the
left-hand photo. When stretched, it rips easily. What occurs when the dough is
fully kneaded is depicted in the image to the right. It can be easily stretched
till it becomes transparently thin.
Get
up, ferment, and relax
The yeast gladly releases CO2 and alcohol byproducts
as it eagerly munches away on the sugars it discovers in the flour. These in
turn help the dough to expand (rise) and give the finished bread its delicious
fermented flavor.
Both of these fermentation stages, as I already
indicated, might take a long time for sweet breads. Once more, the ingredients
are the cause of this.
Fat can operate as a barrier against yeast that is
hungry, much as it does when it coats flour to slow down the creation of
gluten. Before the yeast can enjoy the sugary carbohydrate feast that flour
offers, it must first battle its way past butter and egg yolks in all of our
recipes. As the yeast tries to get past this fat barrier, fermentation slows
down as a result.
Ironically, sugar is the second culprit of sluggish
fermentation. To flourish, yeast needs moisture. Because sugar is hygroscopic
(a liquid guzzler), it is excellent at removing moisture from yeast. As a
result, yeast needs to compete with other organisms for its fair share of
water, which further lengthens the fermentation process.
being
on time
Knowing exactly how long sweet doughs need to rise
might be challenging given all these obstacles. Our recipes give you a decent
idea of the kind of timing you might anticipate. However, we usually want to
emphasize that a dough's appearance and texture will reveal far more
information than its time.
Consider our recipe for Cranberry-Orange Babka. The
dough should "rise until it has just about doubled, 60 to 90
minutes," according to the recipe. The term doubled, not the minutes, is
your clue in this sentence.
The same dough can take 90 minutes or longer in a
chilly (65°F) kitchen. Therefore, keep an eye out for those visual indicators.
Baker's tip: A foolproof technique to guarantee
properly-risen dough is to use straight-sided, neatly marked dough-rising
containers. The same effect can be achieved by applying tape markings to a
bowl's interior or exterior.
Adjust
fermentation to your timetable.
What do you do if your sweetheart's schedule is simply
incongruent with yours? Simple: increase or decrease the fermentation period.
Consider our Brioche recipe as an example. We advise
chilling the dough for several hours or overnight after a one-hour rise at room
temperature.
Why? Well, recollect how I claimed fermentation would
last longer in a colder kitchen? Refrigeration gives you more time to deal with
yeast.
In order for the yeast to begin the fermentation
process, you must allow it to do some of its work at room temperature. Any
sweet dough, however, can be placed in the refrigerator for at least a few
hours until fermentation is roughly three-quarters complete. This holds true
for both bulk fermentation and proving once your dough has been formed.
The process of fermenting lasting longer has a few
additional advantages. Your sweet breads will taste better if you give the
yeast more time to work. Additionally, because sweet breads have a larger fat
content, freezing the dough can make shaping them much simpler.
A firm, smooth dough is easier to shape, roll, and
twist than a soft, sticky, and butter-greasy one. What about the opposite? What
if you wish to hasten the fermentation process? Temperature is once again your
best bet.
In a temperature range of 76°F to 78°F, yeast grows
and performs at its best. Faster fermentation times are assured with a proofer
set in this range. Alternatively, a microwave or cardboard box can work just as
well if you don't have a proofer.
Another choice is to recruit the aid of a strain of
yeast created especially to withstand the lower moisture environment brought on
by sugar's propensity to guzzle liquid. That is exactly what SAF Gold instant
yeast accomplishes.
See how to make it in our recipe for Overnight
Panettone. This unique yeast may replace 1 tablespoon of SAF Red instant yeast
with just 2 1/4 teaspoons. It permits fermentation times of 60 to 90 minutes
rather than more than two hours. For every batch of this fruit-studded beauty
you make over the holidays, you'll save 1 to 2 hours! I think the investment on
the yeast was well worth it.
Fresh cranberries, dried apricots, Fruitcake Fruit
Blend, Yuletide Cheer Spice, Rum Glaze, Swedish Pearl Sugar, marzipan, dried
pineapple, Orange Jammy Bits, Snow White Non-Melting Sugar, candied citrus
peel, golden raisins, orange zest, and dried cranberries are all listed from
left to right, top to bottom.
Enhancements
of flavor
Although sweet breads are defined by their tasty
components, they don't typically taste particularly buttery, sweet, eggy, or
milky. Bakers throughout history have added delectable fillings, inclusions,
and toppings to these loaves to improve their qualities.
For holiday sweet breads, additions like spices,
citrus zest, dried fruits, and nuts are particularly popular. These can either
be kneaded into the dough or made into a delicious filling that the dough can
be spiraled or folded around.
The most typical topping for sweet breads is various
types of sugar. I especially enjoy the way brioche and panettone look when we
sprinkle our pearl sugar over them. Naturally, sparkling sugar is a desirable
alternative as well.
Our non-melting sugar is a fantastic substitute for
confectioners' sugar for making stollen. Contrary to the latter, this topping
sugar won't melt before you can give or consume the loaf, as its name says.
Finally, after baking, I enjoy drizzling a glaze on
top of my babkas. The inherent swirls in the bread are visually enhanced in
some way by the drizzled appearance.
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delicious
pastries being shaped
The flavor enhancers indicated above also have the
added benefit of beautifying a loaf that would otherwise be all one color.
Another strategy for achieving aesthetic appeal is shaping.
Some sweet breads have long-standing traditions
guiding their design. Stollen is a prime illustration. The flat, folded-over
design, albeit relatively simple in appearance, is thought to depict a newborn
Jesus in a swaddling.
If not, shaping sweet breads is a quick and easy
method to put your own unique spin on these loaves. The options are practically
limitless, but I've only showed the most fundamental shapes above.
With a few easy twists and turns, you can give your
babka loaves a somewhat more ornate appearance. Or try the four- or even
six-strand technique to add more braids to your repertoire.
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The
concluding step
Sweet breads require a final, pre-baking procedure
that is occasionally overlooked but has a significant impact on the final
appearance and texture of your loaves. Even though it's not required, an egg
wash turns a matte, muted brown crust into one that's glossy and beautifully
golden. 1 big egg, beaten with a tablespoon of water Additionally, it will aid
in retaining moisture during baking, preventing crumbly, dry loaves.
The distinction is particularly noticeable on loaves
that are otherwise plain, like as the two Brioche loaves shown above. Egg
washing is not as important for sweet breads like stollen and babka because
their aesthetic appeal comes primarily from their toppings and fillings. respectively.
When using sparkling or pearl sugar, an egg wash can
be beneficial. Your toppings won't come off the bread the moment you touch it
or slice it if you brush the wash on before adding the sweeteners.
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Sweet
breads should be baked to a perfect 190°F.
The final step in the procedure for various sweet
breads is baking. Baking is your last opportunity to perfect your loaf if
you're not planning to decorate it after it comes out of the oven with a
generous sprinkle of sugar or a glaze. You want to do it correctly!
Sweet breads can be easily underbaked. The browning
(or Maillard reaction) that takes place during baking is facilitated by sugar,
lactose from dairy products, and eggs. As a result, sugary breads can brown
quite quickly. A loaf may seem to be finished on the outside, but it may still
need more time in the oven.
Purchasing a nice digital thermometer is the best way
to get around this obstacle. Additionally, halfway through baking, you can
cover the loaf with foil to prevent it from overbrowning.
Even if both Overnight Panettone loaves are evenly
browned in the image above, the one on the left is still 28°F short of being
fully baked. I placed it back in the oven with a tin-foil hat since I didn't
want it to become any darker. Eight minutes later, it was over 190°F and
finished.
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gifts
galore
One thing is certain: these loaves won't let you down
whether you're enjoying delicious breads with friends and family or giving them
to neighbors, teachers, and postmen. As you see the smiles and hugs they
elicit, you will realize how much planning went into them.
We have dozens of festive sweet breads to pick from,
including stars, wreaths, and adorable miniature buns. Try the ones highlighted
in this article or find your new favorites in our collection of seasonal sweet
breads.
We have dozens of festive sweet breads to pick from, including stars, wreaths, and adorable miniature buns. Try the ones highlighted in this article or find your new favorites in our collection of seasonal sweet breads.
