Beard on Bread (23 page)

Lift the dough from the water and let the excess water drip off. Unwrap and turn out on a lightly floured surface. Again it will be quite sticky, so scrape off any dough that adheres to the towel. Knead and shape into two loaves, using both dough scraper and your hands. Thoroughly butter two 9 × 5 × 3-inch pans and place one loaf in each pan. Cover, put in a warm, draft-free place, and let the dough rise slightly above the tops of the pans, or until almost doubled in bulk.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°. Brush the dough with cold water, and, if you like, make a slash in each loaf with a sharp knife. Place
on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 to 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when rapped with the knuckles, top and bottom. When done, place the loaves directly on the oven rack, without their pans, to brown the bottoms a little more and crisp the crusts. Cool on racks.

• 
Salt-Free Water-Proofed Bread:
This uses the same technique as the previous recipe, except that I tailored it for someone on a special diet by leaving out the salt and substituting honey for the sugar. The honey, in turn, made a stickier dough that required an extra cup of flour. Although a little closer grained in texture than the first loaf, it is still a very delicious bread.

[2 loaves]

Rinse out a large mixing bowl with warm water and dry it. Combine the yeast with the warm water and 1 tablespoon honey in the mixing bowl. Stir well until it is dissolved and allow to proof for 5 minutes. Heat the milk to lukewarm with the butter and remaining ¼ cup honey. Pour it into the yeast mixture and stir to blend very well. When it has cooled slightly add the eggs, one at a time. Then stir in 3½ cups of the flour, a cup at a time, with a wooden spoon. The dough will be quite sticky and wet. Sprinkle the additional ½ to ¾ cup flour on your working surface, and use a baker’s scraper or large spatula and your hand to incorporate the flour into the very soft dough.
Proceed as described
in the master recipe
.

These are delicious little sweet buns that lend themselves to many variations. They are fun to prepare, have extraordinary taste, look charming, and can be frozen and reheated with great success. They are very nice for breakfast or with luncheon dishes.

[About 18 buns]

Proof the yeast with 1 tablespoon sugar in the warm water. Put 2 cups flour in a large mixing bowl and add the salt and butter. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips, working very quickly to keep the butter from melting, until the mixture resembles rather coarse meal. Add the warm milk and the yeast mixture, and beat very well with a wooden spoon. Then add the eggs, vanilla, and one more cup of flour and beat until the batter is very springy and airy. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead for just 1 minute, until you can form the dough into a ball. Spread out a cotton or linen cloth—a kitchen tea towel is perfect—and put the dough in the center. Fold the towel over the dough as you would to wrap a package, keeping it rather loose. Secure the package with string, then submerge in a large bowl or crock of tepid water and let stand for about 35 to 40 minutes. The package will rise to the top and float. Remove and let the excess water drip off.

Unwrap the dough, which will have doubled in volume. Scrape off onto a lightly floured board, and shape into a ball, kneading in a little
flour, since the dough will be fairly wet and sticky at this point. Pinch off from this ball of dough 18 or so even pieces about the size of a large egg, weighing the pieces to achieve uniformity if you have a scale and want to be a perfectionist. On a baking sheet or in a jelly-roll pan mix the ½ cup sugar and the chopped nuts. Roll each ball of dough in the sugar-and-nut mixture into a cylinder about 7 or 8 inches long. Fasten the ends together, and then twist at the center to roughly form a figure eight. Place on well-buttered baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Cover with aluminum foil and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 30 to 40 minutes, until the twists are doubled in bulk. Bake in a preheated 375° oven 15 to 20 minutes, until golden in color and fairly hollow sounding when tapped on the bottom. Cool on racks.

• After the risen dough has been scraped onto the floured board, gently knead in the nuts. Proceed with the recipe, rolling out the pieces of dough in sugar only.

Not the classic brioche that one prepares for the little top-knotted rolls, although similar to it, this is a loaf that is especially good for delicate sandwiches, such as the popular onion sandwich hors d’oeuvre I created years ago. It is also a delicious egg bread by itself, easy to make and pleasant in flavor.

[2 loaves]

Combine the yeast, sugar, and warm water and allow to proof. Mix the melted butter and salt. In a large bowl combine the flour, eggs, melted butter, and yeast mixture. Beat with the hand until smooth. Place in a buttered bowl, turning to butter the surface, cover, and set in a warm, draft-free place to rise until light and doubled in bulk, about 1 to hours. Punch the dough down and shape into two loaves. Fit into buttered 8 × 4 × 2-inch loaf pans and let rise again in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. Brush the loaves with the egg yolk-milk wash. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes, until the loaves are a deep golden brown and sound hollow when tapped with the knuckles. Cool on a rack.

When well made, this slightly sweet braided loaf looks exactly as if it would win first prize at the fair. It can be made with unbleached hard-wheat flour as well as with all-purpose flour, and the baking sheet can be coated with cornmeal instead of butter. The flavor is good, and the texture is very light. This is a nice bread to give away for a holiday present.

[1 large braided loaf or 2 smaller braided loaves]

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 cup of the flour, the sugar, salt, and dry yeast. Heat the milk and the butter in a saucepan, just until the milk is warm; the butter does not need to melt. Add the eggs and the warm milk mixture to the flour mixture. (This, as you will notice, is one of those newish dry-mix processes where you do not proof the yeast first—and it works.) Mix very well until thoroughly moistened, and beat with a wooden spoon for about 5 minutes. Then stir in the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Turn out on a floured board, and knead the dough until it is quite smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Work into a ball, place in a buttered bowl, and turn to coat with butter on all sides. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until light and doubled in bulk, 1 to 1½ hours.

Punch the dough down and divide into six equal portions. Roll each of these portions into a thin cylinder about 8 to 10 inches long. Take three
strips and braid them together. Place the braid on a baking sheet buttered or sprinkled with cornmeal. Braid the remaining three strips and place about 6 inches away from the other loaf. (For a more spectacular loaf, make a braid of three large strips and then a braid of three smaller strips, and put one on top of the other. This takes a good hour to bake and a slight amount of dexterity to shape.)

Cover the loaves and let rise in a warm, draft-free space until doubled in bulk, which will take another 1
½
hours. Brush with the egg white and water, sprinkle lavishly with sesame seeds, and bake in a preheated 375° oven for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped top and bottom with the knuckles and have achieved a nice golden-brown color.