January 15, 2009 - 8:38am
Zopf
I saw a great presentation from Peter Rheinhart on www.ted.com (really great) and subsequently this website. I never realized more people are that interested in the real breadmaking.... it started for me when my Swiss baker told me he had no 'bread' when I ordered one. I had to first tell him why I wanted the bread...
Here is my first contribution to this forum: Zopf! Original Swiss / Austrian, (braided bread?)
These two have a bit too much sugar on top, but the kids....
The one above was done by a friend of a friend. She was near professional and
I have not tried to copy this, yet. Does anyone know how this is done?
Groeten,
Jw.
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Welcome to TFL. If I understand correctly, you would like to learn to bake the second loaf in your post. It looks like an enriched bread made with eggs, oil sugar added. The gloss says it has been washed or brushed with beaten eggs prior to baking, probably twice.
If I had to guess, I would say it is a Challah, braided of course. Here is a link to one of many posts on this popular holiday bread. Challah
If that is not what you are thinking of, I suggest you search for "enriched breads"
Good luck and I hope to see your future posts.
Eric
It looks like a six-strand braid. The ropes are a lot thinner than the ones in a regular challah and are not tapered.
There is a good recipe and a video showing the braiding here:
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=s0WmCsdHV50&feature=related
Welcome! I'm not sure, but that might be a 6-strand braid. This video will be really helpful:
http://www.finecooking.com/videos/braiding-challah.aspx
Thanks for the comments, I will try it out this weekend.
I looked up the Cholla recipe, it is quite different. This is not Cholla.
Groeten (meaning 'regards' in Dutch)!
Jw.
What's different about it? Other than the shape, of course.
(never mind, I see the recipe below.)
is the german word for braid.
a zopf usually has three strands but, with six strands it would still be a zopf.
dough and preparation are quite similar to challah. exept for the kosher part.
for the dough you need:
unbleached all purpose or bread flour 1000 gr
one pack dry yeast 21 gr
salt 1 tsp
sugar 1 tsp
butter 120 gr
milk whole 500 ml
prep :
milk needs to be warm, butter liquid but warm
kneed until nice and smooth with well developed strands
set aside and let the dough rise until it doubled the volume, fold and shape three or as many strands as you like.
let the finished zopf rest for another 40 min. or so, then brush on the eggwash.
preheat oven to 400 F bake for 40 min or golden.
the dough should be quite stiff but flexible. if needed add more milk or flour.
some bakers add one egg yolk to the dough.
some use high gluten flour.
one more thing:
me being swiss never had any 'splaining to do when i tried to buy a pice of bread.
take care
Thank you for the tips, I should now be able to make an six or even eight strand zopf.
BTW this is the flour I use : Vorarlberger mehl. There is a recipe for Zopf on the back.
Groeten,
Jw.