Paulchens FoodBlog?!

Yes, I am baking with the Babes again. :)

I really need to apology to my fellow Babes for missing the past two month of baking with them – I admit I missed them a whole lot! I promise to bake the missed breads as soon as possible and post about it with my head hanging in shame *snigger*

Today is not only the posting day of us Bread Baking Babes but also World Bread Day.

To honor this day we invited our faithful Bread Baking Buddies to bake and post with us on this day and I have to say I am curious who has followed our invitation to bake this lovely bread with us.

As for World Bread Day: If you are looking for a lot of yummy breads you just have to jump over to Zorra’s Kochtopf. She is hosting the World Bread Day event again and I bet there will be a lot of heavenly breads in her round up during the next days… thanks Zorra for hosting this lovely event every year!

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Now to this month’s bread: Tanna is our Kitchen Mage of the month and not only chose this lovely recipe but also gathered us around her virtual kitchen table and invited us to bake with her.

Originally this bread was filled with a savory filling and I bet this lovely bead would taste great with pesto and all sorts of savory fillings your mind can come up with. I personally decided to go with a sweet version instead because I wanted it to use as breakfast bread and I am not a big fan of savory parts in my breakfast.

If you are baking this bread with us – and I highly recommend that you do so – let your mind fly free and come up with any filling that fits your gusto :) you will love it anyway!

I also played with the flours used in the recipe and went with a mixture of white spelt and millet flours. The suggested canola oil was partly replaced with walnut oil because I thought this would add an extra nice nutty flavor to the dough.

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Russian Rose

 Recipe By: Adapted from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19320/caucasian-bread
 Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

Filling- the options are only limited by your imagination and what’s in your kitchen!

butter , softened
almonds
dried sour cherries
dried coconut
orange zest
cinnamon
nutmeg

Dough
400 grams white spelt flour
200 grams millet flour
2.25 teaspoons dry yeast (Fresh Yeast 28g (1oz)
10 grams Sugar 10g (0.35oz)
10 grams Salt 10g (0.35oz)
35 grams Walnut Oil, 15 grams Canola Oil 50cc (1.7 fl oz)
300 grams Water 300cc (10 fl oz) this is approximate

Directions:

1. Set oven to 210c (410F) Prep: Baking Pan – 26cm (10″) springform (no bottom), take a piece of parchment paper and crimp tightly around the bottom of the springform, oil the sides. Place on top of a baking sheet. Set aside.
2. Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl, add the water carefully as you start mixing. Use the dough hook 2-3 mins. on low speed and 2-3 mins. on medium speed. Dough should be supple and not sticky to the touch. Add water or flour if dough is too stiff or too loose (respectively). When dough is ready, spray a bowl with oil and gently put the dough in the bowl. Spray a little more oil on top and cover. Let rise (80%) about 40 minutes to an hour.
3. Lightly flour your work area. Flatten the dough gently with your hands. Roll the dough as thin as you can using a floured rolling pin. When rolling out the dough, try not to lift and move it too much. You can try and gently pull the dough to stretch it thin like with Strudel. Apply a thin layer of your filling on top of the dough (leave the edge clear 1/4″).  Slowly, tightly and very gently roll the dough into a roulade (pinwheel ). You will now have a very long roulade.
4. Take a sharp chef’s knife (not a serrated knife) and cut (not saw) the roulade lengthwise trying to keep the knife in the middle so you end up with two equal parts (you can cut down from the seam but it is not make or break).
5. Place the two halves crossing each other (open roulade layers facing up) to create and X shape. Gently pick up the two ends of the bottom half, cross them over the top half, and place them back down. Continue this process, taking the two bottom ends and crossing them over the top until all the roulade has been used.
   
6. You now have a two strand rope shape. If for some reason some of the open roulade layers are pointing down or sideways, carefully turn them so they are facing up. Gently pinch the ends to seal. Look at the braid. If one end looks a little thinner make that your starting point. If not, just start from either end. Slowly and very gently, roll the braid sideways (horizontally) without lifting your hands from the table. You should keep those open roulade layers facing up. Pinch the end delicately. The end result should look like a giant snail shell or a very large cinnamon bun.
   Depending on your filling you may want to sprinkle on something (paprika, sumac, brown sugar & cinnamon). Keep in mind you don’t want to cover up the effect of the shaping.
   
7. Carefully pick up the braid and place in the prepared springform. Keep it flat on the parchment. The bottom of the braid should set nicely. Cover. Let rise until the braid hits three quarters the way up the springform. Depending upon the temp in your kitchen this may take from 20 to 40 minutes.
   
8. Bake at 210c (410F) for 5-10 mins. lower oven to 180c (355F) and bake for another 20-30 mins. There should be a decent amount of oven spring. The bread should rise above the springform edge. When the bread is out of the oven lightly brush olive oil or butter on top and sides. Let cool on a rack.
   
9. You are welcome to bake this with all white flour or any combination of you like. My changes reflect an attempt to incorporate more whole grains; at some point I will probably try this with some rye flour.

very smooth dough read for first proofing cycle

rolled out dough, spread with nut, milk, sour cherry paste

cut dough roll, ready for braiding

rolled up dough, before second proofing

ready baked, cooling down

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Yeastspotted!

I send this over to Susan’s Yeastspotting.
YeastSpotting is a weekly showcase of yeasted baked goods and dishes with bread as a main ingredient. If you are not familiar with YeastSpotting just scroll the archive and you’ll know what I am talking about. To submit your post simply klick here!

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You sure want to bake this bread as well, don’t you?

Please do so, you will not regret it. If you snap some pics and share your thoughts about this month’s bread on your blog Tanna will be more than happy to add you to the BBB Buddy round up on November 29th.  If you do not own a blog, no worries, you can also post your picture to Flickr or any other photo sharing site and share your thoughts there.

One word about that whole Buddy thing: 
The Bread Baking Babes are a closed group but we thought it would be fun to reward people who take the effort of baking our breads with us and give them a nice Buddy Badge and mention in a round up post every month. Just to say thank you for baking along and sharing your thoughts with us.

Since we are Babes and do no obey to rules, there are nearly no rules for Buddies, except these two:

1. Bake the featured bread, snap a pic & share your thoughts about how you liked it (or not liked it)
2. Send an email to the Kitchen of the Month to notify  us and make it easier to write the round up.

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Don’t forget to visit my fellow Babes and see what they did with this lovely Bread this month.

Oh and don’t forget to visit Katie our BBBBB (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire) who writes up such lovely round ups of all the BBB Breads every month!

Bake My Day – Karen | blog from OUR kitchen – Elizabeth  | Feeding my enthusiasms – Pat  | Living in the Kitchen with Puppies – Natashya | Lucullian Delights – Ilva | Notitie Van Lien – Lien | Wild Yeast – Susan | My Kitchen In Half Cups – Tanna

Busy, Busy Babes on Hiatus: Provechu Peru – Gretchen | Grain Doe – Görel | Living on bread and water – Monique  | The Sour Dough – Breadchick Mary | Thyme For Cooking – Katie | Cookie Baker Lynn – Lynn | I Like To Cook – Sara

Thinking of you with Love: Glenna (Alumni Babe) | Sher (Angel Babe)

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