Pretzel Burger Buns

Though the Victoria Day weekend is over, it lives on in my heart... and my bread basket. I made a large batch of homemade burger buns for the veggie burgers my mum grilled, and to give it a special twist, I also made a different kind of bun... these ones have the outside texture and saltiness of a pretzel, with the inside pillowy-softness of a roll. I used a specially-designated pretzel salt for the outside, but any coarse salt will do.

These are really good with a pat of butter on their own, or for sandwiches. One good idea is to make elongated buns to use with hot dogs. In any case, these are a welcome addition to any grill-oriented feast or celebration.

Pretzel Buns
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

For the Dough:
4 1/2 C. All purpose or bread flour
1 Tsp. Diastatic malt powder or honey
1/4 C. Whole milk powder
2 TBSP (30 g.) Butter, softened
3/4 Tsp. Salt
1 3/4 C. Water
2 Tsp. Active dry yeast, or 30 g. Fresh yeast

For the Water Bath:
8 C. Water
1 TBSP Salt
1/4 C. Baking soda

To Top:
About 1/4 C. Coarse salt

Mix the yeast, water, and malt powder. Whisk together the flour, salt, and milk powder, and add the water mixture, kneading until a soft dough forms. Add the butter and mix until incorporated. Let rise in a covered, greased bowl for 60-90 minutes, or until doubled.

Divide into 10-14 pieces and shape into balls. Let rest for 20-30 minutes- in the meantime, preheat the oven to 200℃ and bring the water bath ingredients to a boil in a wide, large pot. 

Using a slotted spoon or spatula, lower the dough balls into the boiling water bath and let cook for 30 seconds. Flip and let cook another 30 seconds, then remove and put onto a parchment-lined baking pan.

Score the tops of the buns with a sharp knife in an 'X' pattern and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Hörnchen/ Sweet Crescent Rolls

This is one of my all-time favourite bread recipes, straight from 1969 East Germany. I've got this retro cookbook full of recipes suited for a time and place where expensive ingredients were lacking, so these rolls were originally designated to be made with margarine- still, butter is naturally better if you can get it. It's a very good roll to make for a sunday breakfast because you can make the dough in the previous evening, let it rise in the fridge overnight, then shape and bake it fresh in the morning.

This basic dough recipe is one that I use for many other sweet buns and breads, and I have made many rolls with fillings such as chocolate, nougat, cinnamon sugar and jam with great success. You can sprinkle the rolls with seeds or sugar or leave them plain, or skip the eggwash to make them totally eggless. If you reduce the sugar to about 15 g., you can even make a savoury version to serve with cheese inside. With their light, tender insides and golden outsides, these babies go with anything.

Hörnchen (From Das Backbuch- Verlag Für die Frau Leipzig, 1969 ed.)
Makes 8-10

500 g. Bread flour
100 g. Sugar
1 TBSP or 1 packet vanilla sugar
80 g. Butter or baking margarine, room temperature
1/2 Tsp. Salt
250 ml. Cold milk
30 g. Fresh yeast, or 10 g. Active dry yeast
Zest of 1 lemon (optional)
1 Egg or 2 TBSP melted butter, to wash

Whisk together flour, sugars, salt and zest, if using.

Combine yeast and milk to dissolve. Add to flour mixture and knead until smooth.

Knead in butter or margarine in pieces until completely incorporated.

Let rise in a covered, greased bowl overnight in the refrigerator.

In the morning, preheat oven to 200℃. Cut dough into two pieces. Roll out each on a floured surface into a large rectangle. Cut into triangles using a sharp knife or pizza cutter. Cut a slit in the base of each triangle to make it easier to roll into a crescent. Once shaped, let rise 20-30 minutes covered.

Brush with beaten egg or melted butter and bake for around 20 minutes, or until golden-brown and a thermometer poked inside registers 190℉. Let cool for about 10 minutes before eating.

White Chocolate Bread

There aren't many things I can make that my family gets as excited about as this very simple, very basic, and very... unpretentious bread. It's nothing more than a soft, chewy, slightly crusty loaf studded with white chocolate that becomes melty and caramelized in the oven, and yet it's one of the most irresistible and fantastic things I know. It's partially nostalgia for sure- a few years ago we went on a vacation with Club Med resorts, with whom this bread is famous, and apparently omnipresent in all their resorts (I'd love to go around to them all to study that claim... ahem). It was present at every meal, and I had it... with every meal. It's perfect in that it's greater than the sum of its parts, and definitely deserves its legendary status.

You can make it with a few pantry basics and in very little time, especially for a yeast dough. It's not too sweet because the dough itself is unsweetened, so it's never cloying. and you can enjoy it both hot and fresh or cooled. If there's any leftovers (yeah, right) you can make a glorious bread pudding or French toast. You can also make it with dark chocolate for a change, or if white chocolate isn't your thing.

If you like white chocolate, make this bread as soon as possible. Eat it as soon as you can cut it and feel the love.

White Chocolate Bread - From Club Med 
Makes 5 loaves, or an absurd quantity of buns (I usually halve this!)

8 C. (2 Lbs.) Bread flour
About 3 1/2 C. Water, room temperature
1 TBSP Vital wheat gluten
1 Tsp. Active dry yeast, or 15 g. Fresh yeast
2 Tsp. Salt
2 3/4 C. White chocolate chips or chunks (or more... if you like.)

In a stand mixer bowl, mix the flour, gluten and yeast. Using a dough hook, add the water- you might need slightly more depending on your conditions, but let the dough absorb what you've put in before adding any more (it'll be very sticky). Mix on medium for 2 minutes, then add the salt and mix on medium-high for 8-10 minutes. 

Add the chocolate chips and mix until well-incorporated on low speed, about 1 minute. Let rise in a covered, greased bowl for about 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 230℃. Divide dough into 5 pieces and shape into oblong loaves (or, make into buns!). Let proof covered on a parchment-lined baking pan for about 30-45 minutes- less time for warmer conditions.

Brush with water. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden-brown and crusty. Use a spray-bottle with water to spritz loaves if you want them to be crustier.

Let stand for at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Rosinenbrötchen mit Quark- Raisin Buns with Quark + Stollen-Brötchen

Plain buns on the left and raisined ones on the right.

In the long list of bread and bun recipes I'm finally getting around to posting, here's one of my favourites- soft, moist, rich raisin buns enriched with fresh cheese. You can use the quark recipe I've posted, or some farmer's cheese that's been processed well in a food processor with some extra butter. 

Many flavours work well in this dough, though I kept it simple- you can add some spices, some citrus zest or use a different dried fruit like cranberries or currants. You can even omit the fruit entirely (I did this with half because not everyone in my family appreciates the deliciousness of dried fruit...). These are one of the things I love to make for important holidays like Christmas and Easter as part of the breakfast menu, but I also love to freeze leftovers to eat later on... they're especially good with butter and jam, but are also delicious on their own. The "Stollen" version I give makes a nice off-season treat when you crave the flavours of Stollen but Christmas is still far off.

Rosinenbrötchen mit Quark
From ketex.de

For the Sponge:
200 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
150 g. Milk, 2 to 3.8%
20 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. active dry yeast

Mix all well and let rest, covered, for 45 minutes in a warm place.

For the Final dough:
Sponge
300 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
100 g. Butter, at room temperature
50 g. Sugar
100 g. Topfenquark (20% m.f.), or well-ground 12% twarog/farmer's cheese plus 25 g. butter (You can double this quantity for a moister, denser dough- just add about 5 minutes baking time)
8 g. Salt
2 Egg yolks
175 g. Raisins, light or dark
1 TBSP Diastatic malt powder, or honey

beaten egg yolk, condensed milk, cream or melted butter, to brush
Pearl sugar (optional)

Mix all but the butter and raisins and knead until smooth. Add the butter in small pieces and continue kneading until it's incorporated. Add the raisins and once they're evenly distributed, cover the dough and let rise in a greased bowl for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180℃. Form into buns of the desired size (about a dozen works best) and cover. Let rise for 1 hour in a warm place.

Brush with the desired topping. Sprinkle with pearl sugar, if you like. Bake the buns for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

For "Stollen-Brötchen":

Add a pinch of saffron to the milk in the sponge and heat until steaming. Let infuse 30 minutes before using.

To the above recipe, substitute a mixture of 100 g. sultanas and raisins, 25 g. chopped orange peel, 25 g. chopped citron peel and 50 g. currants. In addition, add:

1 Sachet vanilla sugar, or 1 TBSP homemade
Zest of one lemon
1/2 Tsp. Mace
1/2 Tsp. Nutmeg
1 Tsp. Cardamom
75 g. Chopped or slivered blanched almonds

To the dough; the spices and sugar in the first steps in making the final dough, and the almonds along with the fruit mixture.

Top the buns with melted butter and pearl sugar.

Kaisersemmeln/ Kaiser Buns

Kaisersemmeln in the foreground as part of an Easter breakfast spread.

What an amazing bun. It's versatile, easy and quick to make, and impressive to look at. The only tricky part is making the knot, but it's very easy once you get the hang of it- form long, well-floured "snakes" of dough, tie a loose knot and tuck the loose ends into the middle, maybe pulling them through and back again if they're long enough to get more loops.

This dough is relatively low in gluten, so it isn't as eager to return to its shape- that would pose a problem for the rolling-out.

High gluten flour helps keep together doughs with large portions of whole grain flours (which lack gluten) and chewy, porous breads, but in this case what you want is a soft bun, hence the all purpose or type 550 flour. (Note: if you live in the GTA, Starsky has a really good selection of European flours! I need to make a 'resources' page sometime.)

A brief note on what the numbers on different forms of flour mean- they refer to the amount of ash (that is, mineral) content in the flour that remains when a sample is combusted. This doesn't mean that the flour is mixed with ashes! Rather, the amount of minerals remaining roughly translates to the amount of the grain kernel left in the dough after milling, since that's where the majority of the minerals are. So, a higher number means a larger quantity of germ/endosperm and bran in the flour, defining its "whole-graininess". Different types of wheat and other grains also vary in mineral/ash content, so the number makes it easier to gauge the properties of a dough made with some flour rather than working with limited information about its origin, processing etc. The French, Italian, German and other classifications vary, but all have the same pattern of decreasing number meaning a finer, more refined flour.

Regardless of if you use all purpose or type 550 flour, this is an amazing bun, with a great flavour and texture that makes it perfect for a holiday breakfast (what I usually make them for), sandwiches, burgers, and so on... they also go down as one of my mum's favourites. So, that should really motivate you to try making them.

Kaisersemmeln
From Chefkoch.de

For the Sponge:
75 g. All purpose/Type 550 flour
75 g. Whole wheat or whole grain spelt flour
135 ml. Warm water
10 g. Fresh yeast, or 3 g. Active dry yeast

Mix all until well incorporated and let rest, covered, for 30-45 minutes.

For the Final Dough:
Sponge 
350 g. All purpose/Type 550 flour
140 ml Water
20 g. Butter
1 Tsp. Diastatic malt powder or honey
10 g. Salt

Add all but the salt and butter to the sponge and knead together. Add salt and knead for about 8 minutes, then add the butter in pieces and knead for 2 more minutes. Let dough rise, covered, for 20-30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 10 equally sized pieces. Form balls and let rest for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 250℃. Roll out each ball of dough by hand on a floured surface into a long "snake". When it's long enough, you should be able to tie a loose knot. Tuck the two "tails" of the knot into the centre of the dough, and moisten it with a bit of water to help it stick. If your dough is rolled out far enough, you can pull the tail(s) through the centre hole and back up again to make more twists. (Alternatively, you can use a kaiser bun stamp, but rolling it out and tying a knot helps to give it a nice texture.) Repeat with the remaining dough. Dust with flour and let rise 45 minutes. 

Bake for 10 minutes, adding steam with a spray bottle of water at the beginning and end of the period. Reduce the heat to 200℃ and bake for another 10-15 minutes, covering the buns with aluminium foil or a baking sheet on an upper rack to stop the browning. 

Sour Cream Easter Bread With Honey-Walnut Filling

This year I decided to combine the shape of a babka and the taste of a twisted, nut-filled Hefezopf for easter by making a huge round Easter bread rolled up with a walnut-honey-cinnamon filling. It straddles the line between a cake and a bread, but in any case it's incredibly good and definitely making a comeback during future holidays.

The nut filling is mildly sweet and spiced, and complements the aromatic, yeasty dough well. It's very moist when fresh thanks to the sour cream and oil, but tastes fantastic even when dried out.

You don't need to use the nut filling- or any filling at all. This dough would also probably taste good with an almond, chocolate or poppy swirl, or you could just add some raisins and/or nuts to the dough. You could even make it plain, perhaps adding a bit of lemon or orange zest in that case.

No matter what else is used, this is a champion amongst sweet yeast doughs!

Sour Cream Easter Bread
From Angellovescooking

For Dough:
3 Eggs and 1 yolk
200 g. Sour cream
150 g. Sugar
60 g. Butter, melted
40 g. Neutral or walnut oil
1/2 Tsp. Salt
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp. Rum extract or 1 TBSP rum, optional
1/2 TBSP Lemon juice
30 g. Fresh yeast, or 10 g. Active dry yeast
650 g. Bread flour, sifted

Butter and sugar, for the mold

Find a mold for the bread- a large kugelhopf mold, bundt mold or other loaf pan. Grease with butter and sprinkle with sugar.
Mix sour cream and yeast to dissolve. Add eggs and yolk, sugar, vanilla, rum and lemon juice.

Whisk together the salt and flour. Add the above wet mixture and knead until smooth. Add salt, oil and butter and knead until well incorporated.

Let rise for 1 hour to 90 minutes, or until doubled, in an oiled covered bowl.

Divide dough into 3 pieces. Spread each with filling and roll up, then twist and the whole twist in half. Place each piece into the kugelhopf or other bread mold to fill it up, then cover and let rise another 1 hour-90 minutes.

Bake at 180℃ for 45-50 minutes, covering with aluminium foil if it browns too quickly.

For the Filling:
200 g. Walnuts
150 g. Honey, liquid
1-2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 TBSP Rum
1 Egg white, lightly beaten

Grind nuts in a food processor until some coarse bits remain, but most are smooth. Add honey, cinnamon, rum and egg white and mix well.

Butterzopf- A Savoury Butter Bread

I wanted to make an ornamental, braided bread for easter, but already had more than enough sweet things on the table. So, I went for a traditional zopf, only unsweetened so that you've got a buttery, rich bread that can accompany anything. It's light, soft, and very pretty. 

I think that this bread would make especially good french toast, grilled cheese sandwiches, or perhaps with cheese and seeds on top. You can also make it sweet by using 60 grams of sugar and some lemon zest or vanilla extract. 

Butterzopf
Adapted from Kochtopf

500 g. Flour
1 TBSP Vital wheat gluten
1 Tsp. Honey
1 Tsp. Sugar
290 g. Milk
90 g. Butter, room temperature
21 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. Active dry yeast
1 Egg
12 g. Salt
1 egg or egg white, to glaze

Whisk together flour and vital wheat gluten. 

Warm milk and dissolve yeast, honey and sugar.

Add the milk mixture and egg to the flour and vital wheat gluten and knead until smooth. Add the salt and butter, in pieces. Knead until well-incorporated.

Let rise, covered, for 1 hour.

Divide dough into 3 equally sized pieces and roll into long, thin strands. Braid together and tuck the endings underneath. Let rise covered for 1-2 hours, or until doubled.

Preheat oven to 200℃. Brush with egg or white and bake for 25-30 minutes, covering with foil if it browns too quickly.

Hot Cross Buns

While not traditional for my family, hot cross buns are very popular in the area where I live- so they make a guest appearance at the easter table. Some are more breadlike and some are more sweet with crosses made of icing, so mine are a kind of intermediate that's not too sweet, uses a pastry cross, and has lots of spices, orange zest and currants. 

I glazed mine with an Azerbaijani white cherry jam, but any light-coloured jam can be used. you can also skip the crosses and just make these any-occasion buns. I imagine they'd make really good bread pudding. 

Hot Cross Buns
Adapted from I Love Bake

500 g. Bread flour
1 1/2 Tsp. Gingerbread spices
1 Tsp. Salt
75 g. Demerara or regular sugar
21 g. Fresh yeast, or 2 1/4 Tsp. Active dry yeast
300 ml. Milk
50 g. Butter
1 Egg
Zest of 1 orange
1 TBSP Oil
50 g. Candied orange peel
80 g. Currants

For the Pastry Crosses:
1/2 C. Water
75 g. Flour

Apricot jam or marmalade, to glaze (optional)

Sift together flour, salt, spices and add sugar.

Bring milk to a rolling boil. Remove from heat and add butter to melt. Add orange zest and let cool until lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in milk mixture and add to the flour mixture, along with the egg and oil. Knead until smooth, then add currants and peel and knead until well incorporated. Let rise in a covered, greased bowl for 1 hour.

Divide into 12-15 round balls. Shape into buns and cover. Let rise 30-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200℃.

Mix pastry cross ingredients well with a fork and pour into a pastry bag with the tip cut off. Pipe the mixture in a cross shape onto each bun.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Glaze with warmed jam or marmalade, if desired.

Polish Sourdough Rye

This is my favourite basic sourdough loaf that I've tried. It's quick to make, requires few ingredients, and has both a lot of flavour and a soft, porous crumb. It's my ideal rye bread, especially for sandwiches. You can use light rye to make a more subtly flavoured loaf, but I definitely prefer dark rye.

I like it the best with sunflower seeds- you can also mix some into the dough, if you wish. In any case, this is a very impressive bread for minimal effort.

Polish Sourdough Rye
From Kochtopf

For the Sourdough:

70 g. Dark rye flour
70 g. Distilled water
10 g. Sourdough starter

Mix all and leave covered overnight, at room temperature (12-16 hours).

For the Final Dough:

All above sourdough
400 g. Bread flour
100 g. Dark rye flour
11 g. Salt
10 g. Fresh yeast, or 1 Tsp. active dry yeast
350 g. Water

Seeds, e.g. sunflower, to sprinkle if desired

Dissolve yeast in water and leave for 5 minutes. Dissolve the sourdough thoroughly. 

Mix flours and add the yeast mixture, kneading until smooth. Add the salt and continue kneading on a medium-high speed with a stand mixer (or by hand) for about 5 minutes. Increase speed and continue kneading another 5 minutes until elastic.

Let rise, covered and in a greased or floured bowl,  for 30 minutes. Stretch out and fold the dough like a letter. Let rise another 30 minutes, then repeat.

Shape an oval loaf and let rise on a parchment-lined baking pan, covered, until doubled (about 1 hour). Preheat oven to 230℃.

Cut 3 to 4 slits on the top of the loaf of bread. Spray with water and sprinkle on seeds or additional flour, if desired.

Bake for 10 minutes. Spray the oven with steam from a spray bottle of water, then reduce the temperature to 210℃. Bake for another 25-30 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 190℉ inside. Cover with aluminium foil if it is browning too quickly.

Let cool for at least 1 hour before cutting.

Flaxseed and Honey Buns

If you like buns with a sweet, nutty flavour and a soft, dense texture, look no further. These bad boys are made with as much flaxseed as I could pack in for some delicious omega-3s as well as taste, and have the mild sweetness of honey. They're also made with a large portion of whole wheat flour for a relatively wholesome breakfast.

 

You can use more or less ground flaxseed, to taste. You can also try to add some different seeds on top, or some walnut pieces to the dough. In any case, these are the best toasted with butter and honey.

Flaxseed and Honey Buns
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

2 1/4 C. Bread flour
1 1/4 C. Whole wheat flour
3 TBSP Honey
3/4 C. Milk, warm
21 g. Fresh yeast, or 7 g. Active dry yeast
1 Egg
1/2 C. Water
1 1/2 TBSP Nut oil or melted butter
1/2-1 C. Ground flaxseed
Whole flaxseed, to sprinkle on

Mix yeast, milk and honey. Set aside for 15 minutes.

Whisk together the flours, salt and ground flaxseed. Add the yeast mixture, egg, water and oil and knead until smooth. Let rise covered 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled.

Separate into about 16 pieces and shape into balls. sprinkle with flaxseed and let rise covered for 30 minutes.

Bake at 180℃ for 20 minutes, or until golden.

Nutella-Cream Cheese Rolls with Walnuts (Tangzhong dough)

Here's a belated Valentine's day post- simple, rich and soft buns shaped like hearts. Not that they need to be- but they're cute! To shape them, cut a rolled-up log of the dough and filling (like a jelly roll) into 10 segments. Cut each segment most of the way through in the middle, then turn it on its side. Imagine moving the hour hand from the minute hand on a clock so it's set to 2 o' clock to get the angle right. Then, press down with your palm.

The tangzhong makes these rolls stay soft inside for a long time, and they're not too sweet despite the nutella and cream cheese filling. The walnuts add a nice toasty touch, but obviously hazelnuts are also good.

Nutella-Cream Cheese Rolls with Walnuts 

For Tangzhong:
15 g. Flour
72 g. Water
Mix well and cook on medium heat until 65℃, or until consistency is pudding-like. Let cool to room temperature before using.

For Dough:
Adapted from Kochtopf
All of tangzhong
90 g. Milk, lukewarm
30 g. Fresh yeast, or 3 Tsp. Active dry yeast
1 Egg
150 g. Bread flour
150 g. All purpose or type 550 flour
60 g. Sugar
1 packet vanilla sugar
2 TBSP Powdered whole fat milk
1 Tsp. Salt
80 g. Butter, softened

For Filling:
125 ml Nutella (half a small jar)
50 g. Cream cheese
1 TBSP Powder sugar
1 TBSP Hazelnut oil
1/2 C. Walnut pieces

Prepare the filling by mixing the nutella, cream cheese, sugar and oil until smooth, then stirring in the walnuts. Set aside for later.

For the buns:

Mix the flours, salt, sugars, and powdered milk with a whisk.

Dissolve the yeast in the milk and add the egg. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ones to form a smooth dough, adding more milk or flour if necessary to get it soft and pliable. Add the butter in pieces until well incorporated. Let rise, covered, for 1 - 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled.

Punch down dough and form a large rectangle. Spread the filling and roll up, then cut into 10 pieces. In the middle of each piece, cut a slit about 2/3 of the way in, then pull apart the two sides about 45 degrees while laying it rolled-side-up. Press down to form a heart shape. Let the buns, once shaped, rise for about and hour.

Bake at 180℃ for 18-20 minutes.

Körnerbrötchen/Grain and Seed Buns

I had many recipes for körnerbrötchen, so many that I forgot which actually turned out to be the best of the bunch... but I can now guarantee that this was the champion among them. The long rise time and preferment create a surprisingly soft and light bun, with the whole wheat and spelt flour still providing plenty of flavour. The grains and seeds can be varied depending on what you have have (sometimes I like to add walnut pieces) and so can the flours- you can also use just whole grain spelt or whole wheat instead of both. The use of diastatic malt and steam in the oven creates a thin, crispy crust to contrast with the tender insides, and an extra sprinkling of seeds on top creates toasty, nutty flavour. While I may not be going to a real German bakery any time soon, these are good enough to pass.

Körnerbrötchen
Adapted from chefkoch.de

For the Preferment:
160 g. All purpose/type 550 flour
160 g. Water
2 g. Fresh yeast, or 1/4 Tsp. Active dry yeast

Mix all well and allow to stand, covered, at room temperature overnight.

For the Soaker:
150 g. Mixed seeds, e.g. Sunflower, flax, sesame, poppy, pumpkin
50 g. Grain flakes, e.g. Rolled oats, rye, barley (Note: I used 200 g. of a King Arthur mix of grains and seeds for both these quantities)
18 g. Salt
200 g. Water

Dissolve the salt in the water. Toast the seeds and grains lightly in a large, unoiled skillet pan over medium heat until fragrant, if desired. Mix the seeds, grains and salty water and let stand covered overnight.

For the Final Dough:

All of above preferment and soaker
450 g. Bread flour
100 g. Whole grain spelt flour
50 g. Whole grain rye or wheat flour
250 g. Water
10 g. Fresh yeast, or 3 g. Active dry yeast
1 Tsp. Diastatic malt powder or honey (optional)
1 TBSP Vital wheat gluten (optional)

Additional flour, oil to grease bowls
About 1/2 C. Grains and seeds, for tops of buns

Mix water with yeast and malt/honey, if using. Mix the flours and gluten in a large bowl or stand mixer and add the water, along with the preferment, and knead until homogeneous. Add the osaker and continue kneading until smooth.

Let rest for 2 hours in an oiled, covered bowl, stretching and folding the dough after 40 and 80 minutes have passed.

Stretch and fold the dough one last time, them stretch out into a large rectangle over a floured surface. Divide into 12-16 pieces with a sharp knife, either triangles or rectangles. Cover and let rise for 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220℃. Dampen the tops of the buns with a spray bottle and sprinkle on additional grains and seeds.

Bake for 10 minutes, spraying at the beginning and end with water from a spray bottle to create steam. Reduce the temperature to 200℃ and bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Man'oushe- Lebanese Flatbread with Za'atar

There's this great grocery store that sells stuff from pretty much every place in the near East- including a fantastic variety of fresh breads, such as man'oushe (as it is known in Lebanon, though it is known by other names elsewhere). There's plenty of topping options, but my favourite is the za'atar and olive oil breads (and the miniature ones with cheese and olives... but that's another experiment waiting to happen). I bought a big bag of za'atar in hopes of making my own version, but previous attempts had all been slightly disastrous (read: tooth-chippingly dry and hard). At last, I decided to try again with a new formula that contained such surprising bread ingredients as cake flour and a whole tablespoon of sugar, and finally found success.

 I made some with za'atar and olive oil, and some with a vegetable spread that I thought might go well. I also took care not to overbake them, pulling them out of the oven as soon as they were golden to prevent another bread-frisbee. They came out fantastic, maybe not as good as the professionals make them, but the freshness of home-baked bread is unrivalled. And if they were so good on my first try- I'll be practicing this recipe a lot more often. They're soft and tender and can be topped with vegetables and cheese to make a sort of pizza, as I ate mine. Maybe I'll make some with cheese and olives next time...

Man'oushe with Za'atar
From Rose Water & Orange Blossoms

2 1/2 C. AP flour
1 C. Cake flour
2 Tsp. Salt
1 1/4 C. Water, lukewarm
1 Tsp. Dry yeast, or 15 g. Fresh yeast
1 TBSP Sugar
1 TBSP Oil
1/2 C. Za'atar
1/2 C. Olive oil

Mix the za'atar and olive oil and set aside.

Mix flours and salt. Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/4 C. of the water and leave for 15 minutes.

Add the yeast mixture and oil to the flour mixture and add the water slowly until a dough forms- you can do this in a food processor, a mixer or by hand. Knead, pulse or mix on medium high until a smooth, elastic dough forms.

Let rise in a covered, lightly oiled bowl for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Divide dough into four pieces and form balls. Let rest on a lightly floured surface, covered, for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 220℃, with a heavy baking tray or baking stone inside. 

Roll out the balls of dough into circles with a floured rolling pin. Rotate as you go to keep it evenly round, until the circle is about 1 cm thick.

Spread about 1 TBSP of the za'atar-oil mixture onto the round with the back of the spoon. Repeat with the other three Use a peel or other thin, sturdy tray to transfer the breads onto the hot baking tray or stone in the oven, and bake for 7-10 minutes.