The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Salome's Mom's Zopf

jleung's picture
jleung

Salome's Mom's Zopf

Back in July, a "Swiss sourdough youngster" introduced herself and was kind enough to share her recipes for some fantastic breads. I was particularly excited about the zopf because I had never made it before, and it was just the kind of bread I was craving. Salome explains that this is her mother's version of the traditional Swiss Sunday bread; it is not sweetened so will pair well with many things. I had it plain, and with blackberry jam (my first batch of freezer jam!), and honey, and butter, and cheese... not all at the same time :) but all of these variations were delicious.

Original post here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12781/swiss-sourdough-youngster-introducing-herself#comment-75348

My notes:

- I used 100g KA whole wheat flour and 900g KA all-purpose flour
- I couldn't find Quark and substituted it with homemade whole milk yogurt
- The recipe calls for 40g fresh yeast; I used 20g of active dry based on a conversion factor of 0.5. It didn't taste "yeasty" to me but I think I will reduce the amount of yeast and let it ferment for longer next time.
- I used honey instead of glucose.
- My oven and half sheet pan are small and I was concerned the two large loaves would burn at the edges if I baked them at 400F, so I baked them at 350F for slightly longer (40-45min.) instead.

Here are the loaves!

Thanks, Salome, for sharing this recipe with us. I enjoyed making it very much!

Comments

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Beautiful braided loaf! 

Sylvia

jleung's picture
jleung

Thanks, Sylvia!

Jw's picture
Jw

I am a big Zopf fan, never thought about (almost) leaving out the sugar. I add 160 grams of sugar to 1 kilo of flour. Thanks for posting, looking good (and tasting good as well I assume).

Cheers,
Jw.

jleung's picture
jleung

Yes, you'd almost expect it to be sweet from the look of it, don't you? I brought it in to work and my labmates were surprised (they kept thinking it would be sweet or have some sort of chocolate filling), but we all enjoyed it - plain or with butter and honey and jam slathered on top.

Paddyscake's picture
Paddyscake

You did a beautiful job braiding! It's not easy to get it so symmetrical. I do love Salome's contributions. She is a very gifted baker.

Betty

jleung's picture
jleung

Thank you, Betty! Yes, Salome is a very talented baker (as are you!). Her Südtiroler Kartoffel-Nussbrot is another one that I'd like to try... just have to locate a good source of fresh hazelnuts and walnuts around here.