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sweet bread

July 11, 2012 - 12:58pm
freerk's picture
freerk

'Roti Durian Belanda' - sweet breakfast rolls with soursop filling

Blu d'a Mare

For the last leg of my recent holiday in Indonesia, I was in Lombok, or to be more specific; the Gili Islands; a threesome of small coral islands north-west of Lombok, with Gili Trawangang being the most developed island of the three.

 

The locals are descendants of Sulawesi fishermen (Bugis) mixed in with the 'local' Sasak from nearby Lombok.

There are no cars, no police and no dogs on Gili Trawangang, and all (!) cats have funny tails.

The art of snorkeling is practiced here by simply sticking your head under any water you can find.

Donkeys rule the streets by local ordinance, no motorized vehicles are allowed on land.

I spent my time at Blu d'Amare. A wonderful  small resort with trattoria, right on the beach, run by an Italian couple. Moreno, the man about the house, takes out his boat early in the morning to go fishing. The same tuna he wrestles out of the water bare handed, is in the carpaccio on your plate that same afternoon.

On top of that they bake their own bread, which was the reason I decided to book with them in the first place!

 

   

Blu d'aMare

To thank the lady of the manor Sandra, her hubby Moreno and their staff, I have been busy coming up with a sweet breakfast roll in their honor. I made my version of 'Roti Maros' from Sulawesi - basically an enriched sweet jam-filled bun - and replaced the durian filling with soursop jelly. The 'durian belanda' (=soursop) is considered to be a for whimps by the locals, so if you want to be brave, use the real thing :-) But don't say I didn't warn you when you do! It also works well with any other jam or fruit in season.

Durian Belanda 

A Dutch person is called a 'Belanda' in Indonesia. It literally means "Holland". But just like with the word 'Bakra' in Surinam, another former Dutch colony,  it has a teasingly derogatory connotation when used by the locals.

That probably explains why there is a fruit named after the Dutch in Indonesia. The 'Durian Belanda', also known to the rest of the world as soursop is a fruit that more or less tastes and looks like the Durian, but doesn't come with that one thing this 'king of fruits' is known for and probably cursed over by many a Dutch colonizer when the time of the year would come around that the (up to 3 kg!) ripe durians would fall to the ground...

 

Low hanging fruit

In the middle of the night a man travels from Makassar all the way to Tana Toraja, Sulawesi. After about half an hour on the road, the bus comes to a screeching halt. The driver shuts off the engine, and, turning on his chair, faces his passengers with the same blank stare he has been using to negotiate the treacherous moonlit Indonesian roads. 

Without discussion the passengers start drawing their wallets. Some throw it at the driver. He picks them out of the air like low hanging fruit. A few walk to the front, fork out some rupiahs, and go back to their seats without muttering as much as a word. 

The driver squints in the dark and scans the bus. The man has instinctively reached for his wallet by now, albeit with an overtly puzzled look on his face. By the time he gets it out, the driver has slammed the door of the bus shut on his way out, leaving the man startled. Is this a stick up? Or just more government officials to be paid for services never rendered? 

Daniel from Makale

Daniel from Makale, who has been fast asleep with his mouth wide open at the window seat next to the man, wakes up. "Ah, Maros?" he mutters, with sleepy disappointment. He tugs on his make shift pillow, closes his eyes, opens his mouth and dozes off again. 

The man watches the sleeping Daniel as if to find some sort of proof in the features of this young man's face that he has been making this journey many times before. Then he carefully leans over to try and see what is going on outside. 

The door hisses open. The driver is back and carries a stack of white boxes. He is throwing the same blank stare around. He squints at the man leaning over Daniel. 

The sweet smell of freshly baked bread rolls through the bus. Wafts of warm sweet dough, butter, caramelized sugar together with something... undefined. By the look on the man's face it is beyond disturbing. The slow smell with a pungent punch makes the man's nose curl up, adding horror to the bewilderment already present in his eyes. 

Just about when that nasty, remotely fruity overtone of odor curls itself around the pleasant smell of freshly baked bread and starts choking it to death, Daniel from Makale wakes up with a jolt.

"Roti Maros!" he shouts into the man's armpit.

He aptly wriggles his way out of the chair before the man even gets a chance to get out of his way  and starts pleading with the driver. Passengers come to the front to collect their white boxes. Daniel gets off the bus, pointing his finger at the driver, not to go anywhere without him. 

By now, the evil stench, clearly emanating from the white boxes being passed around, has squeezed the life out of any association with freshly baked goods. Instead the entire bus smells of almonds, turpentine, rotten onion and size 15 gym socks after Polish Jesus' protégé Klecko and his treadmill are done with them, all at the same time.

Roti Maros 

Daniel from Makale comes back with a white box of his own. The driver shouts at him. Daniel from Makale shouts back and sits down next to the man with a big grin on his face. 

 

He opens the box. There are ten soft sweet white buns in there. Neatly stacked in two rows of five. A snug fit. Daniel from Makale takes out two buns, shreds them apart and offers one to the man. 

The man has managed to take control of his curling nose by now. No one in the bus seems phased by the horrid smell but him. Instead, big grins have appeared on all sleepy travelers' faces, and there is animated chatter as every one digs into their 'Roti Maros'. The man takes the offer.

 

 "Apa yang bau?" The man asks Daniel. What is that smell?

Daniel from Makale laughs. He takes a big bite from his roll. A brown glob of jam oozes out.

"Durian"

"Ah!" The man says. "That explains a lot"




Roti Durian Belanda

(sweet breakfast rolls with a soursop jelly filling)

for the dough

375 gr / 13.2 oz lukewarm milk

115 / 4 oz gr butter

100 gr / 3.5 oz sugar

12 gr / 0.4 salt

2 eggs

± 812 gr / 28.6 oz all purpose flour

7 gr / 0.2 oz yeast

for the soursop jelly

370 ml soursop juice (can)

425 gr / 15 oz jam sugar (with pectin)

for decoration (optional)

powdered sugar

a little water

maple sugar

Method

making the dough

Put the dry ingredients in the bowl of a mixer; the flour, the yeast, the salt and the sugar. Mix well. Slightly beat the two eggs and add them to the flour, together with the lukewarm milk and the soft butter. Mix on low speed until the dough is well developed and passes the window pane test, about 9 to 12 minutes.

Oil a container and put in the dough. Cover the container tightly with cling film and let the dough rise at room temperature until it is just about doubled in bulk (±1½ hours).

making the soursop jelly

To make the soursop jelly; heat up one can of soursop juice (about 370 ml) and add 425 gram of jam sugar to it. Bring to a boil, let it simmer for a few minutes, and then take the jelly of the heat. Give it a good stir and let it cool until it sets.

If jam-sugar isn't available, use normal sugar and add the appropriate amount of pectin. If you are lucky enough to have access to fresh soursop fruits, you might find this link to make your own soursop nectar useful!

Preheat the oven to  190° C / 375° F

forming the rolls

When the dough has doubled, turn it out on a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough in pieces of about 80 grams and then shape them into balls. Cover and leave them to rest for about 10 minutes.

Make a deep dimple in the ball using your thumb.Put a moderate blob of soursop jelly in the middle and carefully wrap the dough around it, making sure to close the rolls properly, so as little as possible jelly oozes out during baking.

Cover and proof the rolls seam side down on a baking tray until they are puffy and ready for the oven, for about 20 minutes to half an hour.

Bake the rolls for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown on top, making sure to rotate the trays halfway through the bake to ensure even browning.

Dilute a little water into 3 TBS of powdered sugar and brush the tops of the rolls twice right after they come out of the oven. Dunk them in maple sugar and leave them on a rack to cool.

 

 

 

 

.

Freerk (BreadLab)

February 26, 2012 - 1:02pm
Juergen Krauss's picture
Juergen Krauss

Pane al Latte e Cioccolata - Got it right now :-))

Hi,

I've made the Pane alla Cioccolata fron Carol Field's Italian Baker many times with great success, and I always wanted to try the Pane al Latte e Cioccolata, which brings milk bread and chocolate together.

However, I have some problems with the milk dough recipe from the first edition of the book.

/* UPDATE */

After input from lvbaker I recalculated the formula, and now I have a milk dough with the same hydration level as the chocolate dough. A charm to work with. My adjusted percentages are given below, here some new photos:

The bread on the rise:

The whole loaf:

Detail shot:

Pane alla Cioccolata:

"Sponge": Water 15%, Sugar 0.7%, Instant Yeast 1%

Dough: all of the "Sponge", Flour 100%, Water 47%, Egg Yolk 3%, Butter 3.8% Sugar 20%, Cocoa Powder 5%, Chocolate Chips 25%, Salt 1.6%, Total 222.1%

Pane al Latte

Sponge: Flour 25%, Milk 25%, Sugar 3%, Instant Yeast 0.6%

Dough: All of the sponge, Flour 75%, Milk 25%, Rum 3%, Egg 12%, Butter 10%, Salt 1%, Total 179.6%

/* OLD POST */

But first some photos of this spectacular bread:

The shaped loaves, resting:

After the bake:

Crumb of a third loaf, a braid:

This is very tasty, as you can imagine.

Now to my problem:

The recipe gives for the sponge of the milk dough the following quantities:

1 3/4 teaspoon dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 cup less 1 tablespoon (135g) flour

Now, this is not enough liquid to hydrate the dough, and it definitely doesn't make the batter it should.

I am kind-of improvising,

but has anyone got the second edition of the Italian Baker? What quantities (% or g) are being used there?

Thanks a lot,

Juergen

 

 

November 12, 2011 - 6:53am
loydb's picture
loydb

Panettone with Tangerine, Raisins, Cherries and Nuts

A few weeks ago I made a Sourdough with Candied Orange that was a huge hit around here. The arrival of a pullman pan coincided with my wife's demands to make something like that again. This is based on PR's BBA Panettone with the following changes:

  • 33% of the flour was home-milled hard red and white wheat in a 50/50 mix
  • I used more dried fruit -- 2 oz each of dried golden raisins, cranberries and cherries soaked overnight in Kraken rum with Mandarin Orange and Vanilla extracts.
  • I used more nuts -- 2 oz each of pecans, walnuts and almond slivers that I toasted beforehand.
  • Even after extended rising time, the loaf wasn't filling the large (13" x 4.5" x 4.5") pullman pan, so I put it into an unheated oven, turned to 325, and left for 1 hour 45 mins. I will go longer next time, but I was worried about burning it. As you can see, it rose perfectly.
  • For the candied fruit, I used 1.5 cups of candied tangerine peel. I was happier with the orange peel, I'll use it next time. The tangerine peel was thinner and a little more bitter.

We'll be eating breakfast (and probably dessert) off of this for awhile. I may try making french toast with the last bits.

 

 

November 22, 2010 - 11:36am
Neo-Homesteading's picture
Neo-Homesteading

Sincerity Is letting Your Imperfections Show (Honey Oat Bread)

 

 

Recently I watched "how to cook your life" and reviewed it on my blog. The movie really was inspiring for me. I become overwhelmed with a lot of things in daily life and often find that I dont take the time to truly appreciate making the things I enjoy, or even if I make something I enjoy (like bread) I dont really take the time to actually appreciate the process. The perfect partner to that movie was this honey oat bread I made. I found that its perfectly sweet and nutty tasting from the oats. I especially found it delicious left over, toasted in a pan with olive oil and topped with homemade cranberry preserves. 

 

Honey Oat Bread, External Blog Post Link: http://neo-homesteading.blogspot.com/2010/11/sincerity-is-letting-your-imperfections.html

Cranberry Preserves Recipe: http://neo-homesteading.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-cranberry-preserves.html

 

November 16, 2010 - 4:09am
MadAboutB8's picture
MadAboutB8

Chocolate Twisted Bread - twisted from Jeffrey Hamelman's berne brot

This bread was meant to be brought to the picnic with my girlfriends and their kids. It was raining for the whole weekend and we had to cancel it. So, the bread ended up being my breakfast and weekend snacks...a happy weekend for me.

I used Jeffrey Hamelman's berne brot recipe from Bread cookbook. I made it once before and loved it. It is a buttery rich bread, without being too sweet. I figured it probably complement well with the chocolate filling...and it did. I never really like chocolate bread before. Now, I'm a convert, a chocolate bread lover.  Because the recipe is for the braided bread, it also worked well as a twisted bread.

You can find recipes and more details here http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/11/chocolate-twisted-bread-twisted-from.html

The crumb is soft and tender with the chocolate filling twisted throughout.

It made a perfect breakfast while I checked TFL out as my weekend morning routine:)

Sue

http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/

June 12, 2010 - 3:07pm
turosdolci's picture
turosdolci

Dolceacqua & Apricale -The Riviera dei Fiori

The story of michetta:

The Marquis Doria sent a young bride who refused to give herself to him to prison to die. The population of Dolceacqua rose up and forced the Marquis Doria (1364) to stop this abuse of power and on the 16 of August there is a festival to celebrate the event.  The women of the village created the “michetta” to celebrate this occasion.  It is now the symbol of love and freedom. Michetta are small sweetbreads similar to a raised doughnut.

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/dolceacqua-apricale-the-riviera-dei-fiori/

 

sdionnemoore's picture

Peach Cobbler Bread

August 12, 2009 - 8:58pm -- sdionnemoore
Forums: 
General

I'm so excited! I love cinnamon raisin bread but wanted to experiment. My friend had just cut up four peaches that weren't very sweet and were turning brown in the refrigerator. What to do, what to do? I decided to try and simulate peach cobbler, which is what we originally considered doing with the peaches. I tweaked and added a few things to a basic cinnamon-raisin bread recipe. The bread came out wonderfully sweet and would have easily made delicious individual peach-cinnamon cobbler rolls. It made two loaves.

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koolmom's picture

Adding more sugar to a sweet bread

December 12, 2008 - 9:01pm -- koolmom
Forums: 
Cookies, Cakes, and Pastries

I make a sweet bread for Christmas that is stuffed and shaped into a candy cane.  My husband would like to increase the sugar in the dough, currently it calls for 1/3 cup.

There is approximately 6 1/2 cups four.  If I double the sugar, does anyone thinks I must add anything more to the recipe?

Thanks,

Tanya

 

 

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December 9, 2008 - 5:37pm
holds99's picture
holds99

Rotolo Di Natali from Michel Suas' book Advanced Bread and Pastry

 

This is Michel Suas' recipe/formula for "Rotolo Di Natali" from his book "Advance Bread and Pastry".  In the summary at the beginning of the recipe Mr. Suas says: "This ring of dough is usually baked in Italy for Christmas celebrations.  The combination of soft enriched dough and crunchy filling creates an unusual texture, while the appealing presentation makes Rotolo Di Natali a festive centerpiece."

I tried to find the origin and story behind this lovely, deliciously filled sweet bread but was unable to do so.

However, years ago I was enrolled at the Dunwoody Institute's prestigious Professional Baking - Racker Certification Program.  That same year, through the generous endowment of the Lydia R. and Edgar P. Munnerlyn Charitable Trust, our graduating class was provided steerage tickets on the tramp freighter 'Honduran Gal", thus enabling the members of Dunwoody, class of '78, the opportunity to visit authentic artisan bakeries in Italy as part of Dunwoody's "Meet The Bakers" outreach program. 

The Dunwoody "Rackers" had been in Italy for a couple of weeks and our class trip was winding down.  It was my last evening in Italy and I was feeling a bit nostalgic about the time I had spent in this wonderful country.   The evening was balmy and as I was strolling through the downtown piazza I noticed an elderly man sitting alone on a bench reading his newspaper, the light blue smoke from his short black Pierogi cigar encircling his head, then drifting slowly away into the night air.  I decided to approach him, and after we exchanged greetings and made perfunctory small talk, I casually asked him where I could go on my last night in this beautiful city to find the true essence of Italy.  Slowly folding his newspaper, he glanced around, making certain we were not being observed, and that no one was within earshot of our conversation.  I couldn't help but notice the old man's eyes were misting a bit as he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out an old and tattered, dog-eared color photo of a beautiful, golden crown shaped loaf of bread, the top liberally sprinkled with coarse sugar creating a golden crispy crust.  He proudly held up the photo for me to examine.  Grinning, I nodded approvingly and in my fluent Italian I said: "Momma mia, thatsa nice a loafa you gotta there ina you foto"'

Smiling broadly, the old man lightly kissed the photo and carefully tucked it back into his jacket pocket.  Then, he motioned me a bit closer and as he leaned forward, a faint smile crossed his lips.  The old man spoke very softly, measuring each word, the way Orson Welles had done in Citizen Kane when the camera, in the opening scene focused on his mouth, and his lips spoke the immortal word: "Rosebud".  The old man slowly stood up, placing one hand on my shoulder and leaning a bit closer to my ear, he softly whispered: "Rotolo Di Natali". 

Since that evening I have wondered about the true meaning of these words?  Then recently, after finding Michel Suas' recipe and baking this terrific sweet bread, I understand exactly what the old man meant that night in the piazza. 

OK, confession time.  There really wasn't any old man on the piazza bench that night in Italy.  I made it all up.  But seriously, this bread is a very nice European style holiday treat, filled with a mixture of nuts, sugar, cacao powder, raisins, rum and beaten egg whites. 

Howard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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