The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

New mill, pretzel and zopf

Jw's picture
Jw

New mill, pretzel and zopf

Last week I was out of flour and was able to combine a trip for work to a nearby windmill: http://www.molendevlijt.nl . This mill has better openinghours then the mill I normally go to, and I tested the flour with a simple slow rising bread (next time I will add more simple flour, not just the wheat type). A great mill, I will be back there. I will need a bit more time to look around at the mill. It will take a while before I find the right/best combination of wheat for our weekly bread.

I also made some zopf. Finally, sometimes there are (near) perfect ones as well. We had a to say thank-you to a few friends and neighbours, I always like to give them a zopf. The best shape is from broad to narrow, or thick to small. This is four strands only, I think challah is 6-strand and keeps the size the same. For this zopf I used 1 kilo (2.2 pound) of simplest kitchen flour. Recipe on request.

Last but not least: pretzels. I was a lunchwish from my 'boss at home'. It reminded her of her youth in Austria, where she grew up. Can one get a bigger compliment? These three kinds of bread can hardly be consumed at the same time, the tasts are too different. These pretzels are best with cheese and e.g. ham. The zopf is great with marmalade and chocolate. Bak ze! Cheers, Jw.

Comments

Terri's picture
Terri

Thanks for sharing the great pictures!  We have a close Swiss family friend and we love her zopf.  When I visited her in the spring I brought home some zopf flour but have recently run out.  I assume you aren't in the states, correct?  I would love to find more zopf flour in the states.

Again, thanks for the pictures. 

Jw's picture
Jw

Sorry, I live near Amsterdam, Netherlands. Have lived in Switzerland for some five years, my interest in breakbaking started there. I do get to the US every now and then (and lived there as a student). Jw stands for "Jan Willem".

In Holland I just buy the cheap "patent bloem", with hardly any "zemelen" (bran?). It is called "molenaars roem" (miller's fame) produced by Mühle Stenzel in Recklinghausen . In Austria I get : Vorarlberg Mehl.

Are you sure the flour was the problem? I must admit that today the yeast 'did not do its job' and after 45 minutes I put it in the oven at 30 celsuis. That helped a lot. After kneading, I put it back in the oven and the dough was fine after 30 minutes. Trust you have a good recipe. Cheers, Jw.

 

ehanner's picture
ehanner

JW,

Could you please post the recipe for the Zopf? It looks interesting.

Thank you,

Eric

Jw's picture
Jw

Eric, can you read German (before I start translating...).

Cheers,
Jw.