The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Gold awarded three tier braided bread

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Gold awarded three tier braided bread

 I used recipe for Challah from Hamelman's book "Bread" for preparing the dough. The only difference was that I used milk instead of water. The dough is on stiiff side so it is relatively easy to work with it.

I did 5 strand braid for the bottom, the middle one was 4 strand and the top one 3 strand. The weight of the dough for one strand in the bottom braid was 130g, middle none 115g and top one 100g. The decorations were made from dough for pasta without egg (flour 150g, oil - 2 tablespoon, water - enough to get smooth but very stiff dough, 3g salt - 2%). For the final I used egg wash but this was done somewhere in the middle of the bake when the dough already stopped raising.

Actually this was my second braided bread in my life and I am really happy that I god a gold award for it on sa state level assessment of braided breads.

Happy baking!

Joze

 

      

Comments

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

 Exquisite. Perfect braiding. I once tried it single tier with 4 strands. The braiding seemed to go ok but it’s what happens in the oven that is the make or break. Even if the tension in the braids are slightly off then the shape will be off when baked with the braids merging. Multiple strands and tiers and you still got perfection. Lovely indeed!

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Indeed it is not easy as it looks like and you must not make a tight braid so it has some place to grow during the raising. So far I have not found yet the right solution to prevent sticking of different layers which causes the tearing of the skin of strands during baling process. I will try next time to dust strands with rice flour as with regular flour it failed. Stiffer dough is a good solution as well although the end result is then not so "soft" as one would expect.

Happy baking!

Joze

2tattered's picture
2tattered

Congratulations on the well-deserved award!

joc1954's picture
joc1954

I like challenges because they force you to do something special and pay more attention to the details.

Happy baking,

Joze 

Floydm's picture
Floydm

Beautiful! Congrats!

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Thanks Floyd!

pul's picture
pul

Nice having you back!

peter

joc1954's picture
joc1954

I am baking all the time but not enough time to post about baking. I decided to change this a bit and be more active at TFL as well.

Happy baking!

Joze

Stuart Borken's picture
Stuart Borken

I have gone to many bar and bat mitzvah and weddings and I have seen all sorts of braided breads....yours is the most beautiful I have ever seen.  And, so what if the dough is stiff and maybe a little not so moist or tender as you would like, it still is a Gold Metal Winner in anyone's book.

Congratulations.  Now I'll go back to my little one pound three braid challah.

Sniff sniff......stu

joc1954's picture
joc1954

this was my second braided bread in my life and was nice, but I need to improve my skills. I decided to make these kind of bread as birthday gifts instead of baking just a bit more special loaf of bread. This will help me to discover all those tiny details which are so important when you make such bread. 

Actually in Slovenia we have a lot of assessments of bread, braided bread, dumplings, typical Slovenian holiday cakes called "potica", wines, salami, ... and all these events help a lot to improve the quality of the products and also introduce a bit of competition in this area. This year it was the first time I have attended such assessment of braided breads although this was already the tenth assessment so there is already a ten year tradition.

Actually I wanted to visit the display but at the same time I wanted to challenge myself as well and i had a lot of luck with my bread.

Happy baking!

Joze  

Happy baking, Joze 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

and the judges thought so too.  Beautiful. 

Nice to see some posts from you again.  Hope all is well with your family.

Leslie

joc1954's picture
joc1954

thanks, you are way too kind, it looks much better in the video than in real, but I was really happy with the outcome.

My wife is now better after having problems with thyroid for about two years. I decided to be more active again despite the lack of time.

Happy baking, 

Joze

 

Isand66's picture
Isand66

What a fantastic looking bread and those roses are perfect.

Great job!

Ian

joc1954's picture
joc1954

Thanks Ian and it is really funny that making those roses is so easy but the outlook is so good. I used a small circle cutter and then used 7 of those circles to create the rose - about one minute of work.

Happy baking!

Joze

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I think it is at least a platinum and maybe a diamond.  Gold seems kind of low for this one :-)  Well done and happy baking Joc

joc1954's picture
joc1954

You are too kind Dabrownman! Actually it looks better on the video than in real, but yes, I was happy with it.

 

Happy baking Dabrownman!

Joze