Since ancient times in Russia, on big holidays, it was customary to bake a loaf. A wedding celebration was not complete without a loaf; dear guests were greeted with bread and salt. Homemade loaf is not just bread, it is a real work of baking art. It was decorated with intricate patterns of dough, and a salt shaker was installed on top of it. Bread and salt were symbols of prosperity and well-being, besides, it was believed that salt drives away evil spirits. Therefore, to present bread and salt meant to share the most dear with the guest, to express your respect and at the same time wish well-being and kindness.
Everyone knows this custom. But these days, loaves are usually ordered from bakeries. But you can also bake it at home. I decided to bake a loaf when an Alma-Ata friend called us. He said that he was on a business trip in Moscow and would come to see us in Vyazma for only a few hours. You yourself understand that such a guest had to be met in a special way.
In Russia, loaves were baked from wheat and rye flour. I decided to bake my loaf with liquid yeast with whole grain flour and bran. I laid out recipes for liquid yeast and bread baked on them on our Bread Maker -
banana,
raspberry and
fireweed... I also had liquid yeast ready on fermented Village Tea.
"Country tea" is one of my favorites. This is such a delicious tea that when I decided to remove liquid yeast, I had no doubts about which one was better to take. Of course, from my favorite combination - raspberry, apple and chokeberry leaves in a ratio of 50:30:20.
The last photo shows all the tea I prepared from the leaves of fireweed and other garden and wild plants in the last tea season - 17.5 kg.
In order to bake bread, you first need to make liquid yeast. This process is shown in detail by me in the topic
"Liquid yeast from fruits, vegetables, herbs, tea"... Therefore, I will briefly focus on this here.
1. Cooking liquid yeast.In a jar with a capacity of 0.5 liters. pour water at room temperature. Add 1 tbsp. l. honey (sugar) and stir. Add 2 tbsp. l. "Country Tea". Close the lid and leave in a warm place (t = 25 - 27 * C) for 7 - 10 days.
When a little foam appears in the can (on the 2nd - 3rd day), gently shake the can to release carbon dioxide from the liquid, open the lid and release the gas.
This should be done 3-4 times a day. The yeast will be ready when the contents of the jar sink to the bottom, there will be a lot of foam when shaking it, and a hiss will be heard when the jar is opened.
2. Preparation of the pre-enzyme.Mix liquid yeast and flour, add a little honey (sugar), cover with a film, puncture it in several places with a toothpick.
We put the jar with the mixture in a warm place (25 * - 27 * C) for 12 - 16 hours until the volume increases by 2 - 3 times. The lower the temperature and the "younger" the yeast, the longer it will take to prepare the pre-enzyme.
3. Preparation of the dough.I made bread dough in a bread maker. Instead of water for the dough, I took tea leaves from the Village Tea half diluted with water.Next time I will make bread completely on the infuser. She adds flavor and aroma to bread so well.
3.1. Mix the pre-enzyme and all the other ingredients (except butter) until a coarse bun for 2 - 3 minutes. We reset the program and leave the dough in the bucket of the bread machine for 20 minutes for autolysis.
3.2. We turn on the same program for a full cycle (I have 20 minutes) and knead the dough, controlling the bun. It should be soft and not sticky to the bucket. After 10 minutes, add the butter and knead the dough until the gluten is well developed.
3.3. We spread the dough on a work surface, dusty with flour, and form a ball. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the dough in a warm place until it increases in volume by 2 - 3 times.
It took me 1.5 hours. It may take more or less time depending on the strength and "age" of the liquid yeast, as well as the temperature at which the dough is fermented.
While the dough is fermented, we make decorations for the future loaf.
4. Modeling of jewelry.4.1. We make the simplest dough for jewelry - flour, water, salt. It is sometimes called grated. To do this, knead a small piece of dough in a bowl, and then rub flour into it, as much as possible. The dough is steep. We put the dough in a bag and let it rest for 20 minutes.
4.2. For flowers and leaves, roll out a thin cake from a small piece of dough. Cut out circles with different caps and bottle caps.
For the rose, cut out three circles with a small cap and three with a bottle cork. We pinch one edge of the small circle. Then we attach a second pinched circle to it in a circle, then a third. And then three big ones.
I make flat flowers from one large circle. To do this, I make five cuts along the edge with a sharp knife. And then I slightly pinch the middle of each "petal" with my fingers. In the middle, I make a round imprint with a cap from a lip liner.
4.3. We simply cut the leaves with a sharp knife. I made a stencil for this. Then she cut out the middle with a knife and cut out the corners along the edge of the "leaf" with manicure scissors.
4.4. For the string on the table with our hands, roll out a small piece of dough into a long flagellum. Then we fold it in half and twist it into a string. We make a salt shaker from a string. To do this, connect a small piece of string and pinch. For the salt shaker, I took 2 rings.
4.5. We immediately put each finished part on a board covered with cling film. And cover it with a second piece of cling film so that it doesn't dry out.
I must say right away that these decorations will not work. They are very hard. I ground some of the jewelry in a food processor and gave it to the birds. And I put some on the shelf in the closet. They look very nice among the vases.
5. Formation of the workpiece.We spread the dough on a work surface, dusty with flour. Gently, trying not to squeeze out the bubbles, stretch the dough and shape it into a ball.
6. Proofing the dough.We put the baking sheet with the blank in a warm place for proofing until the volume increases by 2, 5 - 3 times. It took me 1.5 hours.
7. Baking bread.We spray the workpiece from the spray bottle with water. With a sharp knife we make cuts on the workpiece. We bake in an oven preheated to 250 * C for 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 230 * C and bake until tender (my total time was 30 minutes).
8. Decoration of the loaf.8.1. We decorate our loaf, as fantasy tells. Since my loaf is made from leaves on "Village tea", the leaves became the main composition. And I supplemented them with flowers and strings. Actually, the parts are sticky in themselves, but for reliability, I moistened the underside of each with water using a paintbrush.
8.2. Lubricate the decorations with yolk diluted with a small amount of water (1 tsp) and filtered through a strainer. Since the details are small, I smeared the details with a paint brush.
8.3. We heat the oven to 150 - 160 * C. We put our loaf there for 10 minutes before the jewelry is browned.
All. Our loaf is ready! Let's not forget to add salt to the salt shaker. And we greet our dear guests with bread and salt.
We remove some of the decorations and cut the loaf. We put the decorations on the same dish on which the loaf lies. And we treat everyone with our wonderful bread!
"Village tea" did not disappoint me! The bread turned out to be so magical - lush, aromatic, delicious! When we ate it, we tried to catch in the taste and aroma all the components from which the tea was made. Of course, there was no obvious smell and taste of raspberry leaves, apple trees and blackberries. This is understandable, because the leaves were fermented and dried at a high temperature. But what smelled like a garden, we had no doubts. Like the tea itself, the loaf has absorbed all its shades - the slight sourness of raspberries, and the astringency of the black chokeberry, and the magical scent of an autumn garden.
ABOUT
the benefits of this bread, I think, and it is not necessary to say much. At first,
it is baked with love... All the feelings with which we expected our dear guest are put into it.
Secondly,
"Village tea" gives bread all those useful substances, which were preserved in it after the fermentation of raspberry, apple and chokeberry leaves. Leaves, like fruits and berries, are rich in pectin and tannins, organic acids, salts of potassium, magnesium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, copper, zinc ...
And this bread is baked
with whole grain flour and bran, and the dough for him is cooked on
live natural yeast... Whole grain flour and bran provide our body with fiber, B vitamins and vitamin E, minerals, iron, zinc and selenium, antioxidants, plant estrogens, which allows regulating metabolic processes in the body, slows down the aging process and gives strength in the form of immunity. All these substances are preserved during fermentation and heat treatment during baking and enter the body in an easily digestible form.
Well, I think it's unnecessary to write about how impressed the guest was. He said that he had never been met like that before. I was very moved! I also suggest you, dear bakers, to try to bake such a loaf. It takes a little time to decorate it, but the effect is simply amazing. Please your guests with such a wonderful bread. They will love it.
