How can you weave a milk-loaf from 6 threads? J
A bejegyzés magyarul itt olvasható.
 |
| Milk-loaf with raisins. |
Sweet or salted
milk-loafs are important part of the Hungarian Easter season. The Christians
take the milk-loafs and the hams to the morning mass, where the priest blesses
the food. The Christian believers eat meat first time after the 40 days long
Lent at this holiday
celebrating the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. There are many other
traditions besides Christian traditions in Hungary, such as, egg painting and
sprinkling on Easter Monday, which can be found characteristically in Hungary.
This is the reason why we shall take care religiously these traditions because
we can be so proud of these.
One of these beautiful traditions is the braided sweet
milk-loaf, which is the symbol of the Easter preparations for me. (The other is
the egg painting, but I will write about this in my next post.)
The Easter Holiday is coming soon, so I would like to
share a really tasty and soft milk-loaf recipe with you containing extra volume
of raisins. I learned the waving technique from a video of my favorite
confectioner (Vilmos Farkas), which you can find here! I made a collage about
the waving technique so you can learn it easily too! Well, you will be able to
do the perfect milk-loaf now, you only have to read the recipe!
Ingredients:
400 g flour
50 g melted butter
50 g icing sugar (I used my special homemade
vanilla sugar. You can find the recipe here.)
2 egg yolk
250 ml milk (+ 100 ml for the raisin soaking)
40 g yeast
1 pinch of salt
zest of 2 orange
zest of 1 lemon
100 g of raisin
1 tbs rum aroma
+ 1 egg for the lubrication of the milk-loaf surface
Preparations:
After washing the raisins you have to mix it with circa
10 ml milk, which shall fully cover the raisins. If you like the taste of rum
then you shall mix 1 tbs rum aroma to the milk so the milk-loaf will be more
delicious. Originally, I wanted to use golden raisin, but I couldn’t buy it, so
I have chosen the “extra-big raisin mix”, which size was 4 times bigger, than
normal raisins. This raisin mix contained gold and normal raisins in 1:1 unit.
Working with these bigger raisins was harder, because they were harder to
homogenize and the raisins always popped out from the dough.
If you would like to make a good loaf than you should
get all ingredients out from the fridge 2 hours before you
start the whole baking process.
 |
| The "extra-big raisin mix". |
Making the dough:
First I heated up the milk (35-40°C) and mixed it with
1 tbs sugar and with fresh yeast. I
sifted the dry ingredients (flour, salt and sugar) to a high-walled bowl then I
added the egg yolks and the orange and lemon zest. (Don’t forget to sift the
flour, because it is really important to get nice and spongy dough!)
I melted the butter then I let it cool down. After the
milk and yeast mix became foamy, I added it and the melted butter to the other
ingredients then I started to compile the dough with a tablespoon.
In this case you will get a little bit harder dough
like bread dough, but don’t worry just continue the kneading until the dough
become shiny and homogeneous!
 |
| Don't forget to sift the flour! |
Mixing the raisins:
The extra milk has to be poured off from the raisins.
If you left the raisins for a night in the fridge then it is likely to happen,
that the raisin and milk mixture will make a soft and creamy dollop. In this
case shaking the raisin in a colander a few times will solve the problem, and
the raisin pieces will soft and creamy but not so wet!
You should roll out the dough then cover it with
raisins. After folding the dough you have to knead it with fast movements. If
the dough will become very wet from the raisins you can add a little bit extra
flour to the dough. After mixing the raisins you have to leave the dough in a warm
place for 40-45 minutes for leavening.
 |
| Mixing the raisins. |
Preparing the milk-loaf:
You have to share the leavened dough for 6 equal
pieces, which have to be kneaded again.
 |
| Share the dough for 6 equal pieces! |
The dough balls have to be twirled in a
long filament and they should be thinner in the tips. The tip of the 6
filaments has to be pinched together and fold it under. You have to wave the
filaments not too tight then pinch together the end of the filaments and fold
this end under too.
Let the milk-loaf raise for additional 10-15 minutes
then cover the surface with a thin layer of eggs.
 |
| The filaments. |
Weaving process:
(1)
Cross
your hands (left hand down, right hand up) and take the 2 winger filaments. The
filament, which is in your left hand, has to be moved left and you have to take
in, don’t let it out! The filament, which is in your right hand, has to be
moved right and put down left-middle, so you have to put it down in the same
size, where you take it away.
(2)
The
filament is still in you left hand. Take the left winger filament with your
right hand and turn it with your filament being in your left hand. Now the
filament will stay in your right hand then you have to put down the other
filament right in the middle, which position will be opposite to the ancestry
side.
(3)
The
filament is still in you right hand. Take the right winger filament with your
left hand and turn it with your filament being in your right hand. Now this
filament will stay in your left hand and you have to put down the other
filament left in the middle, which position will be opposite to the ancestry
side.
(4)
You
have to repeat this process until you run out of the filaments.
 |
| Weaving process J |
The point:
You take 1 filament in your hand constantly. The filament in your hand has to be turn the other
filament coming from the same wing, where your hand is standing. It means
that you have to turn up a filament, where 3 filaments are, and you have to put
down filament where 2 filaments are. This is how the left and right wing is
alternating.
 |
| The milk-loaf before and after leavening. |
Baking:
The leavened milk-loaf has to be put into a COLD oven,
which temperature was turned for 180°C where the dough has to spend 20-30
minutes. If the surface of the milk-loaf becomes gold-brown then you have to get
it out and let it cool. You can lubricate the surface of the warm milk-loaf
with a small teaspoon of butter, so it will be more shiny and soft. Don’t slice
it until it cools down completely!
If you don’t eat from the milk-loaf you should cover
it with a paper towel, or a plastic bag preventing drying out of the milk-loaf.
In summary, this whole milk-loaf baking process was a
huge thing for me! I like the yeast cake very much, but this milk-loaf was so
delicious at this time, that Peter, who actually is not a huge cookie fan,
loved this cookie and ate it very willingly.
„Yam-yam…. Mmmm, it is sooooo good, can I eat more?”-
He was able to say only these few words, than he continued eating the
milk-loaf! So tell me, do I need bigger probate, than this was???
 |
| My milk-loaf J |
No comments:
Post a Comment