Swedish Sour Milk Bread Recipes

Steps:

• 1. In a bowl big enough to make your bread in, get the starter going by sprinkling the yeast over the sour milk & honey {or whatever sweet you use to feed the yeast beasties}. Set aside in a warm place, covered with a bit of plastic wrap & a towel until ready to finish the bread. This process doubles as proofing your yeast, but keeping yeast in your freezer makes it last almost indefinitely {Well, I had yeast in freezer for almost 10 years anyhow!}.
• 2. Preheat the oven to 350-375°F {Glass, preheat to 350°F}. Grease 2 baking vessels well-again, I use lard as nothing works as well for bread as lard does.
• 3. Add the remaining ingredients to your starter and work until you are happy with it. -Can leave it relatively wet & unkneaded {this is for those days where everything hurts & you wanna just cry; results in a more crumbly quick bread}. -Can do a full out workout kneading until nice, smooth & few crevasses in the bread {this holds up well for hearty sandwiches}. This is a great option for teaching new bread bakers how to knead bread; there is an art to it & poking it is - not - kneading it!!
• 4. Divide your dough in 2 & place in greased vessels, turning once to coat dough so it will not dry out or stick. Cover dough ball with plastic wrap-not the vessel itself. Drape a towel over it all {plastic wrap keeps your towel from being incorporated into the dough & getting nasty}. Place in a warm area. Let rest & raise until doubled in size.
• 5. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown; longer if you want crust to be darker or crunchier.
• 6. Remove from oven to cool. If you wish, you can brush a bit of melted lard on the top of the crust to soften it a bit. If you want hard crusty true peasant bread, leave the lard off the the crust.
• 7. NOTES: -Glass needs to be cooked at a lower temperature because it conducts the heat so well. -I use lard for baking bread as there is no comparison in the end result. Lard is slowly creeping into everyday life for me, while shortening & margarine are becoming curse words in my household; & lard is probably better for you than butter too. Lard is being used in almost everything I make or bake these days. -If you are doing little to no kneading & therefore have a very wet dough, use meat serving forks {they are bigger than a normal eating or a carving fork & work very well for this} to divide dough & move to baking vessel. -I bake the majority of my breads these days in bowls. The bowls I use are 2 ½ quart Anchor Hocking bowls as they are a bit more straight sided and work better for sandwich making. Depending on the thickness you cut it, 1 slice, cut into 2 top to bottom, works for a hearty & filling sandwich. Pyrex bowls work too, but I got the Anchor Hocking bowls at the thrift store dirt cheap!! -If you want a more rustic round of bread, or if you have a well kneaded, smooth ball of dough, just bake on a flat pan lined with parchment paper with a bit of cornmeal thrown on it to keep from sticking.. -If you want a traditional sandwich loaf, by all means, bake in a normal bread pan.

Steps:

• See the Photo Gallery below for step-by-step process photos.
• Starter
• Mix the starter ingredients in a straight-walled, transparent container with space for at least 50% growth. (See photo gallery where 150ml grows to approximately 225ml in a Pyrex container.)
• Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air. This reduces drying and allows you to see actual CO2 aeration over time.
• Let the starter develop at room temperature. It takes 6-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to peak.
• Tangzhong
• In a small saucepan, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Cook it on med-low heat for several minutes until it's thickened, stirring frequently.
• Remove the pan from the heat and see the instructions below for melting the butter in the tangzhong if you're using a stand mixer.
• Dough Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
• These instructions are for using a stand mixer. Scroll to the end for hand-kneading instructions if you do not have a mixer.
• Add the butter in chunks to the tangzhong to melt it.
• Whisk the two eggs and then the milk into the tangzhong-butter mixture. Set aside briefly.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk together the flour, sugar and salt; and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.
• Now pour in the prepped wet ingredients.
• With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for about 15 minutes. As you approach the 15-minute mark, the dough will become smooth and should pass the windowpane test.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. If you refrigerate the dough, plan for longer rise times. See the photo gallery for approximate dough expansion during the bulk fermentation.
• Shaping and Final Proof
• Prepare your pans by greasing them. You can use two standard loaf pans, or make one loaf and eight rolls in a 9" round pan like I did. Other options include: sixteen rolls in two 9" round pans, eighteen rolls in two 8" square pans, twenty-four rolls in two 9" square pans, and eighteen rolls in a 9x13" rectangular pan. Your total dough weight is about 1470g.
• Scrape the dough out onto a clean countertop. There's no need for flour. Press the dough into a rectangle, divide it and roll the pieces into balls.
• Place the dough balls in your pans, cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).
• Baking*
• Preheat your oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.
• Bake loaves for 45-55 minutes and rolls for 30-35 minutes. Cover with foil partway through if the bread seems to be browning excessively.
• The internal temperature when ready should be at least 190F.
• Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans, brush the top with butter while its hot, and then let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pans.
• After the bread is completely cooled, store it in a plastic bag at room temp for a week or longer.
• *Bread baked in a glass loaf pans will need longer than metal pans.
• Instructions for kneading by hand
• Mix all of the ingredients except the softened butter in a bowl with a spatula, dough whisk and/or your hands. Let rest for 10 minutes, then transfer to your countertop and knead by hand, adding 2 Tbsp of butter at a time, kneading between butter additions until the butter is incorporated and the dough stays together. Now follow the instructions above from when you transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and start the bulk fermentation.

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 215ºF (100ºC.) Lightly grease a 9-inch (23 cm) square cake pan. 2. In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose and rye flours, the baking powder, baking soda, and caraway seeds. 3. In a spice grinder, or mortar-and-pestle, grind the fennel and anise seeds into they are close to finely ground, but they can still have a bit of texture to them. Whisk them into the four mixture until they are evenly dispersed. 4. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the buttermilk and dark syrup. Stir the mixture just until the dry ingredients are completely moistened, but don't overmix. 5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes. 6. After 30 minutes, increase the heat of the oven to 325ºF (160ºC) and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the bread feels just-cooked in the center when you press it. (If using an instant-read thermometer, it should read 190ºF, 88ºC.) 7. Remove the bread from the oven and as soon as it's cool enough to handle, remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack. To serve, cut the bread in half down the center, making two rectangular loaves, then cut slices of the bread. Storage: The bread will keep for up to 3-4 days at room temperature. It can also be frozen for up to 2 months.

Steps:

• 1. Stir yeast into warm water to dissolve. In small bowl mix well the dissolved yeast, cream, milk and egg yolks; set aide. In a large bowl stir together flour, sugar and salt. Cut in 1/2 cup butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir yeast mixture into flour mixture just to moisten. Spread dough with light film of butter to prevent drying, cover bowl with plastic and refrigerate overnight or up to 4 days. Shape and let rise, and bake into rolls, coffee cake or pastries.