February 28, 2004
Hi Ben!
Attached is a photo of
the bread I made today. It's called a "crown bread" and comes from the Cooking
Essentials book I mentioned. The book is
for new cooks and this bread looks spectacular but is about as easy to make as
any bread.
You just make a simple whole-wheat dough (yeast, flour, salt, honey, and
water) and after the dough has risen, you knead in some sunflower seeds.
Then you cut the dough
into eight pieces (just like cutting a pizza), flatten each piece into a circle
and then shape them into balls. You roll
one ball is some wheat flour, two balls in sesame seeds, three balls in poppy
seeds, and one ball in sunflower seeds.
Then you put the ball with the wheat flour in the center and arrange the
other seven balls around it in a circular pan.
As it rises. the balls
push against one another and make a single loaf. After baking it and cooling it, the loaf can
be broken apart into sandwich rolls as needed.
You mom and I bought a
bread like this from the Anker Brot
bakery in the train station in Vienna, Austria when we were on our way back
from Prague. (We used it to make
sandwiches on the trip.) I remember it as one the best
breads I've ever enjoyed. It's very,
very nice to learn how to make it.
Anker Brot is a European version of Au
Bon Pain only better. They have 335
shops in
