bbd #11 – Zopf with mustard sprouts

This month we can celebrate the one year anniversary of Bread Baking Day.

I picked bread with sprouts as theme. The idea behind is that your germinate your own sprouts and bake a bread with them.

It seems to be a pretty difficult theme as I realized of the reactions I got. Sprouting is time-consuming indeed, difficult sometimes. I say sometimes because I couldn’t sprout wheat grains successfully. I think the grains were too old or somehow treated, so I switched to mustard seeds that I stored in my pantry also for a quite long time.

A long time also took the sprouting. 5 days until the seeds were ready for baking. They looked like this.

There are different possibilities to use sprouts in bread. I used them just as an addition as I normally do with nuts, dried fruits etc. The only thing you have to consider is quantity of liquid, that must be eventually reduced.

For the dough part I did go with a Zopf, a Swiss delicacy. Boaz baked one for the last BBD. Zopf is normally a sweet breakfast bread, with the mustard seeds and a little bit of sourdough it becomes a hearty bread.

Zopf with mustard sprouts
makes 2 small loaves

100 g flour
350 g wheat flour (type 1050)
225-250 g water
15 g fresh yeast
10 g sourdough starter
75 g butter, softened
10 g salt
100 g sprouted mustard seeds, well drained

Dissolve yeast in 30 g of the water. Do the same with the sourdough starter. Mix flour dissolved yeast and starter mix on low speed 1.5 (Bosch MUM 8) for 4 minutes. Add butter and salt and mix another 6 minutes on a higher speed 2 (Bosch MUM 8) towards the end add the sprouted seeds. Dough should be smooth and still a little sticky. Cover and let rise for 35 minutes. Make one stretch & fold let rise another 40-55 minutes.

Divide the dough into four equal pieces, and form each into a 30 cm long sausage.

Here comes the difficult part: Each zopf is made up of two strands. To make the first loaf, lay one strand horizontally on the work surface, and place another vertically across the middle. Take the right end of the horizontal roll and lay it leftwards across the top one, and take the left end and lay it rightwards. Then take the two ends of the vertical roll and do the same, bringing the upper end downwards and the lower end upwards. Continue alternately until the braid is complete, then press the ends together. Repeat for the second loaf.

Alternatively use this method. Dust loaves generously with flour.

Cover and let rise for 40- 60 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 C and bake for 25 minutes.

A delicious bread with a very light taste of mustard.

If you would like to participate in BBD #11 too, you should start sprouting today.
Last day of submission is July 1st.

More entries and recipes in English.