Easter bakes

Hi All, 

I took a week off and haven't been here for a few days.  Hope my Christian friends all had a nice Easter, and my Jewish friends had a nice Purim.  Funny that Passover and Easter are so far apart this year - they're usually a little closer together.  My wife and I wanted to make some traditional stuff for family celebrations this year.  She made her family's traditional Genetti cookies, of which I unfortunately forgot to take a picture.  We also did the family Easter bread, then I had to continue my quest for ciabatta.

The Easter breads:

And the ciabatta:

The first time I made this recipe it was a joy to make (because I followed the directions).  It is originally written for 5 pounds of flour and makes a ton of bread!  Half the flour is added to the liquid ingredients and a cup at a time is added "until a stiff dough."  This year I halved the recipe and added the second half of the flour all at once - big mistake.  After it came together under the dough hook I took it out of the mixer to work by hand and it was like kneading a brick.  I quickly did the math and between eggs, milk , and water I was working with about 45% hydration.  I cut the ball in half and put it back in the mixer and carefully (slowly) added another 1.5 cups of milk/water a tablespoon at a time until I got it up to about 65% hydration.  Then I could knead it much more easily.  However, I really didn't need to - after all the additional mixing that it took to add the extra hydration, it made a beautiful windowpane with hardly any further work.  (I redid the recipe so it will be at 65% hydration every time now - don't tell my wife.)

If any of you remember a post I did about a month or so ago, I tried a braided loaf so that my son could have  a bread that was "all heels."  In that post, I mentioned that I had some trouble rolling out the ropes for the braid.  If I roll hard enough to degas the dough and make it "tight" then the surface gluten membrane tears, or I get unsightly longitudinal striations.  But this time around I tried something different.  It dawned on me that the rope used for braiding is a lot like a baguette, or even ficelle, if you will.  So I figured what the heck - if it works great, if not I'll at least get some baguette shaping practice.  So, away I went.  It took about 6 or 7 passes with each rope, but I eventually got them nice and long, and more importantly smooth.  One thing I learned - keep forming the seam on the same side every time.  Seems intuitive now but, at the time, I thought I was "evening it out" when in actuality I was creating multiple seams to split open later.  After the ropes were made, the braiding was no problem.  The dyed Easter eggs are snuggled into the braid after it is done.  In my wife's recipe it says to beat an egg, then strain it, measure two tablespoons of what's left and beat lightly with a teaspoon of water.  The straining removes the chalazae (the chunky bits) of the egg white and makes the glaze satin smooth.  I also tried a technique from another recipe by letting the first application of glaze dry almost completely, then brushing again with a second coat.  Came out quite pretty, if I say so myself (except for the dyed eggs - the heat affected the dye and they changed color).

For the ciabatta, I continued onward in my quest for an open crumb.  I'm up to 90% hydration in this loaf.  I proofed it upside down like before, see my earlier post, and when I flipped it over I thought I'd killed it.  But the oven spring was phenomenal and it was light as a feather when it came out of the oven.  The ears were getting a bit dark so I took it out at 30 minutes, but I think it would have been a bit better had I let the rest of the loaf darken a touch more.  The crumb is the most open I've had yet - some big holes surrounded by a lot of medium holes.  After running the mixer for almost an hour straight with the Easter bread above, I figured it needed to cool down a bit so I did not put the ciabatta in the mixer.  But I think the next loaf, with adequate mixing and 90% hydration, will get me where I want to be.  I'll keep you posted.

     --Mike