Thursday, January 13, 2011

Milk Bread (Stretzel)

This is another type of old- fashioned bread not seen much these days.

4 cups scalded milk
1 1/2 cups oil
3 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3-4 tsp yeast
11-12 cups flour

Mix the salt, sugar, yeast and 1/2 of the flour together. Add the wet ingredients and stir well. Add in the remainder of the flour until it is a nice consistency that is not too sticky. Knead it until the bread dough has some elasticity, about 5-10 minutes (you may use a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook). Cover and let rise until double in bulk- about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and knead lightly for a couple minutes. Form into 3-4 loaves. Place in greased loaf pans (3 larger or 4 medium sized loaf pans). Cover and allow to rise until doubled. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20-35 minutes (or until outside is lightly brown- you can test it with a food thermometer; it should be 200 degrees when finished). Cool in loaf pans on a cooling rack for 10 minutes and then turn out onto racks to cool the rest. May rub butter over top of loaves after removing from the oven.

Variation- may add 1 cup of raisins for each cup of milk used while mixing the dough.

*Recipe adapted from one from Mrs. John J. Becker in the Mennonite Community Cookbook 1978.

4 comments:

  1. My old family Stretzel recipe includes raisons, pecans, and anise seed. We braid the dough into ropes, and eggwash during baking for beautiful loaves.

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    1. This sounds like a great way to make it- a little more pretty and some great added flavors. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Also, we add half the flour, let it rise, and then add the other half of the flour, and let it rise a second time. After we braid it, it rises a third time before baking. I'm not sure if this practice makes a difference in taste or not, but I've never been willing to try it otherwise!

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    1. This would probably help give a better rise and nicer texture. As you can see, I need to get this updated with a photo- am anxious to try your ideas. Thanks!

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