La Lama Mountain Ovens
Old Italian family recipes
and archives, baking tips, and bakery gifts
Family Secrets
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La Lama Mountain Ovens |
The best of the recipes, techniques, and methods practiced by our large extended Italian-American family - with emphasis on the legacy handed down to us by the original immigrants. This is a cookbook-in-process project. If you try any of these recipes please let us know how they turn out, whether or not you had any difficulties, and any clarifying improvements you might recommend to make them foolproof. We will of course acknowledge genuine "test-kitchen" assistance. |
Family Secrets #2Easter Bread for Mere Mortals By Cece Dove, La Lama Mountain Ovens |
| In my prior
musings I promised you the updated version of
"Easter Bread with 65 Eggs". After mom sent me
her handwritten version I went to visit her on several
occasions with advance warning, asking her to plan on
spending the day in the kitchen baking this bread from
her recipe. As she worked, I followed her around,
measuring, estimating, and generally bugging her with
questions. I returned to my own home and started
experimenting. It took several months of repeated
"bakes" and innumerable phone calls to finally
come up with a recipe that I promptly entitled
"Easter Bread for Mere Mortals". Since few of
us have the time or space to deal with the 30 or so
loaves that the original recipe yielded, my target was
about six pounds of dough to make 3 large loaves or 4
medium loaves. This would be ideal - enough to give a
loaf or two to a close friend and have one in the freezer
and one to eat warm out of the oven. The most notable change I made from the original was to substitute real butter for oleo - my preference since I like the flavor of the real stuff in my baked goods. Also the proportion of fat to flour is higher in my version. I like the richness it adds. A note on giving this bread as a gift. As soon as it is completely cool, wrap well in plastic wrap and either give it to the lucky person within a day, or freeze it. To defrost, leave at room temperature with the wrap on it until completely defrosted then re-wrap in fresh plastic and it will be excellent. This bread makes simply grand toast or if you have some that has really staled, you can make the best bread pudding ever. Never happens in our house - it just disappears as breakfast toast, afternoon coffee break, or midnight snacks. Even though it was traditionally baked only at Easter when I was growing up, I’ve taken the liberty of baking this bread on any occasion I want to treat my family to something a little special. |
Add sugar to warm
milk, then dissolve yeast in the milk. Whisk in flour by
the handful until about the consistency of a thick
pancake batter. Cover and set aside for an hour or until
bubbly and about double in bulk. This is your starter.
Mix all six ingredients together and put this mixture onto a large wooden table. Make a well in the center large enough to hold all of the starter plus the following wet ingredients.
Beat eggs in electric mixer until light and foamy, add melted butter and rum and just beat to mix. Scrape starter into well of dry ingredients. Pour egg mixture in slowly while using a fork to start incorporating flour, making a soft dough. This will take a little time and a lot of patience because you do not want to collapse the flour walls while you have a very runny egg mixture in the middle. Once you have a soft dough working, start kneading vigorously using a dough scraper to help it along. The dough will be very sticky to begin with. Keep adding dustings of flour and kneading until it is soft and velvety, being careful not to add so much flour that it become hard or dry. This kneading will take about 15 min. Place in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to double. It will take 2 or even 3 hours. Deflate the dough but do not knead it. Cover again and let rise until double, about 1 1/2 hours. Cut the dough into 3 equal pieces of about 2 lbs each. Roll each piece into a long log, working from the center out. Rotate working each piece, resting the others. This relaxes the dough and makes it easier to work with. When all are about the size of your wrist (this is definitely a Mamma measurement) form them into rings, pinching ends together well. Place on greased sheet pans, cover with clean towels and let rise about 1 to 1/2 hours until almost double. Preheat oven to 350. Brush each loaf with a mixture of 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 Tblsp. Milk just before placing in oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely before wrapping. Altitude adjustments: None - the fat contributed by the butter and eggs in this recipe provides a dough that produces the same result at 8,000 feet as it does at sea level. |
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©1998-2006 CDove - Attributed Copies Permitted for Small
Quantity Non-Commercial Use Only. Commercial and Quantity Reproduction Requires Written Permission La Lama Mountain Ovens, 2055 Lama Mtn., HC81 Box 26, Questa, NM 87556, Tel: 505-586-2286 |
