Читать книгу Dutch Treats - William Woys Weaver - Страница 9

This fulsome old-time recipe came to light in an 1856 Hagerstown almanac published in German for the Pennsylvania Dutch community living in western Maryland. Fall schnitzing parties were at one time a focal point of Pennsylvania Dutch country life. The abundance of apples in fall invited creative ways to use them. Mealy apples that were not fit for schnitzing were peeled and cooked down for apple sauce or apple butter. The cores and parings were boiled to make a “tea” that was also used in apple butter production or employed as part of the liquid starter for apple bread, one of the festive foods served when entire neighborhoods gathered in a local farmhouse to pare and slice apples for drying. While many hands lightened the burden of work, flasks of apple jack and rye whiskey and romantic rendezvous in the haymow more or less defined the evening.

Apple Bread is also one of the basic doughs used to make Christmas Hutzelbrod (page 12). While definitely spectacular as toast liberally spread with apple butter and rich, fragrant, melting Amish Roll Butter, the delicate fruit flavor of apple bread also complements the wonderful array of dried fruits stuffed inside this holiday treat. As a variation to our recipe below, you can add chopped apple, peach or pear Schnitz to the sponge right before adding the flour. If you want to try your hand at baking this bread the old way by proofing it in traditional rye straw baskets, refer to the special instructions in the sidebar.

Peach Schnitz

Yield: 2 loaves

3 cups (750ml) lukewarm apple puree (or warm unsweetened apple sauce)

7 to 7½ cups (940g) bread flour

1 cup (250ml) apple “tea” (see note)

1 tablespoon (15g) sugar

½ ounce (15g) dry active yeast

1 tablespoon (15g) plus 1½ teaspoon salt

Milk Glaze:

1 tablespoon (15g) unsalted soft butter

1 tablespoon (15ml) whole milk

Combine 3 cups (750ml) lukewarm apple puree with 3 cups (375g) bread flour and 1 tablespoon (15g) salt. Proof the yeast in the lukewarm apple water sweetened with 1 tablespoon (15g) sugar. Once the yeast is foaming vigorously, add it to the apple sponge. Cover and set away in a warm place until double in bulk and forming bubbles on the surface. Then stir down, add the remaining 1½ teaspoon of salt and approximately 4½ cups (565g) of the remaining bread flour and chopped dried fruit (optional). Use only enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the fingers. Knead 5 to 10 minutes or until the dough becomes soft and spongy.

Divide the dough into two equal portions. Knead these again and shape into loaves. Place the loaves in two well-greased bread pans and cover (traditional loaves were raised in round rye straw baskets and turned out to bake, like French boules – see photo opposite and sidebar instructions). Set aside and let the bread raise above the tops of the bread pans or baskets, the higher the better. Preheat the oven to 450F (235C). Bake the bread at this temperature for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400F (205C) and bake for another 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 375F (190C) and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the bread taps hollow on the bottom. As soon as the bread comes from the oven, remove it from the pans, combine the soft butter and milk until creamy, then brush the crust (in former times this was done with a piece of flannel or a goose feather). Otherwise, brush the crust with cold apple water or with cold applejack. Let the bread cool before slicing.

Note: The tea is made by boiling the cores and skins for about 30 minutes. Clear, unsweetened apple juice may be used as a substitute.

Special Instructions for Baking in Rye Straw Baskets

Traditional Pennsylvania Dutch farmhouse bread was proofed in rye straw baskets which gave the loaves their distinctive round shape and basket pattern in the crust. Rye straw baskets are still available from several basket makers in the region. To use them the old way, dust the interiors liberally with GMO-free roasted cornmeal, then place a large ball of dough in each basket (we used one large basket for the photograph). Cover the basket and set it in a warm place. When the dough has risen above the top of the basket, turn it out onto a baking sheet or pizza tin, let it recover for about 15 minutes and then bake as instructed in the recipe. Do not brush the bread with the creamed butter mixture or cold apple water if you want the loaf to retain its rustic dusted-with-flour appearance. Otherwise, while the bread is still hot from the oven, quickly brush off the cornmeal and apply the basting mixture as directed.

Apple Bread (Schmitzing Bread)