Eggless Osterbrot - German Easter Bread

Osterbrot is the German Easter Bread which is soft and cake like. Studded with black currants and lemon zest they are very delicious. This bread has eggs and cake flour and so the texture is more cake like than a bread. For this month's Daring Baker's Challenge, Wolf of Wolf's Den suggested some traditional easter breads. Osterbrot was one among them. The recipe was very different and as I haven't used cake flour to make breads, I thought this would be a nice opportunity to experiment. And after started mixing the flour, I realised that I didn't have raisins. So after some thought, I used the dried apricot instead.

The bread started developing cracks while baking. But that was due to the corn flour in the dough. I topped the bread with sliced almonds and they started browning very fast. So for the whole baking period, I covered the bread with aluminium foil and I just loved the crust. It was so beautiful. We toasted the slices and relished it with the stawberry jam I made recently. The bread was over within two days. Linking this to Yeastspotting.

Recipe Source: Wolf

Makes 1 round Loaf

Ingredients:

Additives:

Black Raisins-1 cup ( I used dried apricots)

Almond-1/4 cup

Milk-1/3 cup

For The Sponge:

Cake Flour*-1 2/5 cups (see notes)

Instant Yeast-1/4 tsp

Cold Milk-2/3 cup

For The Dough:

Cake Flour*-1 2/5 cups (see notes)

Sugar-3 tbs

Instant Yeast-1 tsp

Salt-1/2 tsp

Butter-3 1/2 tbs

Lemon/ Orange Zest-1 tsp

Milk-1/3 cup used for soaking almonds

Apple Cider Vinegar-1 tsp

Sliced Almonds for topping

Procedure:

Additives:

1. Soak raisins in warm water for 30 minutes. Drain water and reserve the raisins.

2. Soak the almonds in milk for 30 minutes.

3. Drain the almonds and reserve both milk and almonds.

For The Sponge:

1. Mix together flour, yeast and milk.

2. Cover with cling wrap and set aside for 1-2 hours until double.

For The Dough:

1. To the sponge add the flour, sugar, salt, yeast.

2. Mix the milk and apple cider vinegar and let it stand for 5 minutes.

3. Add this to the sponge and mix all the ingredients to form a slightly sticky dough.

4. Add the butter and knead to incorporate.

5. Add the raisins, almonds and orange zest. Knead it again to incorporate.

6. Dust the counter with flour and knead the dough for 10 minutes.

7. Now shape the dough into a round loaf and let it rest for 30 minutes.

8. Preheat oven to 200C. Place a deep tray in the lower shelf of oven.

9. Place the loaf on a greased baking tray. Make a cross slit on top.

10. Brush the top with milk and sprinkle sliced almonds evenly.

11. Now place the tray with the loaf in the middle rack.

12. Pour boiling water into the deep tray in the lower shelf and close the oven immediately.

13. Bake for 35-45 minutes. If you feel that the bread's crust is browning fast, then cover it with a foil and bake.

14. Cool on a wire rack completely before slicing.

15. Enjoy the flavouful bread.

*Notes: For home made Cake Flour, take 3 cups of maida in a bowl, remove three tsp of flour from the bowl and add 3 tsp of corn flour to the flour. Mix thoroughly with a whisk. Use this in the recipe instead of cake flour.