When I started making a list of dishes for this mega marathon I thought it would be tough to get dishes from letters like Q, X, etc but to my surprise I hardly found any nice bread for the letter H. I searched quite a bit but was not too successful. But, like all other things you find something when you are looking for something else. Exactly the same way, I visited Varadha’s blog looking for some information on sourdough breads and landed on this one. I was ecstatic to say the least. It is such a pretty looking bread that I simply had to make it immediately.

When I read her recipe, it had bread flour and eggs. I am yet to find bread flour in India and I did not have eggs that day. I did some further research and discovered that this bread ring is seen as similar to Challah and so I took an eggless Challah recipe for the dough and made this bread ring. It was so much fun doing this and it tasted wonderful. I managed to bake it to a slight crisp which is easy to bite into and chewy. The topping of poppy seeds and dried rosemary added a lovely texture and flavour to the bread and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

This bread ring is a regular feature in weddings and other special occasions and is usually decorated with flower and other shapes on the ring. But I left it just the way it is because to me it looked pretty as is. It took me a couple of attempts to get it right and I think that is the reason it did not fill out when rested after shaping. The shaping was off at a couple of places but overall I am satisfied with this result for my first attempt.

Makes one 12″ Bread Ring

Country – Hungary

Recipe for the dough from here and shaping from here

WHAT WE NEED

All purpose flour                       1 cup + 2 tbsp

Warm water                               6 tbsp

Olive oil                                       1 tbsp

Instant yeast                               1/2 scant tsp

Sugar                                            3/4 tsp

Salt                                                1/2 tsp

Cornstarch                                   1 tsp

Poppy seeds & dried rosemary for sprinkle on top (optional)

WHAT TO DO

• Mix all the ingredients, except cornstarch, together and knead till the dough is smooth and elastic
• Keep it in a greased bowl and cover with a cling wrap
• Set aside for an hour or till the dough doubles in size
• Take the dough and roll into a rectangle with a rolling pin
• Divide the dough into 8 strips and roll 6 of them into equal size ropes
• Place them bent at half in a circular arrangement

• Entwine each rope with those adjacent to it
• Take the other 2 dough stripes and make into a long rope
• Place it in the shape of a circle at the outer end of the these entwined ropes
• Join the two ends to form a circle
• Take the end of the inner ropes and entwine them over the outer circle and pinch to seal

• Let the bread ring rest for 30-40 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 175C
• Mix the cornstarch in a cup of water and microwave for a minute on high
• Apply this cornstarch wash on the bread ring just before baking
• Sprinkle the poppy seeds and dried rosemary on top
• Bake for 25 minutes or till the top is nicely brown
• Enjoy it as is or with a dip of your choice

NOTES

1. The dough strips need to be rolled well to form a rope without any gaps or crevices. These can open up during baking and possibly spoil the look of the bread
2. When pinching the dough together, do it on the underside so that it is not seen

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 75