I was once famous for my beautiful, golden, round buns but I no longer bake these. I have celiac disease and cannot go anywhere near gluten.
2 cups milk
1 cup water
1 cup butter/margerine/oil (I use less -- about 1/2)
2 tblsp yeast (I think this is two pouches)
6-7 cups flour (approximate)
1 pinch salt
1 tsp sugar (approximate)
1) Prepare two tablespoons of yeast in one cup of water
with a bit of sugar.
2) Scald two cups of milk.
3) Combine the milk and "fats" with 1 cup flour.
4) (When this has cooled enough) add the yeast mixture.
5) Mix in some flour until the dough is to stiff too stir
with a spoon
6) Using your hands to mix now, add the rest of the flour.
-- NOTE: I don't really keep track of the total. If you
add too much the dough is stiff and the buns are heavy and
tough. Practice makes perfect. It does also seem to be a
bit dependent on the humidity (as Mom always claimed) I
think that the moisture content of the flour is variable.
7) Knead the dough for a while (10 minutes). Mine is almost always
sticky. I have learned to add the last flour in a trickle over
the kneading time to control this. I think that maybe adding
more fat will make the dough glossier, smoother and less sticky.
I just don't want that much fat in it.
8) Let the dough rise in warm quiet place (I use the inside of the
oven with only the light on -- at least half an hour. I grease
the dough and a sheet of wax paper with some shortening (more
fat) and use the wax paper as a lid to prevent the dough from
drying out. Then I cover the whole thing with a towel.
9) Form the dough into buns on baking sheets by pinching the the
dough. This would be a great thing to watch Amelia Bedelia doing!
You can roll the buns between your hands too but the texture of
the crust is slightly different. I describe pinching the dough
below.
10) Let the dough rise again.
11) Bake the suckers. You can achieve quite a range of acceptable
bun types by varying the baking time and temperature. I prefer
hot and fast. 200 °C for about 10 minutes. Mom used to
do them longer. They get a tougher crust if they are baked longer.
How to eat zwieback.
The obvious methods are:
- hold it in your hand and bite it -- plain and simple
- cut the bun in half and using a layer technique pile on the
goodies finishing with the bun top -- traditional
- cut the bun in half and spread each half with peanut butter
and honey or jam -- heavenly
- cut the bun in half and lay it face down in a warm frying pan,
don't add any more fat, just let it fry very slowly until
the cut face gets golden and crispy. Then dip it in soup.
-- This is wonderful and is twice baked (zwie-back).
- Any way you can!
An alternate method of forming the buns.
Instead of making single buns, form each bun out of two or
three smaller pieces pressed side by side, especially in a
muffin pan. The resulting buns will be more like dinner
rolls and will tear easily along the seams between the
component pieces.
Pinching the dough.
Seize a blob of dough big enough for several buns and hold
it in your hand. Make an "O" with your index finger and
thumb and use your other fingers to squeeze the dough through
this opening. You can use your other hand to push the dough
as well. As the dough squeezes through, close off the opening
by dragging your index finger along your thumb to the base.
This looks like an iris diaphragm closing (think of the iris
in a camera lens or in your eye). With a bit of practice you
get beautiful smooth-skinned buns. My mom called this pinching
or pinching off the buns.
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