Burnt Bread

Sweet bread made with a preferment, a long rest, and a topping of moistened sugar. The recipe yields 6 individual breads.
baked
bread
Catalan
eggs
sweet
traditional
vegetarian

Yield: 6 items

Ingredients
Servings
6
Measurement units

Ingredients

Main dough.

  • 250 gbread flour
  • 40 mlwhole milk
  • 15 gfresh baker's yeast
  • 70 gsugar
  • 1 XL eggegg
  • 40 goil
  • 4 mlanise
  • lemon zest
  • 1.5 gsalt

Topping

Moistened sugar topping.

  • 1 eggegg for brushing
  • 35 gsugar
  • a few drops waterwater
Nutritional Information

Per items

Yield: 6 items

Calories
313 kcal
Protein
7.7 g
Fat
9.4 g
Carbohydrates
48.9 g

Calculated from reviewed ingredient weights and pinned USDA FoodData Central records.

Step-by-step Guide

Preparing the preferment

  1. In a bowl, mix 50 g of flour, the milk, and the yeast to prepare a preferment, and stir well.
  2. Let it rest covered until it doubles in volume.

Mixing and kneading

  1. In another bowl, beat the whole eggs with the sugar until creamy.
  2. Add the oil, a pinch of salt, and the anise.
  3. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined.
  4. Optionally, add the lemon zest.
  5. Add the flour and knead it.
  6. Finally, when the preferment has doubled in volume, add it to the bowl and knead it.
  7. When the dough starts to have a certain consistency, turn it out onto the work surface and stretch and fold it, following the Bertinet method, for about 10 minutes.
  8. The dough should be smooth and manageable, tacky but not very sticky.
  9. The dough must pass the windowpane test.
  10. If necessary, let it rest for 5 minutes and knead it again until it has the correct consistency.

Resting and shaping

  1. Let the dough rest overnight in a bowl lightly greased with oil and covered with plastic wrap.
  2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.
  3. Gently stretch and fold it.
  4. Then, divide it into portions.
  5. Shape the portions into balls to give them surface tension.
  6. Line the baking tray with baking paper and place the balls on it.
  7. Let them rest for about 2 hours, covered with a cloth, until they have grown to one and a half times their initial volume.

Baking and topping

  1. When there is half an hour left before baking, preheat the oven to 180 ºC.
  2. Put 2 tablespoons of sugar in a glass and drizzle a few drops of water over it, a small amount, until it is moistened.
  3. Brush the breads with beaten egg and sprinkle the moistened sugar over them.
  4. Bake at 180 ºC for about 20 minutes.
  5. Halfway through baking, cover the breads with aluminum foil so they do not brown too much.
Original recipe
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    Burnt Bread | The Catalan Table