Pumpkin Decorative Bread Tutorial

Today I want to share the latest fun we've been having here with bread! Pumpkin shaped decorative bread. I have to admit it has taken me a while to wrap my head around this technique and figure out how to make the shape of the pumpkin stay. Thanks be to my buddy John Miles for suggesting the the use of butcher's twine! It was literally a stroke of culinary genius! So without further chatter...let's get this pumpkin punk-fest started! I'm so excited to show you how to do this!


Take 10 oz of 5 day bread dough, roll it and gather the dough at the bottom. Allow a balloon-like structure to develop.

10 oz of bread dough, well kneaded and holding it's own. Like a very nice...rock...or something.
The outer skin of the dough will be very tight and clean, again, like a balloon.

Get yourself a wad of butcher's twine. I found mine in the kitchen tool section at the local grocery store. Easy to find.

Oil your bread very well.

Tie with twine, leaving the knots on the underside of the dough and the rounded part of the dough facing upward for baking.

Do not raise! It will be too difficult to control the shape. Simply Bake at 425 for 15 minutes. When still hot and uncooked, removed from oven and cut the twine off. It will be tricky, but I had fun with it. I found if I left the twine on the whole length of the baking, it was almost impossible to remove it.

After the twine is removed from the hot bread, I poke a whole in the top of the loaf and insert some of the Edible Decorative Bread dough (inert dough for flowers on bread) . This dough will adhere to the top of the bread if a little water is placed on the bottom side of the decorative additions. That inert dough must be made ahead of time.

Detailing on the leaves will stay nice and clean in the inert dough.

Once topped with some of the Edible Decorative Bread dough (inert dough for flowers on bread) work quickly. It must be returned to the oven within a few minutes. When you return it to the oven, reduce heat to 350. Bake about 15 minutes. While it bakes, get your painting supplies out. People, for the love of all that's good and righteous...please use clean fresh brushes and bowls. Yikes on wiping nasty germs on bread. Keep it sanitary.

How long do you bake the bread? Excellent question. So glad you asked. Bake until bread is over 170 degrees internal temperature (test with a meat thermometer). Allow to cool 10 minutes before painting.

A combination of paprika and turmeric or curry will give you a bright orange hue. This is a natural coloring. If you prefer, you can use food coloring, though it won't be natural...it will still work and be very cool.

Make sure you have a very clean new brush. Did I mention "clean" enough?! I prefer a flat brush like this when working on larger surfaces.

For the brown on the leaves, use the coffee granules dissolved in water or Pero brand natural grain drink dissolved in water. If you want another method, look at my in depth Basic Bread Painting Technique

To set color, return to the hot oven for 5 minutes.

There you go. Pumpkin bread at a whole new level.

Always My Very Best,
Your Friend Chef Tess

New Fall Decorative Breads!

What do you think of the seasonal gold embellishment on a dark pumpernickel? I had a fun relaxing bread session last night and wanted to share some great ideas for Fall decorative breads. Though I'm only sharing the pictures today. Full tutorials will follow soon. The latest experimentation with pumpkin shaped bread bowls is going well! Look how cool they look! I am ever so pleased with how they have turned out so far.

I went with a dry looking leaf instead of a green one. It just seemed more fitting for the season.

The little guys side by side are about 8 inches across and actually easier to make than they seem.

This is a sweet potato bread with curry and spice. Made more amazing by some artistic Fall foliage. What an awesome center piece this will make! Oh I'm excited! Plus...it's all edible so it would also work for just a nice dinner presentation.

What do you think? Who wouldn't want to sit across from this bread at a Fall feast?

It's almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Ornate Crown Loaf Tutorial

Welcome to tutorial Tuesday here on Chef Tessbakeresse. I do a lot of basic tutorials for beginning cooks, but today we are going a little more advanced for those bakers out there who want to learn a new loaf. This is called an Ornate Crown Loaf. It has twirls and flowers and fancy additions. We will start with a one pound piece of dough made from my bare bones recipe for whole wheat bread. This will make two of these crown loaves.

My Bare Bones Recipe for whole wheat bread

2 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 cup cool water (not cold, but cool to the touch)

6 cups whole wheat bread flour (spankin' fresh! with no hint of bitterness)

2 tsp salt

2 1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 T honey

1/4 cup oil

Directions:Dissolve the yeast in the 1/2 cup warm water. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl make a well in the mixture. Dissolve the honey in the 2 1/4 cup water and add the oil of your choice. Pour the liquid and the yeast mixture into the well of flour. Stirring from the center, first combine the ingredients to make a smooth batter, then fold in the remaining flour from the sides of the bowl, mixing them together into a soft dough. Soft dough is the key!! Since the whole grain flour takes a while to absorb water, wait 10 minutes--then evaluate the dough. Add water or flour if more is required, but do this slowly as it will probably take less flour than you think. If you want really good bread--best keeping quality, flavor, and rise--knead the dough about 600 strokes without adding any more flour. The dough should remain soft and should become elastic and smooth. Rest whenever you want, but aim for 600 strokes. This is about 6 minutes on medium speed in a Kitchen-Aid mixer. This may seem like an amazing and outrageous requirement, but after many hundreds of loaves, I'm convinced that thorough kneading makes the critical difference. As you continue to work the dough, toward the end of the kneading, it will become lustrous, utterly supple and elastic. It should actually be white if you look closely, with brown bran flecks clearly visible against pale gluten. Form the dough into a ball and put in an un-greased crock. Spray LIGHTLY with oil. Cover tightly with plastic wrap or a lid and allow to ferment. At about 80 degrees, this will take 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours. Wet your finger and poke it into the dough (called the ripe test). If your finger goes in without very much resistance and the hole remains when your finger is removed, the dough is ready to be punched down. For best results, do not wait until it sighs and collapses when poked. Gently press out the accumulated gas. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured table and keeping the smooth surface, carefully unbroken, deflate the dough by pressing it with wet or floury hand from one side to another. Cut it in half and form each part gently into a round ball, still preserving the smooth surface on the outside.

Pat out the circle until it is about one 12 inches and a circle, on a lightly floured surface.

Break a hole right in the middle of the dough.

Gather the dough and pinch to form a continuous wreath. This will give your crown a good structure.

Flip over so the pinched seam is on the bottom of the loaf.

Cut eight wedges into the dough from the outside in, but not cutting through the center of the crown. Like this...

Cut a second section of dough directly next to the wedge. This strip will be pulled out form the loaf, and formed into a crown "jewel".

Stretch out the think piece.

Roll it slightly until it's about six inches long.

Twist onto the top of the loaf like this:

Repeat with each of the sections until the loaf is finished.

For the detailed flowers and leaves I used the Edible Decorative Bread dough (inert dough for flowers on bread) .

There is a new flower on this loaf I haven't shown here before. It starts with a small amount of the dough, rolled out like this and cut on each side like a feather.

The "feather" is rolled tightly.

Pinch dough in the center of the flower. This makes two flowers rather quickly.

It can be left like a paint brush. I prefer to fan out the petals (see last picture).

Place leaves and flowers on the loaf as desired for decoration. Spray heavily with water and allow loaf to raise about 30 minutes on a parchment lined bake sheet. Bake at 350 degrees 45-50 minutes.
For added detail to the loaf you can use my technique for painted breads.

Whatever you do...have fun. Make it a piece of art.

There you go.

White on Dark...a Marble Bread with a Twist

Well my Darlings, it has come to my attention that marble rye is a very cool bread...and so is marble fudge ripple bread, marble ginger banana bread, and daggumit...pretty much any color contrasting dough mixed in a loaf. Why is that? Is it the vortex of flavor? (Is that a Star Trek episode?) Is it the fusion of color? I'm going with "it's just plain flavorishious-ness-ism". Yes, I'm sure that is a word...in Willy Wonka Land.
One of my long time readers and gosh darn cool Face book friends named Shannon asked me long ago to do a tutorial on marble rye. As I am also bound and determined to show how to do a light contrasting color painted loaf, I thought to myself, "self, why not combine the two?" So here it is...

Are you ready to see how it's done?
I will not make a patootie joke right now. Nope. Not going to do it.
For marble bread you will need:

1/2 recipe of any of One these dark doughs:

rye (if you use whole grain, be sure to use the full amount of yeast even for the half recipe if making it into a marble rye using the dinner roll recipe as your light color, you will add 1T caraway seeds to the roll dough when mixing.) After dough has been mixed, divide into two pieces.
Double Chocolate Baguettes for Evil Tara After dough has been mixed and formed into a ball, and risen for one hour until doubled, divide into two pieces.
Yeast Raised Orange Gingerbread After dough has been mixed and formed into a ball, and risen for one hour until doubled, divide into two pieces.

1 full recipe of :
Perfect Freezer Friendly Dinner Rolls
1 1/4 cup water (no hotter than 110 degrees)
2 tsp yeast (1 packet) rapid rise
2T sugar (1T honey)
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour (whole wheat works too)
1 1/2 tsp salt
6T oil (original recipe called for 12T of melted butter)
1 egg
2 egg yolks
Combine everything in one large bowl or mixer. I like that. Knead 5 minutes by hand or 3 minutes in a mixer on medium setting. This is a less developed dough as far as gluten is concerned. Form into a ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a lid for 1 hour, or until doubled in size. Punch down dough and divide into 2 pieces.

When I do the doughs, I make them at the same time so they raise at the same rate. It works pretty well. You will have two pieces of light dough and two pieces of dark dough.

Pat down the pieces of dough on a lightly floured surface until they are about the same length and width. Place one dough color on top of the opposite dough color. Press together firmly. Then fold into thirds, like so...

Like a travel brochure...but fat and full of carbs.

With the color inside, roll the dough into a tight loaf. If you have any questions whatsoever on this process, you should see this entry on :loaf molding.

Pinch that bad boy loaf really tightly at the seam so the contrasting color is all sealed up in there.

Lay on a parchment paper lined large baking sheet with seam side down. Lightly spray with water or get a little water on your hands and pat the loaf lightly with water.

I did two different loaves, one with the dark on the outside and one with the light on the outside. Let the dough raise at room temperature (75-80 degrees) for 1 1/2 hours or so, until doubled. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Lightly slit the top of the loaf to reveal the marble inside.

Now, brace yourself. The dark outside looks really amazing.

Am I right? That feeling you're having right now, it's called respect.

Bake 425 degrees 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 for 25-30 minutes. I check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer (165-170 degrees internal means the bread is baked).

Remove from the oven and place warm bread on a cooling rack. Now, how do I get those light accents? It's very technical...

So far this is my only shortcut. I've done white before with a flour, sugar and water paste, but I started using this pearl glaze on a whim once and I will never go back to the old way. It has a nice flavor and it's under 3$. While the bread is still hot, I make my initial design. If it isn't bright enough, I re-coat the design after about 5 minutes.

Then I will go back and accent with the darker color. Did you miss that little secret?

Basic Bread Painting Technique was printed last year in Australian Baking Business magazine. I use the color on the hot bread and don't put it back in the oven to set on this one. I also don't use any egg if the bread will be eaten in such a case as this. I have never baked the pearl before so I don't know how it would react to the heat. I just know that I don't use the egg for this particular loaf.

Keep bread unwrapped if you want to keep the colors true. Marble sweet bread makes excellent French Toast or sweet sandwiches.

There you go.