Craquelin for 3rd World Bread Day
The third annual World Bread Day event will be celebrated tomorrow on October 16, 2008 and I wouldn’t want to miss it. I waited till this week to bake a bread because last week I was exhausted by planning a party dan baking cupcakes for my son’s birthday last Sunday.
This year I tried this sweet bread from Belgium called Craquelin. The recipe came from Nick Malgieri’s book, A Baker’s Tour in which there are tons of great recipes for sweet and savory baked goods. The original recipe in the book is for Cramique, which is a raisin breakfast bread, but the footnote gives me direction to make Craquelin. Originally it uses citrus (most of the time is orange) marinated sugar cubes but this book suggested pearl sugar.
I’ve never seen Craquelin before so I wasn’t sure if my bread qualifies as a Craquelin. It seems that my bread was a little flatter than some of Craquelin pictures I saw on the Internet. And I didn’t do a good job cutting the two circles. They were not deep enough that the pearl sugar were sticking out instead of burrying inside the cuts. But the flavor was good, it’s a type of brioche bread that is rich because of the eggs and butter in it. Even though I didn’t eat it as a breakfast, this is a very good bread to eat with tea or coffee in the afternoon. I cut them into batons and there you go, perfect for nibbling or dunk into the tea or coffee.
Go on hop to the World Bread Day Flickr album and check out Zorra’s site for the round up next week. I bet your mouth will water seeing all the different kinds of breads.
don’t ask me why, but I chose blue again as the dominant color in the photos, just like my last post 
Craquelin
Makes 1 loaf
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm milk, about 110 degrees F
2 large egg yolks
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup pearl sugar
More pearl sugar for sprinkling
Place 1 1/2 cups of the flour in the bowl of an electric mixer
In a medium bowl, whisk the yeast into the milk, then whisk in the yolks. Stir in the liquides into the flour
Place the bowl on the mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and mix on lowest speed for 2 minutes. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Add the butter, sugar, and salt to the bowl with the remaining 1/2 cup of flour and mix on lowest speed until combined. Mix on medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about another 3 to 4 minutes. Beat in the raisins on lowest speed.
Scrape the dough into a buttered bowl and turn the dough over so that the top is buttered. Press plastic wrap against it and allow the dough to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
After the dough is risen, scrape it onto a floured work surface. Form into a disk about 8 inches in diameter and place it on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or foil. Cover with buttered plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled.
When the loaf is almost doubled, set a rack in the middle level of the oven and preheat to 400 degrees F.
Brush the top of the loaf with beaten egg and cut two concentric circular slashes in the top of the loaf, aobut 1 1/2 and 3 inches from the edge. Sprinkle more pearl sugar in the cuts.
Place in the oven and bake until it is deep golden and the internal temperature is about 200 degrees, about 30 minutes.
Place the bread on a rack to cool.
On the day it is baked, keep the bread loosely covered at room temperature. Tightly wrap in the plastic and freeze for longer storage.
Source: adapted from A Baker’s Tour by Nick Malgieri
mugs-nya mirip² ama punya gw Liz :d
hihi…ini mugs belinya udah jaman dulu banget
jgn2 yg jual sama 
Comment by mindy — October 15, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
Look delicious Eliza, I wouldn’t mind to have a slice or two for my breakfast!
oh, yeah…it’s good for breakfast too!
Comment by elra — October 15, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
What a great looking bread. I’m a big fan of brioche, so I’m sure I would love craquelin too!
very good then! love brioche myself too…
Comment by Y — October 16, 2008 @ 1:11 am
Wow, beautiful!
thanks Susan!
Comment by Susan/Wild Yeast — October 16, 2008 @ 6:31 am
This is so beautifully golden, Liz! I have never even heard of craquelin, but I like it already.
Oh, and blue is my favorite color and I find it beautiful for food photos. Yours are amazing, as usual!
xx
i like blue too, so i guess it shows here
Comment by Patricia Scarpin — October 16, 2008 @ 7:15 am
these look awesome. I’ve never heard of (or made) craquelin, but this looks really delicious. I like how you cut them into batons.
yeah, it’s manageable that way
Comment by alexandra's kitchen — October 16, 2008 @ 9:30 am
This looks incredible! I never knew about World Bread Day! Fabulous thing to celebrate!
you should participate if you like to bake bread! it’s one event that i always participate
Comment by Zoë François — October 16, 2008 @ 4:15 pm
It looks really delicious. I’ll try your recipi as soon as possible.
Saludos,
Marcela
i hope you’ll like the recipe Marcela.
Comment by Marcela — October 16, 2008 @ 7:21 pm
I hope blue is not your mood!
It can’be because you did such a great job with this Belgian specialty. I’m drooling!
Thx for your participation in WBD’08.
thanks to you Zorra, i love this event!
Comment by zorra — October 17, 2008 @ 4:26 am
I’ll not ask about “blue” LOL… everybody has different point of view when it comes about photographs. For me is I am lucky right now if after cooking I still be able to take picture. Not so quite “enough natural light” during fall time like now:(
btw, template gw dpt dr internet kok Liz, itu free. lo google aja free template.
same here, but i’m hoping “this” camera will function better than my old one
susah di blogsome Dwi, soalnya harus satu2 gantinya, CSS and XTML pages-nya. ribetttt…
Comment by dwiana — October 17, 2008 @ 6:27 am
I make things all the time that I’ve never seen… or tasted, so I never know if it’s the real deal! But this is beautiful. I need to make this!
thanks you Jesse! i’m trying my best to make this bread as similar to the original as possible. still…lots to learn about it
Comment by Jesse — October 17, 2008 @ 11:07 am
Wow, this looks really nice. I have weakness for something buttery + yeasty + sugary!
me too!
Comment by Anh — October 19, 2008 @ 7:18 pm
Your fav color is blue, it must be
Comment by tigerfish — October 20, 2008 @ 6:14 am
This looks lovely
So lovely Eliza! I will love to have a bite
thanks Pei Lin…i don’t mind if you do
Comment by Mrs Ergül — October 21, 2008 @ 1:30 am
This is so beautiful! Where do you find the pearl sugar?
thanks Susan. i got pearl sugar from a local decorating store, it’s called Decorette Shop and i think they ship everywhere in the US.
Comment by Susan from Food Blogga — October 21, 2008 @ 6:43 pm
Yes, this would be delicious with a cup of tea, indeed
.
agree….
Comment by Sophie — November 6, 2008 @ 1:51 pm
Hmmm that seems delicious
Comment by Affiliate Promotion — March 26, 2009 @ 1:44 pm