What can you make for Valentine’s Day? First idea would be something sweet and red. And heart-shaped, of course. And I thought: what if you braid a heart?

Co można zrobić na Walentynki? Pierwszy pomysł to coś słodkiego i czerwonego. I w kształcie serca, oczywiście. A ja sobie pomyślałem: a gdyby tak zapleść serce?

At my daughter’s school there is a school’s friends association (parents), which raises money to offer the kids a couple extra experiences, such as going to a theatre. One of the events is a Valentine’s Day cake sale.

Well, I’m not a particular cake baker, but I’ll tell you a secret: they don’t verify what you bring, and bread works as well! Last year I made a heart shaped bread:

A photo posted by Breadcentric (@breadcentric) on Nov 22, 2016 at 12:00am PST

This year I decided to make smaller loaves (I’ll write about them later) and something extra. I’ve made challahs before and I love them for the challenge. The first ones were mainly very uneven, and I wanted to improve on that a little. Also, I got this heart-shaped braiding idea and wanted to try. It’s not perfect, but good to start with.

The recipe comes from J. Hamelman’s “Bread” (sources), as do the braiding ideas. There is also a book on braiding that I don’t have, but the author does magic: “The art of braiding bread” by Roberto van Krammer . If I ever get more into braiding, I’ll buy it.

I’ll describe the heart braiding at the bottom.

Planning

You’ll need a lot of surface for braiding. The dough is ready in a couple minutes, then needs to rise for 2.5 hours. Then you need to divide it in portions, make strings and braid. Since the dough is very firm and elastic, it takes time to make proper even strings out of it, so I do it in phases so that it doesn’t tear. Then 2-2.5 hours rising and about 30 minutes baking.

Ingredients

• 607 g strong white wheat flour
• 300 g high gluten flour (I use bread flour and add approximately 6 g of vital wheat gluten per 100 g of flour)
• 74 g sugar
• 68 g egg yolks (it was 3 large egg yolks in my case)
• 128 g eggs (two large eggs in my case)
• 68 g vegetable oil
• 289 g water
• 17 g salt
• 9 g instant yeast or approximately 27 g fresh yeast
• Some poppy seeds and an egg for the finish before baking

Preparation

1. Mix all ingredients together on a lower mixer speed for about 2 minutes, then knead on a higher speed for about 6 minutes. This is a firm dough and a lot of kneading is expected, I do recommend a mixer (or challenging a gym bloke if you’ve got one at home). Oh, one thing – this dough is expected to be quite warm – about 27 C degrees. I used water having about 40 C degrees of temperature when the rest of ingredients were room temperature, around 20 C. If your final dough is colder, you’ll need more time.

2. Leave the dough for a bulk proof for about 2.5 hours.
   The recipe did not mention degassing or folding the dough, but I did degas after an hour to avoid huge gas bubbles

3. Divide the dough in portions. I made most into 85 g portions and rounded them slightly. I also made about six 145 g each. They were quite difficult to shape later on

4. You’ll need to roll the dough into long strips. Use your palms of hands, start inside and roll out. If you feel the dough resists, put it aside, work with a different chunk and get back to it later. If you feel gas bubbles in the strip, I recommend you puncture them, as they may make your strips uneven. Oh, the strips need to be of even width. The 85 gram ones were about 35 cm in width

   

   Single strip braid

5. When braiding, remember to make it repeatable and not too tight – the strips need some space to grow

6. Leave the braided loaves to proof for 2-2.5 hours. I left them on the baking trays. Don’t pack them too tightly, as they will expand. Some of mines almost doubled

7. Set your oven to 190 C without a fan (upper and lower heating elements), or around 170 with a fan. I don’t recommend using the fan

8. When the dough rises, brush it precisely with a whisked egg, sprinkle poppy seeds on tom and put it in the oven. You’ll need to observe and shuffle the bread a little in the oven. I usually place my loaves in the lower part of the oven so that the top crust doesn’t form too quickly

9. 30 minutes are suggested in the recipe, but I found mines getting too dark after 30 minutes. I simply watched them and took them out when they were brown, but not too dark

   

   Challah

Braiding the heart

Various braids (including two hearts)

It turned out to be more of a triangle than a heart, but it was the first time I made it. I have an idea for an improvement, but haven’t tried it. I’ll describe it below.

Braiding the heart

1. You’ll need four strings of equal length. Start by making a hash in the middle
2. Bend strip 2 (green) outwards by 90 degrees and under the strip 1 (blue)
3. Bend strip 1 by 180 degrees and under the strip 2, then braid over the strip 3 (pink) and under the strip 4 (orange)
4. Bend strip 2 by 90 degrees again and braid under the strip 3 and over the strip 4
5. Bend strip 3 outwards by 90 degrees and over the strip 4
6. Bend strip 4 by 180 degrees and over the strip 3, then braid under the strip 2, over the strip 1, under the strip 1 and over the strip 2
7. Bend strip 3 by 90 degrees again, and then over strip 2, under strip 1, over strip 1, under strip 2
8. Roll the remaining bits of strips under the heart. There shouldn’t be much of it. I’ve cut the excess bit off.
   You’ll notice that the heart looks a bit like a triangle. That’s why I suggest two alterations:
9. Extend the arms at the “wings”, but that may leave you with four strips that don’t necessarily stick together
10. Prepare two more short strips and braid them on the wings. They should not be joined and this should give the right shape

Some music to braid to (a friend’s band):

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV-nbr9O3l8 ]