I haven’t got much experience baking bread (yet), but I like it a lot. Nothing nicer than kneading dough with your bare hands. Very relaxing, you should try it!;-)
I first googled some different recipes and then decided to try out the one from Belgian TV-chef Piet Huysentruyt. The result turned out to be really nice, so let me please share it with you.
What you need: 500 gr of wheat flour, 50 gr of sugar, 1 egg yolk, 75 gr of butter, 225 ml of milk, 35 gr of fresh yeast, 9 gr of salt, some raisins (you first soak them in water,… or rum ), if you like cinnamon (like I do) you can add some too.
What to do? Pour the milk into a small saucepan and add the yeast. Make sure the yeast is fully dissolved before turning off the heat. Put your flour into a large bowl and add the salt. Make a hole in the middle and put the egg yolk in it. Add the sugar (sprinkle around the hole). Add the lukewarm milk and start mixing with your hands. Once the dough has absorbed all the milk, add the butter and knead, knead, knead…
Then you cover the bread with some foil , put it in a warm place (I put mine on top of the boiler…) and allow it to rise until doubled in size (between half an hour and an hour). Then you push the dough flat (get all the air out) and you sprinkle the raisins on top. You roll up the dough and you shape the bread. Then it needs a second rise. You heat the oven to 180 degrees and you bake the bread for about 45 minutes (until nice and brown).
We ate the bread on a lazy and late Sunday morning together with some lovely Cambozola cheese and butter. So good!
