Flower Bread

I've always wanted to make this bread. It looks so divine. This time my doughter helped me with kneading and rolling the dough. We were the baking team on a mission. It wasn't easy, flour was all over my kitchen, but she had a lot of fun.

I adjusted the recipe that I found on Zokie's blog. Not only the bread looks so beautiful but the dough is so soft and moist... perfect.



You need:

550g (4 and 1/3 cup ) all-purpose flour + some for dusting
150g (1 cup and 1/5 cup) bread flour
2 teaspoons salt
10g instant yeast, or 18g active dry yeast
100ml milk
1 teaspoon sugar
2 eggs + 1 yolk, reserve 1 eggwite for brushing the bread
250ml buttermilk or kefir
113g (1 bar) melted unsalted butter + 60g (3/4 bar) beaten butter for brushing the dough layers

Sesame and caraway seeds for topping

10.5 inch diameter round baking pan

Steps:

In food processor mix flour with instant yeast and salt. If you use active dry yeast dissolve it beforehand in the warm milk with sugar. When the yeast starts to bubble add it to the flour. Add eggs, yolk, buttermilk and melted butter. Mix everything together in food processor until the dough is smooth and soft. Make a ball from the dough, coat it with oil and move to a bowl. Cover it with plastic foil and let it rise for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Punch dough down and divide into 4 equal parts. Form them into balls. On a floured surface roll first ball into thin round shape, 10.5 inch in diameter, using the rolling pin. Place it on round baking pan. Using pastry brush or spatula spread beaten butter on top of the round dough. Repeat the process with the two of the remaining three dough balls, putting each dough layer on top of the previous one. Do not spread the butter on the last (top) dough layer. Keep the last dough ball.

Use a sharp knife or pizza cutter to cut the round dough layers into 8 triangle slices. Roll each triangle into crescent, starting from the tip of the top layer, as it is on picture below. Repeat the same with all layers of dough. In the center place the last dough ball. You can cut it as I did. The tiny ball on the tip was made by my daughter. Let bread rise for about 1 hour covered with kitchen towel.

Brush top of the risen bread with egg white and sprinkle it with sesame seeds and the center with caraway seeds.

All steps of shaping the dough are shown on the pictures below.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 365F (200C).

Bake the bread for 30 - 45 minutes, depending on the heat of the oven, until golden brown. When is done, cool it on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, remove it to cooling rack to cool down further. Serve it warm or completely cooled.