White Egg Bread

Today was bread day, but I wanted to try something different from the Tassajara bread book to change it up a bit this week. We just started buying local farm eggs (finally found some here, and i'm obsessed!) so I decided to go with an egg bread!

Tassajara Bread Technique:

Mix the activated yeast (water, yeast, honey, water) with 4 cups of flour. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Add oil and salt, fold in. At this stage, add your extra ingredient, if any (oats). Fold in.

Add 3-4 cups of flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. 

Turn onto a floured board and knead for 8-10 minutes, until smooth, adding flour as necessary.

Shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover and let rise for 50 minutes.

Punch down. Cover and let rise for 40 minutes.

Cut in half, knead each half for 3-5 minutes and then shape into loaves. Place in oiled loaf pans, flatten with your fingers, and then cover and let rise for 20-25 minutes while the oven is preheating (350). 

Bake for 50-60 minutes, remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.

The sponge was a beautiful creamy colour and I loved the texture of the dough when I was kneading it. It was so silky, smooth, quite dense when it's punched down, but beautifully fluffy when it had risen! Very different from the traditional yeasted bread.

Mix the beat eggs into the activated yeast.

Mix the yeast and eggs into 4 cups of flour, let rise for 45 minutes.

Gorgeous sponge! Folding in the salt and oil

Beautiful dough, kneaded with another cups of flour and ready for the first 1 hour rise. Dense and silky.

Look how much that rises! Punch down and let it rise for another 50 minutes.

I was a little worried about it, because the last rise, when it was shaped into loaves, didn't rise as much as the traditional bread does. But holy cow! It rose so much while baking. I sprinkled it with chia seeds to try something new. The recipe says to do the same, but with poppy seeds, so I thought chia seeds would be a great substitute, and so much better for you. I liked them, but next time I would mix them right into the dough, because they just ended up falling off the top when I cut it.

After I shaped it into loaves, I let it rise for another 25 minutes while the oven is preheating.
Brushed with butter, sprinkled with chia seeds, ready to bake.

I baked them at 350 for just 50 minutes, because the last few loaves i've done for an hour, and I felt they were just slightly over cooked. 

 I couldn't believe it! It rose so much, the slit I cut in it to release air split! 

Plus, it tastes fabulous. Dense but fluffy, chewy, scrumptious!