Rope braid bread with cracklings - Hleb pletenica sa čvarcima
In my country almost every woman knows how to make a fresh bread. The bread is crucial for the Balkan kitchen because it is served with every meal, even with some soups. That being said I got to confess that since the day my mom and grandma have taught me how to make it I haven't stopped baking.
Baking kind of relaxes me and keeps my imagination alive :)
To avoid having the regular white bread, I sometimes make experiments with the dough, adding different types of flour or changing the classical recipe a bit, using milk instead of water or putting baking soda instead of yeast.
How about you? Has baking or cooking made you more creative and imaginative? Well enough talking and lets take a look at one of my favorite homemade bread. :)
Ingredients:
-40 g yeast
-200 ml milk
-if necessary a bit of water (if the dough is not bouncy enough)
-one pinch of salt
-700g of white flour
-1 egg
-80g of margarine
-200g cracklings
-1 teaspoon of sugar
Preparation:
Put the yeast in a bowl with 100ml of milk and sugar to rise.Then add salt, sifted flour a bit at a time, along with the rest of the milk and water if necessary, until you form unique dough. Leave the dough to rise for about an hour. After that extend the dough 1cm thick, put over it margarine cut in small pieces and sprinkle with cracklings. Twist the dough and make a roll, then cut it in the middle into two equal parts. Wrap the ends around each other, making the so-called. "Rope braid". Twisted dough leave aside for another ten minutes to grow. Brush the bread with the egg and bake it in the preheated oven at about 250C until it gets a nice color, and becomes crispy. Serve while still warm. Enjoy!
Kao što nam je poznato, na Balkanu gotovo da nema bake ili majke koje ne znaju da naprave domaći hleb. Hleb je od ključnog značaja, i služi se od predjela do glavnog jela, čak se jede i uz čorbu (za razliku od drugih kultura i religija).
Моram priznati da od kad su me baka i mama naučile da ga umesim i ja više volim da kuća zamiriše na domaći hleb, tek izvađen iz rerne. :) Pravljenje hleba i ostalih peciva me jako opušta. Kako ne bih često pravila običan beli hleb volim da eksperimentišem u kuhinji... dodajem i mešam razne tipove brašna, ili pak koristim sodu bikarbonu umesto kvasca. Ne znam da li među vam ima neko ko razmišlja na isti način... da li uživate ponekad dok stvarate razne đakonije za svoje najbliže?
U svakom slučaju dosta je bilo priče, bacimo se na posao! :)
Za hleb pletenicu sa čvarcima potrebno je:
-40 g kvasca
-200 ml mleka
-u koliko je potrebno malo vode (ako testo nije dovoljno vazdušasto)
-prstohvat soli
-700g of belog brašna
-1 jaje
-80g margarina
-200g čvaraka
-1 kašičica šećera
Staviti kvasac da nadođe u 100 ml toplog mleka sa šećerom. Zatim dodati so, prosejano brašno po malo, zajedno sa preostalim mlekom i vode po potrebi, dok se ne umesi lepo testo. Ostaviti ga da naraste oko 1h. Nakon toga razviti testo debljine 1cm, preko njega naseći margarin i posuti čvarcima. Uviti u rolat, pa ga preseći po sredini na dva jednaka dela. Učvrstiti krajeve pa obmotati jedan oko drugog praveći tzv. "konopac pletenicu" ili u originalu "rope braid". Tako upleteno testo ostaviti još desetak minuta da naraste, premazati jajetom, pa ga peći u predhodno zagrejanoj rerni na oko 250C dok ne dobije lepu rumenu boju, i postane hrskavo. Služiti dok je još toplo.
