Einback
Maybe you’ve had Zwieback before, the hard, slightly sweet bread rusks that are often given to babies or the infirm and whose German name means “twice-baked”.
Well, this is what you get if you only bake it once.
A milk-heavy dough, split into twelve pieces and then baked together in a loaf pan. Sweet and soft, it’s the perfect bread to bury your face in, I mean slather with butter, jam, Ovo Crunchy Cream, and my favourite, fine Swiss honey.
Unfortunately, ususally the Einback gets eaten before I can make it into Zwieback…
There are lots of recipes online for versions of Einback, including Migusto’s nice spelt variety, but here is my super simple version that turns out every time.
500 g flour
1 tsp salt
300 ml milk
20 g fresh yeast or 2 tsp dry yeast
40 g sugar
1 egg
For the eggwash
1 egg
pinch of salt
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the milk, yeast, egg and sugar.
Make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir this together until a dough starts to form, then begin to knead it on the table. Knead for about 15-20 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, mix for about 10 minutes in a stand mixer with a dough hook. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat your oven to 190° C / 375° F / gas mark 5.
Grease a loaf tin.
Roll out the dough into a long sausage, then split this into 12 pieces. Press each piece into a disc, then stand them up side by side in the loaf tin.
Let rest for about 20 minutes.
Whisk together the egg and salt and brush the loaf.
Bake for about 40 minutes or until golden and the loaf slides easily out of the tin and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
More Bread?
Zürcherbrot
