Porcini Swirl Bread #BreadBakers

For April's Bread Bakers bake, our theme was mushrooms.  It didn't necessarily have to be mushroom-centric, just mushrooms that were attached to the dough or batter as it baked.  I'm not sure if my first attempt counted, as it was double baked and the mushrooms were baked in the second time.  And we like mushrooms, we really do, but it took two tries for me to find a good mushroomy bread for this month's theme!

So my first idea was to make a mushroom cheese loaf, with mushrooms and cheese and various spices and butter baked into a cross-hatch sliced whole loaf for a party worthy appetizer loaf.  It was very pretty and smelled wonderful.  But we decided it would have been better as pizza or served with a dipping sauce of some sort.  Since it was just a "meh" for our family, I considered other options for including mushrooms in bread and decided to incorporate mushroom "flour", which is just powdered dried mushrooms, into a swirl type bread.  This bread was interesting to me because it used the scalded flour method.  It is akin to a tangzhong and provides similar boosts to the softness of a loaf, but a quicker method.

The resulting loaf yielded a sturdy sandwich bread, slightly on the savory side but still amenable to toast and jam and equally comfortable as a savory grill or sandwich.  I wanted to provide a little more contrast to the swirl than the mushrooms alone would provide and so I added a little Pero (instant coffee substitute) for color.  My instinct told me coffee and mushrooms were a compatible mix and indeed after looking at the Flavor Bible, it does list porcini and coffee together!  Woohoo! 

Porcini Swirl Sandwich Bread
makes 1 loaf

Scalded flour starter:
2 tbsp all purpose flour
4 tbsp hot boiling water

Dough:
390g (3 cups) all-purpose flour/plain flour
1½ tsp instant yeast
21g (5 tsp) sugar
½-¾ tsp salt (7-8g)
125ml (½ cup) warm milk
1 large egg, beaten
42g (3 tbsp) soft butter
all the scalded flour mixture
Egg wash (optional)
1 heaping tbsp (~7g) porcini powder (grind dried porcinis or similar in a spice grinder to powder)
1-2 tsp Pero or instant coffee (less for coffee)
2 tsp softened butter

To start, mix together the 2 tbsp flour and boiling water in a small bowl until smooth.  Set aside.

For the dough:

In a stand mixer, combine the flour and instant yeast.  Add in the sugar, salt, milk, egg, butter, and scalded flour mixture.

Knead on low/medium speed until a smooth dough is achieved.  Divide the dough in half and cover one portion.  Return the other half to the mixer and knead in the mushroom powder, Pero or instant coffee, and 2 tsp softened butter until fully incorporated and smooth again.  Cover the two pieces, keeping separate, and let rise until doubled.

 Roll out the plain dough into a long rectangle that is 8 inches wide and about 18 inches long.  Roll out the mushroom portion into a similar rectangle and stack that on top and match edges.  Roll up jelly roll style from a short end and pinch to seal the edge.  

Grease an 8x4" loaf pan well with butter and place the roll seam side down.  Cover and let rise for about an hour until well risen.  Brush with egg wash and score very lightly with a sharp knife if desired.  (If you do not wish to use an egg wash, brush the loaf with melted butter immediately after removing from oven at the end of the bake time.)

Bake in a preheated 355ºF oven for 35-40 minutes until golden and done.  Let stand for 10 minutes before removing from pan to finish cooling on a rack.

Be sure to check out the rest of our bakers' mushroom choices!

Pepperoni and Mushroom Pan Pizza from Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Cheesy Mushroom Calzone from Sneha’s Recipe

Wild Mushroom Flatbread from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Mushroom Swiss Bread from Palatable Pastime

Mixed Mushroom Soft Bread Sticks from Food Lust People Love

Porcini Swirl Bread from A Messy Kitchen

Oh,and just to show that the mushroom cheese loaf was indeed impressive, even though it was not for us, here are a couple pictures of how that turned out!

 

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.