A festive wedding loaf is not only a tribute to tradition, it is a symbol of celebration: it can be viewed and read like an eternal book of wisdom of our people. The person who will bake a loaf of bread for a wedding must put into it not only his skill, but also the warmth of his hands, soul, and vitality. Bread prepared according to the correct recipe can be stored for more than a month. It does not spoil, does not become stale - and who knows what this is connected with, either with the energy of the wedding, or with the power of the bakers’ skill.
According to tradition, the production of ritual bread was entrusted to craftswomen who were happy in their family life, headed by the godmother of one of the newlyweds. There should be an odd number of women; widows, divorced or childless women were not supposed to bake a loaf. Recipes have been passed down from generation to generation; today there are many variations of the holiday loaf with different layers and fillings, but we decided to stick to the traditional recipe.
Ingredients: 1 kg flour, 8 eggs, half a glass of milk, boiled water, 1 tsp. salt, half a glass of sugar, spices to taste.
How to make a loaf of bread with your own hands
The yolks are separated from the whites and thoroughly ground with sugar. By the way, the amount of sugar can be varied: some will like almost unleavened dough, while others will want a sweet pie. Add yeast: yeast dissolves best in warm milk. If you decide to add poppy seeds, cinnamon, cloves and other favorite spices, they are also added at this stage.
You need to sift the flour thoroughly (to start, take 6 glasses, then you will be guided by the consistency of the dough), add salt.
Make a small hole with your palms, into which we pour the mixture of yeast and yolks with sugar, as well as a little less than half a glass of vegetable oil (butter is fine), mix well.
The whites need to be beaten thoroughly, add them to the dough last, and gradually begin kneading. The mass should be elastic, and to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands, periodically sprinkle it with sifted flour. Knead thoroughly and for a long time, at least 20-30 minutes. This work is not easy, so often our ancestors at this stage called a happily married man for help.
When the dough is smooth and homogeneous, place it in a clean and lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a towel or cling film and leave in a warm place for 1.5-2 hours.
The dough should rise about 2 times, it needs to be kneaded again. We divide the dough into three parts: one will be used for making jewelry, the second - for the loaf itself, the third - for the braid. Place parchment paper on a baking sheet, form a loaf, and wrap it in a braid.
Beat the egg and brush the top of the loaf with it. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, place the base on a baking sheet for 20 minutes. If you put the loaf in an unheated oven, the dough may fall. After 20 minutes, reduce the temperature to 150 degrees, bring the bread until ready. It’s very easy to check: pierce it with a match or a toothpick - if it’s dry, then the loaf is ready. During the baking process, you need to apply an egg to the surface several times - then the loaf will be more rosy. Remove the finished bread from the oven and cover it with a towel.
Decoration of a wedding loaf
We recommend that you make a sketch according to which you will decorate the loaf. To make the decorative elements hold more firmly, you need to grease the bread with water. The dough should be rolled out thinly (up to 5 mm), and the surface should be constantly moistened with a spray bottle. It is better to bake massive items like doves or rings separately, then you can be sure that the surface of the loaf will not sag under their weight.
It is not so difficult to sculpt flat decorations; it is better to make them from unleavened dough without sugar, then they will remain light in color after baking. For the figures, grated dough is used: flour is rubbed into it until the consistency is similar to clay.
You can not decorate the product immediately, but 15-20 minutes before it is ready. It is taken out of the oven, decorated, and then put back into the oven, then the contours of the figures will remain clearer.
Secrets of baking loaf at home
- It is better to bake the product in the middle of the oven, then it will bake evenly
- If the bread starts to burn on top, you can put foil on it;
- If you want to make your decorations unusual, you can tint part of the dough with cocoa, and then alternate the figures. You don’t have to grease the decorative elements with egg - then they will stand out against the general background;
- Periodically, the surface of the loaf needs to be moistened so that it does not become weathered or cracked;
- Using dry yeast, molding can be done immediately, live yeast should “play”, after kneading the dough is covered and kept warm for a couple of hours;
- To prevent the bottom of the loaf from becoming damp when cooling from moisture, place it on a towel or napkin;
- It is easier to remove stuck parchment paper when the bread is warm; you will have to soak it from a cold loaf;
- In a gas oven, additionally place a wide bowl with boiling water underneath so that the dough does not dry out. This method is rarely used for an electric oven.
The following decorations are used for the loaf:
- Braids. They are braided from two or three strips of dough;
- Flowers. Take a piece of dough, form it into a flat cake, make cuts along the edges so that the petals appear;
- Leaves. Roll out the dough, cut out the veins with a knife to make the products look more realistic;
- Ears of ears. Form a thin strip, make cuts on both sides, lightly pull each edge to make the product more convex;
- Bird. The elongated oval is the body, then roll out the cake, form the wing and tail. Using a knife, make small cuts to imitate feathers.
Symbolism of wedding loaf decorations
Leaves - health and youth, wheat - fertility and prosperity, flowers - beauty, doves or swans - fidelity, scythe - family, grapes - wealth, viburnum - love.
On average, a two-kilogram loaf is enough to feed 30-40 guests. Festive bread will become not just a tasty and symbolic dish, but also a decoration for the wedding table!
Bread has always had a special meaning in Rus'. It is with the large round loaf of bread, which was often baked for holidays and important events, that many rites and rituals are associated. Loaves of bread were used to greet and see off dear guests, and the most magnificent and skillfully decorated loaves of bread were the main treat at weddings.
The history of the origin of the loaf in Rus'
The custom of serving special pastries at weddings originated with the ancient Slavs. In Ancient Rus', bread was considered a great gift from the earth's nurse, and the sun was the main patron. Therefore, the predecessor of the holiday loaf was round like the sun and symbolized fertility, abundance and prosperity.
Origin of the word "Loaf"
There are several assumptions about the origin of the name of ritual bread in Rus'. The most common of them comes down to the fact that the word “loaf” comes from the word “cow”, which in Slavic dialects means “bride”. And the suffix “ay” in the word is a symbol of a bull, that is, a man. Thus, the loaf personified fertility, the unity of the feminine and masculine principles.
Traditions of baking a loaf in Rus'
Baking a loaf was accompanied by a certain sequence of rituals. Loaf makers were invited to make holiday bread - women who were happily married and had healthy, obedient children. While preparing holiday bread, the loaf makers passed on their experience to the young people and shared their family happiness. And a married man had to put the bread in the oven. During all these rituals, special songs and prayers were sung to receive God's blessing to the young.
The size of the loaf was also of great importance, as it personified the status of the emerging family. The desire to prepare the largest and tallest ritual bread often resulted in having to remove several rows of bricks from the oven in order to get the baked loaf. In addition to various dough patterns, the finished treat was decorated with ears of wheat and bunches of viburnum. This decor was symbolic and meant family well-being, harmony and love.
Traditionally, baking a loaf in Rus' was preceded by some event. This bread was baked only on special occasions, most often for weddings or to welcome long-awaited guests. Hospitable hosts always greeted their dear guests with bread and salt. Often it was a rye loaf with salt, which was presented on a towel.
There have long been many traditions in Rus'. One of these traditions is baking a loaf of bread before a wedding. It was baked 1 day before the celebration.
How to bake a loaf - ingredients
For the loaf you will need:
- 800 g of premium flour;
- 350 ml milk;
- 5 eggs;
- 5 tbsp. spoons of sugar;
- 250 g vegetable or butter;
- 50 g fresh yeast or 10 g dry;
- 1.5 tsp. spoons of salt.
How to bake a loaf - dough
Preparing dough is one of the important processes for obtaining a beautiful and tasty loaf.
- Heat half the milk until warm.
- Dissolve and stir yeast in it, 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, 2 tbsp. spoons of flour.
- It should be a liquid dough. Let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size and a lot of bubbles appear, 40-60 minutes.
How to bake a loaf - dough
- Heat the remaining milk, mix with melted butter, you can take vegetable oil, then you won’t have to melt it, sugar and salt. The liquid should be warm, not hot, otherwise the yeast will die.
- Prepare a large bowl, pour in the appropriate dough, liquid ingredients, beaten eggs at room temperature, leave 1 yolk for brushing the top of the loaf.
- Gradually add flour and knead the dough with your hands for about 20 minutes until it becomes homogeneous and lags behind your hands.
- Cover the dough with a towel and place in a warm place until it doubles in size, 1.5-2.0 hours.
- We separate a small piece (about 500 g) from the dough for decoration, and moisten it with water so that it does not dry out.
How to bake a loaf - baking
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, roll the dough into a ball and place on paper.
- Carefully and quickly roll up decorations from the remaining dough.
- If the housewife is experienced and already knows what nuances there may be when baking, then decorations can be attached to the raw loaf.
- We do this: we wrap a ball of dough on paper around a braid woven from dough, pre-wet the braid with water so that it sticks to the dough better. You can also attach the braid to the loaf with a skewer.
- Lubricate the loaf with yolk mixed with 1 tbsp. spoon of water, and decorate with dough figures. There is no need to grease the figures with yolk so that they remain lighter than the loaf itself.
- We turn on the oven in advance at 200°C to heat up, place the loaf for 20 minutes, the oven door must not be opened, otherwise the loaf may settle.
- Then turn the oven up to 170°C and bake for another 40 minutes; if the allotted time has not passed and the loaf starts to burn, cover it with foil.
- Turn off the oven and leave the loaf in it to gradually cool for about 20 minutes.
- Remove from the mold onto a tray lined with a napkin, grease the top with butter or sweet syrup, cover with a towel and leave for 5-6 hours.
- And if the housewife is baking a loaf for the first time and is not confident in her abilities, then it is better to grease the suitable loaf with yolk and bake, and 15-20 minutes before the end of baking, place the decorations soaked in water on the loaf and finish baking.
How to bake a loaf - decoration
In Rus', loaves for newlyweds were decorated with dough figures that symbolized love and wealth.
Here are the most basic of them:
- We braid the braid from 3 thin sticks rolled by hand. It symbolizes the sun and bright feelings for each other.
- A viburnum branch is love and prosperity in the house; we lay it out from balls of dough, cut in half, and thin sprigs of dough.
- Ears of wheat are fertility. Roll up a strip of dough, thinner on one side and thicker on the other. We cut the thick side with scissors in the form of spikelets.
- Roses are love. Roll out 3-4 small circles, roll one circle, and roll the others one by one around it, unbending the edges.
- Leaves are a symbol of abundance. We roll out a layer of dough, cut out rhombuses, cut them off along the edges, you can cut more edges and the leaves will have teeth.
- For a convenient location of the salt shaker on the loaf, we make a recess for it like this: we braid a thin braid from the dough, connect the edges - we get a circle, moisten the bottom of the circle in water and glue it to the loaf.
So, we learned how to bake a wedding loaf.
In the oven Bake the loaf at a temperature of 200 degrees, then at a temperature of 170 degrees.
Loaf in the oven
Ingredients for making loaf dough
Chicken egg - 4 pieces
Milk - 300 milliliters
Butter - 200 grams
Wheat flour - 750 grams
Sugar - 5 tablespoons
Dry yeast - 10 grams (1 heaped tablespoon)
Salt - 1 teaspoon
Products for decorating a loaf
Chicken egg - 3 pieces
Wheat flour - 250 grams
Food preparation
1. Sift 750 grams of flour through a sieve - this will give it a uniform density and eliminate lumps and possible debris.
2. Pour 150 milliliters of milk into a container, put on low heat and heat to a temperature of 38 degrees (so that the liquid becomes body temperature - slightly warm).
3. Mix the dough: add 2 tablespoons of sugar to the milk, 1 tablespoon of yeast and mix. Add 4 tablespoons of sifted flour and mix thoroughly.
4. Set the resulting creamy mass – dough – aside for 45 minutes to swell.
5. Divide the remaining milk: leave 1 tablespoon (15 milliliters) for greasing the loaf, and use the rest – 135 milliliters – for preparing the dough.
6. Pour 135 milliliters of milk into a bowl, add 200 grams of butter and put on low heat until the butter begins to melt. Then add 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of salt to the container, mix everything and cool.
7. To prepare the dough, you need to mix 250 grams of flour and whites from 3 eggs in a bowl. To do this, you need to break the egg with a knife, but not too hard, so as not to damage the yolk and cause a crack to form on the shell. The shell needs to be broken into two parts over a plate - part of the protein will spill into it. Then begin to transfer the remaining part of the egg from one part of the shell to another until the white completely flows into the plate. Then combine the protein with flour, mix thoroughly to form a lump of dough with a smooth surface.
8. Since the dough for decorating the loaf will dry out quickly, you need to cover it with food-grade polyethylene.
9. After 45 minutes, when the finished dough swells and foams, beat 4 eggs in a separate container, but not too much, so that the structure of the product collapses and a homogeneous mass is obtained.
10. Transfer the dough into a large container, add beaten eggs, 2 cups of flour and mix well.
11. Knead the dough with your hands for 20 minutes, constantly adding flour. During this time, it will begin to transform from a sticky, liquidy mass into an elastic lump that separates from the walls of the container.
12. When the dough is well kneaded, you need to cover the container with a natural cloth so that the dough does not dry out, and leave it for 1.5 hours. During this time it will grow approximately 2 times.
13. While the dough is rising, you should prepare the decoration for the loaf. From the previously prepared mass, make a beautiful decor in the form of roses, spikelets, and flowers. At the same time, they need to be covered with film so that they do not dry out.
14. Mix 1 remaining yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk in a bowl - this mixture will be used to grease the loaf when baking.
How to cook a loaf in the oven
1. Prepare the pan: line a baking sheet or other baking containers with parchment. They need to cover not only the bottom of the mold, but also the walls so that the loaf does not lose its shape during cooking.
2. Knead the risen yeast dough, give the dough a round shape, place it on a baking sheet or baking container and leave for 20 minutes until it rises.
3. Turn on the oven at 200 degrees and warm up for 5 minutes.
4. Coat the loaf on a baking sheet or in a mold with a mixture of milk and eggs. All sides should be coated evenly and completely.
5. Place the previously prepared decorations on the loaf; there is no need to grease them. To keep them on the product during baking, you need to secure them with toothpicks.
6. Place the dough in a hot oven. Bake at 200 degrees for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170 degrees and continue baking for another 40 minutes.
7. To prevent the loaf from burning, you need to cover the browned crust with foil.
8. Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool before removing it from the pan or removing it from the baking sheet.
Fkusnofacts
Loaf - one of the main dishes at the wedding. It is a round-shaped bread that is served to all participants and guests of the celebration. This tradition comes from ancient times, even before the adoption of Christianity in Rus'. Even then, special bread was baked for weddings. The name loaf itself comes from the word “cow”, which in the ancient dialect also meant “bride”. It should be noted that the “loaf” is known only to the Slavs and the tradition of serving wedding bread is widespread in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and eastern Poland.
Loaf count symbol happiness, prosperity in the family. As a rule, the bread is richly and exquisitely decorated. Most often it is decorated with ears of wheat made from dough - they symbolize prosperity in the family. They believe that viburnum branches will bring happiness and children, and pairs of swans or two rings will bring fidelity in marriage.
- Accepted During the wedding, carry out the loaf on a towel. The richer the bread is decorated, the happier the young family will be. The loaf used to be divided in this way: the top was given to the young people, the middle to all the guests, and the bottom to the musicians. Thus, the bride and groom shared their happiness with all the guests.
When preparing a loaf, you need to use parchment. In this case, not only the bottom of the baking sheet or mold should be covered with special paper, but also the sides. Parchment will solve the problem of burning and retain the shape of the loaf without losing its relief.
- Loaf decoration- a responsible procedure, and it is very important that all elements are tightly attached to the surface. There are two ways to secure jewelry. Simple elements can be placed on the base of the loaf, having previously greased it with egg white or plain water. As for volumetric decorations in the form of roses, they are fixed with wooden skewers or toothpicks. You need to decorate the loaf immediately before putting it in the oven.
- During cooking bread, you need to watch how quickly it browns. If it starts to bake too much, you need to use foil and cover the surface with it. It will eliminate the problem of the top of the product burning and drying out.
One of the popular decorations of the loaf is pigtail. To prepare it, you need:
1. Make three flagella of the same length from the dough, and the length should be 2 times greater than the diameter of the loaf itself.
2. Fasten the flagella on one side, and then begin to weave the braid: the right tourniquet is placed on the middle one, then the left one is placed. Do it all again.
3. Bend the ends of the braids and fix them on the loaf.
To prepare such decoration as ears of corn, need to:
1. Divide the dough into two parts. The stems will be made from one, and the ears themselves will be made from the second.
2. When making the stems, you need to tear off a small piece of dough and roll it out until a string is formed, with a diameter of 5 millimeters. The length of such strips should be 20 centimeters.
3. Cover the finished stems with film to prevent them from drying out, and begin making ears.
4. Tear off the dough and roll it into a roll with one end pointed. The length should be 10 centimeters and the thickness should be 1 centimeter.
5. Cut the roll lengthwise, but not all the way. Make several cuts with scissors to form spines.
6. Place the stems on the prepared loaf and place the ears on top.
Decoration of a loaf in the form roses also looks impressive. To prepare you need:
1. Cut 4 thin circles from the dough.
2. Place the circles one on top of the other and twist them into a tube, pressing them in the middle.
3. Cut the resulting roll in half - you get 2 roses. Spread the petals for them.
4. The rose needs to be secured to the loaf with a toothpick or skewer.
Wedding traditions undergo some changes over time, but the tradition of presenting a festive loaf of bread to the newlyweds on their wedding day remains unchanged.
The word “loaf” carries the name of a special ritual bread, primarily wedding bread. The ritual of offering a loaf of bread to young people is widely known in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
A round loaf with various decorations represented the sun back in pre-Christian Rus'.
The loaf, as a symbol of happiness in family life and fertility, also represents the end of single life.
Tradition of loaf baking
Baking a loaf has always been surrounded by various rules and rituals. Only married women with strong families with children were allowed to prepare a loaf for a wedding.
It was believed that through the warmth of their hands, women convey their experience, family life and happiness to the young family. During work, prayers were read and songs were sung.
Once prepared, a good wedding loaf could be so large and heavy that several donors had to carry it.
Saturday was considered the correct day to bake a loaf of bread. On the day off, the women who participated in the baking of bread came to the house with everything they needed.
Previously, special archaic devices were used for baking, for example, ritual millstones were used to grind flour. Today, weddings are celebrated throughout the week, so the rituals of baking a loaf are not observed.
Baking a wedding loaf at home is also a rarity; not everyone has ovens for baking such large bread. At the same time, pastry shops offer a large selection of beautiful and tasty loaves.
Only loving grandmothers of young people, who often pay tribute to traditions, are happy to present traditional holiday bread, made with love with their own hands.
Loaf at home
Today there are many different flavoring types of loaf. Loaves are baked with lemon zest, poppy seeds, jam and even mastic, which is popular today.
Next we will tell you how you can bake a traditional wedding loaf at home. In order to make a classic kalach, you first need to prepare all the ingredients. We need yeast, eggs, butter, salt, flour, sugar, and favorite spices.
In order to diversify the taste of the loaf, you can put some dried fruits in the dough. Dried apricots, raisins, or nuts will go very well with baked sweet bread.
In order for the loaf to turn out good and tasty, you must bake it in a good mood. All the emotions that a person experiences while doing such work are then passed on to those who will certainly try the bread.
Preparing the dough
Pour a glass of milk (you can also use water) into a container. The liquid does not need to be heated too much; it should be at normal room temperature, not boiling water.
Next you need to add flour to the container. If you have a sieve, you need to use it and sift a glass of flour. The dough should not be liquid. In order for the dough to brew well, you need to leave it to “rest.” An hour is enough time to continue working with the dough.
After an hour, the dough needs to be taken out; by this time it should have risen. Now we need to slightly heat the dough in a bowl of warm water.
Preparing the dough
The next step is to prepare the dough for the loaf.
Take ten eggs and separate the yolks. We will put one yolk aside; we will need it for greasing the loaf. The yolks need to be thoroughly ground with sugar. 150 grams of sugar will be enough for this. The ground yolks now need to be poured into the dough.
The next step is to add 6-7 cups of flour to the bowl. The whites that we had earlier must be beaten with a mixer. Next we need 100 g of butter. If you have vegetable oil, you can add it; otherwise, you can melt the butter in a water bath.
We must now add all these ingredients to a container with flour and add a little salt.
After all the ingredients are mixed, the dough needs to be kneaded well for about half an hour. The finished dough should not stick to your hands; to do this, add another half a glass of flour when kneading.
At the last stage, the dough is transferred to another container in which it should stand for several hours. After the time has passed, the dough must be kneaded well and still allowed to rise.
Baking a loaf
When the dough for the loaf has come up, it’s time to bake it. The total weight of the loaf is about 2 kilograms. In order to form a beautiful loaf, you need to divide the dough into parts.
First you need to separate half a kilogram of dough for future decoration. Decoration is a must-have attribute for a festive look. Form the remaining dough into a ball.
To prevent the dough from sticking to the baking sheet, you need to cover it with parchment. After this, place the dough on paper. To prevent the dough from drying out, it must be moistened with water. This must be done throughout the baking of the wedding loaf.
Now preheat the oven, 200 degrees is the optimal temperature for baking. Decorations are made from the dough that has been set aside, which must also be moistened with water so that they do not dry out.
We carefully attach the decor to the loaf so as not to crush the shaped dough. Next, you need to mix a tablespoon of water with the yolk and lubricate the surface of the product well. This way the crust of the loaf will be shiny and rosy.
The bread should be placed in the oven and baked for an hour. When the dough is well browned, cover the loaf with foil. This is necessary so that it does not dry out in the oven.
Under no circumstances should you open the oven while the loaf is baking. Then the loaf will not settle and will be tall.
When the bread is completely cooked, open the oven to let the hot air out and let the product stand for a little longer. Twenty minutes is enough.
Now that the loaf is finally ready, put it on a nice cloth or napkin and leave it overnight. It will be delicious in the morning.
Decorating the loaf
A traditional loaf definitely needs to be decorated. This way the appearance of the loaf will be more festive and elegant.
Today you can find many different ways to decorate and photograph a wedding loaf with different decor. But there are traditional designs and patterns for decoration, which we will describe below.
It should also be said that there are two ways to decorate a wedding loaf. We have described a method in which all decorations are attached to the loaf before baking in the oven.
You can also attach all the decorations when the loaf is ready. In order for the figures to hold well, you need to attach them about 15 minutes before the product is completely ready. This way the decorations will have clear shapes.
Good durable decorations can also be made from more pliable shortbread or unleavened dough.
Recipes for a wedding loaf can be very different; you can choose a recipe for baking that will include several types of dough. You can decorate the loaf with various dough designs.
A symbol of fertility, ears of wheat are made from a piece of dough that is rolled into a tight rope. We make one end wide - this will be a spikelet, and the other thin - this will form a stem. This decor is laid in a circle, and then the grains are drawn on the wide part of the piece of dough using scissors.
The traditional decor for loaves is braided braids. A braid of dough is placed along the edge of the loaf, giving it a frame. In order to make a braid, a piece of dough is divided into three strands, braided, and then secured to a loaf.
To make leaves from the dough, which symbolize youth and prosperity, you need to cut out diamonds from the rolled out sheet, and cut the edges of the figures into a herringbone pattern.
You can also place bunches of viburnum on the loaf. These berries, as a symbol of abundance, would look very appropriate on wedding bread. We make thick small balls from the dough, lay them out in clusters and attach them to the surface of the product.
You can also make roses from the dough. To do this, several circles need to be wrapped one inside the other and the edges turned outward. A rosy flower decoration will bring beauty and prosperity.
You can also make swans from the dough. To do this, as for a spikelet, divide the dough into two parts - the thin one will be the neck, and the thick one will be the body of the bird. From the narrow part of the dough you need to form a beak and head, and lay out the wide part and cut through the feathers with scissors, making small grooves on the edges of the dough.
If you decorate a loaf with swans, there must be two birds. This will symbolize the newlyweds' long life together.
Even if you do not plan to bake a loaf of bread with your own hands, in order to pay tribute to old traditions, think in advance where you can order a wedding loaf. A beautiful and lush loaf will be a wonderful decoration for a wedding table.
Photo of the wedding loaf
Loading...