Achievement unlocked -- Sourdough Hongkong-style charsiu (and other fillings) bao

Classic charsiu bao

As a maker/baker, i will readily admit that frozen bao and dimsum are staples of our family's Asian market grocery cart for easily-prepared, fuss-free eating for all four in our household. 

Recently though, I decided to deep-dive into making our own freezer stash of Hongkong-style steamed bao -- slightly sweet dough, that signature popped-open top, a size that went easily into heavy snack/small meal. I knew the regular yeasted doughs would produce a good siopao with a smooth surface, but i fixated on that flower-like peekaboo, a cushiony, not-too-bready texture, and of course a well-flavored filling of charsiu pork. Using my sourdough starter, of course.

peekaboo filling is peeking a little too much!

The rabbit hole of what makes the ideal bao bun led me to Souped-up Recipe's Mandy Fu. Some of the ingredients she calls for are specialized, and definitely lean toward the alkaline -- lye water and ammonium carbonate, as well as baking powder. Why? Because the acidity of the fermented starter combines with these to produce a light, cottony texture that has no rise time and should be shaped and steamed immediately. I did this, hunting down baker's ammonia, and the yellow-labelled lye water that weren't available at my regular Asian market -- when I asked the owners, they said nobody used it anymore except big bakeries. 

If bao are the only thing you ever make with a pre-ferment, by all means use Ms. Fu's yeast-based 3-day starter -- it is a build that gives you the exact amount you need for a batch. On the other hand, if you have a starter that is alive and well, a few feeds will get it to the point where it is perfect for this use. 

Most steamed bao doughs use cake flour -- it gives a biscuity, less chewy quality to the end result, and is responsible for the steaming opening up the top because the dough is shaped but not too glutenous.  I wanted something that had some chew, as well as enough structure to hold in the saucy filling. 

It's still a work in progress, but this is by far the closest I have gotten to my own personal charsiu bao goal. It makes 24, because this is to stock the freezer!

Chicken meatball bao

Sourdough build: 

200 g mature sourdough starter

60 g all-purpose flour (bleached ok)

40 g fine rice flour

60 g water

Repeat the same 60% feed every 8-12 hours twice more without discarding any, so that you have approximately 680 g. pre-ferment. This will feel in between a stiff starter and a liquid one, because of the extra starch and 60% hydration. Let rise after the last feed until it doubles, about 6 hours to up to overnight.

Have 24 3x3 paper squares or standard cupcake liners ready, and water for steamer baskets heating.

640 g starter

266 g sugar

40 g shortening or lard

16 drops lye water

Mix until smooth, either with the dough hook or by hand.

1 tsp baker's ammonia

300 g all-purpose flour

60 g fine rice flour (360 g cake flour if you prefer, see above)

2 tbsp baking powder

Knead smooth, then divide into 50 g pieces. Keep covered. Dust the surface with rice flour and roll a piece into a circle. Thin out the edges with a rolling pin, so that the circle is about 4 1/2" wide (12 cm).  

Center 30 g filling* and pinch the top closed into quarters. Try to keep the filling centered and the top not too thick. Place on the prepared paper. 

Repeat to fill a steamer (but don't crowd them -- leave room for the buns to fluff), then place above the rolling-boil water.  If your steamer is bamboo, enough water vapor will escape that your buns will have the needed moisture; but if your steamer cover is metal or glass, secure a kitchen towel around it to absorb extra water so it doesn't drip back down onto the buns and cause spots or sogginess. Steam for 16-18 minutes, tightly covered. 

Remove from the water, but allow to cool for 10 minutes before uncovering so the buns don't collapse. Do the same for all the pieces, setting them onto a rack to cool out of the baskets.

Once the buns are all cooked and cooled, place them in a single layer in a gallon freezer bag and freeze flat. When they are frozen solid, you can stack the bao to conserve space and minimize air in the bag. 

*filling possibilities: charsiu pork or chicken in a gingery, oyster/hoisin cornstarch-thickened sauce (pork/chicken asado); ground turkey or chicken or shrimp meatball with Chinese chives, lap cheong or yun chang sausage and hard-boiled eggs, either quartered or quail ("bola bola"); cornstarch-thickened custard.

the leav(en)ing of the known... sourdoughnuts!

 Sourdough has a rep for being the no-nonsense, savory, earth-attuned kind of bake-craft. Doughnuts are the opposite of that -- fried, usually pretty sweet from being sugar-tossed or glazed and/or filled, with endless permutations of dress-up. There is the cronut, a hybrid of the flaky layers and oil-cooking, but even that  has the frippery of lamination.

Given that I put starter in everything, is it any wonder that Sacchi would eventually find her way into doughnut dough? I consider this my last goodbye to a workplace that has seen me through some pretty cool, and some pretty rough, times, including many a doughnut station.

Why has it taken me this long to put up a post about these doughnuts I've been making for years? I really don't know. 

 

Raised doughnuts are fried yeast dough; in theory, one can toss any kind of bread dough into boiling oil and out will come some semblance of satisfactory vehicle for glaze and filling. But good doughnuts are sweet dough, not too tough and lean like baguette dough, and not too high in fat, eggs or sugar that they disintegrate into the hot oil or sponge it up into soggy greasy sadness.

So what you need is a dough with enough structure to hold its shape as it rises, but soft enough so that the hot oil can cook the mass through in the time that it takes to brown the outside. Tender, flavorful but not too overwhelmingly bready, and with good handling so you can shape, rise and cook without panic.

(Cake doughnuts are another thing entirely. More thoughts on those another time, since of course. That other staple, fried choux/ French crullers, is again a different situation to talk about.)

Sure, you can fry brioche... but one doesn't need to go through the process of a sponge and careful gradual incorporation of butter if you're going to fry it, really. And brioche lacks the wherewithal to stand the manipulation that doughnuts must undergo. Best to leave brioche as little rolls or loaves that never see the fryer, and instead make a simpler dough which uses well-aged natural leavening to boost lightness and dexterity as well as flavor.

It's good to have all the ingredients on the cool side of room temp, as the mixing of the hook warms them up to the ideal fermenting zone.

Sourdoughnuts -- makes approximately 30, depending on size

225 g active starter

3 eggs

45 g sugar

7 g dry yeast, mixed with 15 g water

300 g bread flour

7 g sea salt

95 g butter, cubed 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter, eggs, sugar and dissolved yeast. Mix with a hook until the yolks are evenly dispersed.

Add the flour and salt and mix for 6 minutes on low speed. Look for the dough to be dry at first, then get sticky as the flour hydrates. 

Add the butter cubes and mix another 2 minutes, then 5 minutes on medium speed. The dough should be smooth and elastic, and stick to itself more than the bowl. If it doesn't, add a bit more flour and mix until it does.

Turn the dough into a greased square or rectangular container that can contain double its volume. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the fridge 30 minutes; it should be puffy and cold all the way through.

Pick up the top two corners of the dough and press them to the middle; turn the container around and repeat for the other two corners. Deflate the whole mass and fold it in half, still in the container. Cover, refrigerate again and let rise another 20-30 minutes, until it has doubled.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. 

Roll about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) thick to cut with doughnut cutters -- 2.5 inch (6 cm) diameter outside, 3/4 inch (2 cm) inside. 

Alternatively, divide into 25-30 g pieces and round into seamless balls for filled doughnuts. 

As they are cut/shaped, space the doughnuts with enough room to rise on a nonstick mat- or greased paper-lined pan.

They can either rise at room temperature (depending on the dough temperature, it should take 15 -20 minutes), or refrigerated up to two days. For longer storage, freeze immediately (up to 2 weeks) then let rise and defrost at room temp.

Heat 2-3 inches (5-7.5 cm) of oil to 350F (180C) in a wide deep pot. Once the doughnuts are light to the touch, carefully place them 3 or 4 at a time in the pot, turning immediately so the whole surface of each has contact with the oil. This helps to keep the doughnuts round by stopping the surface from drying and causing uneven rising. Push them under the surface of the oil occasionally to cook the insides and prevent a white ring around the middle.

As they turn golden, drain the doughnuts on paper towels and keep them warm in a turned-off oven as you fry the rest.

While they are warm, roll the doughnuts in cinnamon sugar or granulated sugar. To fill them, poke a hole in the worse-looking side with a 1/4 inch (6 mm) plain piping tip while they are warm and the insides are not yet set. Let them cool before filling with jam or pastry cream.

For icing or glazing, let the doughnuts cool completely.

Chocolate doughnut glaze:

300 g confectioner's sugar

50 g unsweetened cocoa

40 g milk

2.5 g salt

200 g semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, melted and warm

Stir all together until smooth. Add boiling water to get a coating texture; if too thin, let cool. Dip doughnuts after filling.

pretty-colored potato rolls -- again.

We're almost at summer! So summer-colored bread buns. Also, potato hotdog buns (which, to be fair, are also great made into lobster rolls -- just split through the top rather than the side)... Partly inspired by the purple burger buns at Hapa, and my previous colored potato braid. Potato rolls are a classic for sandwiches because potato has a sort of timed-release moisture action in the baked bun, keeping it moist and soft but sturdy enough to stand up to loading with filling. These are not quite as smooth as Martin's, but they are tasty and a bit more complex in flavor because of the sourdough.  

The potatoes -- purple and Yukon gold, microwaved (most microwaves have a potato setting! If yours doesn't, one large or two smaller potatoes will take about 3 1/2 to 4 minutes on high), cooled, peeled and mashed. These are purple regular potatoes, not Okinawan sweet potatoes or Filipino ube. They're really deep purple!

Sourdough Potato Hotdog Buns (two-color version) makes 16 hotdog buns or 10 120 g burger buns
sponge: 
100 g. bread flour
90 g. water
20 g honey
8 g active dry or instant yeast
Beat together in the mixer bowl and let rise 1-4 hours, until puffed and bubbly. (if you're using instant yeast, you may want to add half now and the other half with the starter.)

Add and mix in with the hook:
320 g starter, fed 6-10 hours before
180 g bread flour
8 g salt 
20 g dry milk powder (optional)
(let rest 15-20 minutes to autolyse, if you wish. It's not essential, but it makes a smoother, more consistent dough.) Mix the dough again and divide it in half. 

175 g each mashed purple and Yukon gold potatoes (or 350 g of one kind)
30 g butter (or margarine, or coconut oil)

(Of course if you just want one color you'll skip the dividing and just mix the potatoes in with the whole batch.)

Add the potato to each half and mix it in with the butter (15 g or 1 tbsp for each part.) It might take a bit of kneading on the counter to get a uniform color, (I'm kind of disappointed the yellow is not that vibrant), round, then place in lightly buttered bowls and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes to an hour.

Smileyfaces in the risen dough!

 Fold the edges in to de-gas, then turn each out.

Divide each into pieces about 38 g each, and fold to pre-shape. (The two in the middle will be single-color, so they're 75 g each.)

Roll into 6-inch ropes and twist. 

Lay them on a nonstick mat or parchment,

cover with a lid or plastic, and let rise... they may touch, but that's okay.
 

Bake at 350 about 20 minutes, until browned and sound hollow when tapped (the crust will be firm, but it softens as it cools). Pull them off the sheet and allow to cool on a rack so the bottoms don't get soggy.

The interior crumb.

Enjoy! 

Lam-nation! Where we put butter into brioche because.

Laminating brioche? Why would you feel the need to do such a thing? Did I not just do a post about how lovely it is in and of itself?

Objectively that was a really good loaf, good for eating out of hand or sliced. But gilding the lily has its merits, especially if they look like this: 

So pretty right? Laminated brioche is just a little different from Danish, but they are very similar. I wanted to create a handheld pastry that was tall rather than flat, and maximized the baked flavors of orange and almond paste within the pretty layers.

This is based on Ciril Hitz' formula, but in a more manageable quantity and a few tweeks.

Laminated Brioche with Candied Orange and Almond - makes 24 small pastries

brioche dough:

35 g. milk

100 g. eggyolks

60 g. sugar

7.5 g active dry yeast

220 g. sourdough starter

360 g. bread flour

10 g. salt

grated zest from half an orange, optional 

75 g. butter, cubed and cool but not cold

Mix the liquids, sugar and yeast together in a mixer bowl. Add the flour and mix on low speed with the hook until the flour is moistened. Add the salt and orange zest, and mix on medium speed until the dough comes up off the sides of the bowl. (It will have a gluten window, but just barely.) Add the butter and mix on medium speed until it is smooth and elastic -- this will take a good 5-8 minutes.

Cover the bowl and let the brioche dough rise about an hour at room temperature.  

Put a bit of butter or spray on the inside of a gallon-size zip-close bag, and scrub it around to coat the inside. Cuff the opening over and stand the bag upright. Gather the sides of the risen brioche dough into the middle to de-gas, then ease it into the prepared bag. Press the air out, lay the bag on its side, then press the dough inside the bag to the corners into a flat square. Seal the bag and ferment in the fridge 4 hours to overnight. 

roll-in:

175 g. butter

Slice the butter into two or three pieces and place them on a silicone baking mat. With a rolling pin, smash and roll the cold butter to a flat square about 9 inches wide. (so much fun!)

Take the chilled brioche dough from the fridge and slit the bag down the side. Flour a surface lightly. Peel the bag open and, without folding the dough, flip the rectangle of brioche dough onto the surface. Press it with your fingertips into an even rectangle about 1/4 inch thick, 18 inches by 9 inches.

Use the mat to center the roll-in on the dough rectangle. 

 and fold the two edges to meet in the center. Seal the edges. 

 Use the rolling pin to press and roll the dough back out to a 9x18 inch rectangle, the short sides being 9 inches. Make the first 3-fold. 

Wrap the dough in plastic (or cover with the cut-open bag, tucking the ends under). Chill the dough for 30 minutes to an hour, then do another 2 3-folds back to back. Chill the completely laminated brioche dough for two hours, or up to three days, before shaping.

candied orange-almond filling:

280 g. almond paste

60 g. softened butter

pinch of salt

enough orange juice to bring it to a spreading consistency, about 30 g.

   Beat these together until they are light and smooth. Add 30-40 g. diced candied orange peel.

Roll the cold dough out to a rectangle 12x24 inches. Spread the filling on all the way to the short sides, trying to distribute the orange dice evenly top to bottom and side to side. 

fold one third down and one third up to form a 4x24 inch layered rectangle. Cut the rectangle crosswise into 1-inch strips. Place each strip in the cups of a small muffin pan (this is a flexible silicone one), giving the strip a half twist before putting the ends toward the bottom. I tried a few arrangements to show off the layers here. 

cover the filled pan with plastic wrap and let the pastries rise at room temperature about an hour, or in the fridge overnight. 

The brioche itself should feel light and airy when you press with a fingertip. Sprinkle a few almond slices on each one, attaching them to the moist almond filling. Bake the pastries at 360F about 12-15 minutes, until the filling is set and the pastry is nicely browned.

When they are just warm, gently ease them out of the pan to cool the bottoms and keep them from getting soggy. They are nice just dusted with confectioner's sugar,

 but I like to brush them with some melted orange marmalade to add some shine and tartness.

So delicious, just barely crispy/flaky and moist and tangy... and just a little different from the usual breakfast pastries.

Sourdough starter -- starter pack! And pizza dough.

Crap I'm embarrassed. I've been saying that you can find a lot of info about sourdough starter on my blog, but there's no actual starter-sitting/maintenance info!! I swear I did a massive post several years ago, but suffice to say that I don't know where it went. Did I post it on another blog? Facebook or tumblr maybe? who knows.

So forthwith, a getting-there-without-tears sourdough starter post. The French call it a levain, and it's a batch of happy yeast cells in a liquid medium that is used by itself or in combo with commercial yeast to make doughs rise. 

There are many tutorials out there about how to begin a sourdough starter from scratch, such as Rose Levy Beranbaum's Bread Bible (she makes a stiff starter, double the flour to water, but the principle is the same) and the King Arthur Flour blog, and several videos as well. (I started mine about 20 years ago from organic rye flour, organic grapes and bottled water.)

If I've given you some of mine, or someone else has, then you just have to feed the starter and it will live on indefinitely. Every time you use it, just feed the remainder and the cells will remain active and the starter is ready to use whenever. If you don't plan on using it more than once a week, the starter can live in your fridge, where the cell activity will slow down from the cold enough so it stays alive, but not exhausting its food supply.

To feed the starter, weigh what you have and feed it half its weight in flour and half in water. For example, if the starter weighs 150 grams, you will stir in 75 g. flour and 75 g. water. You will then have 300 g. of starter, that will be most active if you give it about 6 hours at room temperature. It should rise to about double its size in about 4 hours. If you don't plan on using it soon, leave the fed starter at room temperature for an hour, then refrigerate it.

If you don't plan on using 300 g. and you want to keep less, you can discard some before you feed it, as long as you keep at least 60 g., to be fed 30 g each of flour and water. This amount fits in a pint container or 12-ounce jar with room to rise.

When you do want to use the refrigerated starter, leave it out at room temperature for an hour or two and watch for it to rise slightly. Then use however much your recipe calls for. Weigh the remainder and feed it as before, half water and half flour by weight. 

If you won't be using your starter for a bit, it will be okay in the freezer -- the longest I have frozen mine was two weeks. When you want to maintain it again, leave the frozen starter out at room temperature until it thaws out completely. Feed it as above and leave until you see bubbles and it has that fruity, slightly beer-y smell -- it may not rise to fully double, but it will be fine.

If you forget to feed your starter in the fridge for a week or two, and there is clear or greyish liquid on top, it is still okay. Stir that liquid back in, discard half of the starter, and feed it. Leave it at room temperature until it rises, then either use or refrigerate. If it takes a long time to rise (more than 6 hours with no activity), feed it again. Usually the most neglected starter will bounce back after two or three feedings 12 hours or so apart.

⇒⇒⇒If you ever see pinkish or orangey spots or liquid, or black mold, do not hesitate to throw the starter out. This is a sign of potentially harmful bacteria. Contact me to give you some more 😁, don't feel that you have to save it.

Here as an act of good starter faith is the pizza dough recipe I use: (even though at the moment my home oven is not conducive to pizza-making -- i will live through you all.)

Sourdough Pizza Dough

220 g. room-temp water

10 g. (2 tsp.) active dry yeast

165 g. all-purpose flour

300 g. bread flour

15 g. (1 tbsp) salt

15 g. (1 tbsp) sugar (optional -- it makes it brown better and rise a bit faster)

200 g. sourdough starter, fed about 6-10 hours before 

50 g. olive oil

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix together the dry ingredients. Form a well, and add the wet ingredients and yeast water. Combine with your fingers, sweeping the flour into the well to form a shaggy dough. Knead it until it is smooth and elastic, and you get a gluten window. (in the mixer, go 3 minutes on low, then 6-8 minutes on medium). Turn the dough out of the bowl and knead a few times just to bring any wet parts and dry parts together. Put a little olive oil in the bowl and drop the dough back in, turning it over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap.

Let the dough rise til it doubles (about 40 minutes) then knock it down and divide into pieces -- I usually make two 14" or three 10-12" from this size batch, or about 240 g. each for 4 individual pizzas depending on how thin you want to stretch it. 

Shape each piece into a ball, return them to the oiled bowl, cover, then rest in the fridge til you're ready to stretch. (Or freeze on an oiled pan until solid, then place in a freezer bag.)

I prep all my toppings first, then stretch and top and right into the 475 oven. If you want it puffier/more foccacia-like, let the pizza rise about 10-15 minutes with the toppings on.   

Rise, and shine! 

Fluffy, tender sandwich bread, by request

UPDATED with shaping videos -- see below!👇

I like making bread (no duh!) and my daughter likes eating bread. But not my bread, usually. "No offense Mom, but your bread is usually hard." I disagree! Crusty, because it's sourdough, but not hard. Unless it's been around for a little bit because it hasn't been eaten. Because it's not squishy white bread.

So, of course, I was compelled to make the tender, creamy-crumbed, slightly sweet Japanese-style milk bread you see here -- in a loaf shape that is perfect for toast, grilled cheese, and other sandwiches. 

Incorporating sourdough gives sandwich bread a boost in flavor and keeping qualities, and using tangzhong gives it that moist, soft interior and delicate crust, that stays that way on the counter for a bit. So of course to maximize my oven usage, I made two loaves -- the oven stays on the same amount of time anyway, and I have two loaf pans of equal size. I may try 3 loaves at once next time, but that might be pushing the capacity of my mixer. 
Update: since this bread has won my family over, i got two 12-inch long loaf pans and now make approximately 1 1/4 times the original quantity (shaping in 6 logs per pan). It does fit in my 5 qt mixer, but needs a larger bowl to rise in. Surprisingly, the two loaves still only take 30 minutes to bake. New quantities are in red. 

You do want to use a mixer for tangzhong doughs -- until the gluten is developed properly, they are very sticky like brioche, almost gluey. But when the dough is properly mixed, it rises nicely.
Debt of gratitude to Christine Ho's english-language blog, which is where I first encountered the tangzhong method. This recipe is very similar to hers, but with my tweaks and quantities.

Japanese-style Milk Bread Sandwich Loaves

Tangzhong:

50 g. all-purpose or bread flour 66 g
125 g. milk 166 ml
125 g. water 166 ml

In a small saucepan, whisk the flour into the liquids until smooth. Cook over medium-low heat, whisking all the time, until the mixture thickens and the whisk starts to leave a track. It will just start to stick to the bottom and may come to a bit of a simmer, but it is done when it still drips in a trail from the whisk. Turn the tangzhong out of the saucepan to cool, right into your mixer bowl.
EDIT: You can also microwave the tangzhong, stirring every 20 seconds with a small whisk or a fork to get out the lumps.

Final dough:
100 g. milk or heavy cream 133 g
112 g. eggyolks (or two large eggs and a yolk) 150 g
300 g. sourdough starter, fed 6-15 hours before  400 g
110 g. sugar 146 g
10 g. instant or active dry yeast (if your starter is very active, 7 g. should be enough) 12 g

550 g. bread flour (or part whole wheat flour and part bread flour) 715 g
37 g. dry milk powder 50 g
10 g. (2 tsp) salt 13 g

60 g. butter, cool and cubed 80 g

Add the milk or cream, eggs or eggyolks, sugar, starter, and yeast to the room-temperature tangzhong. Mix with the paddle until it is smooth and the yeast is dispersed. Add the flour, milk powder and salt, switch to the hook, and mix on low speed for a few minutes until the flour is evenly moistened. 

(I now let this sit to autolyse for about 10-15 minutes, especially for the larger batch). Turn the speed up to medium and let the dough develop -- it will look very messy for a bit, then come together into a few sticky clumps. Scrape down the sides if needed. Add the butter, and mix again on medium speed until the dough is smooth and elastic -- it will take a total of 7-10 minutes. Check for a gluten window.
Clean off the hook, pull the bowl off the mixer, and go through with a bench scraper or spatula to make sure everything is evenly mixed -- there may be some butter bits or egg hanging about in the divot of the bowl, and you want to get those in cleanly.  
Coat the top of the dough with cooking spray or butter, just enough so it doesn't form a skin. Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let the dough rise until doubled... it should take about an hour, depending on how healthy your starter is and if the room is warm. 

Have two 9x5 loaf pans ready... mine are a dark nonstick, so they don't need much prep, but if they are not nonstick, a quick spray or parchment liner will help get the bread out prettily. 

When the dough has doubled, gently fold the edges into the middle to de-gas.

Shaping:

Turn it out onto the counter and divide in half, then each half into 4 pieces for the traditional Hokkaido-loaf shape. Take one piece, flatten it into an oval, and bring the two short ends to meet in the middle. Roll this up from an open end into a snug 4-inch long cylinder and place it crosswise in a loaf pan, seam side down. Repeat to have four cylinders for each loaf. It doesn't matter if they touch or not, but try to have the tops be relatively even.

Update: Alternate shaping -- twist: Divide the dough into only two pieces and shape each into a cylinder about twice as long as the pan. Twist together, tuck in the ends, and place in the pan.

Cover with plastic wrap or bags, and let the breads rise until they come to the top edge of the loaf pan. This will take about half the time of your first rise. *

Bake the breads at 350 F -- they should take about 25-30 minutes. The tops will sound hollow when you tap, and they will feel crusty with a nice golden color. Remove them from the oven and let cool a bit, then turn the loaves out of the pans onto a rack. If the bottoms lack color, you can put them back in the oven (out of the pans) to brown the rest of the way around for a few minutes, then remove and let cool completely.
As they cool and the moisture distributes evenly, the outside will soften and stay that way, so don't be sad that the crust is very firm when they come out of the oven. 

Do let the loaves cool completely before slicing -- the inside is very tender while hot and it will squash if you cut too soon. 

The sandwich loaves will live happily on your countertop, each in a gallon-size zip-close bag or something like it, for a good week. Or less, if someone keeps creeping up and slicing pieces off! 👀😋

* I didn't find it necessary to brush the loaves with anything before baking, but a little milk or cream will give them a darker, semi-glossy finish. Beaten egg gives them a much darker, shiny crust, but i find that that peels off after a few hours. You can brush them with melted butter as they come out of the oven, but again, the crust softens nicely even without.