Hungarian Hunza Bread

My in-laws have many chickens.  This means they have many eggs.  Since we are a larger family, and I cook a wider variety of foods, they end up sending many of them our way.

Sometimes it can get a bit overwhelming.

The other day, after feeling mildly triumphant at finishing off a dozen eggs by serving my family breakfast burritos (with homemade tortillas and salsa, of course), I was surprised to see my mother-in-law at the door with a large bag of filled egg cartons.

"The 18-pack ones and the dozen at the bottom need to be used.  They're older."

I did a quick count and realized that I'd been handed 7 dozen eggs, 4 dozen of which needed to be used quickly.

I ran through my mind ways to freeze eggs in portions, but realized that may or may not do me any good, with the chickens continually producing, and more chickens getting into the productive stage soon.  After all, when would I choose to access the frozen eggs, if I am still getting more?

I pulled out my cookbooks and started browsing.  The largest criteria for consideration was the number of eggs required in the recipe.  Between a yeast coffecake, egg bread, and a quiche, I managed to go through 17 of the 4 dozen eggs.  I planned German pancakes for the next morning (6 more eggs), and then turned to the Internet, searching for egg-y breads.

One such bread, seemingly tailor-made to my need to rapidly consume eggs, was this recipe for Hungarian Hunza Bread.

See that?  6 egg yolks!  I put it on my list of breads to work on the next day, after garden planting.  (It ended up being before garden planting . . . A huge windstorm came through our area, blowing up so much dust that digging in the dirt would have been an exercise in futility.  Anything we might have turned up would have blown away.)

Ingredients:

3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (2 T of my yeast--not sure if it's active dry)
1 cup warm water for yeast
8 cups bread flour (I used all-purpose.)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons salt
6 egg yolks
1 cup margarine, melted
1 1/2 cups warm milk (I used hot water and powdered milk.)
1 cup golden raisins
2 egg whites, beaten, for the tops of the loaves before baking

Mix the yeast in the warm water and set aside for about 10 minutes to allow it to dissolve and become frothy.

Prep other ingredients by melting the margarine and separating the egg yolks from the egg whites.

I used to separate eggs by moving the yolk from one half of the eggshell to the other, which method never really failed me.  But with our change to home-grown eggs, rather than store-bought eggs, I started using an egg separator.  Why?  Well, it's a rare home-grown egg, indeed, which is completely clean on the outside, even if you take the time to wash it just before using it.  (It's unwise to wash an egg in water unless you are planning on using it right away, because it removes the protective bloom on it which keeps it fresh for long periods of time.)  So, to avoid having bits of hay, dirt, or simply bacteria in my eggs, I no longer use my eggshells as egg separators.

 

I'll be honest:  it's harder with an egg separator.  But it's worth it to me to know the end product is clean.

 

The recipe in the link is written to be mixed by hand, without a stand mixer.  But after reading reviews from other bakers, I decided to go ahead and use my stand mixer, starting with the standard beater, rather than the bread hook.

 

First, I put the warm milk, melted margarine, sugar, and salt in the stand mixer bowl and mixed them.  When I was convinced the temperature was cool enough to not be a danger to the eggs (ie., they wouldn't become partially cooked upon entering the mixture) I added the egg yolks and kept stirring.

 

I added a couple of cups of flour and mixed, then added the now frothy yeast mixture.  When that was mixed in, I continued adding flour until the mixture started looking "stringy" behind the standard beater.  Changing the beater for the bread hook, I gradually added flour until the dough formed a ball around the hook, then continued adding small amounts of flour to the bowl so the dough wouldn't stick to the sides while it was being kneaded.

 

I've found, with bread doughs containing more eggs, it is very difficult to successfully perform my trick of adding a small amount of oil right at the end, then letting the ball of dough go around once more, greasing the bowl.  (After which, of course, I would stop the mixer, remove the dough hook, and flip the dough over for rising.)  For some reason, although the dough does reach a point in the mixing where it will be kneaded without sticking to the bowl, the moment I stop the mixer, it sticks horribly!

 

So instead of rising the dough in the same bowl, I now cave to necessity, oil a separate bowl, then turn out the dough into it.  After twirling the dough around a few times to make sure the bowl is well-oiled and to oil the dough, I flip the dough, then cover it with a damp cloth and allow it to rise.



See?  Dough in separate bowl . . .



You can see how much is still sticking to the mixer bowl, even after scraping.

I should know by now that egg doughs take longer to rise, but I was still surprised when I returned to my kitchen in a panic after having forgotten all about my rising dough to find . . . nothing much had happened.

Given that our area was experiencing a storm and my kitchen was a bit cooler than usual, I decided to use my broken oven as a proofing area.  I used the oven light and a pot of boiling water to add heat to the small space and prayed the dough would rise more quickly in this slightly warmer environment.

 

It worked!  It still took a while (um . . . 2 hours after being put in there?) but the dough finally reached a point where I was satisfied it was ready to be shaped.

 

 

I'm sure my family thinks I decided to omit the golden raisins, as I am notorious for hating raisins, but here they are!  In the recesses of my mind, I seemed to remember that golden raisins weren't as noxious as regular raisins, so I decided to go ahead and use them.

 

The instructions merely stated, "Knead in the raisins," after placing the dough on a lightly floured surface, of course.  I had no idea how one kneaded in raisins, but recalling to my memory a picture in a book about kneading bits of cheese into bread dough, I figured it couldn't be much different.

Many thanks to the Senior Master Kitchen Helper, without whose assistance these pictures would not have been possible!!

Place the loaves into greased loaf pans, cover, and allow to rise in a warm place.  (I put them back into my "proofing oven", with freshly boiled water.)

 

This time, it only took about an hour for the loaves to rise to a reasonable size for baking.  After brushing egg white on the top surfaces, they were ready!

I am sure this bread would have done much better in maintaining an even appearance if I had been able to bake them in a regular size oven.  But, as my indoor propane oven is broken, and with the horrible winds and blowind dust outside, I was unwilling to take them to the electric oven installed in my pumphouse, I was limited to using my electric countertop oven.  (The one in which I baked Rieska in my former office!)

When baking larger loaves in a small oven, there is the danger the top may brown too much, even with the convection oven function on.  This can be avoided by placing aluminum foil on the tops of the loaves for the last 10 minutes or so of baking, but it is not foolproof.

The recipe said to bake these loaves at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35-40 minutes.  I know from experience that when convection cooking, it is better to lower the temperature slightly and bake longer, but at about 38 minutes, the loaves looked so brown and seemed to be done, even with the aluminum foil slowing down the browning process, so I went ahead and took them out of the oven.  (Despite misgivings . . . I had made an egg bread the day before, and it was supposed to bake closer to 50 minutes or an hour . . .)

They looked beautiful and nicely brown, but they really should have been left in longer.

See that doughy spot?  If I had followed my instincts and left them in as long as the other egg bread, it would probably have come out well.

Even so, we tasted the bread, around the undone part.  I couldn't really taste the raisins, so that was good (unless, of course, it means that my taste buds are starting to disappear as I get older), and the bread, itself, was very sweet, fluffy, and delicious.  My husband and most daughters like it enough I will probably try it again, this time putting the aluminum foil on a little earlier and cooking the bread at least 10 minutes longer, if not more, for good measure.

And hopefully next time I'll have the added advantage of being able to use a large oven!