Caraway braids with orange powder
At this point, many of you may be wondering what caraway is (if you haven’t already looked it up on Google). I reached that same point—Saint Google—the day I came back home from the supermarket with what I thought was a little jar of anise. Since I don’t really have a good grasp of spice names in German—nor in English or French, and barely in Spanish :D—I confidently bought a jar that turned out to be caraway, a spice widely used in Germany for their world-famous pretzels.
Visually it looks very similar to anise (I wasn’t completely off, right? :P), but as soon as you taste it, you realize something is different. It is also known as meadow cumin, meadow fennel, alcaravia, or carvi, and it has aromatic and therapeutic properties. It is mainly used to combat digestive weakness, improve digestion, and strengthen the immune system. Quite a discovery, really.
By the way—and aside from the caraway that almost sponsors this post—in these photos I pay tribute to the ancient rolling pin that I hadn’t photographed until now, a gift from my grandmother.
Ingredients for 3 braids
300 g flour
150 g sugar
125 ml milk
1 egg
50 ml olive oil (I used extra virgin)
25–30 g fresh baker’s yeast (or 1.5 sachets of dry yeast)
2 teaspoons whole caraway seeds
orange powder (grated dried orange peel)
Preparation
Mix the milk with the sugar, orange powder, caraway, and baker’s yeast in a bowl, and add a pinch of salt.
Beat the egg and add it along with the oil to the previous mixture, stirring until you get a homogeneous dough. Start adding the flour (sifting it beforehand is even better), and as you add it, work the dough.
If it is too runny, add a bit more flour and balance it by adjusting the rest of the ingredients proportionally.
Knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth and flexible. Shape it into a ball and let it rise in a place free from drafts, preferably covered with a cloth or plastic wrap, for about 30 minutes.
Sprinkle flour on the countertop (or any large flat surface) and knead the dough again for a few minutes. Divide it into 3 equal parts, and then each of those into 3 more equal parts.
Form thin cylinders with each of the 9 pieces and start shaping the braids, sealing them at the beginning and end so they don’t come apart in the oven.
Place baking paper on a tray and arrange the braids on top. Beat an egg and brush them so they become shiny. Then sprinkle a little sugar over each one and let them rise again before baking until they double in size (the waiting time will depend on the amount of flour and yeast used). If they don’t rise, wait a bit longer—they will grow :).
Preheat the oven to 180ºC for about 10 minutes and bake them for about 10–15 minutes until golden.
Things to keep in mind
They are delicious fresh out of the oven, while still warm.