Friday, March 9, 2007

School Bread: I II and III


Have you ever been to Epcot in Orlando? If you've been there hopefully you were lucky enough to wander into a tiny bakery in "Norway" and purchase a wonderful concoction called school bread. Normally I don't go for a dessert if it doesn't have at least a some chocolate in it, but I made a big exception for this school bread. A doughnutty/pastry type thing filled with custard, glazed on top, and covered in coconut; it was so fantastic that I have not been able to forget it and I made it my mission to somehow find the recipe and try to make it.

School Bread Part I

A google search for school bread instantly found me the actual recipe used by that bakery in Epcot. Score! Uh, wait a minute...a lot of the measurements are in ounces. Ok, no problem--I'll just borrow the very fancy and expensive kitchen scale my friend Lois has.

So, I set about weighing my sugar, flour, yeast, etc. and notice: wow, that's an awful lot of yeast. Well, maybe that's what makes the bread part so fluffy (have I mentioned I know very little to nothing about baking?). This ended up being problem #1 as I would soon find out. I then converted everything to measurements to expidite the baking process for next time, thinking myself quite clever, and set to mixing everything. The first step called to mix all dry ingredients, and then heat the water and butter to 95 degrees. Not having an instant thermometer, I had to guess what 95 degrees is and apparently I have no idea what 95 degrees is because as I poured the liquid in, I thought it started to cook the egg. I realize after doing it again that this was probably not the case (not sure what those little yellow lumpy things were) but at the time I thought I really screwed up. So, I went to the store and started over.

School Bread part II

Not one to let one mistake derail my plan to eat school bread, I started all over again careful not to heat the water/butter too much. I get it all in the mixer only to find it's WAY too sticky/soupy--problem #2. Now, remember I said I know next to nothing about baking. However, I have made enough pizza dough to know there is no way that dough was going to roll out properly...so I added a little flour. It was still sticky and wet--so I added some more. This went on and on until I was wailing out loud to no one in particular "why is this so wet?!!!??!" still adding more flour. After adding 4 extra cups of flour I finally gave up and put it in a big bowl to rise, because it was already starting to get a lot bigger than I expected. An hour later it looked like it was ready to take over the neighborhood--why is it so big and still sticky? Oh well, forge on I thought, and I did, only to end up with something that resembled bland, dry dinner rolls. After I tasted the first batch it all went into the garbage.

School Bread part III

I was exhausted at this point, but also pretty pissed off that I could not figure out where I had gone wrong. Plus, I had made the custard filling which tasted fine, so all I needed was the stupid bread to put it in. I decided to start again at the beginning and got back on google to check out other school bread recipes. I finally found the same recipe on another site and lo and behold: the recipe I used called for 2 pints of water, but the same recipe posted on another site called for 1. Hooray! Problem #2 solved. I was ready to give it one final shot, and then I remembered: what about the whole yeast thing (problem #1)--maybe you should revisit that one, eh Sherlock Holmes? Good thing I did because...ok, I have no idea how it happened but I put in, like, 3x's the yeast it called for. Obviously I weighed it wrong and shudder to think just how much yeast went into those first 2 batches. Anyway, to make a long story short (yah, I know: too late) I made my 3rd batch of school bread. The dough was still (in my opinion) too sticky; I had to keep spraying my hands with cooking spray to handle the dough, but I guess third time's the charm, because they turned out fine



They are still a lot 'breadier' than I remember from the Epcot ones, but they had a wonderful sweet taste. I then finished them off with the custard filling, icing and coconut



School Bread final assessment
As is the case with most things you eat somewhere else and try to recreate, my school bread just wasn't the same; good, but just not the same. Maybe eating it in a fake Norway is what makes it taste so over the top good. Here is another recipe for School Bread I found on the blog Bubbling Cauldron that looks similiar to the one I used, but better; it uses 1/2 cup less liquid for the bread so the dough is probably just right and not sticky. Next time, this is the one I'm going to try.

Skolebrød

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1 egg, beaten

Powder Sugar Glaze

1 cup sifted powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk or water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
coconut

Pastry Cream

3 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 drop vanilla extract
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. Add melted butter, 2 cups whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup sugar and cardamom.
Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until shiny and pliable.
Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil.
Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Divide the dough into twenty four equal pieces and form into rounds.
Place the rounds on to lightly greased baking sheets.
Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C).
Brush risen rolls with beaten egg. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes until nicely browned with pale sides.
Cool completely on wire racks. Spread glaze across top and then dip in coconut.

To make pastry cream: In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch until well combined.
Whisk in 2 tablespoons of milk. Place the remaining milk and the vanilla in a medium saucepan.
Bring the milk to a boil and whisk it into the yolk mixture.
Pour the mixture into the saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap and spread the pastry cream over the plastic to cool it as quickly as possible.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until cold.
Place the cooled pastry cream into a pastry bag and fill the buns with cream.

Makes 24 servings

optional fillings, vanilla pudding, french pastry cream

5 comments:

GirlDia said...

I am so excited to find this recipe. I have had the school bread on two different occasions and would go back to Epcot just to have the school bread. Thank you for making it "less expensive" to enjoy school bread again!! Cheers!

icewatermetalik said...

Hey,

I've have also fallen in love with the school bread at epcot and i work in a restaurant in NC. Me and an employee of mine decided to make this so that everyone could bask in it's glory. Despite my norwegian roots, i cannot, for the life of me, get this to work.

The recipe from Epcot won't work for me and neither will the one from the bubbling cauldron. I was wondering if you could lend us a hand by giving us the recipe you used for the 3rd batch you made that came out similiar to the epcot one.

We can't figure out where we are going wrong with this recipe.

Thanks a million.

Eric

tarnishdhalo said...

The trick to making this recipe work is in the yeast activation. Remember that the milk temperature has to be between 100 and 110F...anything less will fail to activate it, and anything more will kill the yeast.

Also, when allowing the dough to rise, it really must be kept in a warm place. My suggestion would be to partially heat your oven and then cut off the heat, placing the dough in the oven to rise. Don't heat it too much, just enough to get it around 80 degrees.

I had the fortune of having this recipe work for me the first time through...but then again, I'm in culinary school, so I might have a slight advantage. Hope this helps. The end result is phenomenal and tastes JUST like the school bread at Kringla Og Bakery at Epcot!

-Kenny

USA-NOR said...

School bread or Skole brød isn't really thought of as "dessert" here in Norway.

This favorite treat is normally eaten in the morning (on the way to school, thus it's name), during breaks at work or with coffee.

It's made by making a depression in the dough (several fingers so its sizeable) prior to placing in the oven, with the vanilla cream placed into the depression. So, it should be baked, not placed on top after baking time.

Had one today and it was WONDERFUL!

Lori
Engelsviken, Norway

Cheryl Swift said...

I finally got allears.net Kringla Bakeri School Bread recipe to work. First, begin with about 1/2 to 1 cup less water than called for. If you use the full amount the dough will be soupy. You will then be adding quite a bit more flour to the dough as you work it into the form of a bread ball. The dough WILL be somewhat sticky so keep your hands covered in flour while working it. Don't attempt to get rid of all stickiness or it will be too dry and crack. Let it rise the full amount of time if not longer til it doubles in size. I also added an additional 1/2 tsp. of cardamom for extra flavor.

For the powdered sugar coating I used a cup of powdered sugar and 1 TBSP water + 1/4 tsp vanilla (again for extra flavor). Add more water if necessary to form thick glaze that the coconut will adhere to. The vanilla custard recipe is great, just be sure not to over mix. The cornstarch is what will make this custard thicken, not extra whipping once the milk has been added. Enjoy!