A wedding is a special celebration. The celebration is accompanied by many unique symbolic rules and rites. Wedding loaf is one of the main differences of the ceremony.

Classic Wedding Loaf Recipe

Traditionally, newlyweds are greeted with a wedding loaf of salt. Therein lies a deep meaning. At all times, bread was a symbol of wealth, and with the help of salt our ancestors defended themselves against spirits. The custom of meeting the young with a wedding loaf is now an indispensable part of the holiday. According to the rule, the wedding loaf is held by the mother of the groom, and the salt shaker is held by the mother of the bride. So parents symbolically admonish their children before starting an independent life, wishing them a strong and happy family.

Essential Ingredients:

  • baking flour - 1.5 kg;
  • yeast - 20 g;
  • chicken eggs - 10 pcs.;
  • milk - ½ tbsp .;
  • butter or vegetable oil - 100 g;
  • salt - 2 tsp;
  • sugar - 1 tbsp .;
  • spices to taste - vanilla, cinnamon, poppy seeds, etc.

Cooking Instructions:

  1. Lightly warm the milk, dissolve the yeast in it. Add spices to taste.
  2. Take 9 eggs, separate the yolks from the proteins. Mix the yolks with sugar until a homogeneous mixture is obtained and combine with dissolved yeast. Beat whites.
  3. Sift flour, add salt. Поместить Place the parts of the sifted flour in a deep bowl, make a wide deepening in the middle. Slowly pour the solution from yolks and yeast, add butter (preferably) or vegetable oil, a mixture of proteins.
  4. Knead for 20-30 minutes. To make the dough smooth, you can add the previously set aside part of the sifted flour during the kneading process. Place the finished dough in a clean, high shape, cover with a handkerchief, leave warm for 1.5-2 hours.When the dough comes up, you need to knead it again and let it come up again.
  5. Ready dough for a wedding loaf is divided into 3 parts. From one part to mold a ball. Divide the second part and roll it into three thin bundles, of which weave a pigtail and wrap the ball around the lower edge, securing the ends. The third part will be needed for decoration. Usually a wedding loaf is decorated with clusters of viburnum, ears of wheat, petals, flowers, figures of swans. There are two ways to bake. The first is to place the decorations on the loaf immediately or attach them 20 minutes before being ready. In the second case, the contours will be clearer. In the middle of the loaf make a recess for the salt shaker.
  6. Preheat the oven to 200 ° C. Place the loaf on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper, beat the egg, grease the mixture with the mixture, except for decorations. Then they will stand out against the ruddy background of the celebratory bread. Put in the oven.
  7. After the loaf is browned (after about 20 minutes), reduce the temperature to 180 ° C. Bake for 60 minutes or a little more. It is not recommended to open the oven during baking. When the loaf is ready, it must be cooled by opening the oven. After 20 minutes, remove the loaf, put on a round festive plate, cover with paper napkins and leave overnight.

The classic recipe is very simple, and bake a loaf for a wedding at home quite easy.

Tip: if a gas oven is used for baking, place dishes with water on the lower wire rack to prevent the dough from drying out.

From rye sourdough

Wedding loaf can be baked from yeast-free dough with rye sourdough.

This will require:

  • rye filling - 300 g;
  • wheat flour 2 grades - 100 g;
  • peeled rye flour - 600 g;
  • water - 400 ml;
  • rye fermented malt - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • salt - 1 tsp;
  • sugar - 150 g;
  • honey to taste - 80 g.

Step-by-step instruction:

  1. Pour malt with hot water, mix. Add fermentation, sugar, salt, honey to the cooled mixture, mix thoroughly again.
  2. Add 100 g of rye and 100 g of wheat flour, mix until smooth, knead for 15 minutes using a mixer. Slowly add 500 g of rye flour, knead manually for another 20 minutes. Interesting fact: wheat flour is added so that the dough is not sticky and heavy.
  3. The finished dough is placed on the proofing in a warm place for 5 hours.
  4. Further cooking, decorating the wedding loaf and pastries do not differ from the cooking process according to the classic recipe from wheat flour.

A wedding loaf of rye sourdough will certainly be remembered by the newlyweds and guests of the holiday. After all, in addition to a special taste, rye dough contains a record amount of vitamins. It is the exceptional health benefits of rye loaf that compares favorably with wheat.

Do it yourself with salt dough

In addition to the traditional, edible loaf, you can make a fake of this festive dish from salt dough.

 

Required Products:

  • flour - 2 tbsp .;
  • salt - 1 tbsp .;
  • water - 125 ml;
  • starch - 2 tbsp. l .;
  • PVA glue - 2 tbsp. l

The cooking process does not take much time:

  1. Mix the ingredients. Divide the dough into 3 parts - for the loaf, pigtails and decorations.
  2. Take a round bowl, turn it over, and cover it with finished dough on top, not more than 1 cm thick. Tip: so that the dough does not sag when separated from the bowl, the structure can be preliminarily placed in the oven overnight, heating to 70-80 ° C.
  3. Decorate the loaf with a pigtail, leaves, flowers, build a salt shaker from a strip of dough on top.
  4. Bake for 1.5-2 hours at low temperature until browned.
  5. The finished loaf can be painted with watercolors.

A self-made loaf of salt dough is used as a table decoration and later it can be left as a keepsake of the event.

Decorations for the festive bread

To make the pastry look festive, it is often decorated with beautiful details. A wedding loaf is no exception.

The most common simple dough decors:

  1. Pigtails. They are braided from 2-3 thin plates.
  2. Bunches of viburnum - roll up balls, cut in half, form a thin branch from the dough, glue halves to it, simulating a bunch.
  3. Flowers Most often, a wedding loaf is decorated with roses. To do this, roll out 3 thin circles. Roll the first one into roll, wrap the other two on top, slightly rounding the edges.
  4. Leaves. Roll out the dough of the desired shape, make cuts “herringbone” at the edges, veins depict small strips of dough.
  5. Spikelets of wheat. To decorate the loaf with ears, it is necessary to form a thin strip with cuts on both sides. Separately fashion the stem.

Each decoration has a special meaning. So, pigtails mean well-being, viburnum and roses - love and beauty, leaves - youth and health, wheat - wealth and fertility.

Swans for a wedding loaf

In addition to light elements, massive figures of birds - pigeons or swans are often used to decorate a wedding loaf.

Swans are a symbol of fidelity and devotion. Therefore, this decoration can often be seen on a festive loaf.

To portray a pair of swans:

  • Take a strip of dough 7 cm in size, roll it into an oval.
  • Leave one part for the body, depict feathers with small incisions, and form wings and tail from a separate piece of dough.
  • Bend the other part of the strip, simulating a thin neck and form a head with a beak.

Decorations are an important part of making any holiday bread. To keep them better on the test, it is recommended to lubricate the loaf with water.

As before, a wedding loaf is necessarily baked to celebrate the day when the young are married. It is believed that if the loaf is baked in accordance with all the rules, the newlyweds expect great happiness in family life. By tradition, only a married woman with children can knead the dough and bake the loaf. Then her happiness will pass successfully to the bride and groom.

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