[Sca-cooks] Looking for a bread recipe.

[Decker, Terry D.]

I would be interested in any reference pointing to a period source which
describes a harvest loaf.  They have been done.  They probably were done at
the time, but documentation is a little sparse.  It is very possible your
source was transferring a more modern practice to period. 

Bread recipes from 12th Century England are non-existent.  There are only
four or five actual recipes from within the SCA period for all of Christian
Europe and a few descriptions of various breads, so that we know what they
were, but not necessarily how they were made.

Looking at later baking practices, several possibilities spring to mind.
There is a type of German bread in which roll-size pieces of dough are
formed into tear-drop shapes and joined together to resemble and ear of
wheat.  Some regions in France produce large 4 to 5 lb loaves decorated with
dough cut and shaped to resemble grape leaves, bunches of grapes, stalks of
wheat, and other harvest symbols.  And English bakers cut and shape dough
into harvest images (a flat loaf cut to the shape of a shock of wheat and
scored with a razor to delineate individual stalks of wheat.  These are not
commonly done by average people.  They are loaves prepared by bakers to
demonstrate their skill and artistry.

Bear

 
> I am looking for a bread recipe. I am told that people would 
> bake a special 
> loaf that was ornate to celebrate the harvest. Any help would be 
> appreciated.
> 
> Gerard
> 
> LOL, sorry I guess this information would help. English 
> people around 1100 
> AD.
> 
> Gerard