LAL’s Sourdough Sandwich Buns, Schlotzky's copycat

My husband really likes Schlotzsky's sandwiches. I like baking bread, and figuring out how to make things. Naturally, he eventually wanted me to recreate Schlotzsky's buns at home. Tonight, he has made sandwiches with my creation, and declared them a dead-on match. I think they're a little softer and lovelier than the original, but I'm probably biased. ;)

There are several recipes floating around out there, but most don't make a bun with a texture and flavor that are really like the original.

Cheesy Rolls

 I had almost abandoned my search for a bread to go with chili, when a co-worker brought in a loaf of her favorite cheese bread from the deli to share. Ureka! That had not occurred to me! A little searching, and I found one blog article describing an amazing cheese bread recipe, which turns out they got from King Arthur Flour's blog! Obviously, their cheese bread was the one to try.

Success! KAF's cheese bread is great; but I must confess I altered it...

I was in a hurry, so skipped the overnight starter step in favor of adding all the ingredients at once, like a regular bread.  I did not have the pizza dough seasoning, but I did have three of the main ingredients, so I added them: malt, cheese powder, and buttermilk powder. I also used all cheddar cheese. So, not exactly their recipe, but great anyway.

Apple Strudel today

I made an apple strudel again today, and couldn't resist changing it. I used softened rather than melted butter, and dark brown sugar for white sugar, in the filling. This is more like the cinnamon roll recipe. For the apples, I used all Honey Crisp. The apples alone weren't that outstanding, but the flavor was great in the strudel. However, I should have warmed them first.

I also should have wrapped up the sides and ends better, to hold in the filling...

When I checked on the strudel in the oven, the filling was oozing out badly, and was almost onto the stone. I pulled it out, put it on a baking sheet, and put it back in. This, on top of using cold apples, disrupted the baking time, and I ended up calling it done too soon. The filling didn't set up all the way, and there were undercooked places in the dough.

Sounds like a real disaster, but, my family still loved the gooey, cinnamon-apple-bread-mapley-icing result. Success! :) And room for improvement. ;)

Scandinavian Cardamom Braid

 This is such a good, exotic bread, I'm not sure why I don't make it more often.  Cardamom is the second most expensive spice, after saffron and before vanilla bean. Happily it is also super strong, so you don't need much. The almonds toast on top while the bread bakes, and then a drizzle of buttery orange glaze... 

This is a holiday bread, and I usually only make it in December. It can be a real show-stopper at the office "goodies" table, or at a party. I usually have to cut the first slice myself, because no one wants to mess it up. I serve the glaze in a bowl on the side, for two reasons: 1. If there is any bread left over, it will keep better, and 2. Everyone gets to decide how much they want to drizzle on their serving.

 I just made it as a 6-strand braid, and it was beautiful that way also.

Bread: Improving a Conventional Oven

Do you wish you had a better oven? Want to make yours more like a brick oven? Put unglazed tiles or a pizza stone on the top and bottom racks of any oven and preheat for more than 20 minutes; bake directly on the bottom stone (cooking parchment makes it easier), and you have a brick oven. This does two things:

Apple Strudel

This is the favorite bread creation of many of my friends. Technically, it is probably not a strudel, since it is made of bread dough rather than pastry. But to-date, no one has cared. I serve the glaze on the side, allowing each person to decorate their own slice to their liking.

I was in a hurry and my photos leave much to be desired. This strudel did not last past lunch time at work this morning, even though it shared a table with a number of excellent breakfast items and sweets. It looks prettier with the icing on top.

Find the most current and print-friendly version here.



Dough Ingredients:

1 1/8 cup		water
3 Tbs		butter
2 Tbs		dry milk
1 tsp		salt
3 cup (15 oz)		all-purpose flour
3 1/2 Tbs		sugar
1 tsp		malt powder (optional)
1/8 tsp		ascorbic acid (optional)
2 tsp		cinnamon
2 tsp		yeast, fast rise
		---or---
1 Tbs		yeast, active dry

Filling Ingredients:

1/4 cup		butter, melted
3/4 cup		apple pie filling, canned or homemade
1/2 cup		sugar
1 Tbs		cinnamon

Topping:
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Glaze:
powdered sugar
milk
vanilla
butter
100% pure Maple Syrup, optional

Instructions:

I make the dough in the bread machine. I tested the recipe a few days ago to make sure it needed no adjustments in water to flour ratio. My family enjoyed that strudel, and allowed me to take the next one to work. I made the dough for this one on "timer" so it would be ready when I got home from work.

Dump the finished dough out and roll it into a 10" x 14" rectangle. My preference is to use a silicone Roul 'Pat mat and a silicone rolling pin, and I use no "bench flour". I have a thinner mat too, but this one stays put on the counter top better. As a second choice, I would roll directly on a clean counter top or board, using only as much flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the counter.

Check your oven to make sure the stones and racks are properly arranged, and turn it on (350°).



Next, transfer the dough to a parchment sheet. Feather the edges of the dough in roughly 1" strips, using a dough knife. Using bread-dough math, a 14" long sheet can be cut into seven 1" feathers, plus two ends. The gluten must be shrinking the feathers as it is cut. I generally don't measure it anyway.

Spread the not-too-hot melted butter on the dough with a pastry brush, coating the center and the feathers, while leaving the ends butter-free. Pour the remaining butter in the uncut center, and even it out.



Pour the cinnamon-sugar mixture onto the pool of butter. Smooth it out with the back of a spoon, so that it covers the uncut part of the dough. Doing the butter and cinnamon-sugar this way gives a nice cinnamon syrupy layer under the apples, and avoids having the sugar draw too much juice out of the apple filling.



Spread the apple filling over the cinnamon. Dip your fingertips into some water, and wet the ends (not the feathers) of the dough. Fold up the ends and pinch together, working it until it really sticks together well. This one still had a "blow out" on the end during baking.



Fold the feathers over each other, gently pulling as needed to stretch them across the loaf.



Spray the top with cooking spray.



Cover with plastic wrap; make sure the wrap is laid out flat, so the rising dough will not get trapped by it on the sides.



Let it rise in a warm place until doubled in size. My usual spot is on the cook top, which is over the oven. I actually have to make sure it doesn't get too hot there, since there is a vent in one of the burners. One of the "feathers" is already escaping, sliding down the side. I scooted it back up, and got egg on it in the next step, but in the end, it still escaped.



Mix an egg with about a tablespoon of water, and chop some raw pecans.



Brush the top of the loaf with the egg wash, and sprinkle with pecans. I coated it with egg twice to make sure the pecans would stick. Egg is "food glue," and it also makes bread shiny on top. Use a paper towel to wipe up any excess that gets on the parchment, or just crack it off after it is baked.



Oh, what a wonderful smell, fresh bread and cinnamon... About twenty minutes was enough. With this loaf, the temperature probe doesn't really work, because it would just get the tip stuck in the filling and give a bad reading. For done-ness on this loaf, I go by smell, sight, and touch. If it smells like heavenly bread and toasty pecans, looks browned and bubbly where the apple has broken free, and feels "set" when you tap/touch it, pull it on out.



Yes, once again an end opened up, but at least one end stayed closed. I'll try again sometime, and write an update if I find the way to keep it closed. But my co-workers didn't bat an eye, and it was happily eaten completely. Actually, imperfections are evidence that it is home-made, so I'm not too worried about it.



For the icing, pour about two cups of confectioner sugar into a bowl. Melt a tablespoon of butter. Pour a tablespoon of milk and the butter into the sugar, and stir it in. Add about 1/4 tsp of vanilla and a tablespoon of 100% maple syrup (optional; grade B has the most flavor; I wouldn't use pancake syrup). Taste it, add milk until it pours off of a spoon in a nice drizzle, and add more butter, vanilla, and/or maple to taste.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Now that I have a camera at my disposal, I've taken some photos of some of my favorites.

My lovely Zojirushi bread machine, a really handy "beaker" measuring cup, and a "French bread" cutting board, perfect for taking a strudel to a party. The dough knife is another extremely useful tool, and I don't care that my dad laughs to think I bought a rectangle of metal with one edge curled over. We use it for all sorts of things.

Dough/bench knife, Bread machine (Zo), and Beaker on a narrow cutting board 

Removed from the list: "Six Thousand Years of Bread", the book I tried reading; it turns out to be oddly religious, more historical than culinary, and honestly not as captivating as I had hoped. I did not finish reading it.  My little shelves hold two pan scales, measuring cups, flax seed, sesame seed, amaranth seed, powdered milk, vanilla in a dropper bottle, a jar of acetic acid, a salt cellar like Alton Brown's, and some Fiesta pieces.

Two-pan scales and other frequently used items.

Kitchenaid mixer with grain mill attachment

A great cutting board and bread knife, with the remains of my latest loaf of bread (they even ate the crusts)