Vienna Bread

I have been wanting to make the classic Vienna Bread for quite some time to share it with you and make it part of the recipe book. I am well aware that it is a very classic and traditional recipe, which I am sure many of you already know and have made. But I really wanted to include it in the recipe book because there are some things that you just can’t miss… Like this one.

And even more so with this format, which is somewhat different to the usual one, but in a subtle way, as it maintains its original line. I was looking for information about this bread, and I found several Chinese websites showing how to make this bread in the format that I am introducing today on the blog. An elongated, thin bread roll with many cuts on its surface. I found it extremely elegant and I couldn’t resist making it the same way they do.

I have to admit that I was left wanting to try the filling that many of the websites suggest. A cream made with butter, sugar and condensed milk. They put a small amount inside and decorated it with raisins…. I’ll have to try it because I really wanted to!

Vienna Bread origin.

Although today the main focus of the bread world is on France and Italy, a few years ago it was in Austria. It was in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, specifically in Vienna in the 19th century, that the technique of adding steam to ovens was developed. An indispensable and revolutionary step in the world of baking that came from the Viennese bakers.

Vienna bread is a variety of bread made by the method developed in Vienna, using steam to bake the bread. The ovens inject steam while the bread is baking, resulting in a bread with a better expansion and a tender crumb. In addition to achieving a crispy crust.

What distinguishes Vienna bread from French or Italian bread is the enrichment of the dough. The use of sugar and malt helps the bread to brown and the butter together with the egg gives it a soft, fluffy and spongy texture.

The quality of the grains used to make Vienna bread is one of its characteristics.

In 1875, the American scientist Eben Norton Horsford published a report on the so-called “Vienna bread”, in which he highlighted the following characteristics:

• A new type of milling was carried out, known as Hungarian high milling, which combined the grinding of stone rollers and cylinders.
• Careful and excellent selection of the flours obtained.
• The use, for the first time, of pressed baker’s yeast instead of sourdough or brewer’s yeast.
• Uniform and adjustable baking according to the size of the loaves, with steam being used for large loaves to prevent the crust from browning too much. The dough is placed in a low oven and steam is injected as soon as the loaves are placed in the oven. This allows moisture to be transferred to the crumb of the bread and delays the formation of the crust, making the crust more extensible, which results in a lighter, fluffier and more evenly baked bread. When the steam dissipates, the dry heat of the oven toasts the crust, producing its characteristic very fine and slightly crunchy texture.
• Breads are smaller in size than the usual loaves, so that the consumer can eat them on the same day, preventing them from becoming stale or hard.

With the passage of time, Vienna bread has become a loaf of brioche-type bread with a thin, shiny crust (thanks to the beaten egg) to which milk, sugar and butter are added.

From this point on, many breads have emerged with a great similarity to it or some pieces in which ingredients are used to enrich the dough, such as butter, to achieve different aromas, flavours and nuances in the final result. Like this Viennoise deux couleurs (only available in Spanish) that I left you some time ago.