A first attempt at Swiss Zopf bread

So much of my bread journey so far has been about no-knead breads that serve a purpose, and the Swiss Zopf bread sort of fits in that trend. My sandwich bread is helping to save us a little money; my Rosemary Asiago is helping us to, well, eat more Rosemary Asiago bread; but the Zopf is a nice looking bread that connects us to the Swiss part of our lives.

Zopf bread, right out of the oven

The great thing about this bread is that it looks complicated, but is relatively straight-forward once you figure out the braiding pattern. “Zopf” in German literally means “braid,” but a traditional Zopf only uses two strands instead of three. (Although I saw one with five!)

I watched a number of videos to get in the right frame of mind to try this braid. Honestly, I think my experience as an Eagle Scout and a sailor helped me more than any baking experience.

[If you like this content, please consider subscribing on YouTube, and to my e-mail list.]

Donate

The recipe I used is from Betty Bossi , a cooking product company and magazine. I’ll probably record myself making it for The Baking Journalist sometime soon, and I’ll walk through each phase in detail. The important thing to know: it’s doable!

Resting Zopf dough before heading into the oven.

Our time in Switzerland and Germany exposed us to a great tradition of baking as a learned trade. The countries have their fair share of mass-produced retail bakeries, but also a link to the apprentice-master model of artisan baking. I was fortunate to see that professional baking tradition imported here to Ohio, and now I’m recreating some of those specialties on my very amateur level.

Zopf up close. So good.

My Baking Journalist project has been about education and experimentation. I wanted to give myself room to fail–or maybe a better way to say it would be: I wanted to give myself room to grow.

My video skills weren’t where I wanted them, so I kept learning.

My graphic skills weren’t where I wanted, so I kept learning.

And yes, my bread skills weren’t where I wanted, so I kept learning.

In the Instagram culture of today, I feel like people are pressured into thinking everything has to be perfect.

It doesn’t.

Sometimes trying something for the express purpose of seeing if it works, results be darned, is much better than aiming for perfection.

So long as you try to better yourself, you are bettering yourself. And that goes for baking, journalism, and life.

Have something to add?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

No thanks

AnthonyGanzer.com