From Braid bread to Pine bread....Thanks to Euclid.....

Why Euclid is in my kitchen? Because he is the father of the geometry, and he helped me to transform a braid into a Christmas pine shape.....

One friend told me that the world can be explained through numbers, and I agree. However, I think geometry help us to shape our life and food creations........

 Pine tree with cranberries and pistachio waiting to be cooked....

From braid bread?....Yes....Do you remember how many braid breads from Hilmar I made?....a lot....and still I bake a braid bread every week. Not only I made braid breads, but also in different shapes with different fillings. 

 Coming from the oven.....

This dough is so good that I wanted to include it in my Christmas cooking list. Also, braid is a symbol of strength, friendship and unity, and I wanted to give this braid bread to friends as a Christmas gift. However, I did not have the appropriate shape for Christmas. Therefore, I converted it into a pine tree.....

 A close up

Long time ago, even before I have discovered the braid bread, I saw something similar to a braid pine tree on the Internet, but I could not find it when I needed. 

Therefore, I say.....Please Euclid tell me how to do it!!!......and here you have the steps I did:

1) Make the Hilmar's braid bread dough (with half of her portion, you will have 1 pine tree)

2) Instead of rolling a rectangle, roll a square of 35cms by 35 cms

3) Take the opposite two corners to the middle. Thus, you will have a triangle with a rectangular base.

4) Open the sides, and make the cuts in diagonal way to shape the pine.

5) In the base, cut the dough to form the stem

6) Fill it with home made marzipan, and candied orange peel

7) Make the braid, and leave it for two hours to have more than double its original size. I like with a lot of marzipan filling, and I discovered that if I let it rise longer, then the marzipan will not come out during the oven time.

8) Paint it with egg yolk, and decorate it with cranberries and pistachio.

Home Made Marzipan (for oven use)

Since I made this marzipan braid bread at least twice a month, I have adapted my marzipan to this recipe. This is a very easy filling. Nevertheless, because our kitchens and products that we used are different, I recommend you  to see the density of the marzipan as shown in the picture. If it happens that your marzipan mix is less dense then what is shown in the picture, then I recommend you to increase the corn starch.

For the marzipan (one Pine bread tree)

150 grams of peeled almond

100 grams of powder sugar

1 egg

65 grams of butter (soft)

2 tablespoon of corn starch

2 teaspoon of almond essence

Grind your almonds until they are very fine, but not flour texture. Transfer it into a bowl, add the sugar and butter and beat it well with a fork. Add the egg, the corn starch and two teaspoons of almond essence. Test for density, and add more corn starch if needed.

Since you will not use all this marzipan in one pine bread tree, then you can do less. I prefer to do the whole recipe because it includes "1 egg", and I can not divide the egg. I use the remaining marzipan in another recipe (will come after). Nevertheless, there was no much marzipan left. I used a lot of marzipan, and leave it to rise for two hours.

 

Do you like a piece?

 

 

For the orange candied peel I use my recipe that you can see here

What I did with the rest of the orange candied peel??.....Usually, as I post it before, a like them with chocolate. Nevertheless, this time I cover only half of each one with chocolate, they look more elegant.....ENJOY!!

 

 

 

 

 

k