Baking Zwiebach

Making Zwiebach

A Zwiebach is a two- tiered bun, one on top of the other. Zwie means two in a German dialect. Mennonites love Zwiebachs, and so does anyone else, who has ever tasted one. The experience cannot be described in words if the Zwiebach baker knows how to do it properly. Many are beckoned but few are summoned.

The following is an account of what happened when three would be bakers of Zwiebach, we’ll call them Kiana, Chloe, and Mitchell, summed a renowned Zwiebach baker, we’ll call her Aggie, to show them how it’s done.

The dough was made previously so as to allow the Zwiebachs to be baked at the end of the session.

This is what the dough looks like before it is created into Zwiebachs and put in the baking pan. A piece of dough, which will be the bottom part of the bun, is pinched off with the right hand and placed in the pan.

026 — A Zwiebach In The Raw, Two Pieces Of Dough One On Top Of The Other

008 — Bottoms of the Zwiebach Placed in the Baking Pan

009 — A small piece of dough is pinched off and set on top of the bottom part. The three pupils are looking on with great interest.

010 — Our experienced Zwiebach baker places a small depression with her thumb on the top bit of dough. This creates a dimple.

011 — Soon one dimpled bun after another appears, on one pan, then the second, and the third.

012 — A cloth covers all three pans while the oven gets hot (400 degrees F). It will take 18 to 20 minutes to bake after the buns have been placed on the oven racks, depending on the baker’s preference, and on the particular oven.

015 — “While we wait I’ll show you how the dough is made,” said Aggie while she passed a recipe out to each of her students.

Recipe

014 — One table spoon of sugar “mixed with warm water. Don’t let the water get too hot or it will kill the yeast”.

016 — 1 table spoon of yeast per batch of 12 buns (“obtained from 1 pound of yeast granules”.)

017 — 2 cups of milk and 1 egg. “Notice how the yeast bubbles when mixed with the sugar and warm water”.

018 — 4 cups flour mixed together with the previous mixture

020 — 2 cups of flour “to put on the board so that the dough won’t stick to it when it is being kneaded”.

023 — “Don’t knead too hard or the texture of the dough will be ‘tough’. You can feel it when it’s right.”

022 — Dough is put on the board and vigorously kneaded, so that it squeeks. (Our expert Zwiebach Baker apologized for saying it, but the best way to describe the sound is a ”pooping sound”).

028 — Our three students now pinched off the Zwiebachs from the dough to prepare two pans ready to go into the oven.

029 — The New Bakers of Zwiebach are given a small bag of dough, that’s left over, and before they are out the door they notice that something has happened to the bag: it is now half as big again as it was before. The conclusion was: the yeast is still producing carbon dioxide gas!

Get in touch

Visit

Hours