Reutlinger Mutschel

     I've decided that it's finally time for the Mutschel post. What's that you ask? It's a bread, a game, and a whole holiday specific to the city of Reutlingen. On this holiday, everyone gets together to play various simple dice games, in hopes of winning a Mutschel or two. This may sound silly to some, but when I first heard that there was an entire holiday devoted to delicious German bread, I knew it would be right up my ally. Surprisingly, I actually had some luck that day and won 2 Mutschel, one for dinner, and one for breakfast the next day. A standard Mutschel looks like this, an 8-pointed star with a braid around the center.

But if you're a big winner, this is the grand prize:

     These are all professionally made Mutschel from a local bakery. However, they're actually not to hard to make yourself. A few days after our introduction to Mutscheltag, my German professor kindly invited us to her house to learn to bake them. To save time, she had already prepared the dough before our class arrived, but later, we each got to put on our baker hats. As it turned out, my handmade Mutschel was even better than the bakery version. For this recipe, I'm doing my best to translate and convert the measurements from metric, but essentially, it's pretty similar to any bread dough. These quantities make a lot of dough, but you can make the individual Mutschel any size you want.

INGREDIENTS:
8 cups all purpose flour
2 cups milk
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2.5oz yeast
2 egg yolks

DIRECTIONS:
1. Gently warm the milk in a saucepan, just to the same temperature you would want water for a yeast dough. (Nowhere near boiling) Then, stir in the yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.
2. Gradually mix in half of the flour, either by hand or with a dough hook of a mixer. Then, add the soft butter, sugar, salt, and one egg yolk. (The other one is for egg wash later.) Finally, gradually add the rest of the flour and knead well until everything is combined.
3. Transfer the dough ball to a greased bowl, cover it with a cloth, and let it rise for about an hour. While you wait, preheat the oven to 400 and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
4. Now it's assembly time. Working on a floured surface, take a handful of dough (or as much as you want per Mutschel) and gently press it into a circle. Also, grab a smaller bit of dough to make the braid and the decorations later.

5. Now, pinch part of the dough in the center and separate the points of the star. It takes some work to get it to look pretty. The goal is 8 points, but I was happy with the 6 I got. It should look something like this:

6. Traditional Mutschel have a braid of dough around the center and a different ornament on each point. Be creative and make these out of the other little piece of dough.

7. To get the ornaments to stick and to give the whole thing a nice shine, make an egg wash out of the other yolk and a splash of water, and brush it over the Mutschel.

8. Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes, depending on the size. When they're done, they'll look absolutely irresistible!

I know I've been slacking in the recipe department lately, and honestly, it's just because this whole study abroad thing keeps me busy all the time. But rest assured, I haven't stopped cooking and plan to post more in the coming days. Look for a new edition of Tuesdays with Julia this week!