Danish Breakfast Dark Bread

I am used to eating dark bread growing up in Norway. Of course I like good French "tradition" baguette made with levain too now that I live in Paris, but sometimes I miss good dark Danish bread, which is a healthier and more filling version.

In Paris I haven't found good dark bread, only light and airy even though the colour is dark, which is not the same. So the best thing is to make my own. You'll need dark flour, sourdough (gives better taste and texture), little fresh yeast, salt, water and grains or seeds for topping.

Recipe (16 small, or 10 bigger squares)
200 gr T150 - coarse dark flour / wholemeal
250 gr T110 - dark wholemeal
50 gr T80 - regular flour
Basically 500 gr organic bread wholemeal flour, the darker the better
7gr-10gr salt
100g levain sourdough - optional, but levain gives better taste and texture

5gr fresh yeast or 1/3tsp dry yeast - optional if you use sourdough
350gr cold water

100g-150g pumpkin or other seeds

Rising: 8hrs or longer at room temp overnight

Kneading time: 8min. No kneading also possible, but it will taste a bit denier

Baking Steel or pizza stone preheated at 250c 

Baking time: 8-10min for small (12 min for bigger squares)

bread basket full of fibres

different flour types found in Naturalia (a small organic grocery chain in France)

moist thanks to kneading and sourdough

squares ready for rising 2nd time (45-60 min) 

brush with water and add toppings

divide in smaller units

fold over once

press into a rectangle

dough fermented overnight at room temperature

after kneading, cover with kitchen towel and let rise overnight

seeds and grains I used as toppings

Steamed buns with meat filling

Known throughout Southeast Asia, the banh bao (or baozi/pao in Chinese), a fluffy soft steamed bun with a sweet or savoury filling, is eaten as snack all day long in Vietnam. In China it's more common to eat it at breakfast and the dough is much sweeter. In Vietnam the filling often consists of ground pork, fish sauce, onion, water chestnut, woodear mushroom, a piece of hard boiled egg and a slice of Chinese sausage. In Hong Kong it's often filled with barbecue pork and the size is much smaller, whereas the Vietnamese version is bigger due to a bigger filling size.

My French husband loves the Hong Kong version of baozi for its sweet barbecue pork filling and the sweet dough. I prefer the Vietnamese version as I am not too crazy about the sweet Chinese barbecue pork. But my favourite bun is sweet bun with black sesame seeds filling from Din Tai Fung in KL & Singapore. Oh My God! 

It's common to use the low gluten wheat flour (blanched), but in Norway we could not find this flour, so my mom uses regular flour (all-purpose), fresh yeast and water, but it doesn't give you that very white "bleached" colour associated with the bao dough. Some recipes call for a mixture of regular wheat flour and rice flour (maybe for the colour?). Other recipes call for self-raising flour, milk (or milk powder).

My bao dough recipe:

Yeast solution - 5min
20gr fresh yeast (or 7 gr dry yeats) - fresh yeast gives best result
2 tbl spoons warm water (b/w 38-45 c degrees)
1 tbl spoon sugar (15gr)

Dough mix
500gr flour (since I live in France I use organic T65)
2,5 dl luke warm milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
60 gr sugar  
1 tbl spoon veg oil

Baking powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tbl psoon COLD water

Method
1. Make yeast solution by mixing water, sugar and together with a spoon and let rest 5 min in a warm place (or until bubbly)
2. Mix dough - dry ingredients only (except baking powder solution)
3. Add yeast solution to the luke warm milk
4. Add liquid and oil to the dough
5. Mix/knead low speed 5 min
5. Let dough rest 40 min in the mixing bowl covered with a kitchen towel
6. After 40 min, mix 30-60 sec to punch out air
7. Mix baking powder with COLD water until dissolved
8. Add the baking powder solution to the dough and mix/knead 5 min
9. Cover and let rise 30 min
10. Take out dough and roll a log
11. Divide in pieces; 75gr for big bao, 60 gr for medium size, 40gr for sweet bao
12. Add your favourite filling and fold (many youtube videos on how to fold - here is one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U56lTym-Xs
13. Place upside down on a steamer and steam for 10 min (or longer for thicker and bigger bao)  

bao dough

bao with nutella (hey I live in Paris, they love nutella in this country)

Add caption

Thermomix steamer function is great

bao skin

dip with soy, &vinegar