Honey Curry Bread 蜂蜜カレーパン

This another one of my wife’s baking projects. Recently, she re-discovered an old cookbook called “Silver Palate Good times Cookbook” which she has had for some time. (It was published in 1984).* (Back in the day, as a joke, I used to call it the “Lead Palate Cookbook”).” As she was going through the pages she came across a recipe for “Honey Curry Bread”. The combination of honey and curry powder in bread piqued her interest. This is a nice bread with honey and curry flavors coming through. The original recipe called for the dough to be braided and then made into a boule-shape. This was a bit complicated and simply done for presentation so just making it into loaves will work just fine in the future.

*She recently started revisiting the old cook books that have been resting on the shelf untouched for some time in response to an expression her friend used to say that recently came back to mind. Her friend used to say, “If you want a different outfit but don’t have the time to go to the store shop your closet”. My wife converted this to the saying, “If you want to cook something new, shop your old cookbooks.” This is because your cooking style may have changed over time and recipes that didn’t interest you in the past may be of interest in the present. This cookbook was a case-in-point.

Ingredients
1/2 cup warm water (105-115°F)
3 packs active dry yeast
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup honey
2 Tbsp curry powder
2 cups buttermilk
2 tsp salt
6–7 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Directions:
Melt the butter in a saucepan, stir in the curry powder, and cook for 1 minute. (This essentially blooms the curry powder flavors). Remove from heat and stir in the honey. Let it cool a bit then add the honey/curry mixture to the buttermilk. Meanwhile bloom the yeast. Put  3 cups of the flour and the salt in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the yeast and the cooled buttermilk mixture to the flour. Stir while adding additional flour until a soft dough forms. Knead the dough for 7 to 10 minutes until smooth. Place in a buttered bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch dough down, divide, into 3 ropes of 1 inch diameter (#1). Braid the ropes (#2). Wrap the braids around themselves to form a bole (#3). (Or skip the braiding and just form into a loaf). Let rise again. The recipe calls for it to be baked at 375°F for about 30–40 minutes until golden brown, but as you can see in the picture it came out a bit high done (#4) so 350 may be better in the future.

This bread was very different from the bread we usually make but was extremely satisfying. The combination of curry spices with the honey gave it a complex savory but slightly sweet flavor that made a very interesting contrast. It tasted great toasted and slathered with butter.