How to make a decoration for a loaf. How to bake a wedding loaf: recipes, decorations

No wedding is complete without a traditional loaf, because it is considered an integral part of the wedding ceremony. It is considered a symbol of love and prosperity. Baking this bread took place as a ritual, which had its own requirements and rules. At the same time, a lot of time is devoted not only to preparing the dough, but also to decorating it.

What kind of decoration for a wedding loaf is used to make it lush, original and beautiful.

Previously, cooking loaf was only allowed to married women who were happily married. Divorced and childless girls were not allowed to bake, as their unhappy fate could affect the life of the bride and groom together.

See photo.

Previously, the official day for preparing a loaf was Saturday. On this day, women prepared everything they needed for baking, and also performed special rituals. But now weddings can take place on any day, so this tradition of baking bread on weekends has practically become obsolete.

What products are included in the recipe:

  • 10 cups flour
  • 25 grams of dry yeast
  • 100 grams of butter
  • half a glass of milk
  • 10 eggs
  • tablespoon salt
  • 8 spoons of sugar
  • raisin
  • nuts

According to superstition, it is believed that the larger the loaf, the happier the couple’s marriage will be. Therefore, whenever possible, it was prepared in large sizes.

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It is recommended to bake a loaf in a great mood, and always with great warmth and love. Bread made with your own hands is considered a symbol of the beginning of a new family.

How to knead the dough. Dissolve yeast in warm milk, add sugar and mix thoroughly. Sift the flour through a sieve and add to the milk and yeast. The consistency should resemble pancake batter. Sprinkle some flour on top, cover with something, and place in a warm place, let it sit for a couple of hours.

Once the dough rises, you need to do the following.

  1. Separate the yolks from the whites; one yolk can be left for greasing the baked goods.
  2. Grind the egg yolks with sugar and add to your dough.
  3. Next, the whites are beaten and the butter is dissolved.
  4. Take half a glass of flour, make a mound and a hole inside.
  5. Pour in a little dough and start kneading the dough.
  6. Gradually add the egg whites and beaten yolks and mix it all well until the dough begins to stick to your hands.
  7. Leave the resulting dough in a warm place for two hours.

You will get about two kilograms of dough. Leave 600 grams for decoration. Form a ball from the remaining mixture. While the oven is heating up, you make decorations for the loaf. When everything is ready, take a baking sheet, cover with baking paper, put in the bread, grease with yolk, and set off to cook. Baking time is about one and a half hours.

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If you doubt your abilities, you can always get a master class from experienced women who know how to prepare it.

Traditions associated with holiday bread

how to decorate a wedding loaf 2
According to tradition, for a wedding loaf it was necessary to bring water from seven wells and get flour from seven bags. This was a guarantee that the newlyweds’ lives would be successful. For more information about the traditions associated with the loaf, follow the link.

A woman who was absolutely happily married, had healthy children and a prosperous husband had to do the baking. In the modern world of weddings, the requirements for ritual bread are much lower, the main thing is that it is beautiful and tasty.

While preparing the loaf, a special prayer was read. In addition, no one had the right to interfere in the cooking process - it was prepared exclusively by one woman. The intervention of someone else promised an unsuccessful marriage. The more magnificent and tastier the baked goods turned out, the more successful the marriage this meant.

The bread should be handed over before the start of the feast; this should be done by the parents of the young people. Ideally, the mother of the groom. The newlyweds should thank their parents and try the loaf. In the old days, the product was kissed three times, but now this tradition is gone. Whether or not to observe all the canons of this amazing ritual is up to each couple to decide for themselves. In any case, the wedding loaf remains an invariable companion to almost every wedding.

Interesting!

Tradition and modernity

The long history of the loaf began in Ancient Rus'. Baking a loaf for a wedding is an old tradition; they also baked a loaf for matchmaking. The wedding loaf was a symbol of the birth of a new family. After the ceremony, the groom's parents greet the newlyweds, saying parting words and a loaf of bread, from which they necessarily break off or bite off a piece, dipping the bread in salt. What to do with the loaf after the wedding? The rest of the loaf is cut into pieces and distributed to the guests by the groom's relatives, as well as other baked goods - wedding cones. It is believed that during this ritual the bride and groom convey a piece of their happiness and love to the guest. And for luck to smile, according to legend, a tasty pine cone must be eaten before the end of the wedding.

Design options


how to decorate a wedding loaf 3There are a great many options for how to decorate a wedding loaf - these include traditional decorations, symbols that came to us from our great-grandmothers and modern unusual patterns. Depending on how you feel about this wedding attribute, its design can be of two types - classic and modern.

Traditional

The loaf carries a special, rather deep meaning; it is not just a treat, it is a symbol of a happy family life. That is why each of its elements must be thought out. Decorating a wedding loaf in the traditional way implies that every detail carries a certain meaning, a wish for the newlyweds.

  • The center is a salt shaker. Salt protects against evil spirits. In addition, previously, eating food with salt together meant the creation of an unbreakable union; this served as a kind of promise of fidelity.
  • A braid is placed in a circle around the salt shaker - a symbol of a long family life. It can also be placed around the perimeter of the loaf. It is also believed that the braid implies a strong bond that cannot be broken.
  • Wheat ears - fertility, many children.
  • Flowers, leaves - material wealth.
  • Roses are feminine beauty.
  • Bunches of viburnum or a pair of swans - marital fidelity, great, pure love.
  • Doves symbolize the bride and groom.

All decorations are made from dough. You can use the same dough as to create the bread itself. However, more pliable decorative elements are obtained from unleavened and shortbread dough.

It is worth considering that cutting out elements is not easy. That is why the work must be done by a real master. It is very difficult to make a detailed decoration of a wedding loaf at home, being a beginner, the first time.

Wedding loaf made of grated dough with poppy seed filling

Nowadays it is customary to serve a multi-tiered wedding cake decorated with a variety of decorative elements at a wedding celebration. Previously, at weddings, people were always treated to a wedding loaf. We offer a recipe for a wedding loaf with a poppy-honey layer, which is described step by step below. After all, the poppy symbolizes prosperity, and honey symbolizes a sweet married life.

Number of servings: 12.

Cooking time: 240 minutes.

Calorie content: 307 kcal per 100 g.

Ingredients:

  • 0.5 liters of baked milk;
  • 8 tbsp. sugar (including 2 tbsp for the filling);
  • 8 tbsp. butter (including 2 tbsp for filling);
  • 2 tbsp. natural honey;
  • 100 gr. poppy;
  • 0.5 tsp salts;
  • 30 gr. fresh yeast;
  • 6 tbsp. flour.

Cooking process:

  1. Let's start right away with the most labor-intensive process - kneading yeast dough. Heat the milk a little to 40 degrees, dissolve the yeast in it.
  2. Add salt, granulated sugar (6 tablespoons) and mix. Sift 3 tbsp. white flour, stir well, place the dough to rise in a warm place. It should increase 2 times.
  3. In the meantime, let's start preparing the poppy seed filling. We wash the dry poppy seeds with cold water, pour boiling water over them, cover with a lid, and leave to steam for 20 minutes.
  4. If the dough has risen well, add another 2 tbsp. sifted flour, add 2 tbsp. soft melted butter. Mix all ingredients thoroughly with your hands. Place the dough back in the warm place to rise.
  5. Let's return to the poppy seed filling. Drain excess water from poppy seeds. Dissolve honey and butter (2 tbsp) in a frying pan. Place steamed poppy seeds into the hot mixture. Add 2 tbsp. sugar, mix everything thoroughly. As soon as signs of boiling appear, cook the poppy seeds for 7-8 minutes. Cool the filling completely.
  6. Place 2 tbsp into the risen dough. a little softened melted butter, we begin to rub and beat it into the dough (hence the name of the dough “grated”). After the procedure, put the dough back in a warm place without drafts.
  7. When the dough rises for the third time, knead it again and rub in 2 tbsp. melted butter. Also add 1 tbsp. sifted flour, knead well.
  8. Dust the finished dough ball with flour and melt for another half hour.
  9. We crush the bun, divide it into 4 parts so that one is slightly smaller than the other. We use 3 large parts for 3 layers of loaf, and 4 will be used for making decorative elements.
  10. Take most of the dough and roll it out into a round cake. Transfer to an oiled baking sheet. Place a little more than half of the cooled poppy seeds on top, not reaching the edge 1.5-2 cm.
  11. Take and roll out the next part of the dough into a layer of slightly smaller diameter. Cover the filling with it, pinching the edges.
  12. Place the rest of the filling on top, again not reaching the edge 1.5-2 cm.
  13. We roll out the third layer, accordingly reducing the diameter a little, cover the second layer of poppy seed filling, and pinch the edges in a circle.
  14. From the remaining portion of dough we make 2 braids, with which we cover the seams between the layers. We also cut out and place two hearts and flowers on top.
  15. Decorative elements also carry a special meaning. Thus, the interlacing of braids symbolizes friendship and mutual trust between spouses, and hearts and doves symbolize fidelity and love.
  16. Mix the egg yolk with a spoonful of milk, a pinch of sugar, and generously grease the surface of the loaf.
  17. Heat the oven to 180 degrees, bake the loaf for an hour.
  18. We place the completely cooled loaf on a towel in front of the young people near the icon.

There is a long-standing folk tradition of breaking a poppy loaf with your hands right above the heads of the young people. Then they looked at the amount of poppy spilled out. The more there was, the better the harvest was supposed to be next year. This means that the young family will live in satiety and prosperity. Bon appetit and happy family life!

Video:

Fortune Teller

Since ancient times, a wedding loaf has been surrounded by many signs. Here are some of them. If the loaf is burnt, the husband will be grumpy in marriage. If it is cracked, then family life will not work out. If the bread turns out fluffy, smooth, and rosy, family life will be sweet and successful. Tamara Solntseva

Modern

You can decorate a loaf in another way, especially if you don’t put any special meaning into it. It turns out an interesting design for a wedding loaf if the following is used as decoration:

  • wedding rings;
  • swans;
  • flowers;
  • initials of the newlyweds;
  • funny figures of people, birds, animals, etc.

In the modern version of the loaf design, decorations can be made from mastic or any other confectionery decoration element. You can also safely use various confectionery decorations - beads, glitter, fresh flowers, inedible figures, etc. The decoration of the wedding loaf in the photo below is a good example.


how to decorate a wedding loaf 5There are no restrictions in decor - only what your imagination suggests. This can be a product completely strewn with flowers (by the way, many confectioners use fresh flowers as a decorative element) or complemented with humorous figures of the bride and groom.

A loaf in a modern style can be made using food coloring and be of any color, shape or design. However, it is still preferable not to stray far from the usual appearance of baked goods.

Interesting! In the modern wedding world, there is a ritual - whoever takes the most bite from the loaf (bride or groom) will be the head of the house.

Wedding loaf with honey

Ingredients: one kilogram, two hundred grams of flour, four hundred grams of butter, one hundred grams of yeast, four tablespoons of honey, one hundred and fifty grams of sugar, five eggs, one spoon of salt, five hundred grams of milk, vanilla. For greasing: one egg, one spoon of butter, one spoon of milk.

Before baking the wedding loaf, you need to knead the dough. Knead it until it comes off your hands. Then he is left for six hours to approach. Then the dough is kneaded and beaten well for five minutes, and then left again for an hour. After time, the dough is divided into four parts. One part is further divided in two and sausages are formed from them, which are twisted into a rope. The tourniquet is wrapped in a ring and laid out on a baking sheet, where parchment is first placed. The loaf itself is placed in the center, greased with yolk diluted with milk and sugar, and left for a while. In the meantime, they are starting to prepare the decorations.

Interesting video: how to make decor with your own hands

You can make decorations for a wedding loaf with your own hands, but it is a labor-intensive and time-consuming process. You should approach it without haste, otherwise, instead of a neat, beautiful pie, you will get incomprehensible pastries, which are unlikely to become a worthy decoration for the holiday.

Finding design options online and various master classes will not be difficult. A good example of decorating a wedding loaf with your own hands is in the video below.

It should be noted that the entire decoration of the wedding loaf in the video is made of dough. Let's look at how to decorate a wedding loaf step by step in the list below.

  1. Place the braid in the shape of a circle in the center - a place for the salt shaker. It should not be too bulky or take up a lot of space. You can also place the braid along the contour of the entire composition.
  2. Place the spikelets around the entire perimeter - the sequence can be any, it is not necessary to lay them out in a strict geometric order. They can be located on the sides of the loaf or in the central part.
  3. Make several roses and secure them around the perimeter of the braid (the place for the salt shaker). 3-5 flowers will be enough. If you wish, you can add color - make roses using dye.
  4. Attach leaves to the stems of the spikelets. 1-2 pieces for each element. Decorating the loaf must be done immediately, and not after it is ready (this does not include elements made from mastic or similar confectionery elements).

Remember, there shouldn't be too much detail. Do them as carefully as possible. Watch the video again on how to decorate a wedding loaf correctly: in the video above, the pastry chef did not use many different elements, but the design still turned out interesting. You can also add color or confectionery beads if desired.

You can give decorative details a different shade without resorting to artificial dyes. You can tint them with cocoa, beet juice, brown sugar and other natural dyes.

Interesting! An important element from the point of view of traditions is the towel for the loaf. Read this article on how to do it.

Wedding loaf with poppy seeds

Ingredients: five hundred grams of baked milk, eight tablespoons of melted butter, eight tablespoons of sugar, two spoons of honey, one hundred grams of poppy seeds, half a spoon of salt, six glasses of flour, thirty grams of yeast.

To prepare a wedding loaf, the recipe for which is provided below, you need to dilute the yeast in milk, adding salt and sugar. Then add three glasses of flour and knead the dough, then leave it for a while until it doubles in size. Add two cups of flour and melted butter to the dough and mix well, then put it back in a warm place so that the dough rises. After time, add two tablespoons of ghee to the dough, beat well and let it rise again. Then it is thoroughly kneaded, transferred to a table sprinkled with flour, two tablespoons of butter and one glass of flour are added again, and kneaded well. The finished dough is set aside for half an hour.

Summary

There is no clear formula for everyone on how to properly decorate a wedding loaf. Approach its decoration with meaning. First of all, it symbolizes a happy family life, prosperity, and love. If you are not a supporter of traditions, you can combine two decoration options - traditional and modern. For example, by using classic decorative elements made of mastic or in color.

Andrey Andreev

Wedding planner and wedding photography guru

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Dough for decorating loaf

You can set aside some of the material from which we will bake our wedding cake. Based on the fact that the loaf must certainly be large (each participant in the celebration is entitled to at least a small piece), at least six hundred grams of dough will be needed to decorate the product. But a caveat must be made here. If we decorate our loaf before putting it in the oven, the butter dough will spread and mix with the base during baking. Because of this, decorative details will be barely visible. Therefore, for decoration they use unleavened dough, like for dumplings and dumplings, or shortbread dough. In this case, the decorative details will be more prominent, convex and retain clear outlines. Modern technologies allow us to paint jewelry in different colors. But our ancestors used burnt sugar, egg whites, buckwheat and rye flour for these purposes.

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