How to Top Bread Before Baking

Top a loaf of challa with beaten egg prior to baking.

If you're taking time to bake bread from scratch, you want a result that is a beautiful to look at as it is to taste. Topping bread with a quick brush of liquid or egg will give it a golden, shiny appearance. Each variation of topping will yield a different result, but no matter what you choose, your bread will be picture perfect, fresh from the oven.

Things You'll Need

• Small bowls
• Basting brush
• Fork
• Milk
• Egg
• Salt
• Water
• Cream

Instructions

1. Make 4 batches of bread dough and place each batch in a different pan. Mark each pan with a permanent marker indicating which kind of topping it will receive: EY for egg yolk, EW for egg white, C for cream and M for milk.

2. Separate 1 egg into 2 bowls. Beat the egg yolk and set it aside. Add a dash of salt to the egg white, beat it and set it aside. Brush egg yolk with a basting brush onto the dough in the pan marked EY. Clean the basting brush and brush egg white onto the dough in the pan marked EW.

3. Dip a clean basting brush into the bowl of milk and brush it onto the dough in the pan marked M. Dip a clean brush into the bowl of cream and brush it onto the bread dough in the pan marked C.

4. Bake all 4 batches of bread for exactly the same amount of time and compare the results. The bread topped with egg yolk will probably have a darker, shiner, more orange effect than the others. The cream-topped bread might have a deeper golden color than the bread topped with milk.

Tips & Warnings

• Bake a loaf of bread that isn't topped with anything and compare it to the 4 glazed loaves.

• Experiment with other variations: orange juice, olive oil or mixtures of milk and sugar or cream and salt.

References

• The Fresh Loaf: Glazing