I grew up in St Louis late 1940's and 50's when every neighborhood in
German south St Louis had a bakery, and every bakery made Vienna
Bread, always shaped in the weirdest bread shape I have ever seen,
always topped copiously with poppy seeds. The shape basically
contained 3 parts. Looking at a slice, on the left was a roughly
circular portion around 3" diameter. Sprouting from this circle at
about 1 or 2 o'clock was another circle of dough, a curlicue, never
bigger than 1/2". Under this curlicue there was an eliptical. almost
teardrop shaped portion at least 3" wide and about 2" high. This loaf
was available all over the St Louis area, with the possible exception
of the Italian bakeries on "the Hill," always shaped the same, well
into the 1980's. I have never seen a loaf shaped like this anywhere else.
My earliest memory of bread is of this Vienna bread and of
rectangular hard crusty rolls. Even though the shape didn't fit any
cold cuts naturally, I loved it for sandwiches, for toast, and just
with butter. I have quite a few bread cookbooks, from Elizabeth David
to Beard to Clayton to Reinhart to Beranbaum but none shows this loaf
or anything like it. Somewhere I read that Vienna bread usually
denoted milk used in the recipe. The crust was thin but crisp, the
crumb fairly fine and very tender.
Has anyone ever encountered a similar loaf? Anyone know any history
of it? A recipe would be wonderful. Instructions for getting the
shape would be incredible, although the shape is more a curiosity
than a necessity. The crust did not look like it had been cut/slashed
just prior to baking. It was too smooth and kept the color of the
rest of the loaf. I'm guessing it was pinched, and probably by a tool
made just for that purpose. Could it have been molded?
I hope someone knows what I'm talking about and knows more about it than I.
Thanks.
David