Basler Brot (german: Bread of Basel), in Basel also Basler Laibli, is a

bread Bread is a staple food prepared from a dough of flour (usually wheat) and water, usually by baking. Throughout recorded history and around the world, it has been an important part of many cultures' diet. It is one of the oldest human-made f ...

traditionally made in the

Swiss cantons The 26 cantons of Switzerland (german: Kanton; french: canton ; it, cantone; Sursilvan and Surmiran: ; Vallader and Puter: ; Sutsilvan: ; Rumantsch Grischun: ) are the member states of the Swiss Confederation. The nucleus of the Swiss Confe ...

Basel-Stadt Basel-Stadt or Basel-City (german: Kanton ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Citad; french: Canton de Bâle-Ville; it, Canton Basilea Città) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as t ...

and Basel-Landschaft, but now popular in all of Switzerland. It is distinguished from other Swiss breads by a very soft, porous dough and a mealy, crunchy crust. The age of the recipe is uncertain. The ''Basler Brot'' was first described in a bakers' journal in 1944. After a marketing campaign by the Swiss Bakers Association in the 1950s, it was made available in all Swiss bakeries.

Production

Production of the ''Basler Brot'' begins the day before baking with the production of the ''Hebel'', a

mother dough A ferment (also known as bread starter) is a fermentation starter used in ''indirect'' methods of bread making. It may also be called mother dough. A ferment and a longer fermentation in the bread-making process have several benefits: there is ...

that is left to ripen overnight, producing the bread's characteristic aroma. It is then mixed with plain flour, salt, yeast and water to produce a dough with a very high

hydration Hydration may refer to: * Hydrate, a substance that contains water * Hydration enthalpy, energy released through hydrating a substance * Hydration reaction, a chemical addition reaction where a hydroxyl group and proton are added to a compound * ...

(over 80%), making the bread very soft. After a light kneading, the dough is formed into rough pieces, which are weighed and laid on flour-dusted wooden bards for half an hour. They are only lightly rolled into an oval shape, which allows for the dough's large pores to form, and then baked for at least half an hour at up to Usually, two loaves are baked attached point to point, and steam is used to prevent a premature hardening of the crust, which should – unlike the loaf pictured above – not crack during baking.

Significance

Distributed nationally through the retailers

Migros Migros () is Switzerland's largest retail company, its largest supermarket chain and largest employer. It is also one of the forty largest retailers in the world. It is structured in the form of a cooperative federation (the Federation of Mig ...

and Coop, ''Basler Brot'' is eaten in all of Switzerland as an everyday food. It is also sold in the area near Basel in Alsace (France) and Lörrach (Germany)

References

Bibliography

* Koellreuter, Isabel und Nathalie Unternährer, Brot und Stadt. Bäckerhandwerk und Brotkonsum in Basel vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart, Schwabe AG, Basel, 2006. * Müller, Gustav, Das Brot im Baselbieter Volksleben, Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, Basel, 1939. * Kantonsbrote, Fachschule Richemont Luzern, Luzern, 1985. * Meier, Eugen A., Das süsse Basel, Buchverlag Basler Zeitung, Basel, 1996.

Production

Significance

References

Bibliography

See also