Bread Baking Day BBD#06

When moving to Sydney a bit more than two years ago, I knew right from the start that I would have to learn how to make decent bread. After two previous visits down under, it was pretty clear that I couldn't survive on pillowy, white toast alone. Little did I know back then what a wonderful journey in the land of the bread lay ahead of me. Although I bake regularly, I'm still far from mastering this art and there is so much more for me to learn about the combination of such humble ingredients like flour, water, yeast, and salt.

I'm always eager to check out what fellow bakers are doing to turn out wonderful, crusty loaves - and one of my valuable ressources in this matter is Zorra's lovely blog 1x umrühren bitte. Zorra also created the monthly event Bread Baking Day - and I have the honour of hosting the February edition BBD#06!

We've had herbs, spices, and fruit - this time, it's all about the shape. I invite you to share your favourite recipes for all sorts of shaped breads - be it something traditional like a braided challah or a pretzel or something a little unusual like a cut-out sun, letters made out of bread dough or whatever you can think of. Although I'm most interested in hand-shaped bread, you can also use a fancy mold.
The only requirement is that you don't choose a normal loaf shape like batard, boule or baguette. However, round bread rolls count as well as long as they have something unusual like a decorative slashing pattern.

Please post about your recipe and your experiences with shaping between now and 1 February 2008. Make sure to send me an email (eva.schatz at gmail.com) until 1 Feb 08 including the name of your blog, your location, the name of your creation, and a perma link of your post. If you have a photo of your creation, please attach a small version, about 100 pixels in width.
I will be posting the round-up by 5 February 2008.

PS: Due to my Christmas trip I couldn't participate in BBD#05 with its theme of filled breads. However, I did make a filled bread in the kitchen of a New Zealand backpackers accommodation without scales, measuring cups, and modern mixing tools. Luckily, I managed not to botch our only edible Christmas item, so we were able to feast on quark stollen with almond-walnut-marzipan filling during our holiday.
Please check out all the sweet and savoury creations in Chelsea's BBD#05 round-up at Rolling in Dough!