Mosbolletjies Recipe with Marechal Foch Grape Juice

In honor of the opening night of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, I made a bread that has its origins in France and makes use of the French wine grapes that grow in our back yard here in Iowa and are ripening nicely at this time of year.

Mosbolletjies (moss – BALL – uh – keez) is a brioche-style bread featuring the juice of newly-harvested grapes and anise seed. It comes from South Africa but has its roots in France. The Dutch colonizers in South Africa recruited French Huguenots to start the wine industry there and the Huguenots brought this bread with them.

I’m using the juice of Marechal Foch grapes that were planted by the previous owner of our house back in the 1970s. The flavor of Marechal Foch grape juice has strong hints of cherries. The variety was developed as a wine grape in the early 1900s in France and is hearty in cold regions. It’s a common grape in the Upper Midwest and Canada.

This bread is traditionally made with butter, but I do sometimes like to substitute olive oil because it is lighter and more heart-healthy.

Ingredients:

• 540 grams (4 ½ cups) Bread Flour
• 66 grams (⅓ cup) Sugar
• 28 grams (4 tbsp.) Dry Milk Powder
• 4 tsp. (2 packets) Active Dry Yeast
• 2 tsp. Sea Salt
• 3 tbsp. Anise Seeds
• 1 large Egg
• 7 tbsp. (3.5 oz.) Unsalted Butter, melted. Olive Oil can be substituted.
• 1 ¼ cups Grape Juice
• 1 Tbsp. Unsalted Butter for brushing, melted

Simple Syrup:

• 1 tbsp. Sugar
• 1 tbsp. Water

Directions:

Step 1: Combine flour, sugar, milk powder, yeast, salt and anise seeds. Mix in egg, melted butter and grape juice to form a dough and knead for 8-10 minutes. Set aside in an oiled bowl and cover. Let rise until about doubled in size.

This is a dense dough and it’s a good idea to let this proof in a slightly warm oven. I like to turn the oven on for one minute and turn it off. That warms it up just enough.

Step 2: Weigh out eight equal-sized portions of dough and form them into balls. Arrange them in an 8½” x 4½” standard-sized bread loaf pan that has been coated with a little oil or non-stick cooking spray. Place the dough balls in the pan two deep and four across and let rise until they come up to the top of the pan.

Step 3: Preheat the oven to 350°F. and bake for 45 minutes, tenting the bread with aluminum foil half-way through the baking time and rotating the pan. This prevents the bread from browning too much.

Step 4: Brush the baked bread with melted butter while still warm in the pan and let cool before removing. When cooled, brush the bread with simple syrup.