I got an email yesterday from Doug Thornton. Doug is the president of the Arkansas Dutch Oven Society and an avid follower of yours truly (I'm blushing). It seems that the ArkDOS is having a recipe contest on their website. May was desserts, June is main dish, July is yeast bread and August is quick breads. Can you guess who gets to pick the winner of the desserts contest? Yep...ME!! I'm really honored that he would think of me. Thanks Doug!! They have a great website! It looks like they are a really active group of DO cooks. If you need some new recipes then check the forums section. It sounds like more yummy recipes will be coming over the summer. You can bet I'll be checking back often to see what is posted for their contests! The site is arkdos.org. In my neck of the woods, we have a gourmet bread store called Great Harvest Bread Co. They have fabulous breads of every variety you could ever want. The one I really love is called Cinnamon Burst Bread. I found this knock off version here.
Cinnamon Burst Bread
10" dutch oven
3 T. yeast
1/2 cup sugar
4 eggs, beaten lightly
3 3/4 cup warm water
4 1/2 tsp. salt
3 T. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups cinnamon bites (Hershey's makes these. They are near the chocolate chips in the store)
11-12 cups flour (I made mine with half wheat flour)
Combine in mixing bowl 4 cups flour, yeast, and sugar. Add water, eggs, and oil. Beat well to “cake batter” stage. Stir in salt, cinnamon bites, and 7 more cups flour to make bread-dough consistency. Let mixer knead it to the right texture (add up to 1 more cup flour if needed). Place dough in greased bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour. Shape dough into 4 loaves and place each one in a 10" dutch oven. Let rise for another hour or until doubled. Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Use 1 ring on top and 1 ring on the bottom or 16 coals on top and 7 on the bottom. Makes 4 loaves.
The Finished Product
I burned the top crust, ARGH!
The bottom cooked perfectly and inside it was soft and beautiful!
What I Learned
I really haven't made many loaves of bread. Last time I put the equivalent of 2 loaves in a 12" dutch oven it took over an hour to cook. This time, even though I burned the top, a 10" oven was just the right size for 1 loaf. I'm going to have to try 2 loaves in a 14" oven and see how that works. It looks like some experimentation is in my future to figure out how much dough will cook properly in what size dutch oven.
The Review
This is pretty close to Great Harvest's bread. It was soft and delicious. I also love the color the cinnamon chips make the dough. And let me tell you, it is sooo good. My hubby was skeptical, but he ended up eating almost an entire loaf. If you can save some until the next day, it makes awesome french toast for breakfast. I did burn the top (dang it!), but that is easily fixed with less top heat (I've already adjusted the recipe so you should be fine). We just cut off the top crust and it was yummy. Grade A.
I thought it looked a bit dark for just cinnamon:) I burnt my last cooking also; like yours it tasted fine with the crust cut off. Cinnamon bites are a new product for me. We do have a store that sells American Candy but it has limited varieties I will check it out next time I go past it.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with the bread! Managing the heat is only one of the issues that bread brings. There are so many places where you can screw up! :-) Fortunately, that also means lots of things that you can vary once you get the hang of it!
ReplyDeleteAnd congrats on being asked to judge the contest!
What store? I did not find them at WINCO?
ReplyDeleteDavid--
ReplyDeleteI got mine at an Associated Foods store. I've also seen them Kroger. They are also avaliabe online. I Googled cinnamon chips and came up with several sites to order them from. They will be more expensive though.