Day 179: Raspberry Twist Bread

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Tuesday is my favorite day of the week right now since it is my hubby's only day off.  It is the day we ride horses or go fishing or go to the movies.  I think today is the day to head up to a cool mountain lake , get away from the heat and drown worms!  I'm worse than most men I know, I could fish all day, every day.  But enough of that. 

Today I'm posting the bread I made at the cook off on Saturday.  I found this one in an online recipe book from the Lehi Round up back in 2007.  I chose this bread because it is really easy for a yeast bread but it looks complicated.  It was Omar Alvarez and Dian Mayfield's recipe.

Raspberry Twist Bread
12" dutch oven

2 1/2 to 3 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbs. active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
2 Tbs. melted butter
1 lg egg
1 cup raspberry preserves

Topping

1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 Tbs. brown sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 Tbs. butter, softened (not melted)
2 Tbs. milk
1 egg yolk

Combine milk and 2 Tbs. butter in small oven, heat to 115-120 degrees.
In a large bowl combine 1/2 cup flour, sugar, salt. Slowly mix in milk mixture, and beat well
until smooth.  Add egg and 1 cup flour and beat until you get a smooth batter.  Mix in enough of the rest of the flour to make a soft dough, in half cup increments.  On a lightly floured board, knead until smooth - (about 10 minutes)  Put into a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).

Punch down dough and divide in half.  Roll out first half to fit the bottom of the 12 in pot.  Place dough into oven and brush with the melted butter.  Place dough into oven and brush with the melted butter.  Coat with raspberry preserves.

Roll out second half of dough to cover first, place over preserves.Press a small condiment cup lightly into center of dough to mark a 2 inch circle.  Remove the cup and slice thru both layers of dough from the mark to the edge of the pot in 16 increments (easier if you cut into quarters and then split quarters).  Twist each section 3-4 times and tuck back down.  Cover and let rise 30 minutes.

Topping:

In a small bowl combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Cut in butter until crumbly.
In another bowl, mix milk and egg yoke, mix with fork
Once bread has risen, brush top with egg mixture and sprinkle with dry topping.
Cook for 30-45 minutes, until top is golden brown. Use 16 coals on top and 10 on the bottom.  If after 30 minutes the top still needs more time, remove the bottom coals to prevent burning.

The Finished Product

The Review

This was really good, despite the problems I had with it.  I forgot to oil the pot so the raspberry preserves made the bread stick to the pan, and when I was making the topping I accidentally dropped my butter in the dirt, so I couldn't mix it into the brown sugar mixture.  Other than that, the bread was soft and delicious.  I'm going to make this again since my kids went crazy for it.  Its a fun breakfast bread.  I'm thinking it would be fun on a holiday morning.  You could even sprinkle some fresh blueberries over the raspberry preserves and put a powdered sugar glaze with a little lemon juice or lemon zest on top and have a red, white and blue 4th of July bread.  I think I'll post that variation soon and let you know how it works.  Grade A.