Since the last bread recipe I tired turned out so delicious,
Whole Wheat Bread, I thought this
would be a great recipe to experiment with. And experiment I did!
The first idea I wanted to try was combining oranges and
cranberries. What goes together better? Maybe peanut butter and banana, but
that is a whole other conversation.
This bread turned out wonderful, very moist and flavorful. The
crumb was very tight and compact making for a dense texture. The orange zest
was the perfect strength. Sometimes orange can be over powering, but this
blended perfectly with the sweet cranberries.
The cranberries were not distributed very evenly because I
kneaded them in by hand. I’ll have to figure out a better way to incorporate
them next time. Also, the bread wasn’t as good the next day. It was so
flavorful and moist fresh from the over, but that seemed to fade as the days
went on. It fared well in the toaster though.
Overall, I think this bread was a success! What do you
think?
Orange Cranberry Bread
Inspired by Whole Wheat Bread from Bread Made Easy by Beth Hensperger
Ingredients
2 cups warm water
1 package active dry yeast
½ cup and a pinch of sugar
¼ cup apple sauce
1 tablespoon salt
½ cup potato flakes
½ cup dry milk
½ teaspoon all spice
Zest of 1 large orange
4-6 cups of all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups craisins
Directions
In a bowl, pour the yeast and a pinch of sugar. Add ½ cup
warm water and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10 minutes or until yeast is
foamy.
In the bowl of a stand mixer add the remaining sugar,
applesauce, salt, potato flakes, dry milk, all spice, and zest and mix
thoroughly.
Add the remaining water and 1 ½ cups flour and mix until all
the flour has been incorporated.
Add the yeast mixture to the bowl and mix thoroughly.
Begin adding the flour ½ cup at a time. Make sure each ½ cup
is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next ½ cup.
Continue to add flour until the dough is shaggy and pulling
away from the sides of the bowl. Knead in the mixer using the dough hook for
3-5 minutes.
Remove the dough from the bowl and knead by hand for 1-3
minutes to make sure the dough is smooth.
Place dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and
let rise until double in size, about 1 ½ hours.
When the dough is finished rising, remove it from the bowl
and divide into two. Place each section into a greased 8X4 loaf pan, cover with
plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise until the dough is about 1 inch above
the rim of the pan.
Bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes.
No comments:
Post a Comment