Sunday, July 29, 2012

Orange Cranberry Bread


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