Nut Filled Braid

image

Turn your kitchen into a European Bakery. This ‘bread’ would traditionally be served as a snack with coffee, but of course you could have it for breakfast as well. I have also experimented with slicing and freezing parts of this for later, in convenient portion sizes, just defrost in the microwave and voilà! instant homemade treat to the envy of your surprise guests. Or of course just that afternoon coffee snack for yourself 🙂 Looks pretty AND tastes great!

imageDough rolled out ‘rectangular’, with filling. And roll it up…

imagecut with a sharp knife…

image... twist and set into your prepared cake pan

imageApples and Nuts and just a little sugar turn this bread into a breakfast anytime treat!

Ingredients

    • 2 1/2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 2 tbsp coconut sugar, sucanat or sugar
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 1/2 stick butter
    • 1 egg
    • 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
    • 1 1/2 cups ground nuts ( I usually use almonds or hazelnuts)
    • 3 tbsp sucanat or sugar
    • 1 md apple (if using the bagged kind, usually they are smaller, use two)
    • 2 tbsp lemon juice
    • 4-6 tbsp milk or cream

Directions

    1. To make the dough: In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup flour, sugar, yeast and milk, stir until smooth. Let rest 2 hours in a warm spot until bubbly.
    2. Gently melt the butter, set aside to cool. Add remaining flour, egg, salt and cooled butter to large bowl. Stir from the middle, incorporating more and more flour, then knead the dough until smooth and elastic.
    3. Cover and place in a warm spot until doubled in size (You can also do this stage in the refrigerator overnight, it will take significantly longer for the dough to double in size)
    4. For the filing, grate the apple and add to a bowl with the ground nuts, sugar, milk or cream and lemon juice. Mix with a fork until uniformly moist (it should not be liquid)
    5. Roll out the dough into a 1/8″ thick rectangle, spread the filing on top, stopping 1″ from the edge.
    6. Roll up the dough lengthwise, then press ends to seal.
    7. Using a sharp knife, cut the roll all the way through and twist the two strands (with the cut side facing up) around each other.
    8. Place braided bread into a parchment paper lined cake form, let rest and rise for about half an hour.
    9. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 380°F.
    10. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until browned and baked through. (Tapping the bottom of the braid should sound hollow, you can also insert a tester to check if it is done)
    11. Let cool for half an hour on a cooling rack before cutting into and devouring.

image

That made me hungry, I think I will go get myself a slice or two from my freezer stash… And then on to my sourdough experiment!

Copyright © 2012 Simple Healthy Homemade. All rights reserved