I made these for the worship team today and I must say, everyone LOVED them! It was so cute...before anyone knew it was me that made them, people were going into the green room and coming out saying "Wow, did you see the spread in there?! It looks awesome!" And, for the first time ever, I think 90% of the team ate breakfast together in there during first service. It was so fun! They were such a big hit that I'll have to do them again!
It seems like a lot of work, but they weren't too bad. Of course, the first one I made I put WAY...let me say that again...WAY WAY WAY too much filling in! Oh, and I also made it on the counter and was going to transfer it to the baking sheet...very bad idea! Especially since it had too much filling it took 3 of us to get it from the counter onto the baking stone...and that was after I cut it in half! :-)
SO, always roll it out directly on your stone (or a baking pan with parchment paper so it doesn't stick) and don't put too much filling in :)
Now that I have that figured out, the next time should be way easier!
The recipe came from TheFreshLoaf.com (check it out sometime!). It says it makes 2 braids, but I think next time I'd go ahead and make 3 or 4 smaller ones (they were too long for my stones and so I had to cut them in half anyway).
OH, and here's my other secret...I did not spend time making the fillings. Shhh!!! I just used canned pie filling! Since I couldn't decide which flavor to do (see suggestions at bottom if you want!), I chose to try 4 different kinds. I just put a different filling in each half: cherry, blueberry, peach, and apple. And, I think they were all so good that I can't decide which is my favorite!
Sponge Ingredients:
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Dough Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2-3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
Blueberry Filling Ingredients:
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Egg Glaze Ingredients:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Cream Cheese Filling Ingredients:
3/4 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon egg glaze
Directions:
For the sponge:
1. Mix the sugar, yeast, and flour together in bowl. Pour in the warm milk. Beat until smooth, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1/2 hour.
The sponge will rise during this half hour and then look like this (I didn't move the spatula):
For the dough:
1. Add the eggs, salt, sugar, and one cup of the flour to the sponge. Beat until smooth. Then add the butter in small chunks and beat well. Add the remaining flour a handful at a time and mix in until a soft but kneadable dough is achieved and the butter thoroughly incorporated.
2. Knead the dough by hand or with a mixer until it is smooth and satiny, about 5 minutes.
3. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise and room temperature until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Deflate the dough, recover the bowl, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day (or just 8 or so hours later), make the fillings before shaping the loaves. **Remember my secret - use canned pie filling!**
Blueberry Filling:
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.
Egg Glaze:
1. Combine the egg and milk in a bowl and beat until combined.
Cream Cheese Filling:
1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined.
Assembling the braid:
1. Once your filling has cooled off, take the dough out of the refrigerator and gently deflate it. Divide it into two pieces. Use a rolling pin to shape each piece into a thin (1 cm.) rectangle.
2. Spread your fillings in the center of the dough.
3. At an angle, slice the sides of the dough into tabs approximately 1 inch wide.
4. Alternating from side to side, fold the pieces in over the filling. When possible, gentle press on the tabs to seal the folds.
This is how it should look! Beautiful, right?
Here are some examples of how it should NEVER look :-)
Rest assured though, that if yours do turn out like this, they still will taste amazing! Cut it up into tons of pieces and tell everyone that it's just some sort of cobbler. :-)
5. After it has been fully folded, glaze the braid with egg wash. Cover loosely with plastic (I place the entire baking pan in a clean kitchen garbage bag). Set aside to rise until doubled in size, approximately 45 minutes. While it is rising, preheat the oven to 350.
6. Just before placing the braid in the oven, glaze it again with any remaining egg wash. Bake on the center rack of the oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, rotating it once after 20 minutes so that it bakes evenly. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for at least half an hour before slicing.
Cinnamon Apple Variation Idea:
2 cups of freshly cubed Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup BROWN sugar
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup corn starch
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. butter
In a small pot, combine; butter, brown sugar, and chopped walnuts. Stir until combined. Add apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and corn starch. Combine and heat until you get a gooey concoction. :) The goal is to get the nuts a touch roasted...the apples will finish baking in the oven.
Use in place of blueberries in Floyd's recipe. Sprinkle the top of the braids with a little cinnamon/sugar on top of the final egg wash. :)
Chocolate Filling Idea:
Make a fudge-icing consistency out of melted chocolate and cream to fill the center with (instead of the blueberries)...or I guess you could even do this instead of the cream cheese, and use whatever fruit topping you'd like, maybe cherries?
Raspberry Cream Cheese Filling:
Instead of using the blueberry filling, use a can of raspberry pie filling.
Cherry Cream Cheese Filling:
Again, instead of using the blueberry filling, use a can of cherry pie filling.
Peaches 'n Cream:
4 cups fresh, chopped, peeled peaches
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cornstarch
Heat all this together until just warmed and combined. Drizzle with a little vanilla icing (see below).
Vanilla Icing:
Also, any of these braids would probably be amazing with some white icing drizzled over top. Just take some powdered sugar and milk together until you get the desired consistency for drizzle-able icing!
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