Bread Machine (162 page)
Cinnabun Coffee Cake
Sweet Babka with Chocolate Swirl
Alsatian Kugelhopf
Apple Challah
Blueberry Crumb Cake
Morning Sticky Buns
Rose Rolls with Rose Buttercream
Petits Pains au Chocolat
Hot Cross Buns
Maritozzi Romani
Bread Machine French Butter Croissants
Sweet Cheese Puff Croissants
Chocolate Breads
Chocolate Challah
Mexican Chocolate Bread
Chocolate Bread with Dates and Pistachios
Chocolate Cherry Bread
Pain aux Trois Parfums
Italian Chocolate Bread with Amaretto Icing
Holiday Breads
Hungarian Spring Bread
Cardamom Easter Braid
Suzanne’s Easter Bread with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Easter Rye Bread with Fruit
Kulich
Portuguese Sweet Bread
Pumpkin Challah
Holiday Raisin Bread with Candied Peels
Amaretto Bread
Anise Christmas Bread
Champagne-Soaked Baba
Venetian Panettone
Stolle de Noël
Bolo Rei
Greek Sweet Bread
Golden Pandolce
Marzipan Kringle
I
love the sights and smells associated with sweet morning bread baking. Fruit, nut, spice, sugar, all come together in the dough. Whether you are making I a barely sweet slice of toast you can dunk in your coffee or a beautifully crafted bread to serve for a brunch, these yeasted sweet breads are a welcome and enticing part of baking. They have a richness in taste and texture that is not found in other types of bread. Favorite mouthwatering fillings are encased by the dough to create a pretty, delicate pattern when sliced (Cinnamon Swirl Bread anyone?).
With the parade of edible treats comes the inevitable decision: What to bake? Stick to the old tried and true? Or, perhaps, experiment with a new recipe? Whatever your choice, these sweet breads are unique in flavor and shape, right down to their whimsical final touches. A slice off a loaf chock full of dried fruit and baked in the machine is a perfect gift or accompaniment to brunch or breakfast.
Many of these special recipes are just a push of a button away with the Dough cycle; you shape them yourself into beautiful rings and braids. Others are just as happily made in the shape of the bread pan. These are old-fashioned recipes, culled from American and European baking traditions, and may evoke some of your own memories: cinnamon swirl, raisin bread, maple oatmeal bread, granola bread. Remember that baking is not just making a recipe, but an activity that interweaves food with family life and customs.
The flavors of these breads are varied with sweet spices, nuts, extracts, vanilla bean, citrus, and glistening dried fruit. These ingredients are the baker’s jewels. I love lavishly studded sweet breads. Some of these breads may have longer lists of ingredients than other recipes in the book, but there is the same ease of preparation when they are made in the bread machine. Machines often have a Fruit and Nut cycle or an Extras choice within the all-purpose cycles that will give an audible signal when to add extra ingredients. After you have baked for a while, you won’t even need the signal. Firm additions, like dried fruit, can be added during kneading or with all the other ingredients at the beginning. Nuts don’t need to be chopped; just let the paddle break them up during the kneading. When should you add them? A good time to add pieces of nuts and fruits is at the beginning of Knead 2 (after the pause before the dough ball begins to form), or you can just open the lid and sprinkle them in gradually while the machine is kneading. Just be sure to add them early in the cycle, since the dough ball is well formed ten minutes after starting the program.
These loaves are often especially delicate due to the addition of eggs to the dough, and rise a bit more slowly than other breads due to the addition of sugar. But you can use either the Basic or Sweet Bread cycles interchangeably here. The Sweet Bread cycle bakes at a slightly lower temperature than the Basic cycle. Usually it is best to set the crust control on light or medium to prevent overbrowning in either cycle. Be sure to let these loaves cool completely before slicing; no matter how enticing the urge to have a bite, their cakelike crumb will not have set until they are cool.
Although optional, glazing is an important finishing touch for a very fancy loaf, a lively accent of concentrated sweetness and glossy visual appeal. The essences such as mint, vanilla, and almond, and alcoholic spirits such as rum, amaretto, and brandy, have a place to blend in their bold flavors here. With fruit jewels and nuts set into the crust, you will have a bread with a picture-book look that highlights a table like no other food.
Bread Machine Baker’s Hint: Tips for Sweet Breads
- Because of all the perishable ingredients called for, like milk, buttermilk, and eggs, and the extra embellishments that need to be added mid-cycle, I do not use the Delay Timer for any of the recipes in this chapter.
- I avoid most commercial candied fruits because they lack distinctive flavor and contain artificial colors and preservatives. Homemade candied peels have an intense bittersweet flavor and firm texture. If you have access to an unsprayed orange or lemon tree, or to organically grown citrus fruits, you can make your own (see
Holiday Glacéed Dried Fruit
). I buy glacéeddried fruit from Australia or France or I glaze my own dried fruit (see
Technique: Melting Chocolate
). Plain dried fruits are also excellent. To add variety substitute dried cranberries, blueberries, tart or sweet cherries, or currants for raisins. Mail-order resources for dried fruits and imported glacéed fruits may be found on
Preserves, Glacéed and Dried Fruits, Spices, and Other Sweet Bread Ingredients and Bakeware
. - For convenience, bake the loaves well ahead of when you will need them, and then freeze them. Defrost the loaves in their wrapping at room temperature. Then add the final glaze and decorations before serving. The loaves will slice and taste as perfect as the day they were baked.
T
here has to be a recipe for a classic cinnamon bread in every collection; it is just too popular and delectable not to be included. In this bread machine version, the dough is removed from the machine, stuffed and rolled up, and either put back in the machine or placed in your home oven for baking off. (I keep a stash of disposable aluminum loaf pans from the supermarket for this type of sweet loaf that can leak during baking—they work beautifully.) This bread is heavenly!
1
1
/
2
-POUND LOAF
For the dough:
1 cup water
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1
/
4
cup sugar
3 cups bread flour
1
/
3
cup dry buttermilk powder
1 tablespoon gluten
1
1
/
4
teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons SAF yeast or 2
1
/
2
teaspoons bread machine yeast
For the cinnamon swirl:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
1
/
3
cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2-POUND LOAF
For the dough:
1
1
/
3
cups water
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1
/
3
cup sugar
4 cups bread flour
1
/
4
cup dry buttermilk powder
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten
1
1
/
2
teaspoons salt
2
1
/
2
teaspoons SAF yeast or 1 tablespoon bread machine yeast
For the cinnamon swirl:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, for brushing
1
/
3
cup light brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Place all the ingredients in the pan according to the order in the manufacturer’s instructions. If you wish to mix and bake the dough completely in the machine, set crust on medium and program for the Basic or Variety cycle. If you wish to bake the loaf in your kitchen oven, program for the Dough cycle. Press Start. (This recipe is not suitable for use with the Delay Timer.)