My 119th experiment: Raspberry cream cheese braid

This is another one of those recipes that have been very well received. So I am doing it again for a special occasion. I adopt the KAF recipe, with some adjustment to scale to a small braid. I make this for my work, along with the pumpkin bread. Half of this loaf is gone. The pumpkin bread is gone very quickly.

Recipe: Raspberry cream cheese braid (1 small-medium loaf)

Ingredients:
Dough
- 2 tp active dry yeast
- 2 TB warm water
- 1.5 TB sugar
- 1+1/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 TB heavy whipping cream
- 1 tp lime juice
- 1/2 tp kosher salt
- 1 egg
- 1/4 tp lemon oil extract
Cream cheese Filling
- 1/3 package (8/3 ounce) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened
- 1 TB butter spread
- 1.5 TB sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 tp vanilla extract
- 1 TB unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 egg yolk, save egg white for egg wash
Jam Filling
- 1 TB raspberry jam
- 2 TB sugar
- 1 TB unbleached all purpose flour

Procedure:
1. Proof yeast in 2 TB warm water.
2. Sieve together flour, sugar, salt.
3. Mix egg, softened butter, heavy cream, lemon oil, lime juice. Beat to mix thoroughly.
4. Add yeast and wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix until integrated. Then use hand to knead until a soft smooth dough is formed.
5. Proof dough in a warm oven (heated at 150F for 10 seconds) for 1 hour or until volume has doubled.
6. Gently deflate risen dough. Place dough on parchment paper. Roll into a 15"x10" rectangle. Cut strips on both sides, lengthwise.
7. Spread jam in the 2+1/2-inch-wide center, lengthwise.
8. Spread cheese on top of jam.
9. Fold stripes over to form braids.
10. Allow loaf to proof until puffy.
11. Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes.
12. After the first 20 minutes, brush top with egg wash of egg white and water.

Results:
9:21am, all ingredients:

9:39am, ingredients for dough:

9:52am, initial dough, pliable, smooth, not sticky to hand:

9:54am, dough preparing to rest in warm oven:

10:02am, cheese filling initial ingredients:

10:08am, mixing cheese filling:

10:11am, cheese filling done and ready to chill:

10:18am, dough rested 20 minutes, punched down and allowed to rest again in warm oven:

11:05am, dough rested 1 hour in warm oven:

11:16am, dough ready to be rolled out to a rectangular sheet about the size of a baking pan:

11:17am, dough's texture, observe the long thread sticking to the little finger:

11:22am, dough rolled out, first into a rectangle:

11:28am, dough pulled into a shape that may favor braiding later; dough allowed to rest a little after stetching:

11:28am, jam filling ready:

11:30am, stripes cut on dough using pizza cutter:

11:32am, jam spread on center of dough:

11:33am, cheese spread on center of dough:

11:37am, braided:

11:38am, leaking sides:

11:46am, dough moistened on top with water, then allowed to proof in warm oven:

12:38pm, proofed 1 hour in warm oven:

12:39pm, top of braid when proofed 1 hour:

1:16pm, proofed 1.5 hour in warm oven:

1:16pm, top of braid when proofed 1.5 hours:

1:16pm, melting filling at corner:

1:22pm, to bake at 350F:

1:34pm, baked 12 minutes, top turned golden and liquid dried off:

1:35pm, a very light egg wash of egg white and water applied:

1:37pm, baking resumed, covered with foil:

1:56pm, loaf baked 35 minutes:

2:01pm, loaf's top corner:

2:00pm, loaf close up:

2:01pm, loaf's side:

2:02pm, loaf's bottom:

2:03pm, loaf's heel 1:

2:03pm, loaf's heel 2:

3:00pm, cooled for 1 hour:

3:00pm, cooled height:

3:02pm, interior when sliced:

3:02pm, only cream cheese sticks to knife:

10:23pm, a bite on the heel:

10:24pm, a bite on a center slice:

Observations:
1. This time I chill the cheese filling while waiting for the dough to rise. This may slow down the rise process.
2. To keep dough in warmth after braiding, I brush top of braid with water and then leave dough in warm oven.
3. I cut the stripes too deeply. This causes leaking of cheese on both sides.
4. Putting a loaf pan along side the dough to restraint its spread helps greatly in retaining the final shape of the loaf.
5. Though the filling starts to melt and leak out liquid, that liquid dries off very quickly during the baking.
6. Allowing the dough to proof for 1.5 hours helps the braid to rise. This closes up the holes in the braid. The resultant loaf is very beautiful.
7. This loaf has a rather buttery and crispy crust. The crumb is a dense bread. It's rather soft, and feels a little like cookie at each bite. I love it a lot.

My 69th experiment: orange cranberry bread

Originally, I was planning to try out some of the orange bread recipes from Bernard Clayton and the KAF cookbook. After some juggling here and there, my recipe has become so out of shape that it resembles nothing else. Here it goes:

Recipe: Orange cranberry sweet braid (for 2)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup KAF bread flour
- 1 TB sugar
- 1/4 tp salt

- 1/2 tp orange rind

- 1 TB dried cranberries

- 1 to 1+1/2 TB butter/olive oil spread

- slightly more than 1/2 tp active dry yeast
- 1 TB whole evaporated milk

- juice of half a small orange, about 1/4 cup

- 2 TB water

Procedure:
1. Mix yeast with 1 TB evaporated milk and 2 TB orange juice. Allow to proof for 5 minutes.
2. Mix bread flour, sugar, salt in a medium bowl.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture. Add the orange rind.
4. Mix the ingredients to form a soft dough. Allow ample time for the flour to hydrate slowly. If dough is too dry, add the orange juice. When the orange juice is used up, add 1/2 TB water at a time. After every hydration, knead the dough for a few minutes before adding more liquid.
5. When the dough is fully formed, allow to rest for a couple of minutes. Then work on it a little more. The texture should become smooth after rest. If hydration is good, the dough can clean the bowl.
6. Rub in the butter, about 1/4 tp at a time. Knead dough on counter top until smooth. Significant shortening of gluten should be noticeable.
7. Allow dough to rest on counter top until its volume has doubled.
8. Add in the cranberries.
9. Form braid. Allow braided dough to proof on parchment paper until puffy.
10. Bake at 400F for a few minutes until top is brown. Then brush with butter. Bake covered with foil at 350F until done.

Results:
3:40pm, orange rind prepared, orange to be juiced:

3:41pm, flour, sugar, salt mixed:

3:41pm, yeast in 1 TB evaporated milk and 2 TB orange juice, allow 5 minutes to proof:

3:46pm, added proofed yeast to the mixture of dry ingredients:

3:51pm, initial dough, with orange rind and in total 4 TB orange juice:

3:52pm, water added half a tablespoon at a time:

4:01pm, dough formed, but too dry, in need of about 1 tp more of water:

4:06pm, dough properly hydrated and able to clean off the bowl:

4:16pm, dough rested for 10 minutes:

4:18pm, a generous TB of butter spread is prepared to add to dough:

4:19pm, texture of dough before rubbing in the butter:

4:28pm, butter left over, and dough with ample butter:

4:29pm, hand clean but not greasy after handling buttered dough:

4:29pm, dough allowed to rest:

4:55pm, dough rested 25 minutes on counter top:

5:34pm, dough rested 1 hour on counter top:

5:37pm, texture of dough after rest:

5:42pm, cranberries added to dough:

5:43pm, stretching dough into a rope, for dough of bread flour, allow a few minutes of rest after each stretch:

5:45pm, dough stretched to final length and allowed some rest time to keep the shape:

5:49pm, dough folded into a braid, about 1/3 the length of the rope:

5:49pm, dough ready to proof on parchment paper:

6:30pm, dough proofed 40 minutes on warm stove top:

6:30pm, dough's height after proofing:

6:31pm, baking started at 375 to 400F:

6:36pm, braid baked for 5 minutes, browned:

6:39pm, braid generously buttered all over the top:

6:40pm, braid resumed baking with cover at 350F:

7:10pm, braid baked another 30 minutes:

7:10pm, braid's bottom:

7:10pm, braid's side:

7:13pm, braid's top from one side and from another side:

7:33pm, the fold on the braid's top:

7:35pm, the crumb and the crust of the braid:

7:22pm, braid's interior:

7:12pm, softness of crumb:

Day 2, 9:21am, bread staled overnight:

Observations:
1. Maybe I've brushed a little too much butter during the baking. As a result, the bread's crust does not harden. It remains soft throughout.
2. This bread has a rather fine and distinctive flavor of orange. There is a little sourness, which may be from the orange or the cranberry. The amount of orange rind is just right, noticeable but not too strong.
3. The loaf has a beautiful yellow color. I think it's from the orange, the milk, the sugar and the butter. I don't use any egg in this recipe.
4. Tender and fresh as it is when just come out of oven, this loaf stales fast. After just 2 hours, the torn side of the crumb is already dry.
5. The look of this loaf overnight reminds me of those uninviting loaves at the international grocery stores. Their aroma is great, but their look and the texture is not. I gather that those must be fresh loaves that have no preservatives, and therefore go stale in a very short time.

This lovely orange bread leaves me with a very fond memory of something sweet and soft, like candy floss. I totally love it, and consider it a bread for special occasions. To find out how to enjoy this loaf, I go so far as to open a bottle of cream sherry. The sherry is a little too sweet for this bread though.