Jingle Babes, jingle Babes, baking all the way..

...o what fun it is to bake this wonderful yulé, hey! Excuse me?? Ahum, get serious woman. You're already posting late and now all this nonsense, get serious!

A great choice by Lynn, who is hosting this festive month of BBBbaking, The Yule Wreath, a festive coffee bread ring originated in Sweden. She gave a wonderful almond filling recipe with it, but also gave us a free hand in changing the filling to our own tastes and fantasies. Well I've been going mincemeat-mad these last weeks, so what else was my first idea to make a christmas-like stuffing... of course mincemeat. Delicious and festive. We all loved it here.

I also made another version... well two versions really, but savory this time. I planned to make 1 savory wreath, but then couldn't decide and divided the dough in two and made two smaller ones, so I could use both fillings I came up with. Very nice too, my husband preferred the onion-marmelade filled one, the rest of us here liked the one with Cranberry sauce with lime and turkey pieces best of the savory fillings. So you can really bake to your own taste.

If you want to bake with us, send your entry to Lynn (lynncraigATcomcastDOTnet) by the 31th December and earn yourself a Bread Baking Buddie Badge! Check out the other babes for more ideas (their links are in the side bar).

Yule Wreath
(make 1 large wreath)

(PRINT recipe)

dough for the sweet version:
2 tsp dry yeast
45 ml warm water
175 ml lukewarm milk
50 g sugar
55 g butter
1 large egg
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp salt
± 475 g AP flour

Almond filling:
Mix together until smooth:
1/2 cup almond paste
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup softened butter

or Mincemeat filling:
1 jar (about 450 g) homemade or shopbought mincemeat
Glaze with icing sugar. mixed with some cinnamon and brandy.

1- Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, egg, cardamom, salt and 280 g flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

2- Turn dough onto lightly floured surface: knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl; trun greased side up. Cover and let rise in warm place until double, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

3- Choose your filling

4- Punch down the dough. Roll into rectangle, 15 x 9-inches, on a lightly floured surface. Spread with the filling to within 1/4-inch of the edges. Roll up tightly, beginning at the wide side. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal well. Stretch roll to make even. With sealed edge down, shape into ring on lightly greased cookie sheet. Pinch ends together.

5- With scissors or kitchen shears, make cuts 2/3 of the way through the ring at 1-inch intervals. Turn each section on it's side (90 degree turn), to show off the pretty swirled filling. Cover loosely with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray. Let rise until double, about 40 to 50 minutes.

6- Heat oven to 350ºF / 180ºC. (Brush the savory version with eggwash) Bake until golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes. (If it browns too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil.)

7 - Make Glaze for the sweet version-
Mix until smooth:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 Tbsp brandy
2 pinches of cinnamon
(add additional water 1/2 tsp at a time, if necessary)

8- Spread Glaze over the wreath. You can decorate your wreath with nuts, dried fruit, marzipan fruit, or whatever strikes your fancy.

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For A SAVORY VERSION follow the same recipe with these ingredients:

dough for the savory version:
2 tsp dry yeast
45 ml water
175 ml lukewarm milk
1 TBsp sugar
55 g softened butter
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sweet curry powder
a large pinch of freshly ground Szechuan pepper
± 475 g AP flour

choice of one of these savory fillings:

1. - a jar of Red Onion Marmelade


2. - a jar of Cranberry sauce with lime
   - Cooked turkey breast in small pieces, ± 200 g

Adapted quite freely from "Betty Crocker's International Cookbook".

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Aan de Nederlandse lezers:
Sorry deze keer alleen in het Engels, wegens grote drukte, Mocht je er niet uitkomen, laat het me dan weten, dan lossen we het op!

SUCCES!