Bread Baking Babes on Bread Baking Day

In October the posting day of the Bread Baking Babes happens to coincide with the annual Bread Baking Day. And for that reason Tanna decided that the buddies were allowed to bake and post along with the Babes on this same date. Yes you got it Tanna from "My Kitchen in half cups" is head chef of this month. For her is was all about shape.. and I bet about filling too! 

So the dough and filling was up to us. I twisted the dough a little by adding some Kamut flour and I made my own sweet filling. And my o my this filling was so good, I ate several spoonfulls even before the dough was ready, dangerous stuff! Anyway it turned out pretty and totally delicious. I love the zebra print these slices have. I baked the bread in a ring vorm, so it's a little higher, but a free formed loaf probably looks a bit more like a rose in stead of a daisy (like mine does), as you will discover when you check out the other loaves from Babes and Buddies.

Let you imagination run free and choose your own filling savory or sweet and you'll have people begging you for more. Thanks Tanna for this wonderful recipe idea!

Russian Rose

(Sweet version: 1 large round loaf)

(PRINT recipe)

dough
500 g white bread flour
100 g kamut flour
2 tsp dried yeast
20 g wheat germ
10 g sugar
10 g salt
50 g vegetable oil
± 300 g water

filling
200 g hazelnuts, roasted
100 g dried figs, soaked in water for 20 minutes and dried
2 TBsp Fra Angelico liquor
100 g butter, unsalted, roomtemperature
75 g dark brown soft sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
grated zest of 1 lemon

Make the dough by placing all ingredients in a large bowl, add the water carefully as you start mixing and knead with the dough hook. Use the dough hook 2-3 mins. on low speed and 2-3 mins. on medium speed. Dough should be supple and not sticky to the touch. Add water or flour if dough is too stiff or too loose (respectively). When dough is ready, spray a bowl with oil and gently put the dough in the bowl. Spray a little more oil on top and cover. Let rise about 40 minutes to an hour.

In the meantime make the filling by placing all ingredients for the filling in a foodprocessor and pulse until the nuts are finely ground and all is made to a paste.

Lightly flour (or grease) your work area. Flatten the dough gently with your hands. Roll the dough as thin as you can using a floured rolling pin. When rolling out the dough, try not to lift and move it too much. You can try and gently pull the dough to stretch it thin like with Strudel.

Apply a thin layer of your filling on top of the dough (leave the edge clear). Slowly, tightly and very gently roll the dough into a roulade (pinwheel ). You will now have a very long roulade. Take a sharp chef's knife and cut the roulade lengthwise.

Place the two halves crossing each other (open roulade layers facing up) to create and X shape.  Gently pick up the two ends of the bottom half, cross them over the top half, and place them back down. Continue this process, taking the two bottom ends and crossing them over the top until all the roulade has been used. You now have a two strand rope shape. If for some reason some of the open roulade layers are pointing down or sideways, carefully turn them so they are facing up. Gently pinch the ends to seal. Look at the braid. If one end looks a little thinner make that your starting point. If not, just start from either end.  Slowly and very gently, roll the braid sideways (horizontally) without lifting your hands from the table. You should keep those open roulade layers facing up. Pinch the end delicately. The end result should look like a giant snail shell or a very large cinnamon bun. Carefully pick up the braid and place in the prepared springform ring. Keep it flat on the parchment.

Cover. Let rise until the braid hits three quarters the way up the springform.  Depending upon the temp in your kitchen this may take from 20 to 40 minutes.

Bake at 210ºC (410ºF) for 5-10 min, lower oven to 180ºC (355ºF) and bake for another 20-30 min. There should be a decent amount of oven spring.  The bread should rise above the springform edge. When the bread is out of the oven lightly brush olive oil or butter on top and sides. Let cool on a rack.

(adapted from:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19320/caucasian-bread)