With Thanksgiving coming up, cranberries are popping up on sale everywhere. Too tart on their own for most people, cranberries are paired with chocolate (3/4 cup) in this recipe for soft sweet bread buns. Lacking chocolate, as well as the craving for it, we made the buns with the berries only. The result was great. (With twice or thrice many berries, this should satisfy any lover of all things tart.)Stir the yeast into lukewarm milk in a large bowl. After a few minutes, stir in a cup of flower, followed by butter, sugar, egg, and salt. Then, incorporate 2 more cups of flower into the mix before adding berries (and chocolate, if using). Finish with another 1/2-cup of flower, turn the dough onto a floured surface, and knead gently (don't pop the berries!) until the dough is just slightly sticky. Let it rise, covered, for 1.5 hours.
Cut the dough into 16 pieces (again, try to avoid slicing the berries), shape each one into a ball, and arrange them in your baking containers (8 fit nicely into the standard 9-by-5-inch bread pan). Cover and let rise for 30 min, while you preheat the oven to 400F/200C. Brush the buns with a mixture of egg and water, and sprinkle sugar over them. Bake for 30-40 min, until puffed and golden brown.
This is our third baking recipe from Home Baking by Albord and Duguid and so far we are very impressed with the book. A thorough review is in order.
- 2 cups milk, lukewarm
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
~ 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 Tbsp butter, in small pieces
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 frozen or well-chilled small cranberries
- 1 egg wisked with 2 Tbsp water
- 3 Tbsp sugar, granulated or pearl