mamma's christmas sweet bread
My mother used to make this bread every christmas... its like a stollen, or a panettone, she loved making it and am glad I will have memories helping her in the kitchen.
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Ingredients
- ½ cup milk (at room temperature)
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- ½ – 1 tsp salt (I always use less salt, so I added ½ tsp)
- 3 tbsp liquid honey
- ¼ cup butter cut into 1 inch cubes
- 2½ cups all purpose or bread flour
- 1 tbsp grated orange zest
- 1 tbsp grated lemon zest
- 1 tsp anise seeds (I left these out)
- 1 tbsp bread machine or instant yeast
- ½ cup golden raisins
- ½ cup mixed candied peel (see notes)
- 1/3 cup candied citron (see notes)
- ¼ cup silvered almonds
- Makes 1 – 1.5 lb loaf.
Details
Level of difficulty Average
Cost Budget Friendly
Preparation
Step 1
Instructions
Add all of the ingredients EXCEPT for the raisins, peel, citron and almonds, to the bread machine, in the order listed above.
If you are baking the bread in the bread machine, select Sweet Cycle.
Add the raisins, peel, citron and almonds at the “add ingredient” signal. OR
I did not bake my bread in the bread machine, so I selected the “Dough” cycle. Here’s How To:
When the dough cycle is up, remove the dough, and knead in the raisins, cherries and almonds.
Then let the dough sit on a floured surface for 15 minutes, covered with a bowl.
After this time, split the dough into 3 pieces, and roll it out into long ropes, about 1 inch thick.
On a parchment lined baking sheet, braid the ropes, pinching the ends together.
Let it rise, in a warm place covered with a tea towel, for 30-45 minutes, or until doubled in size.
In the meantime preheat your oven to 350.
When the dough has doubled in size, you can add an egg wash to make the crust shiny. Just mix together 1 tbsp water with 1 egg yolk, and brush the surface of the bread.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes – until the bread sounds hollow when you tap the bottom.
Notes
Instead of the candied peel and candied citron, I added a generous ½ cup of chopped glace cherries.
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Chef Tips and Tricks
Try this clever trick to make the perfect zebra cake!
Ingredients
- 2 large water or soda bottles (empty)
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 sticks butter
- 6 eggs
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 4 tbsp cocoa powder
Method
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Ready 2 large plastic bottles, cleaned and dried.
- Add 1 cup of flour to each bottle.
- Add 1/2 cup of sugar to each.
- Melt butter, then add equal halves to each bottle.
- Add 6 eggs, 3 in each.
- Add 1/2 tbsp of baking powder to each.
- Add 1/2 cup of heavy cream to each.
- Shake the bottles thoroughly until the contents are well mixed.
- In one of the bottles only, add the cocoa powder.
- Beginning with the cocoa powder mixture, add a dolop of batter to the center of a circular
- baking tin. Do the same with the other mixture, placing the dolop directly in the center of the previous one.
- Continue with alternating additions of each mixture until all batter is used and the tin is full.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
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