Friday 23 June 2006

Cranberries & Cream Cheese Bread

Since today is Friday and I am preparing a very simple dish for today's dinner. I took so time on and off during my son's afternoon naptime to prepare this Cranberries & Cream Cheese Bread. I used half of the previous dough ingredients that Evan suggested and add some dried cranberry in it. This bread is wonder with the cream cheese filling and some assorted jam spread on top. Although it might look complicated but it is indeed very easy to prepare.


Ingredients: (make 7 buns)
150g Bread Flour
50g Plain Flour
10g Milk Powder
30g Sugar
1 Medium Egg
½ Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Instant Dry Yeast
85ml Ice Water
25g Butter/Margarine
40g Dried Cranberries, finely chopped

Methods:
1. Mix bread flour, plain flour, milk powder, salt, sugar and dry yeast till well blended in a big mixing bowl.
2. Next add in Egg, and use finger to mix it well and slowly add in the cold water while you knead the mixture till combine then add in the butter and knead to form a pliable & elastic dough.
3. This process may take quite a while, about 30 mins or so.
4. The dough will be wet & sticky at first (and kinda messy as well), but keep on kneading (without adding oil or water) until dough no longer sticks to fingers & is glossy on surface.
5. And if you're about to give up just like I did, DON'T!
6. When the dough is done, add in the chopped cranberries slowly and mix till well combine.
7. Place the dough in the mixing bowl, wrap it up and set aside in a warm place to allow dough to fermentate, approx. 45 minutes - 60 minutes,(depend on the weather, or you can place it in the oven with a bowl of hot water beside it) the dough must at least double in size after fermentation.

Nowsday, you can find alot of bread with cranberry as one of the mixture from most bakery. Cranberries are a source of polyphenol antioxidants, chemicals which are known to provide certain health benefits to the cardiovascular system and immune system. By adding these chopped dried cranberries to the bread, it really gives a extra sweetness and crunch when eating.

For The Cream Cheese Filling :
100g Soften Cream Cheese
20g Icing Sugar
1 Teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 Grated Lemon Rind

Methods:
1. Sift the icing sugar into a small mixing bowl, then add in the lemon juice and stir well.
2. Next add in the soften cream cheese and lemon rind and stir till well combined.
3. Set aside in the fridge for later use.

Theoriginall recipe actually coated the bread withdesiccatee coconut and top with some blueberries jam. But since I do not have any of those items at home. I replace it with some assorted nuts and jams that I found in my fridge. So this is my version of Cranberries Bread With Cream Cheese Filling.

For Decoration:
1 Extra Egg For Glazing
Some Almond Flake/Pumpkin Seeds
Some Assorted Jam

Methods:
1. Divide the fermented dough into 7 lumps of 60g each and leave the lumps to rise for another 20 minutes.
2. Wrap about 1/2 Tablespoon of the cream cheese paste with the lumps and shape into round balls.
3. Use a small rolling pin or your thumb to press an deep indent in the middle of the bun to place the jam filling later.
4. Leave the filled balls to ferment until they have double their original size(about another 20 minutes).
5. Brush the fermented bun evenly with some beaten egg wash and top with some jam fillings in the indent and sprinkle some almond flake or pumpkin seeds on the surrounding.
6. Bake in a preheated oven of 200 degree for 10 mins until well risen & golden brown.
7. Glaze buns with margarine while hot.

Notes: You can used any types of jam that you prefer for the top fillings. Posted by Picasa


6 comments:

  1. Hi Ellena, lov yr blog. thanks for sharing it w me. I love to make bread for my family. Thanks again.

    rgds,
    Lia

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  2. they look wonderful ellena!! initially i did feel abit "sian" of bread but seeing yours, it makes me wanna make them again lol. i find that you're really good in giving the ingredients some twists. for me, i'm too lazy + not creative so i cant b bothered to come up with my own ideas :p i'll definitely give your cranberry & cream cheese bread a try nx time! thx for the recipe =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks Lia... hope to see you around in my blog again....

    No No...evan.. don't feel "sian" of bread making yet... cos there are still alot of wonderful recipes to try out. Because of your bread recipe, it actually encourage me to try out again after many years without making bread. Hahha.. i admit i am those of the advanture type, so i like to try new ideas on either dishes or baking...even sometime i also threw them inside the bins...lolz...

    ReplyDelete
  4. do u hv a bread maker ellena? i'm sure its easier to make bread using the machine, but then, does that mean the shape will be limited? if u use the bread maker then all the bread will look like the loaf type (aka. sunshine or gardenia bread)? what if u want some shapes, like plaits or whatever, can it be achieved using the machine?

    the one thing thats putting me off abt making bread is the dough kneading. since i don't hv a strong powerful mixer (eg. those table-top type) and i cant use my $45 kenwood hand mixer, i have to knead the dough by hands. i keep kneading & kneading until i break out in sweat & feel like giving up! unless i hv an "assistant" to do the kneading for me then i dont mind haha!

    so does your son & hubby love your baking? i'm sure they do! there's only me & my hubby at home, alot of times i cant finish eating my baked goods. so sometimes i hv to halve or even quarter out the ingredients so i can just make a few and then finish by the nx day =)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nope.. i don't have a bread machine at home. Actually i tot of getting one after seeing alot of good comments on it... as they used it to make bread or jam..but after much consider... i nv bought 1... cos there are not many people in my family and I also don't make it often....But i know you can used the bread machine to do the knead and ferment parts then later you take the dough out and you can shape it to any pattern that you prefer.

    Yup.. you are rite... the most half-hearted part is the kneading...cos you had to knead at least 30 minutes no matter how much portion of flour you used. Everytime i tot of the kneading process then i also have a 2nd thought of whether to make the bread a not....

    My hubby don't really loves bread and my son also eat bread with chocolate or nuts filling.. so i had to give the remaining bread to my mum or aunty.... Like what you do, i also try to make half the portion which come out 6 buns which are more than enough.....lolz...

    You can actually kept the unfinished bread in a air-tight continer in the fridge. Take out 5-10 mins before you want to eat and microwave it on med heat for 30sec or more. The bread will be hot and soft.....

    ReplyDelete
  6. ellena, thx for your tips. ya the prob is we don't hv that many ppl in the family. at least u still got 3 persons, me only 2! yalor, its true that no matter whether u make alot or little dough, u still hv to do the keading. actually i heard the unused dough can be frozen for later use, hv u tried? but i'm not sure if it will affect the texture. if it doesnt affect, then it will be really wise to make more & then freeze the unused portions. so nx time juz defrost & bake, so easy! but i guess if i hv $$ to buy the $900 KitchenAid processor then i don't hv to knead the dough manually anymore!

    your hubby doesnt like bread? my hubby will eat anything i bake but he doesnt really fancy lor. the most he eat abit coz he doesnt like all those sweet stuffs. he's quite traditional in a sense that dinner time must eat rice. ask him to eat pizza or burger, he really refuse hehe. but at least your son will eat, so its not too bad. i really like the fact u make twists to the ingredients. sometimes i'm afraid if i use my own 'creativity" the end result will not b good.

    yup i know abt microwaving the bread. its really nice even after microwaving for abt 1 - 2 mins =)

    ellena, keep the great stuffs coming in ya!

    ReplyDelete

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Regards
Ellena (Cuisine Paradise)

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