Description
A colorful and tart yeast bread
Ingredients
Scale
for the dough:
- 1/2 cup lukewarm milk (110 F)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg egg
- 3 tablespoons softened butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
for the filling:
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1 tablespoon butter
- teaspoon grated orange zest
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Pour warm milk into a bowl, sprinkle with dried yeast and sugar
- Stir, let sit about 5 minutes, it should begin to get frothy
- Add egg, butter, vanilla, 1 teaspoon orange zest, flour, and salt, stir and knead until everything is incorporated into a smooth dough
- Lightly grease a bowl, put dough into bowl and turn over (to lightly grease the top), cover and let sit in a warm spot until doubled in size, 60 to 90 minutes
- Make the filling while the dough rises by adding orange juice, brown sugar, and all the cranberries to a saucepan
- Cook over medium low heat until the fresh cranberries begin to pop and the texture becomes jam-like
- Remove from heat, stir in buter, orange zest, and cinnamon, cool
- Roll out the dough to form a 12 inch x 14 inch rectangle
- Spread the cranberry mixture over the dough, leaving about 1/2 inch near one of the short ends bare
- Roll up the dough starting from the opposite side, pinch the edge without filling to seal the roll
- Slice in half lengthwise, place both halves next to each other with cut sides up, twist the two pieces around each other, keeping the cut sides up (if you study my photo, you’ll see I forgot this step)
- Pinch the ends together and place in a greased 9 inch x 5 inch loaf pan
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until it just begins to get higher than the pan
- Preheat over to 350
- Bake for 45 minutes (internal temp 190 F), loosley tenting with foil after 30 miinutes to keep it from getting too dark
- Rub the top with butter after baking to keep the crust soft
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, remove from pan and cool completely on a wire rack
- Slice to serve
Keywords: cranberry orange babka