Blueberry and apple braids.

I am proud of this one. I love baking bread. The part I like the most is when the dough rises, doubled up the original amount. And punching it. And let it rise again. Lol. My place smells so good, I feel like am in a bakery wonderland.

The rise of the dough.

I got this recipe from The Fresh Loaf site – an awesome website for bread lovers. The original recipe is here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/blueberrycreamcheesebraid.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid
Makes 2 braids

Sponge
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2-3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Blueberry Filling
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Egg Glaze
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Cream Cheese Filling
3/4 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon egg glaze

I couldn’t find unbleached all-purpose flour at the bakery ingredients store near my place, so I bought 2 packets of high gluten flour (each weigh a kilo). I thought I would be using it a lot, but seriously, unless you like a real tough bread, DO NOT incorporate too much of this flour in your recipe. When I first used this flour I substituted a cup (or more) of all purpose flour with this flour and the bread turned out too tough and dry. Not yummie at all 😦 .

For this blueberry cheese braid, I only used 2 – 3 tablespoon of high gluten flour, mixed with all purpose flour. The bread is soft and moist, just the way I like it aha aha! I like it! Aha aha!

Blueberry braid in the making.

For the first braid filling, I used something like a chunky pureed blueberry paste or whatever you wanna call it. Fresh blueberries will cost me a bomb, and I can only find them at supermarkets. This not so fresh pureed blueberries is cheaper, and it’s ready for spreading. I just added a couple of tablespoon of lemon juice to compensate its sweetness.

Blueberry braid.

As for the second braid, I stuffed it with green apple – original recipe is here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/blueberrycreamcheesebraid#comment-165

Apple braid in the making.

2 cups of freshly cubed Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup BROWN sugar
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup corn starch
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. butter

In a small pot, combine; butter, brown sugar, and chopped walnuts. Stir until combined. Add apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and corn starch. Combine and heat until you get a gooey concoction 🙂 . The goal is to get the nuts a touch roasted…the apples will finish baking in the oven.

Big fat ass apple flavoured caterpillar.

If I were to make these wonderful braids again (which I will, definitely), I would wanna try stuffing it with butter mixed with brown sugar, sprinkle with semisweet chocolate chips and cinnamon powder. Ah… the soft, moist, gooey cinnabons.