sweet bread dough

I hope every one had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year!  Quiet was happened for me which I have to admit is my favourite.  New Year's Eve was movies and tea.  There was a bit of sparkling wine with a nice steak and salad.  To me, it was about perfect.

There were a lot of experiments last week and over the weekend.  Which I will get to.  But the one thing I discovered when I made the St Lucy's buns that I am still itching from, is a lovely sweet bread dough.  It is nice to have a go to sweet bread dough.  Again, from the tome.  This dough works really well with sourdough.  Since I only do sourdough, pretty huge.  

I made it into cinnamon rolls and punky monkey bread.  The monkey bread started to be called funky punky monkey bread.  And then it started to get called zombie bread because of the reactions it was getting.  It was like zombies going after brains.

I am getting ready to try panettone next.  I am making the candied citrus peel for that.  It would help if it did not get thrown out.  I have helping hands.  Which is a good reason to have a sweet bread dough that I can use as a guideline.

sweet bread dough

Note:  Modified from The Nordic Cook Book to use sourdough and a bit of whole wheat flour.

sourdough starter

100 grams water

100 grams flour

320 ml / 1 cup 5 tablespoons milk

150 grams butter

1 tablespoon cardamom

1 egg

125 grams sugar

1 teaspoon salt

250 grams whole wheat pastry flour

500 grams all purpose flour

Eight hours or the night before, mix the starter, 100 grams flour, and 100 grams water in a large bowl.  Cover.  When it is bubbling, take out a portion for next time.

To the starter, add the milk, butter, cardamom, egg, and sugar.  Mix well.  Mix in half the flour.  Cover and let rest for about an hour or an hour and a half.  It should be bubbling and the consistency of pancake batter.

Mix in the salt.  Mix in about half of the last of the flour to make a soft dough.  It may be very soft.  Turn out on a clean surface and use the last of the flour to knead until smooth.  You might need a bit more. 

Put into a clean bowl and let rise for one hour.  Take it out.  Flatten into a rectangle.  Fold the long side of the dough into the middle, and repeat with the opposite side.  Fold the ends toward the center.  Gather it up into a cubish round and put back into a bowl.  Cover.  Repeat this process three times.

At this point, I sometimes need to put the dough into a ziploc and put it into the refrigerator until the next day.  It works well.

If you refrigerate it, the next day let the dough come to room temperature.

Shape and fill the bread anyway you please.  The middle picture is the zombie bread.  Above is cinnamon rolls.  Put the shaped dough in the correct pan for shape with the pan buttered and lined with parchment paper.

Let rise until puffy.

The oven temperature will depend on shape.  Higher for smaller and a shorter bake time.  Longer bake and lower temperature for larger loaf.  Most loafs I bake at 350 degrees Farhenheit for an hour.

Whatever you make of it, this is a good sweet bread.  Have fun!