Steamed Cranberry Pecan Honey Bread #BreadBakers

A slightly sweet tender loaf, this steamed cranberry pecan honey bread is wonderful sliced, even better toasted, buttered or not. We loved it all the ways! 

When this month’s Bread Baker’s host proposed “steamed breads” as our theme for July, I thought, excellent! No turning the oven on when it’s roasting outside. 

Gently steaming something on the stovetop sounded ideal.

A lot of the recipes I found online were either Asian in origin, or called for steaming in a coffee can. It just so happens that I have a couple of coffee cans saved for exactly such an occasion. Just not where I currently am! And rare is the coffee that comes in a can these days. 

Time to adapt. You can steam this in a well-oiled 1 lb coffee can or use a small loaf pan like I have. Mine is 8 1/2 X 4 1/4 in or 21.6 x 10.8cm. 

Steamed Cranberry Pecan Honey Bread

You can easily switch out the cranberries and pecans for other dried fruits and nuts. This very versatile recipe is adapted from one on Mother Earth News. 

Ingredients

2/3 cup or 95g fine yellow cornmeal

2/3 cup or 83g all-purpose flour

1/3 cup or 40g whole wheat flour

1/3 cup or 25g bran flakes, slightly crushed

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 egg

3/4 cup or 180ml milk

1/3 cup or 80ml honey

1/3 cup or 55g dried cranberries, plus extra for topping, if desired

1/3 cup or 40g chopped pecans, plus extra for topping, if desired

Canola or other light oil for greasing the loaf pan

Method

Combine the cornmeal, the flours, the bran flakes, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder in a large bowl. 

Give the cranberries and pecans a quick splash of water and stir them well to dampen. 

Toss them in the dry mixture to coat. This should help them not all sink to the bottom as the loaf steams. 

In another mixing bowl, whisk together the egg, milk and honey. Keep whisking until the honey is completely dissolved. 

Fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until well combined.

Pour the batter into a well-greased loaf pan. Top with extra cranberries and pecans, if using. 

Then cover the pan with foil, set it on a steamer basket or metal cookie cutters inside a large pot with just enough water in the pot to submerge the bottom the pan.

Bring the water to a boil. 

Cover, reduce the heat, and simmer for two hours. Check the pot now and then to make sure that all the water isn’t boiling away. Add a little hot tap water as needed.

At the end of the steaming period, remove the pan from the pot and carefully remove the foil. 

When it’s cool enough to handle–run a knife around the inside and turn the loaf out gently onto a wire rack to cool. 

When completely cool, slice to serve.

The sliced bread is delicious spread with cream cheese, butter or just plain!

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month – kind of snuck up on me this month since July 1st was a Tuesday! – and that means it’s time for our Bread Bakers group to share their recipes for steamed breads. Many thanks to our host, Sneha of Sneha’s Recipe. Check out the links below 

• Bao Buns from Passion Kneaded
• Dessert Bao (Chocolate Steamed Buns) from A Messy Kitchen
• Keto Chinese Steamed Buns from Sneha's Recipe
• Paczki na Parze (Polish Steamed Donuts) from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sausage, Egg, and Cheese Buns {Sheng Jian Bao) from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Steamed Cranberry Pecan Honey Bread from Food Lust People Love

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Steamed Cranberry Pecan Honey Bread! 

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Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Made with fresh yeast, this cinnamon raisin bread has a delightfully soft crumb and is perfect for breakfast or snack time, plain or toasted and buttered! 

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that since my husband retired, we have been dividing our time between the United States and the Channel Islands. To keep up with what is happening in both places, I belong to a lot of Facebook groups. 

For all its faults, Facebook is a great place to follow small businesses, find out about local events as well as get restaurant and shopping recommendations, etc. Recently on one of my Channel Island groups, someone asked where a person could buy fresh yeast. 

I love baking with fresh yeast so I immediately saved the post so I could check back for updates. Various people chimed in with suggestions which absolutely thrilled me. One of the commenters said the Polish shop in town sold it and they were right! 

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Some of my seedless raisins were quite large so I chopped them in half to get a better distribution. If you struggle to find fresh yeast, you can substitute 2 1/4 teaspoons or 7g of active dry yeast.

Ingredients

For the bread dough:

4 cups or 500g all-purpose flour, plus extra flour for kneading and dusting

.7 oz or 20g fresh yeast (see note above for substitute)

2 tablespoons sugar


1 teaspoon fine sea salt


1 1/3 cups or 320ml warm water

1 egg yolk (save the white for the egg wash)

Canola or other light oil

For the filling:

3/4 cup or 165g/4 x3 seedless raisins

1/3 cup or 67g sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the egg wash: 

1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 tablespoon water

Optional for decoration: 

2 tablespoons pearl sugar

Method

Put your flour in a large mixing bowl.  Make a well in the center and pop in your yeast, sugar and salt.  

Pour in half the water and mix with a fork by incorporating flour from the edges of the well little by little.  

Now add in the rest of the water and the egg yolk and mix the whole lot.  

When you have one thick dough ball, knead it on a lightly floured surface (or in a stand mixer) until it is stretchy and supple.

  

Put the tiniest amount of canola oil in the bottom of the bowl, spread it around a little, and put the dough ball in. Cover with a teacloth or shower cap and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, prepare your loaf pan by lining it with baking parchment. 

After half an hour, punch the dough down and knead it a little bit more, for just a minute or two.  

Use a rolling pin to roll it out into a big rectangle. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle the mixture over the dough. Do the same with the raisins. 

Roll the rectangle up and tuck the ends under. 

Place it in your prepared bread pan, seam side down.

With a very sharp knife, cut three shallow slits in the top of the dough and sprinkle again with flour. 

Cover the pan with your teacloth or shower cap and put it back in the warm place for 30 minutes to one hour for the final rising. (I set my timer for 30 minutes and then started preheating my oven to 400°F or 200°C, putting the bread in when the oven was hot, after 45 minutes rising time.)

Whisk the egg white and water together and brush the top of the loaf. 

Sprinkle on the pearl sugar to decorate, if using. I also added a light dusting of ground cinnamon because, why not? 

Bake for about 30 minutes or until the loaf is golden on the outside and sounds hollow when tapped with a knife. If you are an instant thermometer using person, the internal temperature should be about 200°F or 93°C.

Leave to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing to serve. 

Enjoy! 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today our group is sharing yeast bread recipes. Many thanks to our host, Amy from Amy's Cooking Adventures. Check out the links below. 

• Basil Garlic Bread by Mayuri's Jikoni
• Buckwheat Dinner Rolls (Gluten-Free) by Cook with Renu
• Cardamom Chrysanthemum Bread by Culinary Cam
• Cinnamon Raisin Bread by Food Lust People Love
• Keto Eggless Almond Four Yeasted Bread by Sneha's Recipe
• No Knead Ciabatta Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shirin Chorek by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Sweet Turmeric Milk Bread (Shirin Chorek) by Amy's Cooking Adventures

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

Pin this Cinnamon Raisin Bread! 

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Classic Brioche à Tête #BreadBakers

This classic brioche à tête recipe is simple to make, with very little hands on time, no stand mixer required, for a loaf that is rich and buttery. Start one day ahead. 

I own two proper brioche pans, one from my years living in Paris and yet another, believe it or not, that was purchased in Cairo, Egypt, It was made by the French manufacturer Tefal though so I guess that makes it authentic. 

If you search the internet for brioche recipes, you will find literally millions and millions. Google says an estimated 25.000,000 in fact. All the top hits seem to be baked in regular rectangular loaf pans though.

I was determined to create a classic loaf using one of my pans. Took me a bit but I finally figured out where I was going wrong! I needed to search for brioche à tête or brioche à Parisienne. Who knew? In Paris the bakeries just said brioche or possibly grosse brioche and petite brioche (sometimes with flavor options) on the boards.

Here's a little fun fact for you: While brioche in proper French translates to sweet bun, colloquially, it also means beer gut. In case you have a friend who needs ribbing in French. 

Back to my quest: I was delighted to find a video by baker extraordinaire Anna Olson making little brioche buns where she showed the proper way to make the tête or head that is supposed to poke out on top. Is my tête too small? Absolutely. Live and learn. Next time I will make it bigger! 

Classic Brioche à Tête

You can warm the whole amount of milk (3 oz or 90ml) needed, use a portion to activate the yeast then pour the rest in when making the dough. Please note that you do need to start a day ahead of when you want to bake the brioche. This gives the dough the time it needs to chill, making it easier to handle. 

Ingredients

To activate the yeast:

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/4 cup or 60ml milk, warmed to body temperature

For the brioche dough:

2 1/2 cups or 312g flour

1 tablespoon sugar

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 eggs

1 fl oz or 30ml milk, warmed to body temperature

3 oz or 85g butter, softened at room temperature, plus extra for greasing the pan

For the egg wash:

1 egg

2 tablespoons water

Method

Step one is to activate the yeast. Put the yeast in a small bowl with the flour and warm milk. Stir to combine, set aside while you get the dry ingredients together.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. 

Add the yeast mixture into the dry ingredients, along with the rest of the milk and the eggs. 

Stir with a stiff spoon or Danish whisk until well combined. 

Add in butter and mix again until it is completely incorporated.

The dough will be super sticky so tidy it up as best you can into a ball using a spatula. 

Cover the bowl with cling film and leave to rest at room temperature for one hour.

Put the bowl in the refrigerator for 12 - 24 hours to chill the dough. 

When you are ready to bake, generously butter your brioche pan with softened butter and a pastry brush. 

Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and press it out. 

Fold it over a couple of times then shape it into a firm ball. 

Use the side of your hand to make an indentation near one end of the ball, like you are trying to form a neck and head of dough on a dough body. Make your small ball bigger than mine for a more authentic look to the finished brioche!

Use your fingers to create a hole through the dough.

Tuck the "head" under and up through the hole. This will give the brioche its classic shape with the knob on top. 

Place the formed dough into your prepared brioche pan. 

Cover with cling film (buttered or greased so that it doesn't stick to the dough as it rises) and leave to rise for about 2 hours. As it nears the end of rising time, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C in a fan oven or 425°F or 218°C in a conventional oven.

Whisk the egg and water together to create the egg wash. 

Working from the outside inward, brush the brioche very lightly with the egg wash.

Transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F or 180°C in a convection oven or 375°F or 190°C in a conventional oven.

Continue baking until the brioche is deep golden brown and the internal temperature reaches 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 25 to 30 minutes more.

Remove from the oven and let the brioche cool in the pan for just 5 minutes. Any longer and condensation starts to form and your crust won't be lovely and crisp. 

Unmold onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Let the brioche cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy! 

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for my fellow Bread Bakers to share their recipes. Our theme today, you might have guessed, is brioche-style bread. Many thanks to our host Kelly of A Messy Kitchen. Check out the links below. 

• Almond Cream Brioche Buns from A Messy Kitchen
• Brioche Pull-Apart Loaf from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Classic Brioche à Tête from Food Lust People Love
• Individual Orange Cranberry Brioche from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Single Rise Brioche Dinner Rolls from Sneha's Recipe

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin this Classic Brioche à Tête!

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