Bakery — Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread/Sweet Dough (Or Cinnamon Raisin) by dvdlee

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Bakery -- Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread/Sweet Dough (Or Cinnamon Raisin)
Submitted by dvdlee on August 29, 2004 at 4:44 pm

DESCRIPTION
Bakery -- Apple Cinnamon Monkey Bread/Sweet Dough (or Cinnamon Raisin)

SUMMARY
Yield 0 File under Yeast Bread/Rolls (not sourdough)

INSTRUCTIONS
This makes the best sweet dough I have ever tasted. It is basicly the sweet dough from Artisan Baking Across America. I'm still playing around with the dough and the amounts -- thinking about a bit of sour cream in the dough next time....

Flour (A/P, unbleached) - 100%
Milk - 31%
SAF Gold Yeast - 1.6%
Eggs - 35%
Salt - 2%
Granulated Sugar (castor is great) - 18%
Butter (unsalted, softened) = 29%
Dried Fruit - currents, raisins, etc. - 40%

Flour: 19.6 oz
Milk: 6.5 to 7 oz
SAF Gold Yeast: 2 & 3/4 teaspoons
Eggs: 4 large
Salt: 2 & 1/8 teaspoons
Sugar: 3.5 oz
Butter: 5.6 oz
Dried Fruit: 5 oz. finely chopped dried apples with 3 oz. finely diced fresh Granny Smith apple (peeled please!) OR 8 oz. currents or raisins

Heat the milk (saucepan or microwave) until the milk steams, has a slightly cooked smell and is around 180F. Let milk cool to between 105F and 115F. (I pour the milk in a stoneware bowl to help it cool faster.) You do need to scald the milk though because it 'denatures' some of the milk protein.)

Stir the SAF Gold yeast and the flour together in a bowl (a stand mixer is great for this recipe, but is not required.) Add the 100F milk. Turn the mixer on low and mix. After the milk is combined with the flour (it will not really form a good dough at this point - you just want to get them combined well) add the eggs one at a time while continuing to mix or stir. Mix until well combined. Stop mixer, cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 to 20 minutes (autolyse). (You still will not have a traditional 'dough' yet.)

After the autolyse, start mixing the dough again. Add salt. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together, but still adhears to the bowl (around 3 minutes) but begins to form strands in the doug. This is a very soft dough that will never clear the bowl and form a hard dough-ball. Don't hesitate to add the extra portion of milk (or a tiny bit more) to keep the dough really wet.

Continue to mix and add sugar in 2 additions, then add the softened butter in another 2 additions. (Mix until each addition is roughly incorporated before making the next addition.) Continue to mix the dough until it is satiney-smooth and soft and forms long strands. This completes the dough making process.

Kead or stir the fruit into the bread.

Put the dough in a buttered container at least 2 times its size. Spray the top of the dough with oil or some melted butter. Cover with oiled plastic wrap (cling film). Refrigerate for at least 8 hours or up to 2 days. (I let mine rest overnight to 24 hours.)

Shaping & Baking

Remove dough from the fridge, cut the dough ball into 2 (each 1/2 will become one loaf).

Sugar: 16 oz
Cinnamon: 5 heaping tablespoons
Whole Pecans or Walnuts: 2 heaping cups

Combine the sugar and cinnamon thoroughly together. Divide in half (or mix 8 oz. sugar and 2 & 1/2 Tablespoons together for one loaf). Set aside.

Butter two standard bread pans. Cut two pieces of parchment paper to give two 12" x 8.5" sheets). (If you have the pre-cut KA 1/2 sheet parchment paper, just cut 1 sheet in half.) Line the baking pans with the parchment paper so that paper drapes over the long sides and leaving the 4.5 inch sides bare. (You'll use the 'flaps' of the parchment paper to help lift out the baked loaf.)

Put the dough for one loaf on a well-floured cutting board and divide into 2 equal portions. Take one portion and roll it out into a log approximately 18" long. With a well oiled bench knife, cut the roll into 1" pieces. (Each piece should weight somewhere around .7 oz.) Shape the pieces (with well-oiled hands!) in balls.

Brief put each ball in water so it is submerged, remove with a fork, then place into another bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar. Roll and cover the ball in the cinnamon sugar with a spoon. Place in sugared ball in the pan. Continue this process until you have 14 or so balls in the pan (one good layer). Sprinkle the dough balls with 2 & 1/2 Tablespoons of the cinnamon sugar. Then take a hefty 1/3 of the whole nutmeats and scatter them over and around the doughballs. Be sure and press the nuts in between the dough balls.

Continue coating the balls with cinnamon sugar and place in another layer in the pan. Roll, cut, shape and roll the other portion of the dough for this loaf in the same manner. When another layer is complete, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar and walnuts over each layer. You should have enough dough balls to make around another layer and a half. (The loaf will have around 2 & 1/2 layers total.)

Lightly press down on the top of the loaf to "scrunch" the balls slightly together.

Spay a pieces of plastic wrap with cooking spray and cover the pan. Let them rise 2 hours to 2 1/2 hours until the dough has risen level to the top of the pan. (Note: timing is from a 72F kitchen area -- and remember, the dough was cold during the shaping process, to it takes longer to rise.

The slow rise is one of the things that makes this bread so good I think -- not only is it sweet, but the dough is fully developed and flavored from the overnight slow rise. You could add more yeast - but I think the flavor is better with this amount and the extra time...)

30 minutes before baking time, preheat oven to 325F. Bake until loaves are brown 40 minutes or so.

Let the loaves cool for 10 minutes. With a knife cut the loaf away from the 4.5" inch side then, grab the parchment paper and lift the loaves from the pan. Invert them onto a cooling rack, remove the paper, and let cool completely.

Serve the loaves upside down (the bottom of the loaf is the top.)

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