Blueberries and cream cheese wrapped in a sweet yeasted dough. Yes, it really is as good as it sounds, and it is making me hungry again just sitting here thinking about it. The recipe and a lot more picture below.
This dough is a wonderful one from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible. I like it because it is sweet and rich without being too rich. Any sweet dough will do though.
Hensperger suggests making a raspberry filling and sprinkling a streusal on top instead of using egg wash. That, too, sounds excellent, I just happened to have a bunch of extra blueberries in the freezer and some extra cream cheese in the fridge so I modified the recipe to fit my needs. Obviously, you should adapt this to use whatever you enjoy the most, have easy access to, or have an excess of.
I think you could do a wonderful savory version of the recipe if you used a less sweet dough. Think about something along the lines of a mushroom braid with Swiss cheese, or a pesto and parmesan braid, or a sausage and onion braid. Hm? Any of them sound good? Well, they do to me.
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
For the sponge: mix the sugar, yeast, and flour together in bowl. Pour in the warm milk. Beat until smooth, then cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1/2 hour.
Add the eggs, salt, sugar, and one cup of the flour to the sponge. Beat until smooth. Then add the butter in small chunks and beat well. Add the remaining flour a handful at a time and mix in until a soft but kneadable dough is achieved and the butter thoroughly incorporated.
Knead the dough by hand or with a mixer until it is smooth and satiny, about 5 minutes.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise and room temperature until doubled in size, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Deflate the dough, recover the bowl, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, make the fillings before shaping the loaves.
Blueberry Filling: combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat while stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and let cool.
Egg Glaze: combine the egg and milk in a bowl and beat until combined.
Cream Cheese Filling: combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until combined
Once your filling has cooled off, take the dough out of the refrigerator and gently deflate it. Divide it into two pieces. Use a rolling pin to shape each piece into a thin (1 cm.) rectangle.
Spread your fillings in the center of the dough.
At an angle, slice the sides of the dough into tabs approximately 1 inch wide.
Alternating from side to side, fold the pieces in over the filling. When possible, gentle press on the tabs to seal the folds.
After it has been fully folded, glaze the braid with egg wash. Cover loosely with plastic (I place the entire baking pan in a clean kitchen garbage bag). Set aside to rise until doubled in size, approximately 45 minutes. While it is rising, preheat the oven to 350.
Just before placing the braid in the oven, glaze it again with any remaining egg wash. Bake on the center rack of the oven for approximately 35 to 40 minutes, rotating it once after 20 minutes so that it bakes evenly. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for at least half an hour before slicing.
Heaven!
Comments
Hi everyone, in about 30 seconds came to my mind a possible filling: a creamy blue cheese like Roquefort (or what about gorgonzola)? with crunched nuts and pears lightly cooked (lets say about 10 mins) with a good red wine, sugar (about the quantity I'd be careful cause pears could be quite sweets) and a bit of cinnamon...any comment is welcome, better if positive :-) Happy baking and happy day . Paolo
My braid..not very neat and I used only creamcheese. Cooked the creamcheese to thicken it for easy braiding. Very delicious! The recipe if interested:-
CreamCheese Fillings:
250g cream cheese, room temperature
90g castor sugar
1 egg
35g cake flour
150ml fresh milk
1 1/2tsp fresh lemon juice
20g unsalted butter
Method:
I skipped the cooking and mixed it up with the butter and lemon juice and added splashes of the milk beating with a mixer until I thought it the right consistency. I spread it onto the dough and then added my berry filling. It bakes to a soft cake like filling which is excellent! I used half a recipe because I made only one braid. No runs!
Dough for One Braid in Metric (conversion using metric cups where one cup water = 250g) See head of page directions.
Sponge:
Dough:
Blueberry filling:
Egg wash:
Any suggestions for converting this to a sourdough version? I am guessing longer proofing times but would like a guide. Thanks.
I am enamored by this bread! One is blueberry cream cheese (I found frozen, organic blueberries at Costco) and the other is chocolate. Unbelievable!
Blueberry:
Chocolate:
Thanks Floyd! Molly
I didn't have lemon so I added a bit of almond extract to the cream cheese. Toasted sliced almonds and sprinked over blueberries (wild huckleberries actually). Loved the balance of flavors.
These are just wonderful to look at, and will bet taste yummy too! However I am still having problems with pictures on these postings, half of them don't ever fill out, so am looking at the top 1/4 or less of a picture.
I can certainly see many braided loaves in my future, and will try all the fillings given, and any more I can dream up! Including fresh picked Saskatoons, which I can usually find easily on the road edges, and they are delicious, am not fond of blueberries, but do like huckleberries which also grow wild around here, will just have to try them all.
Thanks for the lovely sites and the great breads!
I had a chance to make this one as well. I substituted the blueberry filling for lemon.
Overall I liked the flavour, I think I'd like an icing on top similar to danishes.
Ooooh! Is that lemon curd? That's a good idea!
I know what to fix for my 3 grand daughters in two weeks when I go to visit---and I've got some time to practice the braid. Thnks, again, and it all looks so yummy.
bernie piel
I would like to try this with the wild blackberries we have around here. The only thing I'm worried about is if the blackberrries will go bad in the bread. I've tried keeping them in the fridge before and in 24 hours, they're growing mold. I know they can be frozen, but do you guys think that after the blackberries are baked, they'd be OK in the bread for a couple days without going moldy? I don't bake with fruits very often and I'm not sure how baking affects them.
Kelly
My vine rarely gives me all ripe berries at the same time. As I pick them, I quickly wash them under running water and let them drip dry, then drop them into a plastic container in my freezer. When I have enough, I make dough for the braid. That way they don't get moldy. With a little sugar the cooked berries keep longer, also in the bread.
I've never had a braid last longer than two days but if you wanted to stretch this out over a longer period, you might want to cut and freeze individual portions for later. This time of year, with the cool weather, a braid should last about 5 days covered with a towel in a cool room without any problems.
Mini
After having drooled over Floyd's Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid for a long time, I finally made it yesterday. I made half a batch and am glad I did. I would recommend at least 3 braids if you make a whole batch. The half batch was so big it was hanging of both ends of my 15" sheet pan. That being said, after breakfast this morning there is a big piece missing! It was great.
Changes and observations.
This makes a beatiful presentation and has so many options for fillings. I cannot wait to try some others. This is so much better than anything I ever bought in a store.
Here is the braid after filling and shaping, ready to apply egg glaze.
With egg glaze.
And here it is ready to bake.
Just out of the oven.
Confectioners glaze.
Crumb shot (makes me start drooling again.
Crumb close up.
Thank you Floyd and everyone that commented on this thread. I think I'll go have another piece. :-)
wayne
I saw this thread about a year ago and it has been on my list of interesting things to try. It was wonderful. The Family devoured it.
I made this bread last week and brought to work. They all loved it. It's so yummy and rich without being too rich.
I ran out of bread flour so I used the all-purpose flour instead. It worked well but I think bread flour would have helped the bread structure more and gave better gluten development. The bread still tasted nice nonetheless.
I reduced the recipe by half for one braid bake (and I forgot to reduce the egg wash amount in cream cheese filling, again, a minor disaster but it still worked).
I also used frozen blueberries which again worked really well.
More pics are here http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/2010/10/blueberry-cream-cheese-braid.html
Sue
http://youcandoitathome.blogspot.com/
Folks are still loving (and riffing on) this recipe.
Here's my take, a Cinnamon-Apple-Cream Cheese Braid. Really Yummy.
Thanks for starting this madness, Floyd.
Glenn
I am thinking it's about time I learn to braid my bread, and these pictures are sure making me hungry! I will be making a couple with fruit and cream cheese filling for a Christmas party at my husbands workplace. For many years now I have made a traditional Norwegian bread called Julekaka, and am thinking of making it into a braid just to see how it looks. I'll post a picture or two when I get them done, unless of course they end up in the "Ugly Loaves" thread!
Just finished making kaiser rolls using the King Arthur directions:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2008/02/28/all-tied-up-shaping-kaiser-rolls/ and Susan's recipe on http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2008/06/10/hamburger-rolls/
I found that to be pretty easy and they look great! Having hamburgers tonight....
I made a cranberry braid today to take to a party. The fruit filling was 2 cups fresh cranberries + 1/2 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water. I forgot to add cornstarch, but since cranberries usually thicken up pretty well, it was ok. I boiled it for about 7 minutes and let it cool overnight before shaping the braid. Otherwise, I followed the recipe. It tastes great!
This is a great recipe! I actually doubled this recipe to make 4 braids, some for friends and some for a christmas party we went to. I found that the first two braids I made were hard to handle, because they were so large. I used these for the party, but I split the other half of the recipe into 4 smaller braids which worked much better for me. They turned out great and were a wonderful treat, since I prefer things that aren't quite so sweet and these weren't sickly sweet like donuts.
I bought pie filling canned from the store, so I had apple, blueberry and cherry. Each can made 1 big braid, and 2 smaller braids, so I had leftover and when the original braids were gone I made another batch. First I changed the recipe just a little bit, by using a tablespoon of honey to my yeast/water at the beginning and then using splenda in the dough and cream cheese filling. This I made into 4 small braids again, stretching them lengthwise and using my baguette pan I was able to make long thin braids, and my french bread pan I made shorter thicker braids.
In the last couple weeks I have also used the same method of braiding to make small pocket sandwiches. I have a supply of pepperoni pizza braids, made with whole wheat dough and ranch dressing (doesn't like tomato sauce) for my son. I have also used it to make hot dog & cheese sandwiches, plus mini braids for 2 to 3 pieces for my husband and myself. I have found that it works well for these and allows them to vent through the braids so it doesn't blow out the sides. I use the baguette pan and make two to three per section, so I can make 4 to 6 pretty easily.These are the original braids that were hard to handle, plus the pizza pocket sandwiches. I think I have pictures of the smaller ones, but can't find them right now.
Just have to thank you for such an awesome recipe! Everyone who tried my braids loved them, and I am still hearing good things about them! Thanks....
Joanne
Thanks! Happy New Year!
-Floyd
with home made puff paste. Sorry the picture is so poor.
I will bake just about any desert and eat it faster. The lovely post made me want it badly but I had puff paste in the freezer and that was faster to filling the tummy. Speed won.
I made one loaf, half apples, half berries, to see which I want to make again for an upcoming visit by friends. They were soooo wonderful! We ate it up faster than I thought possible.
I made the slices a bit long, or thin or something, and ended up with a more complex braid - should have gone back to look at the photos. It was still beautiful and yummy, but next time I'll stick with the original way since I like the looks a bit better. I also made more of the cream cheese filling and was glad I did so, it is so tasty!
This was not a particularly tricky recipe for a novice like me, yet the results were amazing.
Thank you for sharing this, and thanks to the one who shared the apple version as well!
I always have a problem with berry/lemon fillings - under filling layer my dough became soggy, "wet" and I want that down part of my dough will be fluffy and good baked. . How it's possible to solve this problem?
I baked this braid yesterday and one and and half loaf is alredy gone.... This divinely delicious! ( Too much....)
Instead of very expensive and rare blueberry , I put thawed and cooked black currants.
You nailed it!
Paul
I finally got up the nerve to try this recipe and to my surprise, was not difficult. I had this batch of dough on the go when Floyd posted his raspberry version. As raspberries and blueberries are my favourite field berries and are (almost) always in my fridge, I used a half and half mix of berries. HEAVEN!
The only problem I have with this recipe is I can't stop eating the stuff . . .
I rolled the dough out thinner than the recommended 1 cm, but it didn't hurt the final result.
Ready for the oven.
Enduring the cooling process.
Great recipe! I will now have to try some of the many fine variations in this thread. Thanks for sharing!
Bake ON! Brian
Hello.....I am visiting family in Germany and baking an apple/cream cheese braid as a Sunday treat.
And the braids are looking good despite the baker's fast conversion to the metric system.
It has been said many times, but thank you for this wonderful recipe.
embth
If ever there was a sexy shot of pastry, this is it.....
Excellent as advertised :-)
We've bought the fundraising Butterbraids while my son was in school and I know they are not the healthiest of treats so when I saw this recipe I just had to try it. All I can say is incredible!!! And so much better than those fundraising things. Two thumbs up from the hubby!!! Here are my pix:
I meet on Fridays with a group to knit....I think I'll be making this for the next get-together! Thanks again!
Has anyone ever attempted this as a sourdough braid? I am giving it a shot this morning as I have made this a number of times as is and we really enjoyed it. I will take pictures of the finished products.
Has anyone froze these? How do they proof if so?
I made this bread, but used all of the filling for this bread because I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be halved but when I laid it all out on the dough it looked to be the right amount. This braided bread turned out amazing! I wasn't sure about the fruit filling because the only liquid in the mix was lemon juice, it got really thick, but turned out perfect. Not too sweet either.
Hi nice recipe any idea on conversion to sourdough?
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/88332#comment-88332
under: changes