ABC: Raspberry-Almond Braided Bread

Hello ABC-er! I'm sorry I've been so absent lately. I actually made the Blueberry Hand Pies last month but never got around to processing the photos and posting! I will add the photos to my next ABC post.

For this bread, the recipe yield 2 breads and they looked huge! So I made 1/2. I was so excited about it. It looked and sounded so good and I figured I could use my stash of homemade lemon curd that I made earlier this year. Except, the lemon curd had turned bad. The top part has turned brown and the consistency is more like lemon butter. Also, the lemon smell is totally gone. So I had to throw it away. Sniff sniff....

I didn't feel like going to the store just to get lemon curd, so I improvised. I cooked a couple of handfuls of frozen raspberries with some sugar. I didn't measure any of them, just sort of eye-balled it.

Here is the sponge of the bread. Warm water, sugar, and yeast.

Mixed dough, ready for rising.

I started this in the morning and the kitchen is still pretty cool so it took a good 2 hours until the dough rise. By that time I was in the middle of preparing lunch (pizza!), so the dough ended up rising for a good 3 hours. But it still turned out good.

Rolled out. I used less cream cheese for a lower fat result :).

Frozen raspberry puree on top!

The bread's wings....

Folded.

After 1 1/2 hour rising. The little baby bread on the upper right hand corner was the 1 inch top and bottom of the rectangle bread that was cut. I didn't know what to do with them so I bunched them together and baked alongside.

Egg washed with some sliced almonds and coconut sugar sprinkles.

After baking.

Taste

It is pretty good. I really like the dough. It has a good taste and consistency to it. I also love how easy it is to make. I regret cooking the raspberry without any recipe - it's not sweet enough!

Recipe: Braided Lemon Bread

ABC is a small baking club led by my friend Hanaa. We bake once a month and for 2013 we are baking from the King Arthur website. To join or to read more about it, please head over to ABC main blog.