Cranberry Christmas Bread

December 18, 2015

Mmmmm. This bread was wonderful. It was gently sweet and tender. The crust was dry and crunchy, without being crusty, and the slightly caramelized flavour was deep, dark and smokey. Rick and I enjoyed this bread, and he asked me to make it again. I said yes, for sure.

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Ingredients

Volume Grams Ounces

Instructions

PREPARING THE CRANBERRIES AND NUTS

This also went smoothly, though it is my least favourite part of the process. I might have over toasted the walnuts.

Taking the skins off the toasted walnuts.

MAKING THE DOUGH

These days, I’ve given up making bread by hand because this time of year is too busy.

Dropping the biga into the cranberry liquid.

I found this dough to be very stiff and the walnut and cranberries weren’t incorporating well. And even after all the rising and resting, the dough remained stiff and a bit hard to work with.

The bread dough was stiff and wasn’t accepting the nuts very well.

The dough wasn’t soft and pliable. I had to take out the “equipment” (a rolling pin)

Where normally the dough pushes into place, this time I had to roll it into a rectangle.

Interesting that rolling the cranberries into the dough like a jelly roll produced a pattern in the grain of the bread. Still too many cranberries in the dough, as they were popping out all over the place.

Rolling up the cranberries into the bread dough.

LET THE DOUGH RISE FOR A SECOND TIME

For some reason, it took forever for the dough to double.

SHAPE THE DOUGH

I left the dough in the fridge overnight and in the morning I shaped it into a classic torpedo.

Measuring the rectangle with a kitchen ruler.

The dough has finally risen for the last time.

SLASH AND BAKE THE BREAD

This time, I want a good clean slash, and I wasn’t going to be defeated. So I sharpened and honed my knife, and the knife slid through the dough like butter.

Sprinkling the unbaked dough with rye flour.

Cranberry Christmas Bread just out of the oven.

Cranberry Christmas Bread, The Finer Cookie.

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