April 1st HBin5 Bread Braid

Assignment: 1/2 recipe of Carrot Bread, pgs 157-158

1 loaf Olive Oil Spelt Bread, 96-97

We can make substitutions, but share what and how we substituted with the group in our blogs.

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Carrot Bread

Substitutions:

5 c AP, 1 1/2 c WWW (white whole wheat for whole wheat)

½ c spelt instead of wheat germ

Dried cherries

6 oz coconut milk

1 c coconut syrup (sugar free) in place of 1 c of the water

Blended the shredded carrots, water and coconut syrup together

After the way I felt about the red beet bread last month, I approached this recipe with concern. But I have made  quick carrot breads before and of course I love carrot cake. So I felt that luck would be with me on this one. And besides…with adding 1 cup of coconut, how could it be bad?

I loved the bread, as did my co-workers and neighbors!  But as my fellow HBin5 members pointed out it was difficult to taste the coconut. I had read their comments before I started this loaf, so I figured I’d be smart and add the coconut milk, and the coconut syrup. Even with that extra boost of coconut, I didn’t really taste the coconut. I think the wheat flour, even www, and the spelt flour just overwhelm the delicate taste of coconut.

But what to do with the dough. Come on baby, talk to me…what do you want to be? What would make you sing as you bake in the oven?

Suddenly I got the answer, cinnamon rolls AND monkey bread! Great. Wonderful. Inspired I said!

So I set out to make them. The cinnamon rolls were really nutmeg rolls. The recipe calls for 2 tsp of cinnamon which I did put in. But when I rolled out the dough for the cinnamon rolls, I decided that nutmeg would be better. I spread on real butter, brown sugar, crushed walnuts, and raisins and dried cherries. Rolled it up and sliced them up and put them in my springform pan.

This is the best nutmeg I've found.  It's very flavorful! 

Next was time for the monkey bread. I just took gobs of dough, rolled them around and put them in the bundt pan. Then I poured more coconut syrup around the dough balls.

Both the cinnamon rolls and monkey bread came out great. I did pour MORE coconut syrup on the monkey bread after I took it out of the bundt pan put the chunks of it in a container to take to work. That finally gave it more of a coconut flavor but still not as much as you would expect. No problem though. All of it was gone, gone, gone very quickly.

Monkey bread from the bundt pan on the left, nutmeg rolls on the right from the springform pan

mini monkey bread on left and cinnamon roll on the right.  I used giant muffin (silicone) pans for these. 

I will make the Olive Oil Spelt Bread on the 15th. It was way too close to Pesach (Passover) to make it for this braid. Since we don’t eat bread, pasta, drink beer or anything else with grains during this time of year it really limits my baking…but it’s only 8 days! So it’s matzah for now.

I’m looking forward to reading what my fellow HBin5 others did! If you would like to see also, just click here! http://www.bigblackdogs.net/