Holiday Bread

So, it's the season for holiday baking! I LOVE it, but at the same time, it's not good for my waistline! Yikes!

We were in Panera Bread the other day, and Mike found a little recipe card that said Holiday Bread on it. He read the description and gave me the card, wanting me to bake him the bread. I said of course, I would. Well...I looked closer at the card and realized that it wasn't a recipe for the bread, it was just a recipe for some fruit compote to eat with their bread. Of course they wouldn't give away their secret recipe!!!! So, not wanting to let Mike down, I decided to figure out my own way to make the bread, based on the card description.

Holiday Bread
I used a recipe for Challah bread, which is a slightly sweet egg bread. This actually made a massively huge loaf, so you may want to use half or 2/3 of the recipe.

• 1 1/2 C skim milk
• 2 pkg yeast
• 5 1/2 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/4 C shortening
• 1/2 C egg substitute
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 C honey
• extra flour
• 1 egg, slightly beaten (or you can use more egg substitute)

Fillings:

• 2 apples
• brown sugar
• cinnamon
  
• chocolate chips
• craisins (dried cranberries)
• golden raisins

Streusel Topping:

• 1/3 C flour
• 1/3 C chopped walnuts or pecans
• 1/3 C packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 T melted butter
• 1/2 t ground cinnamon
• 1/8 t salt

Icing:

• powdered sugar
• milk
  

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Microwave milk for 2-3 minutes until warm - do not let it boil! Stir in yeast; let stand 5 minutes.
2. Combine flour and salt in large bowl; stir in yeast mixture. Add shortening, egg substitute, egg yolk, and honey. Beat for 5 minutes.
   (I accidentally forgot the egg yolk, and it turned out okay. Also, I don't have a mixer, so I just mixed it with my hands and it came out great.)
3. Sprinkle with additional flour, and remove from bowl. Dough will be very sticky. I like to use oil rather than too much additional flour so that the dough won't get too stiff. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Turn off the oven. Cover bowl with plastic wrap; let rise in oven for 30 minutes or until doubled. Remove and uncover.
4. Peel and slice apples - mix with brown sugar and cinnamon to taste.
   
5. Punch down dough, divide in 4 sections. Try to make them all slightly different in size. Roll out the smallest section of dough into a rectangle. Spread apple mixture down the center of the dough lengthwise. Roll dough up cinnamon-roll style.
6. Roll out the next largest ball of dough into a rectangle the same length as the first roll, but a little wider. Sprinkle liberally with chocolate chips. Roll the chocolate chip layer around the apple layer.
7. Roll out the next ball of dough, and sprinkle with cranberries. Repeat step 6.
8. Roll out the last ball of dough, and sprinkle with golden raisins. Repeat previous step.
9. Cover loaf with plastic wrap and let rise in warm, draft free place for 25-30 minutes or until doubled. Brush evenly with beaten egg. Combine all streusel topping ingredients until crumbly, and cover loaf with topping.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until golden. Toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.
    Because my loaf was so massive, it ended up taking closer to 45-50 minutes to bake it all the way through.
11. Once loaf is completely cool, it is time for icing! I used about 1/2 C of powdered sugar, and slowly added milk, constantly stirring, until it reached the desired consistency. Drizzle over top of loaf.

This turned out really well! It is actually a little sweet for my taste - the combination of all the goodies is a bit much for me, but Mike loves it! I would definitely make it again, but definitely smaller, and I might leave out either the chocolate or the cranberries.