Sweet, soft and fluffy yeast dried fruit bread made with cream cheese and dusted with powder sugar for Christmas breakfast or brunch
When I first had the #25recipestoXmas idea I thought I’d share a week filled with holiday loaves of bread. Nothing wrong with it, right? As the time was approaching I got to a conclusion, no matter how to name the holiday bread, they are very similar.
For example Romanian have they Christmas bread Cozonac most of the time filled with fried fruit, nuts, poppy seeds. Italian Panettone is packed with dried fruit. German Stollen is jam-packed with dried fruit and most of the times marzipan. Greek Christopsomo is made usually with walnuts and raisins. Finish Pulla has cardamon and dried fruit. Czech Vánočka is filled with fried fruit. American holiday bread is usually packed with dried cranberries and nuts and let’s not forget the fruit cake.
Do you see where I’m going? All of them have dried fruit and/or nuts and, except the Greek Christopsomo, they are all sweet.
It was time to change things a little bit up. I wanted to make a sweet bread, filled with dried fruit but I wanted it light and fluffy, like a brioche without the extra eggs and butter. And I cam up with not one, but two amazing bread recipes that will stay soft even after few days. They are light, brioche like fluffy and just a little sweet but with the help of cream cheese and Greek yogurt.
Today we’ll talk about the cream cheese bread recipe. I remembered the cheese buns I shared last year that the cheese gives the bread a little moisture and makes it pillow-y soft. With 4 packages of cream cheese in the fridge it was time to do some baking.
With a little patience after a couple of hours I pulled out of the oven three little loaves which I immediately brushed with butter. Who doesn’t love a buttery crust?
The bread turned out way better than I hoped. And since I baked them in the bake-and-give loaf pans I received from King Arthur Flour they made a wonderful gifts for tow of my friends.
Yields 3 mini loaves
Sweet,soft and brioche like fluffy bread made with cream cheese and packed with dried fruit.
20 minPrep Time
30 minCook Time
2 hr, 30 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1/4 cup (30 grams) King Arthur bread flour
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) lukewarm water
- 2 tsp dry yeast
- 2 oz (56 grams) room temperature cream cheese
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar
- 2/3 cup King Arthur dried fruit blend
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 cups (360 grams) King Arthur bread flour
- 2/3 cup lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp butter (for brushing)
- powder sugar
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl add 1/4 cup bread flour, 1/3 cup lukewarm water and the yeast. Mix to combine and leave at room temperature for about 5 minutes until the mixture foams and it's almost double in volume.
- Add the cream cheese, egg, sugar, salt and dried fruit.
- With the dough hook on start mixing adding the remaining water and slowly the remaining 3 cups of bread flour.
- When all the flour is added increase the mixer speed to medium and let it knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. The dough should be soft and elastic and cleans itself from the sides of the bowl.
- With greased hands take the dough out and place it into a greased bowl. Cover with plastic foil and leave at room temperature for about 1 hour until doubled in volume.
- When risen, divide the dough in three, shape each piece into a log and place the mini-loaves into 3 greased paper baking pans.
- Cover again with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 25-30 more minutes.
- In the meantime, heat the oven to 375F.
- Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes or until the smell of fresh break is talking over your kitchen.
- As soon as you remove the loaves form the oven brush them with butter.
- Leave to cool before dusting with powder sugar.
For other Christmas treats check out #25recipestoXmas. You can also see the gallery on Pinterest or on Google+
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King Arthur Flour didn’t send me flour just for my holiday baking, but for your holiday baking as well! I love baking with King Arthur Flour, their bread flour is the best I’ve ever baked with. If you love bread baking as much as I do, than this giveaway is for you. You can also browse though their holiday gift ideas and take advantage of their $3 shipping and even get a $10 gift card when you spend $60 or more!
To enter the giveaway, use the rafflecopter form below. Please complete the mandatory entry, otherwise all other entries will not be valid.
The giveaway is sponsored by King Arthur Flour. I’ve received free products to use for my holiday baking but the opinions are all mine.
The giveaway is open until December 25th at 11:59 p.m. EST. The giveaway is only open to U.S. residents. Be sure a valid email address is included with your mandatory comment. Winner will be announced on this post. I will email the winner and if the winner doesn’t respond in 48 hours, a new winner will be chosen. Good luck!
Sending love your way,
Roxana
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