Apricot breakfast braids are a delicious addition to any large family breakfast. The yeast dough is stuffed with an apricot paste, make from dried apricots, and mixed with brown sugar. To make this bread into a dessert, simply glaze the warm bread with a thin confectioner's sugar icing.
Yield: 2 large loaves
Prep Time: 3 hours
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 3 hours, 20 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup milk, room temperature
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 med. egg
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, about
- 1-1/2 cups dried apricots
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup brown sugar
Preparation:
- Add milk and butter to small saucepan. Heat until warm, the butter doesn’t need to be completely melted. Set aside to cool until lukewarm, about 95 to 110 degrees. In large bowl, mix together sugar, yeast, salt, and 1 cup of flour. When milk mixture is cool, add to dry ingredients. Add 1 egg and mix well. Mix in enough flour to make a soft dough. You may or may not use all three cups of flour. Simply add the flour, a little at a time, until you have a soft dough you can knead. Knead dough for about 5 minutes. Grease a clean bowl. Put dough in bowl and flip the dough so that the top of the dough is lightly greased. Cover and let rise in warm place for about an hour or until double in bulk.
- While dough is rising, put apricots and water into a pan. Bring water to a boil and then simmer apricots, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until soft. Put soft apricots with any remaining water into a blender. Blend until all whole apricots are pureed into a thick paste. Scrape apricot paste into a small bowl. Add the brown sugar and mix well. Set bowl aside to cool.
- When dough is ready, punch down and turn out onto lightly floured board. Cut dough in half. Set one half aside. Roll first half into a rectangle that is approximately 14 x 8 inches. Spread the apricot paste at a 2-1/2 inch width down the middle length of 14 inches. Make 1 inch width strips, or fringes, along both sides of the apricot paste. Fold strips diagonally across the apricots, alternating sides. Carefully move braided loaf onto a greased baking sheet. Repeat on second half of dough. Cover both braided loaves and let rise for 45 minutes.
- Bake braids at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or until done. Remove loaves from baking sheets and let cool. If desired, apricot braids can be glazed. Mix 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar and enough water to make a thin icing. Glaze braids while warm.
