This is one of my favorite Daring Baker challenges as I love yeast breads and especially, sweet ones. Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben of What’s Cooking came up with a great buttery sweet yeast braid filled with a cinnamon apple filling that really got me excited about this months challenge. I can’t think of anything I love more than smelling yeast bread baking in my kitchen. This seemed a difficult challenge when I first scanned the recipe and instructions, so I waited until just a few days ago to begin making the braid. Also, we have eaten so many desserts lately that I had to give the sweets a rest.
I followed the recipe and used the orange zest, the orange juice and cardamom, but used vanilla paste instead of vanilla beans. The paste is so much easier than scraping the tiny seeds out of the vanilla bean. I loved rolling out the dough and marking each turn. When I had rolled it out 4 times, I refrigerated it overnight so I could complete the braid the next day. While making the apple filling, I realized that I didn’t have any lemon juice, so I used fresh orange juice. It didn’t seem to matter in the long run. Braiding the dough after filling it with the apples was a bit of a challenge, especially at each end where I had a much thicker braid than in the middle. I guess with practice, I would be able to work that problem out. The dough took a long time to rise and I’m not sure I let mine rise enough. After working all day on completing the recipe, I finally was able to photograph the braid around 6 PM. Surprisingly, I had some beautiful natural light to work with.
The two Danish braids will serve a crowd and is a great make ahead bread.You can find the entire recipe on Kelly’s blog, Sass and Veracity, plus step by step instructions and some very lovely photos.
Wow this looks fantastic
Beautiful braid Lynnylu – doesn’t look like you had any hassles with it.
Your braid looks wonderful! I’m with you–I think this was my favorite challenge of the ones I’ve done. And now I’m intrigued by the vanilla paste–I’ve never used that.
Great looking result, congrats!Ulrike from Küchenlatein
Beautiful braid!
looks simply delish! it really was a very delicious challenge!
Lovely looking Danish braid. The colouring of the crust is perfect. Good job.
Wow, I really like how your pleats look. Well done.
Your braid looks great. And I’m with you and Di… best challenge to date.
Your braid looks beautiful!
I’ll have to look for vanilla paste. Your braid looks wonderful!Shari@Whisk: a food blog
Great job! Your braid looks so delicious!
your braid is beautiful, awesome job it looks so delicious!
Looks bakery window perfect!! Well done!
I’m glad it’s summer, because I wasn’t able to photograph mine until after 7pm. Yours looks absolutely stunning!
Beautiful braid! Well done!
Your braid looks so flaky and good. Beautiful braid.
GREAT job! Looks wonderful. Don’t you just love that natural light for photography!?
Beautiful braid! I agree – rolling the dough out was almost as much fun as eating it! 🙂
I loved this challenge, too! Great job, it looks really delicious.
Very nice! I’ve never heard of vanilla paste, but I probably need some!
Flaky and beautiful, what a fantastic job you did on the challenge. Great work.
Your braids look sooo lovely!!! Congratulations on such a wonderful job ^_^I am glad that you enjoyed the recipe as much as I did.. I thought that this dough was wonderful and easy to work with.. I’ve never seen vanilla paste but I will now be on the lookout for it, I am sure it beats scraping the tiny vanilla beans.
Your braid is beautiful with that perfect crust!
Agreed: loved this one! Your breiad turned out flaky and perfect! Well done again!
THat was sooo good. Those pictures look GREAT!