I love experimenting with new ways of shaping bread and was very pleased with the results of this particular experiment. It is a messy affair to shape – I got almond filling everywhere, but the end result is very attractive. You start by rolling out the dough into a large rectangle and spreading the filling all over, leaving a small border around the edge, then roll it up, like making cinnamon rolls, slice the log in half lengthways, leaving about 3cm at the top attached; then, this is the messy bit – you twist the length of dough all the way along so that it resembles a coil, then place it in a cake tin in a spiral shape. Don’t worry if none of that made sense to you – I’ve included some photos of each step under the recipe.
The way the dough is shaped ensures that the filling is evenly spread throughout the loaf – you get some in every bite. I went for an almond filling made with marzipan, egg whites, butter, sugar and ground almonds, it is incredibly simple to make as you just blitz it all together in a food processor (you could whisk it together with an electric mixer if you don’t have a food processor). The dough is flavoured with vanilla – either the seeds from a vanilla pod or vanilla extract, and is enriched with milk, butter and egg. It has got to be the softest bread I have ever made, the loaf was incredibly soft and light, with a delicate almond and vanilla flavour. It was sweet, but not overly so; we polished the loaf off within a couple of days, eating it both for breakfast and snacks (it was addictively good…).
The dough itself is quite sticky, so is best made in a stand mixer, although you can knead it by hand if you want (I did), just be prepared to get a bit messy, and resist the urge to add any extra flour unless the dough is actually wet – sticky dough means softer bread. It is a good idea to invest in a dough scraper
, it helps immensely when your dough is stuck to the worktop and is also useful for slicing and portioning it out. I always like to let my dough rise in the fridge overnight; it not only splits up the workload, but lets you get the bread on the table quicker the next day and improves the flavour.
Almond Vanilla Twisted Bread
Ingredients
Bread
- 240 ml (1 cup) whole milk
- 50 g (scant 1/4 cup0 butter
- 1 vanilla pod/2 tbsp vanilla extract
- 500 g (4 + scant 1/4 cups) strong white bread flour
- 50 g (1/4 cup) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 10 g (3 tsp) fast action yeast
- 1 egg beaten
Filling
- 2 medium egg whites
- 200 g (7oz) marzipan
- 50 g (scant 1/4 cup) softened butter
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 50 g (2 oz) ground almonds
To Finish
- 1 egg yolk beaten with a little milk
- handful flaked almonds
Instructions
-
Place the milk, butter and vanilla in a pan and heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat and leave to cool until lukewarm (scalding the milk like this helps to make the finished loaf softer).
-
Place the flour in a large bowl (the bowl of your stand mixer if you have one) and add the yeast to one side and the sugar and salt to the other. Add the egg and the lukewarm milk (scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod if using, then remove the pod) and mix it all together until it forms a sticky dough.
-
Knead either with the mixer or by hand on an un-floured surface until the dough is smooth and stretchy. If you are kneading by hand it will be quite sticky to start with, but after a few minutes of kneading it will become smooth (you may need to prise it off the work surface with a dough scraper).
-
Place in a clean lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled clingfilm. At this point you can either let it rise for an hour or so at room temperature until doubled in size, or place the dough in the fridge to rise overnight.
-
If you have left the dough in the fridge overnight, let it sit out for about half an hour to come up to room temperature.
-
Meanwhile, make the filling. Place the egg whites in a food processor and pulse until they are frothy. Crumble in the marzipan and continue to pulse until smooth. Add the butter, sugar and ground almonds and pulse again until combined.
-
Line the base of a deep, 23cm/9in round, removable base cake tin with greaseproof paper.
-
Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface into an 36x46cm/18x14in rectangle. Spread the filling all over the dough leaving an inch gap around the edges.
-
Roll the dough up from the long side (like making cinnamon rolls),cut the roll of dough in half lengthways, leaving an inch or so at the top uncut. This next part is messy, be prepared to get almond filling everywhere...Twist the dough all the way along so that it so that it has a coiled appearance. Coil the length of twisted dough into the prepared cake tin in a spiral shape.
-
Cover loosely with oiled clingfilm and set aside to rise for an hour or so until risen and puffy.
-
Heat the oven to 200C/400Fgas mark 6.
-
Brush the risen dough with the beaten egg yolk and scatter over the flaked almonds. Bake for 50-60 minutes, covering with tin foil once the top is brown. It is done when the centre measures 94°C/200°F on a probe thermometer.
-
Leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack for at least half an hour before unmoulding.
I am sharing this with Totally Talented Tuesdays, Create Link Inspire, Foodie Fridays, Fiesta Friday and Foodie Friends Friday
Brighton Mama @ Our Seaside Baby
This looks wonderful – beautiful and tasty! I’ve made bread but have never twisted the dough to get this lovely outcome. Must try it 🙂 #tastytuesdays
hannahhossack
Thank you 🙂
lucyparissi
Can I move in with you Hannah? We will bake round the clock and get really fat… or open a café! This looks incredible and love the twisting technique… Honestly you should go for GBBO… Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare
hannahhossack
As long as we can live at yours so I can use your fantastic new kitchen! :p I umm-ed and ahh-ed about applying for the bake off…and then missed the deadline…next year maybe! x
Laura @ Life with Baby Kicks
Your blog always makes me feel hungry. And this looks delicious! Like a better for you version of an almond croissant!!
Steph @MisplacedBrit
Love these buns!! I just noticed that the two #cookblogshare images most screaming to be clicked on are both yours 🙂
– Awesome job… Not just with delicious bakes but with such gorgeous photography too!
#BakersAppreciation!
Kaila511
While it may have had a messy start, your bread came out beautifully. I always love breads in different shapes. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend! 🙂
Jess
This bread looks so rich and chewy; just the way I like it. Great job 🙂
Giramuk's Kitchen
This looks delicious!! I love a good sticky dough especially if it turns out like this! I love the flavours of Almond and vanilla together and never tried in bread like this… Looks absolutely gorgeous!!
Lili
Beautiful bread!!! 🙂
Lori
This sounds like the most yummiest bread ever!! Wow!
Elaine @ foodbod
What amazing bread!!! It’s a work of art, and I’m sure it will be very popular at this week’s party! Thank you so much for bringing it to Fiesta Friday 🙂
Michelle @ Giraffes Can Bake
This looks awesome! I love that shape, its a work of art! I need to start trying filled breads, gonna have to give this a go!
bitsofnice
Looks beautiful and super soft!
Julie is HostessAtHeart
What a gorgeous bread! Thank you for the how too pictures.
tentimestea
How beautiful! The almond filling is such a clever idea, I’ll have to copy that 🙂 And I love the way you shaped the bread; the slicing and twisting reminds me a bit of a babka, and then spiralling it made it so pretty!
Honest Mum
This looks so stunning, I just love your posts and blog, so glad I found you! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x x
chefjulianna
Such a beautiful bread! Your photos are stunning! 😀
Divine Spice Box
This looks crazy good ! i was still for a whole minute.. just admiring your pic of this beautiful Almond bread 🙂
skd
This looks beautiful 🙂
Mr Fitz
i want this so so so much!
cookingwithauntjuju.com
Good looking bread that I am sure tastes as good as it looks! I really appreciate that you provide measurements in cups, tbsp. etc. As of yet I am not too good at converting ingredients as I am afraid I will make a mistake and ruin the recipe I might make 🙂
Lydia Gerratt
I love the sound of your recipe, almonds and vanilla, and I can just imagine how wonderful it tastes – I love you photo’s too!
Aruna Panangipally
It was the picture that first caught my eye. Simply beautiful and the recipe is great as well!
petra08
This looks so great, I just want to tear a piece off and have it with a classic glass of milk! Delicious 🙂
Helen at Casa Costello
I love the idea of this – bet the marzipan tasted amazing. Thanks loads for joining in with #Bakeoftheweek again – really appreciate you getting involved. New roundup now open x
hannahhossack
I think it was the most quickly devoured bread I have ever made!
Winnie
This is a super gorgeous bread!!
Rebecca
How do I know if I should leave it for 50 OR 60 minutes?
hannahhossack
That depends entirely on your oven…when it is cooked it should measure 94°C/200°F on a probe thermometer in the centre of the loaf. If you don’t have a thermometer then I would leave it in for 60 mins (covered with foil) just to be safe.
Rebecca
Hello. I was curious how long you kneaded your dough for. I used my mixing with kneading tool until the sides cleaned up and then kneaded by hand for only a couple minutes. The poke test came back great but it wasn’t super stretching like the window pane test and the surface of the dough wasn’t entirely smooth.Thanks
hannahhossack
Hi Rebecca, I am so sorry for the slow reply, I totally missed your comment, my apologies. I can’t really remember how long I kneaded the dough for as it has been a while since I made this particular bread and I tend to do it by feel rather than by a specific time, but it was probably about 10 minutes of kneading; it can take longer than that though. Hope that helps and let me know if you have any more questions, I will try my best to respond more quickly next time!
Shelly
This recipe calls for marzipan. How is this different from almond paste. Do these things mean the same thing? I’m in the US if it’s just a matter of what it’s called. Thanks!
hannahhossack
Hi Shelly, marzipan and almond paste are similar but not exactly the same – marzipan is usually higher in sugar. We don’t actually really have almond paste in the UK so I always use marzipan in my recipes. Use marzipan if you can get it but almond paste should also work fine if you can’t.
Shelly
Thanks! I used almond paste because I had it and I added a little extra sugar although I probably didn’t need to. It was delicious! It did brown faster than I anticipated, so next time I will cover it sooner. Thanks for a fabulous recipe.
Amelia
This looks lovely. Can’t wait to make it. Can anyone provide the American measurements in CUPS and teaspoons, please? Please add me to your email list.
Amelia
So happy to see that you have already included the American CUPS and teaspoons. Yeah! Will love to try making this twisted ALMOND bread recipe. Thank you!!
Christine
To place the coil of dough into the pan ,do we be begin at the inside.center of the pan and work our way out, or at the outside and work towards the inside of the pan?
hannahhossack
Hi Christine, I think I started the coil from the centre and worked outwards (though it was a long time ago that I baked this so I can’t be certain!). I think it should work fine either way though.