An enriched dough swirled with an easy 15 minute homemade blueberry jam.  Drizzle the top of this twisty bread with lemon cream cheese frosting for a delicious breakfast or tea-time treat!

Phil and I do love a twisty bread.  He’s ‘inherited’ my love of all things bread – whether it be making or eating it.  So on a weekend, he’ll often make a homemade loaf of some kind for us to snack on during a lazy Sunday afternoon or evening binge watch of something.  Sundays are a little bit sacred to us.  The days of the week and most Saturdays tend to be quite busy – so Sunday becomes the ultimate lazy day.  And while bread making can seem quite involved, there’s an awful lot of downtime when it comes to homemade bread.  After the initial weighing and kneading it’s mostly about waiting.  Especially if you’re making just a plain loaf.

New horizons for The Cook & Him …

Things have been a little stressful here lately.  We’re in the middle of moving from our 4 bedroom house into a fifth wheel RV.  Are we bonkers?  Maybe just a little.  But after a lot of discussing it, planning it and trying to condense everything we own into effectively a bedsit, the last thing we needed was a major snag at the last minute thanks to shady people trying sell us something that wasn’t even road legal.  Poor Phil was having to deal with actual work, TC&H website server issues, dogs who knew something was up, ferrying stuff back and forth to long term storage and then issues with the original people we were buying the RV from.

So, knowing Phil and how much he loves his belly, I thought I’d try and cheer him up with a homemade blueberry twisty bread.

It’s a bit of an adaptation of a couple of our other recipes.  Did you know we have an e-book?  All free and available here.  In it there’s a sage and walnut twisty bread which is one of Phil’s favourite to make on his Bread Baking Sundays.  I’ve jiggled the ingredients a bit, made the dough sweeter and richer by using butter and milk instead of just water.

The blueberry jam couldn’t be simpler.  It uses a LOT less sugar than commercial, shop bought jam and takes around 15 minutes to make from start to finish. It’s also totally adaptable to whatever fruit you have to hand or is in season.  Or even a mix of fruit.

Like a lot of things homemade – and especially bread things – they taste best the day they’re made.  But this actually tastes just as good the next morning.  I think the cream cheese frosting, delicately laced with lemon zest, helps to keep the whole thing moist.  This was perfect for breakfast but nothing curbs the post dog walk afternoon hungries like this as leftovers!

How to make this delicious twisty bread:

Start with the homemade jam.  It only has 5 ingredients and it really does only take just 15 minutes.  Put everything except the chia seeds in a saucepan and bubble for 10 minutes until some of the fruit has started to break down. Stir in the chia seeds and bubble gently for other 4-5 minutes until thick and jam like.  The chia seeds expand and gives the fruit that gloopy quality like jam without the need for a tonne of sugar and added pectin.  Chia seeds are pretty good for the gut too – though that’s about where any health benefits of this sticky sweet twisty bread ends!

I start with the jam because you want it completely cooled before spreading onto the proven bread dough.  Once it’s made, set it aside, leaving it in the saucepan as you’re using the whole lot in this bread.  Or you can speed up the cooling process by tipping the hot jam into a heatproof bowl.

Next is the bread dough.  Warm the milk with the sugar over a gentle heat (or in the microwave) until it’s just body temperature.  I talk a lot about this in any homemade bread recipe I post. It just means that when you put your finger in the liquid you can’t tell if it’s hot or cold!

Whisk the yeast into the liquid.  Cover with a tea-towel and put to one side for 10 minutes.

Weigh the flour and salt into a large bowl.  Then, using your fingertips, ‘rub’ the butter into the flour until no lumps of butter remain.

Once the yeast liquid has a frothy top pour into the bowl of dry ingredients.  Stir together until it just starts to form a dough then tip out and knead with your hands for at least 5 minutes, preferably 10.  To knead, tear and stretch the dough.  This develops the gluten which gives bread that chewy texture by trapping the air bubbles helping the bread to rise.

Put the dough into a large oiled bowl. You want a large bowl so it gives the dough room to expand easily.  Cover with a tea-towel again and put in a warm place until doubled in size.  This can take anything from 30 minutes to an hour dependent on ambient temperature.

When the dough has sufficiently risen, tip out onto a lightly floured surface.  Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a large rectangle roughly 18 x 12 inches (45 x 30 cm).

Drop spoonfuls of the jam all over the dough.  Then use a palette knife to spread it across the dough, covering all of it except a thin strip round all the edges.  This is because as you roll it, the jam will get squished out to cover these edges.

Roll the dough up from the long edge as you would a Swiss roll.  Keep the rolls fairly tight to help eliminate any air pockets.

Once you have your roll shape cut it in half lengthways.  Use a really sharp knife and make several slashes with it rather than one big cut – this helps not to squash the dough, giving a lighter, more open texture to the cooked bread.

Cross the two halves over each other, twisting as you go – sort of like a two braided plait.  Then roll it round itself so you get a giant twisted knot!

Prove again until doubled in size.  Once it’s proven heat your oven then bake the twisty bread for 45-50 minutes.

Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes. Then lift out and leave to cool completely on a cooling rack.

To make the icing simply whisk together all the frosting ingredients.  Dependent on the cream cheese you’re using, you might need to add a splash of milk to thin it a little.  Don’t add to much, add tiny amounts at a time – you want a thick but runny ‘batter’.  Or you can leave it thicker and spread it over the bread rather than drizzle.  Once the bread is cooled, generously drizzle the frosting all over.

If you find you have the willpower to stop eating this once you start please let me know how you do it 🙂

Looking for more vegan bread recipes?  Try these:

Garlic and Herb Butter Naan Bread

Easy Homemade White Bread

Pumpkin Spice Pull Apart Bread

Cheese and Tomato Pizza Tear and Share

Gluten Free Bread

Emergency No-Knead Bread

I’d also love to hear from you if you make this Blueberry Twisty Bread with Cream Cheese Frosting! Just leave a comment as it’s so helpful and I love to hear how the recipe worked out for you! Thank you so much!

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