Blueberry Twisty Bread with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep: 30 mins | Cook: 50 mins | Total: 80 mins | Quantity: 12-15 portions

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Grate the lemon zest, put into a small bowl or container and set aside. This is used for the frosting but we use the juice for the jam and it's much easier to grate the zest from a whole lemon than one that's been juiced!
2. To make the jam put the blueberries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla into a heavy based saucepan and bubble over a gentle heat for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time
3. Stir in the chia seeds then gently bubble for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently
4. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool while you make the bread - you can speed the cooling process down by putting the hot jam into a heatproof bowl
5. To make the bread heat the milk and sugar in a saucepan or the microwave until it's body temperature. This doesn't take long so keep an eye on it - of you get the milk too hot, leave it to cool to body temperature before adding the yeast
6. Whisk the yeast into the milk, cover with a tea-towel and set aside for 10 minutes
7. Put the strong white bread flour into a bowl with the salt and butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips until no lumps of butter remain
8. Once the yeast and milk mixture has a frothy top, pour into the flour and stir together to form a dough
9. Tip the dough out onto your work surface and knead for a good 5-10 minutes, stretching and tearing the dough until it becomes softer and more pliable. Dust the surface and your hands with a little flour if you're find the dough too sticky
10. Put the dough into a large, lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea-towel and leave somewhere warm until doubled in size. This can take anything from 30minutes to over an hour dependent on ambient temperature
11. When the dough is sufficiently risen, tip out onto a floured work surface and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to a large rectangle roughly 18 x 12 inches (45 x 30 cm)
12. Drop spoonfuls of the jam all over the dough then spread out to cover the entire area except for a thin strip round each edge
13. Roll the dough up from the long edge as you would a Swiss roll. Keep the rolls fairly tight to help eliminate large air pockets
14. Cut the roll in half lengthways. Use a really sharp knife and make several slashes rather than one big cut as this helps not to squash the dough, giving a lighter, more open texture the the cooked bread
15. Cross the two halves, or tails, over each other, twisting as you go, sort of like a braided plait. Then roll it round on itself so you get a giant twisted knot!
16. Pop into your tin (I grease and dust mine with flour as it's a bit old and battered!) then leave somewhere warm to prove until doubled in size again
17. When it's almost ready to be baked heat your oven to 160 Fan / 180 C / 350 F / Gas 4 then bake for 45-50 minutes until well risen and golden
18. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely
19. To make the frosting simply whisk together the cream cheese, icing sugar and reserved lemon zest. Generously drizzle all over the top of the bread
20. Store any leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature

Recipe by The Cook & Him at https://thecookandhim.com/recipes/blueberry-twisty-bread-with-lemon-cream-cheese-frosting/