Vanilla Sweet Bread Recipes

Steps:

• For the sponge: In a small bowl stir together water and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Stir in yeast and flour. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside until bubbly and active, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• For the dough: In a large bowl, mix together all of the sponge, yogurt, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla or citrus zest. Add flour 1 cup at a time, mixing until the dough comes away cleanly from the sides of the bowl.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes, until soft and pliable but not sticky. Let dough rest while you clean and grease the bowl. Finish kneading the dough until it's smooth, supple, and springy.
• Place the dough in a greased bowl, turn to coat all surfaces, cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled.
• Gently deflate the dough and shape into desired shapes. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 35 to 45 minutes.

Steps:

• To make the sponge, stir together flour, sugar, and yeast in a small bowl. Add the water and stir until all ingredients are hydrated and make a smooth batter. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 60-90 minutes, or until the sponge gets foamy and seems on the verge of collapse.
• To make the dough, combine the sugar, salt, powdered milk, butter, and shortening in a 4-quart mixing bowl (or the bowl of an electric mixer, which is what I use). Cream together with a sturdy spoon (or the paddle attachment) until smooth, then mix in the eggs and the extracts. Knead by hand (or switch to the dough hook) and mix in the sponge and flour (I wait to change out the attachments until most of the ingredients are mixed, as it seems I have a problem getting the dough to grab onto the hook if I switch too early). Add the water, as needed, to make a very soft dough (more than likely you will not need the full amount of water, but it can vary due to factors such as the moisture content and protein percentage of your flour). The finished dough should be very supple and soft, easy to knead, and not wet or sticky. To achieve this will take 10-12 minutes with the mixer and close to 15 minutes by hand, as dough with high amounts of fat and sugar usually takes longer to knead because the gluten requires longer to set up. The finished dough should pass the windowpane test (see note below if you are unsure what this is) and register 77F to 81°F Lightly oil a large bowl, put the dough in the bowl, rolling it around to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap.
• Ferment at room temperature until dough doubles in size, around 2 hours.
• Remove dough from bowl, divide in 2 equal pieces, and form each into a boule. Lightly oil two 9-inch pie pans and place a boule, seam side down, in each pan. Mist with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap.
• Proof at room temerature for 2 to 3 hours, or until the dough fills the pans fully, doubling in size. (If you want to bake only 1 of the loaves, you can retard the second in the refrigerator for 1 day, but it will take 4 to 5 hours to proof after it come out of the refrigerator.).
• Very gently brush the loaves with the egg wash. Preheat the oven to 350F with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
• Bake the loaves for 50 to 60 minutes, or until they register 190F in the center. After 30 minutes, check the loaves and rotate 180 degrees, if necessary, for even baking. The dough will brown rather quickly (please see intro), long before it is done. When done, the loaves will be a rich mahogany brown.
• Remove the bread from the pie pans and place on a rack to cool. The bread will soften as it cools, resulting in a very soft, squishy loaf. Allow the bread to cool for at least 90 minutes before slicing or serving.
• *Windowpane Test: Cut off a small piece of dough and gently stretch, pulling and turning it to see if it will hold a paper-thin, translucent membrane. It it falls apart before it make this windowpane, continue to knead for another minute or two and test again.

Steps:

• In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk, sugar and butter. Heat until slightly warm to the touch then remove from heat and stir in the yeast. Let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Mix in the eggs, oil and the yeast mixture. Mix until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Grease a large bowl with 1 tablespoon of oil. Place the dough into the bowl and turn once to coat. Cover and let stand in a warm place until double in size, about 1 hour.
• Use remaining oil to grease a cookie sheet or 9x13 inch pan. For plain rolls, punch down dough and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll the pieces into balls and place them into the greased pan side by side. Let dough rise for 20 to 25 minutes, or until almost double. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until rolls are golden brown.

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, combine the first four ingredients. Cook and stir over medium heat until butter is melted. Remove from the heat; cool to 110° to 115°., In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the butter mixture, eggs, extracts, nuts and cherries and 4 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. , Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. , Punch dough down; divide into thirds. Shape each portion into an oval loaf; place in three greased and floured 8x4-in. loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. , Bake at 350° for 60-65 minutes or until golden brown. Cover loosely with foil if top browns too quickly. Remove from pan to wire racks to cool. , In a small bowl, beat icing ingredients until smooth; drizzle over cooled loaves.

Steps:

• In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
• In a large bowl, beat eggs until fluffy. Stir in 4 cups of flour, salt, sugar, milk, 3/4 cup melted butter, yeast mixture and vanilla. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and supple, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise overnight in the refrigerator.
• The next morning, deflate the dough and turn it out onto a floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 90 minutes. Preheat an oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
• Brush risen loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour, or until golden brown.

Steps:

• Follow directions for Master Sweet Dough, scraping in seeds from vanilla bean as directed.
• Coat muffin pan cups with melted butter. Punch down dough; divide in half. Roll half of dough on a lightly floured surface into a 12"-long log (cover remaining dough with plastic wrap). Cut log into 6 equal pieces. Cut 1 piece into 3 equal pieces. Roll each third into a 1" ball by cupping your hand and pushing dough against work surface as you roll it in a circular motion. Place 3 balls side by side in 1 muffin cup. Repeat with remaining pieces, then with remaining half of dough.
• Loosely cover pan with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let sit in a warm, draft-free area until dough rises about 1" above rim of muffin pan, 1-1 1/2 hours.
• Arrange a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 375°F. Brush tops of rolls with milk, then sprinkle each with 1/2 teaspoon sugar.
• Bake until puffed and golden brown, 18-20 minutes. Transfer rolls to a wire rack; let cool, 10-20 minutes. DO AHEAD: Let cool completely. Store airtight in freezer for up to 1 month. Let thaw at room temperature. Reheat on a baking sheet in a 350°F oven until warm, 5-10 minutes.
• Serve sweet rolls warm or at room temperature with Strawberry Jam.