Twisted Sweet Bread and Nutella with Orange Glaze

 Add More Butter is a lovely food blog, filled with beautiful images and inspiring recipes made by Hope, a Pastry Chef in a five star London hotel.  I started following her blog recently and am inspired by her ideas for flavors, textures, and delicious food.  I tried her Chocolate and Hazelnut Butter Buns with Orange Glaze and loved the results (so did everyone at Steve’s office) but I wanted more spice in the dough.  I also had a jar of Nutella to use, and wanted to shape the bread differently, so I made this version of Hope’s recipe in our 14″ camp Dutch oven.  

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup whole milk OR half-and-half
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour works fine, but if you have bread flour you’ll appreciate the flaky results)
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, very soft at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Nutella
• 1 cup hazelnuts, chopped
• 1 really big orange or 2 small oranges
• 4 tablespoons superfine sugar (regular sugar works but takes longer to dissolve)

Directions:

Prepare a 14-inch camp Dutch oven by cutting a long piece of parchment paper about 30-inches long.  Fold it into thirds lengthwise and cut three long strips.  Fold two strips in half lengthwise and save the third for another application.  Cut another piece of parchment paper to fit in the bottom of the oven.  Place the two long strips in a cross at the bottom of the oven then lay the circle of parchment on top of the crossed strips.  Clip the long strips over the edges of the oven to secure them in place.  The parchment paper strips and circle will help lift the bread out of the oven and make cleaning the sticky glaze a little bit easier.

Warm up the milk/half-and-half to about 100 to 110 degrees Fahrenheit.  Pour into a large mixing bowl, then stir in sugar and yeast.  Let this sit for a few minutes until the yeast starts to bubble and is fragrant.  If nothing happens, toss it all out and start over.

Measure flour into a bowl and set aside.  (I do this so that I don’t lose count of cups while I’m kneading the dough.)

Stir in warm butter and mix until it disappears.  Add eggs, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and salt.  Gradually add flour, 1/4 cup at a time until the dough starts to get sticky.  Liberally sprinkle the counter with flour then turn the sticky dough out and sprinkle again with flour.  Knead the dough, adding flour until the dough is smooth and no longer sticking to your hands. (You may not use all of the flour.) Knead for five to ten more minutes until you can pull a window pane.

Drizzle a little bit of oil or melted butter into a bowl that is at least twice the size of the dough or into a dough bucket.  Turn the dough around in the oil/butter to cover the bottom of the dough, then turn it over and repeat.  Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap or put the lid on the bucket and place in a warm, draft-free place for one to two hours until the dough  has doubled in volume.  You can also make the dough then night before and let it rest over night in the refrigerator.  If you do this, take it out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature before shaping the dough.

Turn dough out onto a large counter space (at least 30×30 inches) and roll the dough out into a large rectangle that is about 26-inches long and 16-inches wide.  The rectangle doesn’t have to be perfect, but needs to be at least 26-inches long.

Spread the Nutella out across the dough, leaving about 1/2-inch at the edges.Sprinkle 3/4 cup of chopped hazelnuts across the Nutella.  This is where the sticky fun begins!  Gently pick up one third of of one of the long sides and fold it over.  Then pick up the other long side and fold it on top of the other third, like you would fold a business letter only lengthwise.  Using a bench scrapper or a sharp knife, cut three pieces lengthwise.  For a nice clean cut, use a single downward cutting motion, not a back-and-forth sawing motion as this will rip the dough.  Make sure each piece is completely separated from the others.  Move each long piece apart and twist 8 or 9 times.  Braid the twisted pieces together loosely.Move the braid into the prepared 14-inch Dutch oven and shape into a circle.  The ends will be a bit messy, just try to tuck them into each other.  When the dough rises up, you will be the only person who knows it was messy!  Cover and place in a warm, draft-free place for an hour.

While the bread is rising, make the orange glaze.  Zest the orange into a small bowl, about 2 to 3 tablespoons of zest.  Squeeze orange juice into the zest, about 1/4 cup.  Stir in superfine sugar.  If you are using regular sugar, let the glaze sit for a while to allow the sugar crystals to dissolve completely.

Fire up a chimney of charcoal.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit by placing 11-12 hot charcoals in a circle underneath the oven and 17-18  hot charcoals on the lids.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  Bread is done when it is golden brown and the internal temperature is 195 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Let the bread rest in the oven for at least five minutes to cool the oven off a bit before adding the glaze.Spoon the glaze over the warm bread, then sprinkle remaining hazelnuts across the top.

Oh this is simply divine!  The hint of orange makes the chocolate and hazelnut flavors explode together and the cardamom and other spices sing quietly together in the flaky layers.  I love this recipe and hope you do as well!