Apple Fritter Bread

                                             Apple Fritter Bread


I live about 40 minutes from an Amish community. This bread was an attempt to imitate, one of the wonderful breads, that you find there. It tastes, almost exactly like it, but I use more apples. I've always used Jonathon apples for this, but I think it would be great with sweet apples too, like golden delicious.
I think next time, I'm going to caramelize the brown sugar, first, to make it taste even more like a fritter.

Ingredients for the fruit:
2Tbl. butter
4cups diced apples
2/3cup frozen blueberries
1/2cup raisins
1tsp. cinnamon
1/4cup brown sugar
2tsp. vanilla

Ingredients for the dough:
3/4cup milk
2tbl. butter
1 packet dry yeast
1/4cup reserved juice from the fruit- add water if it's less than 1/4cup
1 /4cup brown sugar
1/2tsp. salt
1/2tsp.cinnamon
1/2tsp.vanilla
2-1/2cups flour- plus extra for kneading

Vanilla glaze:
1/4cup confectioner's sugar
1/2tsp. vanilla
1Tbl. softened butter
Combine, using a fork, until it forms a smooth paste.

Preparation:
For the fruit, heat the butter in a skillet, add all fruit ingredients.
Cook on low heat, until the apples soften, but not mushy. About 5 minutes.
Place a colander over a bowl, and strain the fruit, reserving the liquid. Cool. Leave the fruit in the strainer, until needed.
Wait about 30 minutes before, starting the dough, to give the reserved liquid time to cool.

For the dough.
Scald milk in a sauce pan. turn off heat and add butter.
In a large bowl combine the yeast, fruit liquid, and sugar. Allow to rest 15 minutes.
Add 1-1/2cups flour, salt, vanilla, cinnamon and cooled milk to the bowl and beat for 2 minutes until smooth.
Gradually add the remaining flour, mixing by hand, until the dough forms a ball.
Flour a surface and knead for a few minutes, until you have a soft, smooth dough, that isn't sticky.
Spray a bowl with cooking spray, add dough and cover.
Let it rise about an hour or until doubled. Now it's ready for rolling.
 
Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.
Spread 1/2cup of flour, over a large work surface. Shape the dough into a rectangle, flipping it in the flour a few times, to coat.
Roll the dough into an 1/8 inch thick, rectangle, smoothing a little flour over the surface.
Spread the cooked fruit evenly over the dough.
Roll, like a jelly-roll.
Cut the roll into about 1inch slices, and stack them like the photo below. It'll be a tight fit, you will have to nearly crush them together. let rise 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375* Bake about 1 hour, or until the top has browned and it is cooked through.
As soon as you pull it from the oven, spread the glaze, over the top of the loaf, let stand about 1 minute, to allow it to melt, then brush it across, evenly, with a pastry brush.

                               Cook the fruit, strain, reserving the liquid.

The dough should be soft, but not sticky. Cover and let rise, until double.

Pat the dough into a rectangle, coating it well with flour. Then roll into an 1/8inch thick rectangle.

                       Spread the cooked fruit, evenly across the dough.

                                      Begin rolling , like a jellyroll.

                                     Cut the roll into 1inch slices.

Put one roll in each corner, then alternate them, It winds up looking like a Celtic braid

                     After it was half full, I pushed them closer together.

Once I finally squeezed them all in, I pressed lightly, to get a flat, even top. Let rise 1 hour.

Bake about 1 hour, or until browned. As soon as it comes out of the oven, Spread the vanilla glaze, over the top. Give it a minute, to melt, then brush the glaze across the pastry. Cool. This bread is really good.