Red White And Blue Braid

My inspiration for this bread came from a couple different things. The first: Chemist Cuisinier, PhD and I did a photo shoot and needed to knead some bread. Can't let all that dough go to waste! The second: Great Harvest's (my fabulous place of work) Red White and Blueberry bread, which employs the use of blueberries, raspberries, and white chocolate chips baked into their white cake bread. I did not want to do a knock-off of this, however, so thus decided to go a mostly completely different route: blueberries (You can't give me too much flack about that. I mean, there aren't many other blue berries), strawberries, and french vanilla, all mixed into a cinnamon roll base (adapted from Cardamommy's cinnamon rolls), then braided together.

The bread turned out much much differently than I expected. It was about 4 times larger and the crust browned rather than keeping its various colors. When cut into, however, the colors were bright and braided. Of the three flavors, the blueberry was the strongest, but they were all fairly subtle. This was disappointing, because I was hoping for very strong and distinct flavors. I found I liked this bread better after it had rested a day. Then I toasted it and spread a little butter on top. Because it was so labor intensive and didn't produce the exact results I was wanting, I don't think I will try this recipe again, but it was definitely a fun experiment and produced a beautiful red, white and blue braid.

1 1/2 C Warm Water
1 Egg
1 pkg Instant Vanilla Pudding Powder
1/4 C Shortening
1/4 C Sugar
1/2 C Mashed Potato Flakes
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 T Instant Yeast
2 1/2 C All-Purpose Flour, plus about 2 cups
1 C Pureed Strawberries
1 C Pureed Blueberries
1-2 T Milk

Combine water, egg, vanilla pudding powder, shortening, sugar, mashed potato flakes, salt, and yeast. Then stir in flour until a soft dough forms. Knead until smooth, about 5-10 minutes. Divide into three equal pieces. In one piece knead in strawberries, and in the other knead in blueberries. They will be very gooey and slimy. Knead in flour until each piece returns to a soft dough. Let rise in three separate bowls until double in size.

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a cookie sheet;. After the dough has risen, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and pat all the air out. Roll each piece of dough into a log that is slightly larger in the middle than on the ends.

Take the three strands and squish together at one end. Braid strands together. Squish the other ends of the strands together, then tuck both loose ends under the braid.

Place on greased cookie sheet, brush with milk, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes.

Mahlzeit!
-Coriaunty