We 3 gmas baked Orange Cranberry Bread
We used the recipe on the King Arthur Flour website... and believe it or not... we all made the same bread... Helen's lead in picture shows the beautiful filling in this sweet dough. Here are more of her pictures.
This is a very soft and lovely dough, and the smell and look of the grated orange peel in there is awesome... each strand of the braid has the cranberry and walnut filling rolled into it like a cinnamon roll... and then braided up all pretty-like. 
Then egg washed and sugared, and then Helen added some thinned down cream cheese frosting as a swizzle... looks yummy!!!
Thank goodness Helen has many to share this love with...
Barb didn't send us a crumb shot because she gave her grandson the whole loaf of bread to take to his work and share with his co-workers. Here is her loaf picture.
This is another great looking loaf and I bet those co-workers wanted to have at least one more! Barb mentioned that this bread seemed to be like a "stuffed challah" bread.
Now we get to my bread... and my braid spread open... I never know why but that is what usually happens to my braids... maybe I am not getting them tight enough???
To me this looks like a nice tight braid, but then it spreads when baking.
Even when it had doubled and was egg washed and sugared with orange sugar sparkles... still looked snug...
but... the center of those braids really took some time to bake to temperature. The taste is great and the texture is nice too...
I drained by homemade yogurt to make it a nice thick greek yogurt and used it as a spread below with apple butter. The taste was fantastic with the cranberry, orange, walnut, yogurt and apple thing going on... very nice.
I shared mine with my freezer (LOL) so I can share it again and again, with myself and anyone who comes by for coffee...
As usual it was a great baking day with my sisters... now it is Helen's turn to choose what we bake next week... looking forward to "baking with my sisters!" again... We came, we baked, and we had a lot of fun together in spirit, and through texting and emailing. This tends to be our gathering place. Thank you all for letting us share our bakes.
Happy Baking,
Barbra, Diane and Helen
Diane, Next time don't try and braid so tight. Keep it loose and when it proofs it will swell. Then when it bakes it wont split all apart.
I will do that... thank you so much.
invented by evil apprentices hell bent on making our braiding lives hell in the kitchen :-) I think loose braiding adn making sure that the bread is fully 105% proofed so it doesn't expand much in tue oven is what we want but I sure can't get it very often. If that was a boule it would better than fantastic.
I thought these were babkas at first and I was going to say we all baked the same thing this week..... but, yours are more citrusy. I made some very nice French toast with mine this morning and i'm guessing yours would be just as great! Isnt' it amazing how delicious this bread is? I shared half of mine with the freezer too. I mean, if you have to share, picking your friends wisely is a plus even if they are a little cold and spend most of their time in another room - just to get away from us :-)
Love your bake this week GMA's. I always look forward to your posts. Halloween is coming up - we will have to do something dark, orange, bloody and scary for that don't you think?
Well done and happy baking
Can that bloody thing just be red food coloring? Please.
LOL
Diane
a puree,( or coolie if you are Nadia G), of strawberry and red raspberry dripping from a big chef knife made of bread cutting into a bread shaped bread head with one eye being pierced by the blade. Well it was just a scary thought that will evolve over time to be really deary, weary and clearly demented :-)
we could coat a small pumpkin with strawberry jam... then wrap it in a thin layer of bread dough...bake it... and then when you cut into it to make a jack-0-lantern, it would "bleed".... acckkk, now I am scaring myself!!!
LOL
Diane
Love it!
Those all look so tasty! I wish you could email me over a slice for breakfast.
Great job all of you.
Look forward to your next bake.
Ian
my loaves are always too tall in the center, never have accomplished that braiding starting in the middle. It doesn't help that I usually can't remember whether to braid loose or tight. I tend to ask things like "Now, do I braid loosely so it stays tight, or is it that I braid tight so it stays tight?" That just gets me a look of disdain from my apprentice and no help at all. Those middle slices are the prizes for French Toast though so it all works out.
Thank you all for the comments, and advice too. It was fun to bake with my sisters again.
Have to think of that Halloween idea!
Barbra