Eggnog Bread - experiment #2

I decided to use up the last of my surplus eggnog and try to improve over the recipe in my previous post.

Here's the recipe I used:

Ingredients

for the dough...

450 grams all purpose flour

450 grams eggnog (Southern Comfort brand)

1.5 teaspoons instant yeast

1.5 teaspoons salt

100 grams raisins

for the icing...

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

0.5 teaspoons dried lemon peel

Procedure

I first warmed the eggnog to around room temperature.

I mixed the dry ingredients, added the eggnog, and mixed up the dough in my stand mixer.

I covered the mixing bowl and let the dough rise for about half an hour, then kneaded it to get good raisin distribution, and formed it into a braided loaf.

The dough wasn't very warm because I didn't want to heat up the eggnog in the microwave.  Consequently the dough rose slowly.

I decided to bake the loaf around midnight.  I baked at 350F for 25 minutes, adding a cup of hot water to a pan to steam the oven when the loaf went in.

The icing I mixed up in a coffee cup before I baked.  

When the loaf came out of the oven I put it on a cooling rack and spooned icing over it.

Result

The loaf turned out rather pretty, thin crust, soft and a little dense on the inside, with a very rich flavor.  The citrus in the icing was a nice complement to the slightly eggy flavor of the bread.  A slice spread with cream cheese was totally decadent.  A good breakfast item, or even as a dessert.

The only thing wrong with this loaf is that it was a bit dense/heavy.  In the future it might be a good idea to warm the eggnog in the microwave and use SAF "gold" instant yeast instead of the SAF "red" that I used  to get a better, faster rise and produce a lighter, less dense crumb.  Of course starting earlier in the day to allow ample rise time would be reasonable too.