Fruit Braid

This recipe is made with dried fruit filling. I got the original recipe from an old issue of "Taste of Home" and it said to use dried apricots. But I didn't have any apricots, and I did have a bulk-sized bag of cranberries, so I made it with cranberry filling instead. It was amazing! I took it to a church ladies function and got lots of compliments on it.

this was the photo from the magazine

this was mine...not quite a pretty, but still awesome!

Preparation time--the actual work is about 20 minutes, but the rise times will add another hour plus, and the cook time is 20-25 minutes.
Yield: 3 braids


BREAD
1 c water
1/2 c butter
3/4 c sugar
5 1/2 or 6 c flour (I used about 1 1/2 c wheat, and needed the lesser amount of flour)
3 packages dry yeast (1 package = 2 1/4 tsp, so that's 6 3/4 tsp needed)
1 tsp salt
3 eggs, beaten

In a mixing bowl, blend the sugar, yeast, salt, and 3 c flour. Set aside. Put the butter and water in a saucepan and heat just until the butter melts (120-130*). (Be sure it doesn't get too hot or you'll kill the yeast!) Add butter mixture to flour mixture and beat just until moistened. Add eggs, beat until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes.Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top.Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 30-40 min (Mine took much longer than that, partly because I have a cold Alaskan kitchen, and partly because I think I killed part of the yeast by having my water/butter a little too hot.)
While it rises, make the filling. 

FILLING
2 1/4 c chopped dried fruit (craisins don’t need to be chopped since they’re already small)
1/2 c water
(for the cranberries I also added about 1/2tsp of almond extract and 1/2tsp of orange extract)
1 1/2 c packed brown sugar
Put the dried fruit and water in a saucepan (and the extracts if you're doing those). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer until water is absorbed and fruit is tender, about 15-20 minutes. Transfer to a food processor; add brown sugar. Cover and process till smooth. (My food processor is a little one and would't fit everything, so I just put in the fruit, processed that, then dumped it back into the pan and mixed in the sugar with a fork.) Set aside.

When the dough has doubled, punch it down and divide into thirds.  On greased baking sheets, roll out each portion into a 12in x 8in rectangle (I rolled a little, but mostly just mooshed it out with my fingers, it was easier because the sides of the pan kept getting in the way of my rolling pin handles!) Spread filling down the center of each rectangle. On each long side, cut 1 inch wide strips about 2 inches into the center. (I actually did the cutting first and put on the filling afterwards, it seemed less messy.) Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across the filling. Pinch ends to seal. (Rather than pinching the ends, I just folded the two end strips straight up inside the loaves on both ends, and then did the alternating down the sides.) Cover and let rise for 30 min.
Bake at 375* for 20-25minutes or until golden brown. Remove pans to wire racks to cool. Combine glaze ingredients and drizzle over braids.

GLAZE
1 cup confectioners sugar
1-2 Tbs milk
1/2 tsp vanilla (a little orange or almond would be good here too, though I didn't do it)

Rhubarb Crunch (or Strawberry-Rhubarb Crunch)

This is the only way I've ever really liked rhubarb. I have a tendency to eat it for breakfast, but it's also good a la mode.
The original recipe is made with just rhubarb, but I've found that substituting in as much as half strawberries (and cutting the sugar down by 1/3c per cup of strawberries) is also really yummy.

Makes 9x13 pan

1/3 cups brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup softened or melted butter
3 cups rolled oats
Mix together. Press half of the mixture into a 9x13 pan, reserve the other half for the top. (I often do closer to 2/3 in the bottom of the pan, as the under layer gets the juices soaked in and is better than the top in my opinion.)

6 cups finely chopped rhubarb
3 Tbs flour
1 cup white sugar
Mix flour and sugar together. Coat rhubarb by shaking them all together in a covered bowl (or just dump them all into a really big bowl and stir a lot). Put filling in pan on top of under-crust. Cover with remaining crust mixture.
Bake 1 hour at 350.

"Breakfast Cake"

Most folks in the world call these coffee cakes, but in a coffee-free household, I grew up calling it breakfast cake, because that was when we usually ate it. ☺
This cake--especially the sugar topping/filling part--is moister than most other coffee cakes I've had. I like it that way, but if you like the really dry/crumbly ones then this probably isn't the recipe for you. If you melt the butter in the topping, it will be moist but also sink to the middle or bottom of the cake. If you use just softened butter it will be a dryer topping and will stay on top better.
One of our favorite things to do is layer sliced peaches in the bottom of the pan before pouring in the batter (if you use canned, which I usually do, be sure to drain them first!)

[sorry I don't have a photo here, this was posted spur-of-the-moment specially for SamauriMom who needed a coffee cake recipe!]

Makes 1 8x8 pan (double recipe for a 9x13 pan) (I admit I usually do 2x the cake and 3x the topping in a 9x13...)

Cake
1 egg
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
2 Tbs melted butter (the original recipe says shortening, but eww!)
1 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
Cream egg, sugar, milk, and butter. Add flour and baking powder. Mix well and pour into greased pan (over peaches or other soft fruit if desired).

Topping
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs softened or melted butter
Mix together with a fork, and sprinkle over top of cake batter (or drop in more-or-less-even little blobs all over).

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Ultimate Fruit Smoothie

A smoothie needs four things:
Something liquid
Something frozen
Something sweet
Something flavorful

I combine by using fresh fruit (flavor), frozen fruit (flavor, frozen), frozen juice concentrate (sweet, frozen), and yogurt or whole milk (liquid). (Sometimes I use yogurt AND milk, depending on the other ingredients and the proportions.) I don't like to use ice cubes, as that waters-down the flavor.
It is worth mentioning that not all fruits are created equal in the world of smoothies. I have found that grapes and melons make pretty poor smoothies. Apples give a strange texture if they are fresh, but are a great addition when frozen. Apple and grape juice concentrates are the best sweeteners--white grape and apple will not affect the flavor much either.

I love throwing a banana into almost any mixture. They are heathy, cheap, and add nice texture to a smoothie. I use them fresh at first, then they start getting a little brown, I put them in the freezer and use them frozen.

I start with a half cup or so of plain yogurt in the bottom of the blender, then add fresh fruit, then frozen fruit, then sweetener, then pour enough milk to just barely cover everything. (Note, if you have a lot of soft or juicy fruit, use less milk!)

Some favorite combinations:

Fresh peaches, frozen strawberries

Fresh kiwi, frozen strawberries, (can add fresh or frozen banana)

Banana and strawberry--either one fresh or frozen

Fresh raspberries, frozen apple

Fresh cherries, frozen apple, optional banana

Any mixture of berries

If you want to feel inspired, go down and look at the yogurt in the grocery store--any fruit combination that they make there is bound to be even better in a smoothie!