Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A successful experiment: blueberry fritter bread!

For my very first job I worked as a hostess and cashier at a bakery and restaurant. There were many delicious things (cookies, artisan bread, pies!) but the most popular item they carried was fritter bread. Fritter bread was available in a wide variety of flavors and eaten both fresh and as amazing French toast. Fritter bread was pricey back then and even more so now—fetching $5.99 a loaf. I recently got the idea to try making my own with no-knead dough from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. This is also my first attempt at (almost) step-by-step photographic documentation… the light’s not great in the kitchen—apologies!


I adapted the blueberry compote recipe from She Simmers. I ended up with about twice as much compote than I needed, but the extra is delicious in plain yogurt (here’s an opportunity to make your own, if you haven’t tried it yet) or on ice cream. If you don't want the extra, half the compote ingredients.


And, without further ado:


Blueberry Fritter Bread

1 pint blueberries, washed but still wet

1/2 cup powdered sugar (more if your blueberries need it)

1 pound no-knead Artisan bread dough (challah, brioche, or boule dough)

Splash milk, cream, or lemon juice and additional 1/4 cup powdered sugar for glaze


Put wet blueberries in small saucepan. Add 1/2 powdered sugar. Stir to combine. Heat over medium-low heat until thick and syrupy, stirring occasionally. Carefully sample to check sweetness balance and add more sugar if necessary.


Transfer half of compote into a large bowl and let cool until warm, but not hot. Enjoy the other half on pancakes, yogurt, ice cream, etc.


While the compote is cooking, pat bread dough to roughly ¾-inch thickness on floured surface.


With a bench scraper or knife coated with cooking spray, slice the dough into small pieces.


Add the dough pieces (separate as you add them to the bowl if stuck together) to the compote bowl and gently stir until all the dough pieces are coated with compote. Transfer mixture to a greased loaf pan and let rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour.


Bake in a 400 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until crusty on top. If in doubt, bake a little longer. There’s a lot of moisture in the dough and compote and you want to make sure it bakes all the way through.


Let cool in pan for 15 minutes then turn out onto wire rack. Let cool completely (if you can wait. I couldn’t). Gradually add milk, cream, or lemon juice to ¼ cup powdered sugar until a glaze consistency is reached. Drizzle onto bread.

There you have it!


See those blueberries? They're in the bread! That slice didn't last long...


Get creative with the filling- try raspberry, blackberry, strawberry, or apple. If you have any bread left over, I highly recommend French toast or bread pudding. Or, make two loaves and save one for later!


10 comments:

Natalie said...

Looks fantastic! The blueberries look so plump and juicy!

I want to do step by step also but my lighting is worse than yours! You can still clearly see what you are doing, which is helpful.

Apryl said...

That looks so delicious! I have to try some here when the weather cools down - it's too hot to bake here in Phoenix!

I love looking at your photos - you have such a good eye- everything always looks so good. :-)

Daniela said...

Esperimento piu' che riuscito, รจ una vera delizia da provare quanto prima. Ciao Daniela.

kar said...

Natalie: Thanks! I never really cared for blueberries until I went blueberry picking in Washington. Those were the plumpest, sweetest blueberries I've ever had and now I think they're delicious!

Apryl: We've been lucky to have a relatively cool summer here in MN, so it hasn't slowed down my baking quite as much as it usually does. I can't imagine what the heat is like where you are! Thanks for the compliment-- it's been a fun experience attempting to take good photographs.

Daniela: La ringrazio molto!

Ashlie and Alfred said...

I just found you on tastespotting. This looks so good, and I love the book Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day. I was just wondering which bread recipe you used - the boule/basic recipe is obviously healthier b/c it doesn't have all the butter - but I don't want to use that if it won't taste good.

Jennifer said...

OH YUM!!!!! I love fritters but bread like! Perfect, this is so great! I will be trying very soon!!

kar said...

Ashlie: I love that book too! I used boule dough, because that's what I had in the fridge. It tasted delicious, but I think it would be beyond delicious with the challah or brioche dough. I think the challah would be a good compromise- a little sweet, but without all the butter. Let me know how it goes!

Jennifer: Thanks again for coming by! Are you going to make blueberry or try another flavor? Please let me know how it turns out!

Ashlie and Alfred said...

Kar,

Thanks so much for posting this recipe and for responding to my previous question. I had some boule dough in the fridge too - I make my mine w/half whole wheat flour - it still turned out great! It looked almost just like yours (except a little browner b/c of the wheat). I can't wait to try it with some other fruits.

Anonymous said...

I wonder if this fritter bread was inspired by that wonderful place at the Clearwater Travel Plaza off I94? Nelson Bros Bakery/Restaurant? If so, then YES! The fritter breads there are simply scrumptious!

Anonymous said...

I came to Pinterest to find a fritter bread recipe that I could make with my enriched Artisan in 5 dough that I currently have in my refrigerator. Many recipes look like a muffin bread, I wanted one that would emulate the fritter bread by Nelson Bros. Bakery in Clearwater, definitely a bread, not a muffin! I am overjoyed to find this, I will try it today!