2.5.21
I was going to hold off posting this until closer to Valentine’s Day, but I thought, why not give you plenty of time to practice? And not so secretly, I’m hoping to get one more recipe up before next weekend. I’ve posted a few Valentine’s Day recipes in the past, like my Berry Pavlova and my Chocolate Cookie Sandwiches, even though I’m not a big Valentine’s Day gal. I don’t really need an excuse to eat chocolate and love on my sweet sweet husband because I do that pretty regularly, but this year feels different. I’m sure for the two people who actually read these posts, I’ve sounded like a broken record with the pandemic, bla bla bla, but honestly that’s what life kind of feels like right now. A very broken record. NYC has been strict and serious about keeping infection down, to varying degrees of success, and one of the only things that has really eased the harsh reality of what our lives have been like for almost a year, are my friends (and husband, always assume he’s included). The community of people I’ve curated around myself as I grow older continues to grow closer and more full of love as the years pass. Seriously, the older I get, the more ride or die with these idiots I become. When COVID hit, and everyone fell face first into ZOOM world, I was no different. My friends and I have used that virtual space to keep up with each other, some every now and then and some every week. A group of us began weekly game nights back in April that are still happening. We call it Game Night and while yes, we play games and get rowdy and dumb, we spend the first hour or two just talking with each other, catching up and chatting about out lives, world events, how those who are still out in the work force are handling it. And then we make inappropriate jokes on Jackbox until 2AM and call it a night. But these weekly virtual hang outs have been something of a beacon in this time. No matter how grim or great the week has been, we all have something to look forward to, something we know that will make us laugh, sometimes until our sides hurt and tears run down out face.
When my husband and I decided to take a leap and lease a car for the next few years (since our subway travels, along with international travel, are at a minimum or standstill for the foreseeable future) our first drives were dropping off baked goods at my friends apartments all over the city. We finally saw them in person for the first time in 7 months! It was wild and emotional and just another layer of the lesson to be grateful for the good people in your life. So this Valentine’s Day, I think I’m all in for celebrating love, whether it’s for a partner or spouse, or the community of friends who have been there through all these times. I’m giving the holiday a pass this year, as I embrace love as one of the few things that has remained steady in the past 10 months
The idea for these loaves was inspired by my friends who, during the pandemic, actually moved across the hall from me! Another bright light in these months has been having them a door opening away. I can pawn off something I baked on them or we go on walks to avoid feeling stir crazy. I had cut a piece of the starbread I made, still warm, to give to them, and my friend commented how it looked like a heart! And this post was born. Cranberries should still be available at grocery stores, but you can easily replace the curd in this recipe with strawberry or raspberry jam, or any type of curd if you don’t want the berry and Nutella theme. I tried to post more videos and pictures than usual to visually help in the process of making this. I know bread can be daunting and shaped bread even more so. This bread is best still warm from the oven, but kept at room temperature it is a perfect breakfast with coffee. I recommend making these loaves and handing them out to those you value in your life to show that love is important, but also carbs are important. And then make another loaf to eat yourself.
Cranberry & Nutella Heart Loaves
Ingredients
Heart Loaves
- 2 tsp active dry yeast
- 3 TBSP sugar
- 3/4 cup whole milk, warmed to between 105-110 degrees
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, cubed
- 2 1/3 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- Cranberry Curd (recipe follows)
- 4-5 oz Nutella spread
- 1 egg, lightly beaten with a splash of milk, for wash
Cranberry Curd
- 1/2 bag (6 oz) fresh cranberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- zest and juice from 1/2 lime
- 2 1/2 TBSP unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
Instructions
Heart Loaves
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, gently whisk together your yeast, sugar, and warmed milk, allow to activate for 5-10 minutes, the mixture should foam up
- Add in your eggs, butter, flour and salt, and using the dough hook attachment, mix on low-medium speed about 3-5 minutes, until dough comes together. It will be a sticky dough, but if it’s too sticky to handle add 1 TBSP of flour at a time until it can be held in floured hands
- Spray a medium bowl with nonstick spray, or lightly grease with olive oil, and form dough into a ball, placing it into the bowl, then flipping it to make sure it’s completely greased
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm area/room for 60-90 minutes, it should double in size
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or Silpat
- Once risen, punch down dough and dump onto a lightly floured surface*
- Divide dough evenly into four sections (I recommend using a kitchen scale so they’re as even as possible)
- Move three of the sections aside (return to greased bowl so they don’t dry out) and roll first section into a ball
- On a floured surface roll first ball into a 10″ wide circle, it’s better to be a bit smaller than wide, you can stretch the dough on the baking sheet if needed, but you can’t really go back once it’s stretched too wide
- Transfer circle to lined baking sheet, if you’re familiar with transferring pie crust by draping over a rolling pin, I recommend using that method to avoid stretching the dough any further. If that recommendation made zero sense, I recommend looking it up, it will make your pie crust and bread transferring much easier
- If your bread circle got a little wonky on the journey over, reshape as needed, it’s a forgiving dough
- Divide your cranberry curd in half, take the first half (about 4-5oz) and spread into a thin layer on the dough circle, living about a half an inch border around the outside
- Roll out the second section like the first, transfer to cover the first layer on the baking sheet
- Spread Nutella over this layer
- Repeat with third layer and cover with remainder of cranberry curd
- Roll out final layer and place on top
- Use a pizza cutter to trim any extra dough that’s wider than the other layers, try to keep the whole thing around 10″ (See gif above for layering and cutting action)
- If not already, move baking sheet to a solid counter or surface
- Place a small bowl or cookie cutter 3″ wide in the center of the circle, press gently to make an indent (See photo above)
- Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, make 8 cuts to create 16 strips around the circle that go from the edge of the dough to the rim of the center circle you created
- Take two of the strips next to each other and twist them away from each other twice, then press the ends together to create a point
- Do this with the 8 pairs of stripes, creating a star
- Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 20 minutes
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350
- After second rise, lightly brush with egg wash
- Bake for 25-30 minutes, there should be an overall golden color to the loaf, if the tips are baking too fast towards the end, make a few small tents out of foil and place over tips until the end of baking to prevent burning
- Once baked, allow to cool on baking sheet 10-15 minutes
- Transfer loaf to cutting board
- Slice the star bread by isolating two of the “tips” and cutting around them like a cake, creating a heart
- You will be able to make four heart loaves
- Enjoy immediately or keep tightly wrapped for 3 days at room temperature
Cranberry Curd
- Make the cranberry curd the day before you plan to make the bread
- In a medium sauce pan, mix together sugar, cranberries, lime zest and juice
- Over medium heat, allow to simmer until cranberries pop and turn soft, about ten minutes
- Pour the cranberries through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl and press juice through with a rubber spatula, keeping the skins in the sieve, throw skins away. Make sure to get ALL of the juice, when you think you’re done, keep pressing a little bit longer
- Once all is pressed through, whisk in butter until combined
- In another medium bowl, lightly beat the eggs and yolks, pour in about half of the cranberry mixture slowly, constantly whisking to temper the eggs
- As soon as the egg and cranberry mixture is combined, return that mixture to the original bowl with the remainder of the cranberry sauce
- Whisk together and then add back into the original pot over low-medium heat, continuing to whisk. It will start to bubble, then thicken quickly
- Once thickened, remove from heat and allow to come to room temperature, placing plastic wrap directly on top to prevent a skin from forming
- Chill in fridge overnight until ready to use
PS.
*This bread can be made over two days! Once it’s risen the first time, punch down, cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight. Allow to come to room temperature before continuing the steps to create the bread the following day.
Bread potion of this recipe was adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction, via Zoe Bakes
