Mistletoe Mocha Holiday Swirl Bread

Ingredients

Featured ingredient: Mistletoe Mocha Coffee 8 oz. Bag Ground

The Brew:

• • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 heaping Tablespoons Door County Coffee Mistletoe Mocha ground coffee
  • Pour boiling water over coffee. Steep 10 minutes [I used a thermal press-pot to develop more flavor]. Let cool slightly.

The Filling:

• • ½ cup oat ban
  • ½ cup flaxseed meal
  • ½ cup pecans or walnuts, finely chopped
  • ½ cup brown sugar
  • Put oat bran, flaxseed meal and chopped nuts in a glass bowl. Pour 1 cup of the Mistletoe Mocha brew over the dry ingredients, and allow to cool completely. Once cooled to room temperature, stir in the brown sugar.

The Dough

• • 1 Cup Mistletoe Mocha coffee, cooled to about 105º F (baby-bottle warm)
  • 1 cup cultured buttermilk
  • 3 cups bread flour
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 Tablespoon butter
  • 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
  • 1 ½ teaspoons salt
  • 1 ½ teaspoons rapid-rise yeast

Instructions

Hand or Machine Mixing:
Pour Mistletoe Mocha coffee and buttermilk into a large mixing bowl. Add yeast and mix till dissolved. Add butter and brown sugar. Stir in bread flour and whole wheat flour gradually, allowing to mix thoroughly before adding more flour. Sprinkle salt over dough after all flour is added. Mix thoroughly. The dough will be wetter and more sticky than most bread doughs. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, until doubled in bulk. Then proceed to shape the loaf as below.

Bread-Machine Mixing:
Place all ingredients in the mixing pan, in the order listed (unless your bread machine recommends adding dry ingredients first). Use “Dough” cycle. When the machine completes the cycle proceed to shape the loaf.

Shape the Loaf
Dust your counter or kneading board generously with bread flour. Dump the dough out of the bowl or pan onto the floured surface. Yes, the dough is sticky. You’ll need a rubber scraper to get it all out. Dust your hands with flour. Dust the top of the dough with flour. Knead three or four minutes, adding flour if needed to create a dough that is just barely not-sticky. It should feel tender and elastic. When formed into a ball, it should hold its shape but flatten easily when you press it flat with your palm.

Keeping the surface floured, press the dough flat then roll out into a roughly 6-by-18-inch rectangle. Be patient: the dough is elastic and will need some time to get that shape. It’s perfectly fine to lift the dough off the surface with floured hands and stretch it some – I’ve found that this can speed the shaping along.

Once the dough holds the rectangle shape, spread the cooled filling out over the rectangle, leaving about a half-inch margin of dough all around.

Roll along the long edge, forming an 18-inch rope of dough and filling. Pinch the seam and the ends shut. Turn seam-side down. Cover with a clean cotton or linen towel and let rest for about five minutes.

Prepare a 9- or 10-inch Dutch oven or round casserole by coating with cooking spray or vegetable oil. Gently stretch the dough rope longer, perhaps to 24 inches. Gently turn it into a spiral.

You may need a spatula or flat scraper to lift the dough off the surface. Ease it into the
Dutch over or casserole, cover, and let rise in a warm place for about 45 minutes, until doubled in bulk.

While rising, preheat your oven to 375º F. There should be a little Mistletoe Mocha coffee left over. This is a good time to heat it in the microwave and enjoy it while the bread rises. Bake, covered, 30 minutes at 375º F. Remove the cover and bake another 20 – 25 minutes to an internal temperature of 200º F. If you don’t have an instant-read thermometer, the top of the loaf should be golden brown and there should be a definite hollow sound when you tap the bottom of the loaf.

Turn loaf out onto a wire rack and cool completely before slicing. The filling will be sticky when hot and tend to tear the bread if you try to slice it too soon (I know, I know: just resist the temptation). The bread should be all the way to room temperature before slicing.
You can slice into wedges of flat slices. Wedges have a little more eye appeal and are great if the bread is eaten out-of-hand. Slices make excellent toast.