Happy..Happier..Happiest! ~ Orange Blueberry Pull Apart Bread

I was happy to chanced upon this recipe posted by Veronica.  It came at the right time when i was looking for something new to make with a punnet of blueberries that has been lying around for a few days.  Those blueberries though big and plump were not sweet, after eating a few son said 'Mum, why don't you make something with them?'

Happy to land on a suitable recipe at the right time and happier when i pulled this out of my oven, i thought it looked beautiful!  It would have been perfect if i had made a better judgement in apportioning the entire piece of dough.  If you look closely, you will notice that part of the loaf has a separation in the centre which is because they are actually 2 separate pieces. 

Love the sight of the folds in this loaf, they look like a paper fan to me and i love how some of the berries burst and stained the loaf with it juice :)

Just a sneak peek into one of the layers, i wasn't ready to pull it further apart, i wanted it to stay pretty a little longer :))

I hope this is good enough to show you that it's soft and moist with orange sugar and blueberry juice...need i say more?

Bread was delicious and i was happy with the pictures, dancing on cloud nine i was!  Give this a try, i highly recommend it!

Thank you very much for sharing this, Veronica!  Do hop over to see hers too and  she has some step by step pictures to guide you along.

Recipe
Reference: Minty's Kitchen

Ingredients

(A)

• 30g bread flour
• 1 tsp dried yeast
• 65ml lukewarm water

(B)

• 210g bread flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 3/4 tbsp honey
• 95ml  fresh orange juice

(C)

• 25ml vegetable oil

(D)

• 50g raw sugar
• zest of 1/2 orange

(E)

• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

(F)

• 15g butter (bring to room temperature to make it spreadable)

Steps

1. (A) In a small bowl, mix bread flour with yeast and lukewarm water into a thick paste. Cover and leave at room temperature until the mixture becomes foamy (and you will see honeycomb texture developing beneath the foamy surface).
2. Place dough from A, ingredients in B and C into the bread pan of the breadmaker (according to the recommended sequence stated in the instruction manual of the breadmaker).  Select Dough function.  Once the cycle completes, let dough rise until double the size.
3. [To determine if the dough has risen enough, poke a floured finger into the  dough.  Dough shouldn't spring back quickly when finger is removed.  If it does, it is under-proved and needs more time to proof further.]
4. Remove from bread pan then punch down dough to release trapped air.  
5. Mix together (D) and set aside.
6. Roll the dough into a rectangle (around 25 * 35 cm) and using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into 5 equal strips.  Brush melted butter on the first strip of dough and sprinkle evenly with orange-sugar mixture.
7. Stack a second strip of dough over the first one, brush with melted butter and sprinkle evenly with orange-sugar mixture. Repeat the steps with the rest of the dough strips until you get a stack of 5 strips, all buttered and topped with orange-sugar mixture.9
8. Then slice the stack crosswise through all the five layers, into 6 equal rectangles  (To be estimated according to size of pan (around 24*14* 7cm), in my case i will make it 5 the next time around). 
9. Transfer these stacks of dough into greased loaf pan, with cut edges facing up, side by side.  Gently insert blueberries evenly in between each layer of the dough.  Cover with cling wrap and leave it to proof until almost doubled.
10. Brush top with some milk and sprinkle on extra orange sugar (if there is any).
11. Bake  in a preheated oven at 175C for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.  
12. Remove the bread from the pan after 10 minutes and brush the top with melted butter if preferred.

Note:

1. This recipe is half the portion of the one posted by Veronica.
2. I have used my breadmaker instead of using a mixer to knead the dough.  If you are using a mixer, mix ingredients in B then add in A followed by C.  Knead until it is smooth and elastic (i.e. able to stretch it into a thin membrane without breaking).
3. I used zest from 1 orange only since the juice collected was enough for the required amount.