Fruit-n-Nut Ring

Back to our life in New Jersey... our landlord, a very old lady, lived right next to us. One afternoon she caught me at backyard, wanted me to go to a bakery to pick something nice as she had a group of friends coming over. No problem, but I really needed her input for what to choose. So she told me to get a big pastry or cake, which was in a ring shape, with fruit preserve. Sounded terrific! Then she handed me 4 dollors... huh?... I was thinking, I should get back home (hers or mine?) to take out more money, just in case... But she ensured me that's enough.

On the way to the bakery, I was nervous, rubbing the 4 singles (dollors), hoping that they'd multiply.

After I got in the bakery, I spotted the pastry ring right away. It's big although kind of flat, with big drops of strawberry preserve, lemon curd and blackberry preserve on top. Eye-candy!

The cashier ringed up ... 4 dollars (phew!). Half an hour later, I came back again, this time, for myself.

Today I am not going to re-create the same fruit ring, although my inspiration does come from that "fruit" and that "ring". The original is made with danish pastry, but I want to be laid-back, to taste something lighter. I go to Angie blog for sourcing. I am very confident that her recipes all are wonderful, especially something that she's done repeatedly, like this one, must be terrific.

Angie's coffee milk buns are a ture beauty! They rise very high, are very soft and fluffy as well. In order not to "kill" such a delicated texture, instead of placing (weighting down) the fillings on top, I place them between the buns.

You might have known that I like to proof bread's dough overnight; I usually would cut down the amount of yeast. In addition, my tube pan is larger than Angie's, so I'd like to re-write the recipe in the following.

Recipe of Fruit-n-Nut Ring

(the yeast proportion is based on proofing the dough overnight in fridge)

yield: 8 buns, large

Ingredients

For topping: 6-8 Tbps of almond filling, plus 6-8 Tbps fruit preserve (not jam!)

For the bread:

• 2 1/2 tsps dry yeast
• 1/4 cup lukewarm water
• 300 g bread flour
• 100 g plain flour
• 60 g sugar
• a good pinch of salt
• 20g corn oil
• 180 g (adjust according to the dough) skim milk, lukewarm
• egg wash

Direction:

• Dissolve the yeast in water, wait 5 minutes.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine 2 flours, sugar and salt. And add in oil and milk, knead the dough until elastic. The dough should be feeling slightly wet, but not sticky.
• Grease a large bowl, place the dough in, cover with plastic wrap (pre-greased), proof the dough overnight in fridge.
• Next morning, take the dough out and knead briefly. Divide it into 8 equal portions (in between working on the dough, you might need to cover it with tea towel and rest a bit, so the gluten can further relax which will ease your shaping).
• Generously grease the tube pan allover with melted butter. Place the 8 doughs in. Cover with plastic wrap, let rise in 26C room temperature for about 1 1/2 hours or until double the volume.
• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Right before going into oven, drop some almond filling and fruit preseve between buns. Egg wash. Bake the bread for about 30 minutes. If the top burns too soon, place a piece of alumimun foil on top.
• As soon as the pan isn't too hot to tough, unmold the bread. Best to consume on the same day, but stores well for another day.

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