Blueberry-Apple Cream Cheese Braid

My fiancee is a genius.  It's (part of) the reason I'm marrying her.  I'd known this all along, of course, but she proved it again this past week.  We were thinking about interesting things to cook, and she suggested we combine two previous creations: Simple Cinnamon Apples and our Strawberry Cream-Cheese Danish.  The result was a super-pastry unlike my belly has ever experienced, which only confirmed that I'm marrying the right girl.

Like we did with the Danish a while back, we'll make this recipe in stages to keep everything simple and straightforward.  It's easiest to start by making the cinnamon apples.  This is the same process I used here -- so feel free to check out that whole post for more details.

For the apples, you'll need some apples, some brown sugar, a bit of butter, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.  The six apples shown in the picture are about twice what you need - you can easily get away with 3 or 4 small-medium apples.  Who doesn't like leftover cinnamon apples, though?

Peel and chop the apples down into small slices, then season them well with the cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt.  Give them a good stir and make sure they're thoroughly coated.

Melt about a tablespoon of butter in a skillet, then add the apples and slowly saute over medium heat for 10-12 minutes until they're tender, but not yet mushy.  Err a little on the firm side with these for use in the Braid, as you want the apples to have some texture after they're baked into the pastry.

Set the apples aside while we make the rest of the components.

It's time to make the dough for the pastry itself.  For the dough, you'll need all-purpose flour, some milk, baking powder, butter, and a bit of almond extract for flavor.

The dough is super simple to make - just combine all of the above ingredients in a large bowl and mix well, then press it together by hand into a large ball.

Next, roll the dough out between two sheets of wax paper until it's about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick and about a foot wide by 16-18 inches long.  We'll come back to the dough once we make something to fill it with.

Here's everything that goes into the center of the braid.  You'll need blueberry preserves, cream cheese, more vanilla, an egg, and some white sugar.

You'll see that we ended up with "spreadable soft" cream cheese - this was a mistake on my part, and the texture of the filling suffered a little bit as a result.  Whatever process makes the cream cheese "spreadable soft" made the filling a little runnier than usual, so stick to a plain old brick of Philadelphia if possible.

Add the cream cheese, vanilla, sugar, and egg to a large bowl and mix well with an electric hand-mixer until smooth-ish.  You'll never quite get all the lumps out, but don't worry about it.

Mark the dough out into thirds, and spread a thin layer of the cream-cheese mixture across the middle third. Top the cream cheese with a generous portion of blueberry preserves right in the middle.

Next, add a layer of the cinnamon apples right over the top of the blueberry preserves.  If you're feeling saucy, you can add more blueberry and/or more cream-cheese over the top of the apples. We added a little more cream-cheese and it was fantastic.

Slice the outer thirds of the dough into roughly inch-wide strips, and fold them over one-another across the center, alternating sides to form a "braid" structure.

Bake for 12-15 minutes at 425 degrees until the crust is just starting to brown.  If it gets much darker the bottom might burn, so err on the light side.

While the braid bakes, we'll put together a little topping.  We'll make a "frosting" out of powdered sugar, vanilla extract, almond extract, and milk, and top everything off with some toasted almonds. This bit is totally optional, but adds a nice extra nutty note to everything.

Toast the almonds with a pinch of salt in a skillet, and whisk together the sugar, vanilla, almond extract, and milk in a small bowl.

While the braid is still warm, drizzle lightly with the frosting, then sprinkle with plenty of toasted almonds.

At last, it's ready to eat!  Serve up inch-wide slices (it's rich!) and enjoy either warm from the oven or cold the next day - it's very tasty either way.

Recipe: Blueberry-Apple Cream Cheese Braid
Prep Time: 25-30 Minutes | Cook Time: 20-25 Minutes | Difficulty: Medium | Servings: 10-12 Slices

Ingredients

Pastry

• 2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 tsp Almond Extract
• 1/2 tsp Salt

Apples

• 4 medium Apples
• 1/3 cup (packed) Brown Sugar
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1 tbsp Butter

Filling

• 1/2 cup Blueberry Preserves
• 4 ounces Cream Cheese
• 1/4 cup White Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Frosting

• 1/2 cup Powdered Sugar
• 1 tbsp Milk
• 1/8 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 tsp Almond Extract
• 1/4 cup Sliced Almonds

Instructions

1. Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Peel apples and cut down into thin slices.  Toss with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla to coat.  Saute with butter 10-12 minutes over medium heat until tender.  Set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add softened butter, milk, and almond extract, and mix well.  Press together by hand until a loose dough is formed.  The texture will be rough.
4. In another mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth.  Add sugar, egg, and vanilla and beat until combined and creamy.
5. Press dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll into a large rectangle, roughly 12 by 18 inches. Discard wax paper and place dough on a greased baking sheet.
6. Mark the dough out by thirds lengthwise.  Add cream cheese mixture to the middle third, then cover cream cheese mixture with preserves.  Arrange a layer of apples atop preserves.  If desired, add additional preserves or cream-cheese on top of apples.
7. Cut the outer thirds of the dough into strips roughly 1-inch wide.  Alternate folding strips from opposite sides over one-another across the center to form a "braid."
8. Bake at 425° 12-15 minutes until pastry is golden-brown.  Toast almonds while braid bakes.
9. In a small mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1 tbsp milk, 1/8 tsp vanilla and almond extracts and whisk together with a fork to create frosting.
10. Drizzle frosting over braid while still warm and cover with toasted almonds.  Serve warm or cold.

Kristin's French Toast with Blueberry Sauce

'Twas the night before a road trip to visit my dad in Chicago, and all through the house, we were trying to think of something to make for dinner that wouldn't leave enough leftovers to feed a mouse.  I have a bit of an issue with leftovers - I make a lot of food.  Enough to serve at least for lunch, if not for several days worth of dinner.  Kristin suggested breakfast - specifically, French Toast.  Yum.  I love French Toast, but hers goes above and beyond normal French Toast.  The only hangup - we were almost out of syrup.  I figured I'd get creative in an attempt to contribute, so I made up a Blueberry syrup recipe on the spot.  It turned out pretty tasty.

I took care of the Syrup, and made some sausage for the side.  French Toast Master Kristin made the Toast itself, and oh, it was good.

The Syrup

The syrup was pretty simple, ingredient-wise.  Blueberries, sugar, and vanilla are the obvious necessities.  As for the liquid, I used a mix of juices we had on-hand.  We had a really tasty blueberry-raspberry-blackberry juice mix and some OJ in the fridge, so I went for it.  The OJ alone probably would have worked fine.  Cranberry juice would have worked pretty well in place of the Blueberry mix, too.

Nothing fancy here.  Just dump everything into a saucepan.  Start off easy on the sugar and add to taste as you move through the process.

Bring the mixture in your saucepan to a simmer.  It will get quite frothy for a while.  No idea what the chemistry behind this reaction is.  In any case, watch for a boil-over.  You don't really want this very sugary mixture hitting the burner.

When the froth settles down, it's about ready.  You have one of two options, here.  For more of a sauce, leave it alone and just spoon the goodness over your chosen target.  If you're looking for more of a syrup, blend it up, strain, and return it to the saucepan to thicken with a touch of cornstarch if you like.

I opted for the sauce this time around - the whole blueberries still in the mixture offered a great blast of sweet-tart flavor and some nice texture.

The French Toast

The French Toast portion of the meal was 100% the work of the Breakfast Dynamo seen above.

The ingredients: good, thick bread, preferably a bit stale, milk, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt.

Eggs come first.  Beat them into submission.

Add the milk and beat again until everything is nice and smooth.

Now add everything else: brown sugar (and plenty of it!), cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

It won't be smooth.  It won't be pretty.  It will be delicious.

Submerge each slice of bread completely and let soak briefly to maximize deliciousness.  The softer the bread, the shorter a period it needs to soak.  For our pillowy french bread, it just took a few seconds.  For something denser and/or more stale, give it some time.

 Now into the pan!  Low and slow is the name of the game.  Kristin always grumbles about how slowly she has to cook French Toast to make it really good, but it's so worth it in the end.  You want to get it cooked through, not just seared on the outside and untouched in the middle.

After a good several minutes per side, your toast should look about like this.

It's not a bad idea to distract yourself from the difficulty of waiting for all of the toast to be done by cooking up some breakfast sausage.  Sausage which, as it happens, is also tasty when it inevitably meets the blueberry sauce.

And soon, the work is done.  Constructing a giant French Toast tower is optional, but highly recommended.

Serve everything while still warm, spooning a generous portion of blueberry sauce over the french toast.


Recipe: Kristin's French Toast and Blueberry Sauce

Prep Time: 5 minutes   |   Cook Time: 10-20 minutes  |   Difficulty: Easy   |   Servings: 6-8

Ingredients

Blueberry Sauce

• 1 pint fresh Blueberries
• 2/3 cup Blueberry/Blackberry Juice blend (or similar)
• 1/3 cup Orange Juice
• 3 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tbsp Vanilla

French Toast

• 1 loaf French Bread, sliced approximately 1" thick
• 4 Eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup Milk
• 3 heaping tbsp Brown Sugar
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• Pinch Salt

Instructions

Blueberry Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer 4-8 minutes until foam subsides.

Optional: Puree until smooth and strain.  Add 1/2 tbsp Corn Starch and simmer an additional 3-4 minutes to thicken.

Serve warm over French Toast.

French Toast

Crack eggs into a large mixing bowl and beat well.  Add milk and beat again to mix.

Add brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt.  Mix well.  Mixture will not be smooth.

Immerse bread slices in egg mixture until well-soaked.

Cook slices at medium-low heat in a large skillet until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes per side.

Serve immediately with blueberry sauce and sausage or bacon.