This bread was delicious. Unhealthy, but delicious. In addition to using white flour and being enriched with milk and butter, the dough also includes a cup of sugar cubes! The cubes get lightly crushed before getting worked into the dough and form little pockets of melted sugar upon baking. A lovely -- if somewhat decadent -- result.

I actually ended up using some fancy saffron-infused sugar cubes for my rendition of this bread. They imparted a wonderful aroma and colour to the loaves and the saffron flavour came through quite nicely. Given that the sugar cubes were already flavoured, I decided to omit the cinnamon in this version. That said, I do think the cinnamon would have been delicious with either plain or cardamom-infused sugar cubes (which I may, in fact, try next time). In the meantime, this was a great success and I have no complaints about how it turned out.

Frisian Sugar Loaf

Slightly adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Ingredients

• 1 c. sugar cubes
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon (optional)
• ~750g all-purpose flour, divided
• 1/2 c. skim milk powder
• 2 1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 3/4 tsp. instant yeast)
• 2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 c. hot water (50-55°C)
• 3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Directions

1. With an ice pick or tack hammer crack -- but do not crush! -- the sugar cubes.
2. Toss the sugar pieces with the cinnamon (if using) and set aside.
3. Combine ~250g of the flour with the milk powder, yeast, and salt.
4. Add the hot water and shortening and beat at medium speed for 2 minutes.
5. Add the remaining flour ~50g at a time until the dough comes together in a rough mass.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15-20 minutes, adding a handful of sugar pieces every few minutes until all of the sugar has been incorporated.
7. Round the dough and place it in a covered bowl to rise for 1-2 hours¹.
8. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and divide it into two equal portions.
9. The cut edge will be sticky. Carefully pinch the edges together to close the seam and cover the sticky sugar.
10. Now round each portion of dough, cover, and set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, grease two loaf pans (preferably 21x11cm), line them with parchment paper, and grease the paper.
12. Once the dough has rested, shape each portion into a loaf by your preferred method and place the loaves into the prepared pans.
13. Cover and set aside to rise for 30-60 minutes.
14. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
15. Uncover loaves and slash as desired.
16. Bake at 200°C (400°F) for 15 minutes.
17. Reduce temperature to 180°C (350°F) and bake for an additional 30-40 minutes.
18. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
19. Turn pans on their sides on the cooling rack and gently pull on the parchment paper to ease the loaves out of their pans.
20. Place loaves on cooling rack and allow to cool completely before slicing.

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¹ Rising time will depend on the temperature of your room. Allow to rise until dough maintains the indent from a wet finger pressed ~2cm into the surface. If it fills in, it needs more time to rise. If it sighs and or sinks back, it is over-risen and should be knocked back immediately. Ideally you will catch it before it reaches the point of being over-risen. But as long as it's only slightly over-risen, the bread should still be salvageable. Just keep a close eye on it for any remaining rises. ^Back