My Trip to Sioux Falls

A bit more of a delay in getting this post up than I thought there would be, but here it is.

Traveling with the dough actually worked really well. I'm not sure it would have worked out as well if the drive had been much longer but the 3.5 hour drive to Sioux Falls worked very well. My car was nice and toasty and I kept it covered with my sweatshirt to keep the wind from getting at it too much. Periodically I would make sure it wasn't trying to escape from the large ziplock bag it was in. The yeast might have been a bit too happy in my warm car surrounded by flour, apples, and sugar, it rose a lot.

Because I was going to be traveling with the dough I kept my recipe simple this time for my apple cinnamon bread. No eggs, no milk, nothing that could potentially spoil in a warm car.

Ingredients:

3 cups white flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 apples peeled and then grated
2 tbsp of yeast
2 cups warm water
2 tbsp of olive oil (I would probably use melted butter next time)
a few generous shakes of cinnamon

The grated apples with the flour

As usual I ended up having to add probably a cup or so at least of flour (I use the whole wheat for any extra flour I need), apples in particular add a lot of moisture to the dough, which I could have just used less water but I wanted enough dough for two loaves.

When the dough is ready to be shaped I roll it out to a little less than an inch thick and about as wide as my bread pan. Then I combine equal parts brown sugar and white sugar with a quite a bit of cinnamon. Combined it probably makes a 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Next time I'll try to remember to measure how much sugar I actually use. I spread the mixture all over the surface of the dough and then with my hands still covered in cinnamon and sugar I roll up the dough like a burrito and stick it in the bread pan and let it rise a second time before baking it. I like to do a little extra olive oil on top before baking to help it get a nice crust. Again I would probably try butter for this next time, I just like olive oil so much I don't usually even think about using anything else.

Bread turned out perfect and it was so great to be able to have fresh baked bread for my sister and her family without having to spend half my visit making it.