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Friday, June 5, 2009

Apple & Sultana Sugar Wheels


I love working with yeast. Now that I have gotten over my initial fear of the stuff, I can't get enough of it. It's so much fun watching your dough come to life and the wonderful smells that fill your kitchen with when you are baking with it. I loved my chilli chocolate scrolls but I was in the mood for something more traditional and a tad less rich. I have a lot of apples around the house at the moment, they are so cheap right now! So I decided to try a recipe for sugar wheels from the Golden Book of Patisserie. I have no idea why they are called sugar wheels, they are just plain old scrolls.

The only con about baking with yeast is the amount of waiting time. I usually save these type of recipes for a weekend when I feel like something warm and bready for breakfast or afternoon tea and I have the time to go through the recipe at a leisurely pace. I waited until a little too late in the day to make these and got so hungry smelling it in the oven. In my haste to eat them I forgot to dust them with icing sugar, but it didn't really need them!

Apple and Sultana Sugar Wheels
(adapted from a Golden Book of Patisserie recipe)

For the dough:
7g (1 packet) active dry yeast
1/2 cp lukewarm (43 degrees C) milk
2 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp caster sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 large egg beaten

For the filling
100g butter, melted
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup sultanas
1 Granny Smith Apple, peeled, cored and diced
1 tsp cinnamon

For the glaze:
1 egg beaten
1 tbsp milk

Optional: icing sugar to dust

Whisk the yeast with the lukewarm milk in a small bowl until there are no lumps. Set aside for 10 minutes until frothy. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture, butter and egg. Mix together by hand or using an electric mixer with dough hooks on medium speed to form a medium soft dough, adding a little more flour if needed.

Mix with dough hooks on high speed for 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elastic. (Alternatively, transfer to a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes)

Cover with a clean kitchen towel or cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 60-80 minutes, until doubled in bulk.

Butter or line a large baking sheet. Dust your hands with flour, punch the risen ough own and briefly kneased it on a lightly floured work surface. Roll out the dough into a rectangle about 25cm by 35 cm.

Use a pastry brush to glaze the dough with the melted butter. Mix the brown sugar and cinnamonand sprinkle evenly over the dough. Scatter the sultanas and apple pieces on top and press the filling in with a rolling pin. Carefully rollup the dough, starting from a long side, to form a log. Use a sharp knife to cut the log into 12 slices.

Place cut side up on the baking sheet. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes, until the dough has puffed up. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

Just before baking, mix the egg with the milk and glaze the tops with a pastry brush. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm, or leave to cool and lightly dust with icing sugar.

12 comments:

  1. these look great. i can't explain why i never use yeast for making sweets (just bread), but this is inspiring me to experiment.

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  2. I love making bagels but I agree - the waiting time is far too long for me! But it's all worth it once you start smelling that wonderful bread smell when the rolls are inside the oven!
    Ok I'm officially going to try these rolls at home. I've been itching to make rolls (cinnamon or apple or chocolate or all of them!).

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  3. The apple bits look great. I'm impressed that even though you were hungry you still managed to snap some prep pics :)

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  4. YUM
    haha I like how those large chunks of apple and sultanas magically appear from nowhere as your scrolls bake

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  5. I agree, once you get over the initial fear of yeast it's so much fun to work with. I sometimes wonder what I was so fearful of! Oh hang on, that's right, kneading lol

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  6. I love the before and after shot. They look so lovely when they bake to a golden colour, and the recipe looks pretty easy. I could gain 10kgs just eating these

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  7. Lovely, I could eat these all day long! Need to get over my fear of yeast as well.

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  8. Justin - Maybe you should try bridging the gap by making sweet bread hehe - mmm brioche!!

    Trisha - Ooh i've never tried bagels before. Yep the smell really gets me, it's so mouth watering!

    Betty - Thanks! Haha it's a good thing I wanted to take photos of them or I would have eaten them all in one go and felt sick afterwards :)

    Grace - Haha yeah it's like an apple sultana surprise! Thanks :)

    Lorraine - Lol kneading is so therapeutic though! But I love the handyness of my dough hooks.

    Maria - Aw thanks! I think I probably am going to put on 10kgs if I make these too often!

    Belle - :) Thanks so much. Give it a go, I freaked out so much my first few times because the yeast did things I did unexpected things but so far I haven't had a disaster *knock on wood*

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  9. the golden book of patisserie seems to have quite a few good recipes in there! these scrolls look great!
    and i agree with you completely, getting past the first time of using yeast is the hardest!

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  10. It has been treating me well so far :) I only got it at first because it was so pretty! Thanks :)

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  11. :) Me too, I go through kilos of apples

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