Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread

As we all know, I have the biggest kitchen crush on Joy Wilson, a.k.a. Joy the Baker. To my delight, she has teamed up with King Arthur Flour to host a "Baking Bootcamp". She is creating four different recipes using four different kinds of flour, and challenging her readers to make these recipes. Post pictures of your creations to instagram, with the hashtag #bakingbootcamp, and you're entered into a contest to win a year's supply of King Arthur Flour and a baking essentials package, put together by Joy herself. None of this is anything but awesome.

For her first recipe, using all-purpose flour, Joy has created a Triple Berry Cinnamon Swirl Bread. I'm not going to post the recipe, since I didn't make any changes. You can check it out on her site by clicking the link above. I will post some pictures I took of the process, and my finished product.

Yeast, milk, sugar, egg, melted butter = bubbly, yeasty soup.

After mixing and kneading, you end up with a neat little ball of dough to put in a bowl and let rise for an hour.

Cinnamon, butter, sugar. Perfect sweet, cinnamon-y filling you can make while the dough is rising. 

 

Spread the filling evenly on the rolled-out dough and place the rinsed and dried berries.

 

Roll up the dough, and cut in half, leaving about an inch connected at the end. 

"Braid" the dough and form a circle. Joy describes how to do this in depth. It's easier than I expected!

Quickly and carefully pick up the braided dough and place it in a cast iron skillet (or pan of some kind.) This was also easier than expected, but I can see the potential of it going badly. 

Brush the top with a beaten egg to get that perfectly browned top, and bake for 25 minutes, and you have a pan full of heaven. 

Let it cool and add a little powdered sugar, and it's perfect! It's so good! Like a big cinnamon bun, with a pop of fresh fruit.

Even if you aren't interested in the "Baking Bootcamp", you should treat yourself to this. I thought the recipe was a little intimidating, but it was a lot simpler than it seemed, and totally one of those recipes that makes you feel proud and accomplished.

Again, you can find the recipe here. Joy also has step-by-step instructions with pictures, which was really helpful!

Enjoy!