Different Fillings for a Delicious Braided Bread

I wanted to post these fillings' recipes on Friday, but it was not possible. We, along with friends, had planned a trip to see Dinosaurs fossils with our kids for the weekend. We knew that it would be one of the last beautiful weekends before the winter arrival.....Yes....winter arrival....and we know the meaning of winter.....-35C to -40C......and no chances to travel outside the city at all.

I could not post it, but I took my laptop with me in order to do it from the room hotel on Friday night. We left home, and we were half way through (it was a 4 hours driving trip), when our daughter started to get sick, and we had to come back home. She is doing well now, but we went to sleep at 3am on Saturday morning, and the rest of the weekend was very busy because of her situation. Nevertheless, coffee always help!.....and here I am posting the fillings.....

The fiilings for the braided bread that I have previously posted are:

1) Strawberry Compote and Cheese Cream

For this filling, I used the filling as described in Hilmar's recipe (please note that her filling recipe is for two braided breads). Nevertheless, I did my own strawberry compote as follows (for one braided bread):

150 grams of strawberries

30 grams of sugar (more or less depending on your taste)

1 spoon of rose water

Wash and slice the strawberries. Distribute them over a pan, and place on top the sugar. Put in the stove at a medium high temperature, and turn it to low heat once starts boiling. Add the rose water and cook it for three minutes. Let it cool.

Spread the cheese cream filling, and distribute on top the strawberry compote. Recomendation: Strain the strawberry compote before placing it on top of the cream cheese.

2) Marzipan (this is my recipe for my Galette de Rois)

This is a very easy filling. Nevertheless, because our kitchens and products that we used are different, I recommend you  to see the density of the marzipan as shown in the picture. If it happens that your marzipan mix is less dense then what is shown in the picture, then I recommend you to increase the corn starch.

For the marzipan:

150 grams of peeled almond

100 grams of powder sugar

2 eggs

75 grams of butter (soft)

2 tablespoon of corn starch

Almond essence

Grind your almonds until they are very fine, but not flour texture. Transfer it into a bowl, add the sugar and butter and beat it well with a fork. Add the two eggs, the corn starch and few drops of almond essence. Test for density, and add more corn starch if needed.

This amount of marzipan is too much for one braided bread (as I proved it in my first Marzipan Braided Bread). I will use this filling for two braided bread, but it is up to you and your desire. The second marzipan braided bread that I did has half of this filling, and it worked very well.

3) Orange Marmalade and Cream Cheese

For this filling, I used the filling as described in Hilmar's recipe (please note that her filling recipe is for two braided breads). Nevertheless, I just put Orange Marmalade that I had, and it works very well. You can use your own marmalades or jam, but using Hilmar's cream cheese filling.

4) Spinach and Cream Cheese

As you can see from the original recipe, this dough uses sugar. However, for this salty version, I used sugar only in the sponge, but not in the dough. Instead, I used more salt  (less than a teaspoon).

For one braided bread:

150 grams of frozen spinach

80 grams of cream cheese

30 grams of greek yogurt

15 grams of flour

1 egg

2 tablespoon of feta cheese (I crushed it with a fork before adding to the mix)

1 garlic (crushed)

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

Herbs de la Provence

Parmiggiano Cheese

Defrost the spinach, and boil it for three minutes. Drain it very well, let it cool and chopped it. In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, greek yogurt, flour, egg, and feta cheese. Mix it well. Add the pepper, nutmeg, and herbs de la Provence. Mix it well. Add the chopped spinach and the garlic. Taste if salt is needed. Check for density (as it is shown in the picture). If you need to dry it, then use grated parmiggiano cheese.

I use this mix for the spinach filling, I did not put cream cheese as a base.

For the road on our Friday's trip, I made a spinach and rice fritatta (I will post it later), and a braided bread with a mix of fillings that were left over from the other braided breads (we eat them both on Saturday and Sunday....no time for cooking this weekend....). I used a mix of cream cheese, marzipan, and orange marmalade. However, because I put more filling than expected, I let it raise the second time for 90 minutes instead of 60 minutes (time will depends on your kitchen's room temperature). I let it raise to more than a double; thus, it closed all the holes before I put it in the oven. The result was fantastic!. More filling and more spongy. Enjoy it!!

The last....but not the least braided bread

 

As you can see....you need to cut four squares in each corner before doing the filling.....What I did with that left over dough?

1) Empanada filled with cheese cream and marzipan

2) Empanada filled with spinach and cream cheese

3) Mini brioche filled with orange marmalade

The shape of this brioche is from the fantastic blog http://kanelaylimon.blogspot.com/    you can see it in the following link    http://kanelaylimon.blogspot.com/2010/09/habeis-visto-la-pelicula-julie-julia.html

I hope you like it.....It is a long posting, but it is better to have all the fillings in the same page.....