Blueberry Streusel Bread

Oh.

My.

This bread is fantastic.

You must make it.* If you think you can't bake, trust me, this is very doable. The dough recipe is from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, which makes bread-baking genuinely easy. If you still don't think you can do it, pay someone else to. Yes, it's that good.

A note: I used challah dough for this, and it was excellent. The recipe is on page 180 of the book. It would also be fantastic with brioche, which is similar to challah...but with more butter and eggs. Mmm. The brioche recipe is on the Artisan Bread in Five blog.

Ready for the recipe?

Blueberry Streusel Bread

Ingredients:

1 pound challah or brioche dough

Blueberries (to taste, about 1 to 1 1/2 cup)

Streusel topping

Streusel topping ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

Instructions:

1. Make dough in advance--it should be refrigerated for at least a few hours prior to using.

2. Lightly grease full-sized loaf pan.

3. Make the streusel topping. Mix flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Use pastry blender or food processor's "Pulse" mode to cut in butter until crumbly.




4. Stir oats into streusel topping.


3. Sprinkle dough surface with flour. Break off a 1 pound piece of dough (grapefruit-sized.) Cover with flour, then quickly form into a ball. Place on flour-sprinkled surface.

5. Use hands and rolling pin to stretch/roll dough into a rough rectangle. Short side should be about as long as the loaf pan; long side should be about 12-16 inches.

6. Liberally sprinkle dough with blueberries.

7. Liberally sprinkle blueberries with streusel topping.

8. Carefully roll dough, starting with short side. When done, gently pinch edge to the body of the roll to seal it.

9. Place roll in loaf pan, seam side down.

10. Let loaf rest for 1 hour 20 minutes. Near the end of this time, preheat oven to 350 degrees. At end of resting time, use kitchen shears to make several slashes in the top layer of dough.

11. Liberally sprinkle loaf with streusel topping, gently pressing the streusel into the top of the loaf. If some topping falls in between the loaf and the pan, even better!

12. Bake about 40 minutes, until lightly browned. Let cool a bit on a rack.

13. Cut...and enjoy!

*If you're dieting, make it anyway. When it's done, cut a thin slice out of the center, take the rest of the loaf to a neighbor, and then come home and eat your slice. It's the only diet-safe way to eat this calorie-full comfort food. The small slice will be worth the time you put into it, and your neighbors will worship the ground you walk on, spontaneously starting to mow your lawn each week in hopes of getting more Blueberry Streusel Bread.