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Coffee Bread
1 egg, well beaten 1/2 cup sugar 1/3 cup shortening, melted 2 cups milk, scalded and cooled 1 cake yeast 1/4 cup lukewarm water 3 cups sifted flour 1/2 cup almonds, chopped 1/2 cup citron, cut fine 1/2 cup raisins 1/2 teaspoon salt To beaten egg add sugar and shortening creamed. Beat until light. Add milk which has been scalded and cooled; stir well, then add yeast which has previously been dissolved in lukewarm water, and two cups of sifted flour to make a thin batter. Beat until smooth. Cover and let rise until light--about one hour. Add almonds, citron and raisins, well floured, the remainder of the flour, or enough to make a soft dough, and lastly the salt. Knead well. Cover and set aside in a warm place, free from draught, to rise until double in bulk--about one and one--half hours. Divide into three parts. Make three braids; place in well greased pans. Let rise 30 minutes. Brush with egg, diluted with water. Bake in a moderate oven 45 minutes. While hot, ice with plain frosting.
A sweet enriched yeast dough in the German Kranz tradition, braided and iced. The ingredient list and the method disagree about flour, so work by feel rather than by cup count.
- The flour is the sticking pointTwo cups of milk and an egg will not come together with only three cups of flour; that quantity gives a batter. Follow the instruction to add "enough to make a soft dough" and expect roughly 6 to 7 cups in total, holding some back so the dough stays tacky rather than stiff.
- One cake of yeastCompressed fresh yeast cakes came in more than one size, but the usual modern equivalence is a 0.6 oz cake to one packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) of active dry or instant yeast. Dissolve active dry in the quarter cup of lukewarm water as written; instant can go straight into the flour.
- Scalding the milkScalding is usually explained as inactivating something in raw milk that weakens gluten. With pasteurized milk you can simply warm it to lukewarm, but do not add it hot or it will kill the yeast.
- A moderate ovenAround 350F. Braids of this size may be done before the stated 45 minutes; start testing at about 30 minutes, looking for an internal temperature near 190F and a hollow sound when tapped underneath.
- CitronCandied citron peel, sold in blocks or diced tubs near the holidays. It is markedly less sweet and more resinous than candied orange; candied orange or lemon peel substitutes acceptably.
- Flouring the fruitTossing the almonds, citron and raisins in flour before adding them helps keep them suspended and stops the sticky fruit from clumping into the dough. The recipe adds them after the first rise.
- Salt lastThe salt goes in at the end, after the sponge has risen; salt slows yeast. It works, but the dough needs thorough kneading afterward to distribute it evenly.
- Plain frostingA simple glaze of confectioners' sugar thinned with milk or water. Applied to hot bread it soaks in and sets thin and translucent; for a whiter, thicker coat, wait until the loaves are just warm.
- YieldThree braided loaves, each serving six to eight. The dough freezes well after shaping, before the final rise.
Coffee bread is an English name for the sweet braided yeast loaves that German, Swedish and Central European households baked for the mid-morning or afternoon coffee hour -- Kaffeebrot, Kranzkuchen, or in Swedish kitchens the cardamom-scented vetebrod. Several of the usual marks are here: an enriched, only lightly sweetened dough, candied peel and dried fruit rather than a filling, a braid instead of a pan loaf, and a thin sugar glaze brushed on hot. The two-stage method -- a thin batter sponge left to rise before the fruit and remaining flour go in -- was a common approach for heavily enriched doughs, giving the yeast a head start before fat and fruit slowed it down.