DUTCH SUGAR BREAD---FRISIAN SUIKERBROOD CHAPTER ONE

I first learned about Dutch Sugar Bread from the lovely lady that sells the wonderful baked goods for the deBoer Bakkerij at the Holland Farmer's Market.  It was love at first bite.  She said the best way to eat it was to fry it in butter.  That sounded decadent, but wonderful.

deBoer Bakkerij Sugar Bread.

Cinnamon and sugar cubes wrapped in white bread.

To fry in butter, spread butter on each side of the bread.

Place bread slice in pan and cook each side until brown and toasty.

You can also do it on a griddle.  Looks a little beyond brown on this slice but still good.

Eet Smakelijk!!!!!!!!!!!!

My special parking space at the bakery.

The lovely lady who sells deBoer products at the Holland Farmer's Market.  She sells an enormous amount of sugar bread.

de Boer's stand at the market is always busy.  http://www.deboerbakery.com/

Sugar bread on the left, waiting for me.

Sugar Bread originated in Frisian, a province of the Netherlands.  Frisian is in the northern part of the country and borders the North Sea.  Frisian is famous for, among other things, its speed skaters, Friesian horses and Friesian cattle which we call Holstein.  The beautiful, big, black Friesian horses were at the Landdag in Hudsonville in September.  http://michigancottagecook.blogspot.com/2010/09/landdag-2010-annual-dutch-heritage-day.html


This post is titled Part One because it is my first experiment to find the perfect recipe for Sugar Bread to be made at home.  I have read of Sugar Bread made with crushed sugar cubes, but also with Swedish Pearl sugar.  I found a recipe in an old church cookbook which was very vague, but that I thought I could use to experiment with both cubes and pearls.  I also wanted to experiment with the cinnamon. 


DUTCH SUGAR BREAD PART #1


2 c sugar cubes
1 ½ t cinnamon
1 ¼ lb. bread dough, I used a loaf of commercial frozen bread dough

These are the directions that came with the recipe:  Cut sugar cubes in smaller pieces but not too small. Cut the cubes into the dough with a tool like a knife. Once the sugar is evenly combined, place in well greased pans. Let rise for about 60 minutes. Bake in 400° oven about 18 to 20 minutes. Note: No mention is made of what to do with the cinnamon.

Swedish Pearl Sugar is available at Ikea or King Arthur Flour -- http://www.kingarthurflour.com/ 

I had both the sugar cubes and the pearl sugar so I decided to put them both into some frozen, thawed bread dough to see which I liked better.  I thought I would be able to tell one from the other when the bread was baked but I couldn't.  Both seemed to work equally well.

 

I have a variety of different types of cinnamon on my spice shelf, but for this Dutch bread I choose Korintje Indonesia Cinnamon.  Korintje definitely looks like a Dutch word and according to Penzey's catalogue:  Fragrant Korintje cinnamon is as strong as China cinnamon, but smoother and not as nippy.  

 

I had no idea how to cut the sugar into the dough so I decided I would just roll out the dough, sprinkle it with cinnamon and then put on the sugar.  Roll it all up and start over until I thought I had enough sugar into the dough.  I also thought some melted butter brushed on the dough would act as a glue for the cinnamon.

Roll out the thawed dough on a floured board.  I barely have any counter space so I am going to have to do this on a table next time.

Melt butter.  Tom always tells people the blurry pictures are the ones I took.

Rolled out dough.

Brush dough with melted butter.

Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar, these are Swedish Pearl Sugar.

Roll dough back up.

Roll dough back out.

Crush sugar cubes.  Do this in a bowl as I had sugar all over the floor which made our wet-lick vacuum cleaner, Izzy, happy.

Sprinkle with sugar and broken sugar cubes.

Roll dough back up.

Roll dough back out and brush with butter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.

Sprinkle with pearl sugar.  Roll dough back up.  Next time I will knead the dough for a few minutes so I won't have the holes I had when my loaf was baked.

I put the loaf in my Grandma's 8-1/2 x4-1/2 inch loaf pan that I first sprayed with cooking spray.  My Grandma baked the family's weekly bread in this pan every Saturday of her life; the only exception was summer at the cottage.

Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise until double.  My cottage is drafty so I turn my oven on to the lowest setting.  Let the oven warm up.  TURN OFF THE OVEN.  Put the bread into rise in the warmed oven.

Brush risen loaf with butter and bake in preheated 400° oven for about 20 minutes.

Baked loaf ready to take out of the pan.

Isn't that pretty?

Too holey but still good.

I still had melted butter so I brushed slices with it.

I grilled slices on griddle until toasty brown.

Eet Smakelijk!  It has too many holes in it but it sure tasted like the real thing.  Delicious and decadent!!

CHAPTER #2

For my next experiment, I plan to use frozen bread dough again as I still have loaves of it in the freezer.  You can't buy it in a single pack.  I will make two loaves.  One loaf will only have sugar cubes in it and the other pearl sugar.  I am thinking that the de Boer Sugar Bread looks like it is made like Monkey Bread and not rolled up like I did in Chapter # 1 so I might experiment doing that too. 

Don't wait to try Sugar Bread until Chapter #2 is Posted.  The bread is wonderful and the taste authentic with the Chapter #1 Post.  I just want to make it fabulous.