Red, White, and Blueberry Bread #Recipe by @LibbyKlein #gluten-free #Bread #IndependanceDay

Libby Klein I'm obsessed with bread. Probably because I'm not allowed to have it most of the time. We have three Great Harvest Bakeries near our home that I used to take the kids to when they were little. Back then the bakery would give you a free slice of bread to try before you buy. I've tried that apple scrapple about three dozen times! One of the breads they offer in July is Red, White, and Blueberry. I'm  pretty sure the white is the bread part of the equation, but a nagging memory tells me this had white chocolate chips in it at one time. I could be making that up. I do that. This is my version of the seasonal fruity bread. It makes me miss going to Great Harvest, but also fills that part of me that still longs for those wonderful loaves that I have to avoid. I hope you love it like i do. Tell me about your favorite bakery in the comments.

Gluten-Free 

Red, White, and Blueberry Bread

Ingredients

1 cup dried blueberries and cherries
1 cup of hot water that will be discarded after use
1 cup whole milk 
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp instant yeast
1 tbsp ground psyllium husks
3½ cups gluten free bread flour blend
1¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, very soft or melted
1 Tablespoon cranberry orange sugar - optional

 

Directions

In a glass mixing bowl or large measuring cup, add your dried fruits. Add one cup of hot water and microwave for two minutes.

In the bowl of a stand, pour in the milk, followed by the eggs, yeast, psyllium husks, and sugar. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using the paddle attachment, turn the mixer on to low speed. Once the dough has come together, add the soft butter a tablespoon at a time.

Drain the water off your now rehydrated fruits. Let them cool while you do the next step.

Crank up the speed to medium and allow the dough to knead for 5 minutes.

Add the drained and cooled fruits to the dough. Remove the paddle attachment and use a rubber scraper to scrape the sides of the bowl. Form the dough into a ball and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. 

Sprinkle with fancy sugar if you have it. I had this lovely cranberry orange sugar. If you have a ring, say from a small spring form pan, grease it up and place it around the dough to force it to rise up instead of spread out.

Alternatively, you could make a ring out of foil but I don’t know if it would hold. Set it someplace warm to let it rise and double in size. I love to stick mine in the cold oven with a pan of just boiled water underneath.

Bake at 400° F for 15 minutes. Cover the loaf with foil and reduce the temperature to 325° F and continue to bake for 45-60 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the center registers at 190-200° F. Allow the loaf to cool all the way. This made fabulous toast.

Gluten-free baker Poppy McAllister and her aunt Ginny are looking forward to a quiet, homey Christmas at their B&B in Cape May, but unfortunately, death isn’t taking a holiday this year . . .

Ever since Thanksgiving, Poppy and her pals have been left with an unsolved mystery of the romantic kind. But at least this mystery isn’t the kind that involves murder. That all changes when the body of a fish supplier is discovered in the kitchen of her ex’s restaurant—and he’s frozen, not fresh.

For once, it’s not Poppy who tripped over the corpse, yet she can’t escape being drawn in since the victim has a note taped to him reading Get Poppy. Figures—an engagement ring isn't labeled, but the dead guy is addressed to her. Now, while Aunt Ginny plans a tree-trimming party and pressures Poppy to decode a mysterious old diary, the amateur sleuth is asked to “unofficially” go undercover at the restaurant to help the police. Until then, the only crime Poppy had been dealing with was Figaro’s repeated thefts of bird ornaments from the tree; now it looks like it’s going to be a murder-y Christmas after all.

 

Libby Klein grew up in Cape May, NJ where she attended high school in the '80s. Her

classes revolved mostly around the Culinary sciences and Drama, with one brilliant semester in Poly-Sci that may have been an accident. She loves to drink coffee, bake gluten-free goodies, collect fluffy cats, and translate sarcasm for people who are too serious. She writes from her Northern Virginia office where she serves a very naughty black smoke Persian named Sir Figaro Newton. You can keep up with her shenanigans by signing up for her Mischief and Mayhem Newsletter on her website. www.LibbyKleinBooks.com/Newsletter/