Raspberry Cheesecake Artisan Bread #Recipe by @LibbyKlein

 Libby Klein I find the act of kneading and baking bread to be very comforting. Keeping a sourdough starter alive, however, is a level of commitment I'm not up to. I've got some great cultures, but something always gets in the way of me feeding the beast long term. Something called memory. Which I do not have. Not to mention the visceral reaction I get when I have to throw some of the starter away if it isn't used. This whole process seems unnecessarily wasteful. I'm not giving up. I'll try another sourdough started later in the spring. But in the meantime, I made this lovely loaf out of a regular white bread recipe. Great for people like me who don't plan ahead and get an wild idea one day to make bread. My husband loves it and said the texture was perfect and the sweetness of the strawberries was balanced well with the tang of the cream cheese. I tried to score a heart into the loaf before baking and that just disappeared. Apparently I did not cut it deep enough. Goals for next time.

Raspberry Cheesecake Artisan Loaf

Yield: 1 loaf

Ingredients

2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast (or 1 packet)
1 1/4 cups warm milk
2 tsp sugar
3 cups bread flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped strawberries - pat dry with paper towels if they are very juicy
8 oz cream cheese cut into cubes

Directions

Make sure your milk is only slightly warm to the touch. Add the yeast and 2 tsp sugar to the milk and mix well. Set it aside to bloom. Meanwhile, combine the bread flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt to the bowl of a stand mixer or a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast and milk to the dry ingredients and either mix by hand or with your dough hook. Knead for 8-10 minutes until dough comes together and is elastic. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for about 2 hours. I like to put it in my oven - turned off with just the light on.

Turn risen dough on a floured surface and roll out into a disk. Scatter the chopped strawberries and cubes of cream cheese over the dough. Roll into a log. Then turn the ends under to make a ball. pinch the ends together to seal the berries inside. Place seam side up in a greased bowl and cover with plastic. Set aside to rise again for another 2 hours or so.

Preheat your oven with a dutch oven inside. Once your bread has risen, place a parchment in your hot dutch oven. Then tip the bowl with the risen dough over into the dutch oven onto the parchment with those seams now on the bottom. Cover with the lid to the dutch oven. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let cool before cutting. Store the leftover bread wrapped in plastic and in the refrigerator.

 

Layla Virtue, a blue-haired, 30-something recovering alcoholic and former cop is trying to reinvent herself as a musician—between AA meetings, dodging eccentric neighbors at her trailer park, and reconnecting with her mysterious dad—in this ​unforgettable new mystery brimming with hilarity and heart.

Layla is taking her new life one day at a time from the Lake Pinecrest Trailer Park she now calls home. Being alone is how she likes it. Simple. Uncomplicated. Though try telling that to the group of local ladies who are in relentless pursuit of Layla as their new BFF, determined to make her join them for coffee and donuts.

After her first career ended in a literal explosion, Layla’s trying to eke out a living as a rock musician. It’s not easy competing against garage bands who work for tacos and create their music on a computer, while all she has is an electric guitar and leather-ish pants. But Layla isn’t in a position to turn down any gig. Which is why she’s at an 8-year-old’s birthday party, watching as Chuckles the Clown takes a bow under the balloon animals. No one expects it will be his last . . .

Who would want to kill a clown—and why? Layla and her unshakable posse are suddenly embroiled in the seedy underbelly of the upper-class world of second wives and trust fund kids, determined to uncover what magnetic hold a pudgy, balding clown had over women who seem to have everything they could ever want. Then again, Layla knows full well that people are rarely quite what they seem—herself included . . .

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/