Okay, so i'm a major baking slacker. I'll be the first to admit it. The holidays resulted in an overnight bake-a-thon (not recommended) which produced more muffins than I ever want to see again and an altered bread recipe that I forgot to write down (but which seemed to be greatly enjoyed by my grandparents). The best part of this bread is the swirl inside which I unfortunately didn't capture because the perfected loaves were all gifts.. so you'll just have to make one to see for yourself.
you will need:
3-5 cups of white flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon yeast
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
for the filling:
about 1/2 cup of chopped pecans (mine were roasted and lightly salted as well, but that's your call)
a few tablespoons of slightly softened butter
and some brown sugar
what to do....
gently heat milk (don't boil it. keep the heat on low just until the milk is warm) and then add it to your yeast. Mix in your butter, salt, and sugar (note: if you don't have or can't find caster sugar, just put 1/4 cup of regular sugar in a food processor for a minute or so. It's almost the same thing). Add your eggs and gradually integrate the flour.
Turn your dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. Put the dough back into the bowl, cover, and put it in a warm place to rise until doubled in size.
once risen, punch down the dough and knead again. Then roll it out into an 11 inch or so square (I made two smaller loaves which were probably somewhere around 5"x5" rolled out). Spread softened butter over your dough and sprinkle with a generous amount of brown sugar and pecans. Roll up the dough (I started by folding over the ends just a bit so the filling wouldn't spill out while baking) and place in a greased bread pan to rise once more.
Once doubled, brush with egg yolk and sprinkle some more pecans on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes. If the pecans start to brown too quickly, cover with foil.
