Delicious Honey Cranberry Walnut Bread

Course: Bread

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 30

Cook Time: 40

proofing twice: 4

Total Time: 5 10

Servings: servings (2 loaves)

Calories: 243kcal

Author: Marvellina

This honey cranberry walnut bread is soft, wholesome, and full of flavor. The honey adds a beautiful aroma without making it sweet. Perfect for toast, sandwiches, or pairing with sweet or savory toppings.

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US Customary - Metric

Ingredients

340 g warm milk
1 Tbsp instant yeast
170 g honey
50 g oil any neutral-tasting oil works
9 g fine sea salt
620 g all-purpose flour
100 g whole wheat flour
113 g walnuts toasted
113 g dried cranberries

For dusting:

Rice flour or use all-purpose flour

Instructions

Toast the walnuts:

Put the walnut pieces in a large pan over medium-low heat and let them toast until aromatic, about 5 minutes. I did not soak the dried cranberries because they are quite plump.
Roughly chop them into smaller pieces and set aside

Dissolve the yeast:

Put the warm milk (not hot) in a mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the yeast and let it sit for 10 minutes to let it bloom. It will turn foamy. I usually don't do this with instant yeast, but this bread is a slow riser and I like to give the yeast a head start

Prepare the dough:

After that, add the honey, oil, salt, whole wheat flour, and all-purpose flour. Use the dough hook to give everything a stir a bit to avoid the dry ingredients dispersing into the air when you start the machine.
Start mixing on low speed until it forms a shaggy dough. You may need to reposition the dough a few times throughout the kneading process because it is a lot of dough. Increase the speed to 4 and let it knead until it forms a smooth dough and clears the side of the bowl.

Add walnuts and craisins:

Add walnuts and craisins into the bowl and start mixing on the lowest speed. There is going to be a lot of noice because of the nuts and craisins.
Let it knead on this lowest speed until all the nuts and craisins are picked up by the dough. I need to stop about 3 times to rotate the dough so that the nuts and craisins are more evenly distributed

First proofing:

Oil the mixing bowl and round up the dough and put it back into the bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and let it proof in a warm place. It takes about 2 hours for me at 80 F. It won't exactly double in volume, but it should be quite puffy

Divide and shape:

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle with some cornmeal or semolina flour
After the first proofing, divide the dough equally by weight into two doughs. Flatten the dough and round it up into a dough ball. Repeat with the second dough
Place the doughs on the prepared baking sheet, enough room for them to "grow" in size after second proofing and baking

Second proofing:

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel. Place them in a warm place. I use my oven breadproof's function and let them proof for about 1 to 1 1/2 hour until they are puffy. Again, they won't double in size, but should be quite puffy
15 minutes before the end of second proofing, preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C) for conventional oven. Lower the oven's temperature by 15 F (20 C) for a convection oven. Position the oven rack on the 3rd from the top

Baking:

Sprinkle rice flour on top of the dough. I use a mesh strainer to do this so the flour is evenly distributed and not just a splotch of flour here and there. Use a serrated knife to cut an "X" on top of the dough, about 1/2 and inch deep
Place the baking sheet in the oven and let it bake foe 35-40 minutes or until an internal temperature of the bread is at least 190 F (88 C)

Cool down:

Transfer the bread loaves to a cooling rack to them cool completely before slicing into the bread

Nutrition