Carrot Creamcheese Rolls

I sometimes bake things on emergency basis (like when I find or come accross any interesting/tempting recipes that I can't just wait to give it a try!)but more often than not, I usually plan or think about what to bake a day or two in advance which this way gives me a chance to create some ideas for jazzing a recipe up or playing at things..

The other night while I was thinking about making a bread, then carrot abruptly came through my mind ,like 'gotcha!' which made me decide to do something about it. Consequently,I came up with the idea of mixing 2 things in one..a carrot cake and a cinnamom roll..my concept was to make rolls using ingredients called for a carrot cake!!

I wanted to make a creamcheese filling to begin with but I didn't have enough cream cheese for that..so I opted to add it into the dough instead of leaving it out and used raisins and sultanas together with cinnamon sugar as a filling which made it more like cinnamon rolls. My problem was not to know how much carrot needed for a dough, so I just guessed and used a cup of it..and to find out how it'd work, I took about 1/3 of the dough to make a plain loaf so that I could taste the bread without distraction..

One mistake I did is not to grease baking and loaf tin well enough (8 inches round tin for rolls and 4.5*2.5 inches loaf tin for the plain bread ) and it caused me some difficulty of turning the rolls/loaf out (also ruined the crust/sides around the loaf and rolls a bit but fortunutely, there's no big harm done!)

The results were good..soft and fluffy..carrot gave a nice color and beautiful mild scent to the bread. The loaf tasted stronger of carrot than rolls because of cinnamon added in the filling..and what made me proud of my own creation is 'thump (s)up' from my victims errr tasters,I mean! lol

The bread will be also posted to YeastSpotting, the bread making event organised by Susan of Wild Yeast ...

Ingredients :

300g plus 1/4 cup (more or less) bread flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1+1/4 tsp instant yeast
1/4 cup warm milk
40 g cream cheese, softened
20 g butter, softened
1 large egg
1 cup carrot, finely grated
egg wash ( egg + milk )

The filling :

1/4 heaped tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp light muscovado sugar
raisins and sultanas
2 tbsp butter, melted

The glazing :

milk+icing sugar

Method :

1. Stir together the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a mixing bowl. Add the milk, egg and carrot ,then mix ( using a dough hook at low speed) everything to form a rough ball. Gradually add cream cheese and butter into the dough and mix until incorperated.

2. Knead the dough alternately with a dough hook on medium speed and hands until the dough is smooth and elastic (it will be a bit sticky but can be handled by hands)about 20-25 minutes. Place the dough into a greased bowl, turn to get the dough coated with oil and cover with plastic wrap, let it rise for 1-1.5 hours.

3. Punch down the dough and knead briefly (and at this point, I divided the dough into 2 portion- 1/3 (for a loaf) and 2/3 (for rolls). To make a loaf, divide the portion into 3 pieces and shape each into rounds and place them next to each other in a loaf tin, cover and let it rise for 45 minutes.

4. To make the rolls, roll out the dough portion into rectangle, 1/4 inch thick, then brush the dough with the melted butter and sprinkle with the sugar+cinnamon mixture, then finish up with raisins and sultanas. Roll up like jelly rolls and cut into 1 1/2 inches pieces. Place in greased baking pan, and allow to rise for 45 minutes or until doubled.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Turn the rolls and loaf out onto a wire rack and let it cool before spreading the top with the glazing (rolls) and served.