Manageability – Easy and tasty.
Mardi Gras is about fun, music, and letting go of your your inhibitions. And the craziest thing of all – bread. That’s why this year instead of the (played out) king cake, I opted for the Taste of the South’s Mardi Gras Streusel Bread. It’s damn good.
The recipe is super easy to follow. If you’ve ever made any bread before, this is even easier because there’s no need to… knead. Funny thing though, I don’t often bake bread with sprinkles in the dough. This recipe calls for jimmies to be added prior to baking. I did not have any jimmies, so I used nonpareils. I don’t know if this was my mistake or not, but instead of sprinkled bread my dough turned green. Straight up green. Like it wasn’t even close. The bread was delicious and fluffy, but it was green. It tasted fresh, with a hint of sweetness and not too filling, but it was green. Also, the sanding sugar on top completed the sweet hint and it was a perfect portion size…. but it was green. Oh yeah, and we didn’t have any cinnamon, but did you know you can just put some cinnamon sticks into a coffee grinder and make some cinnamon? That’s something I learned and used in this bread…. but again…. it was green.
So it started as a Mardi Gras bread, but it became a St. Patrick’s Day bread. No big deal, I can still get drunk!
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs. No, that’s too big.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon. Hand-ground
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ½ cup mixed jimmies (green, gold, purple)
- Sprinkle Streusel (recipe follows)
- Garnish: confectioners’ sugar
Sprinkle Streusel
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- ⅓ cup mixed jimmies (green, gold, purple)
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a metal 9×5-inch loaf pan with baking spray with flour.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Whisk flour mixture into butter mixture. Whisk in sour cream and milk until just combined. Fold in jimmies. Pour into prepared pan, smoothing with an offset spatula. Top with Sprinkle Streusel.
- Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes, covering with foil halfway through baking to prevent excess browning, if necessary. Let cool in pan for 15 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on wire rack. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired.
Sprinkle Streusel
- In a medium bowl, stir together flour, jimmies, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in butter until mixture is crumbly. Crumble with your fingertips until desired consistency is reached.
- Eat, I guess.