Easy Homemade Bread Braids: Peanut Butter and Jelly Braid and a Taco Braid
Yup. Me too. I’ve come home one too many times from church to see my rolls that were supposed to be rising looking sad and flat. It could have something to do with the freezing temperature in my house or maybe the water I added to my yeast was too cold…or too hot? Really, there are a lot of ways to screw up.So there’s an easy idiot proof way of ensuring that you have perfect dough that can be made in under 5 minutes and with shipping cost less than a $1. This company is called Fast Easy Bread and they have two key ingredients: super fast Instant Yeast and liquid soy lecithin and they send you a kit that makes 40 batches of homemade bread dough. Seriously I made a bread braid and cinnamon rolls in about an hour from start to finish. A lot of you readers have told me you work long days and this bread dough you can make after work because it’s just that fast. Don’t worry, you can make these recipes below with regular store bought dough you just won’t have have the luxury of that homemade dough taste if you use store bought.
First, this peanut butter braid is perfect for back to school. My kids started school this week and I sent a slice of this in their school lunches. The rest mysteriously disappeared :)I couldn’t wait for it to cool down to cut into it.
Here’s another option and can be made in less than in an hour…a Taco Braid. It has a cream cheese and salsa sauce, with taco meat, black beans, and cheese. My family gobbled this up.
Homemade Bread Braids
by FastEasyBread
1 batch of FastEastBread Bread Dough (recipe below)
*If you don’t have the FastEasyBread kit yet you can use store-bought dough or your own recipe.
Peanut Butter and Jelly Braid Filling
Peanut butter
Favorite flavor jelly
1. Spray counter and hands with cooking spray and knead for a few seconds to form smooth ball.
2. Roll dough into a 15-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Place on a greased cookie sheet. It’s very important to place the dough on the cookie sheet before you fill it because once you fill it, it will be too heavy to move onto the cookie sheet. Spread peanut butter and jelly down the center third of the rectangle.
3. On each long side, cut 1 inch wide strips about 2-1/2-inches into center. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling.
4. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
5. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
6. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack or cutting board with 2 spatulas.
Taco Braid Filling
4 oz of Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup Salsa
1/2 lb ground turkey, beef or chicken seasoned and cooked with a Taco seasoning mix (I used 1 lb of ground turkey)
1 can (15oz) of black beans (drained)
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
olive oil
garlic salt
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray counter and hands with cooking spray and knead for a few seconds to form smooth ball.
2. Roll dough into a 15-in. x 12-in. rectangle. Place on a greased cookie sheet. It’s very important to place the dough on the cookie sheet before you fill it because once you fill it, it will be too heavy to move onto the cookie sheet. Mix salsa and cream cheese in a small bowl. Spread cream cheese mixture lengthwise down center third of rectangle, salsa, then seasoned meat and black beans. Sprinkle with cheese.
3. On each long side, cut 1 inch wide strips about 2-1/2-inches into center. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across filling.
4. Pinch ends to seal and tuck under. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
5. Cover and let rise for 20 minutes.
6. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack or cutting board with 2 spatulas.
FastEasyBread Dough Recipe
2 and 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour (you can buy this in bulk at Costco or find it at your grocery store by the regular flour)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp SAF-instant premium yeast
1 tsp Easy Squeezy Soy Liquid Lecithin
1 cup hot/warm water
Instructions:
1.Mix Dry ingredients. (yeast is a dry ingredient)
2.Make 1 dimple in dry ingredients and squeeze the lecithin into the bottom of the dimple about the size of a quarter.
3.Add water slowly, add 3/4 cups and then the remaining 1/4 cup. Mix for 1 minute and check consistency. The dough mixer should be sticky and pull itself off bowl.
4.Mix/knead in mixer on medium setting for 5 minutes or knead for 5 minutes by hand.
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I scanned through this to get to the result comments, and in my mind combined the peanut butter and jelly braid with the taco braid and was extremely confused as to how this many people could have loved such a recipe. Lesson learned: never skim recipes
Ha! I can see how that was confusing.
I just made the peanut butter and jelly one on a whim today (different bread dough recipe, no soy lecithin in the house). It was wonderful! Warm melty peanut butter, jelly, warm squishy bread- absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait to try the taco one.
is there a sub for Easy Squeezy Soy Liquid Lecithin iv never heard of that is it like yeast
@kelly,
No you use it in addition to the yeast to help it rise even faster. You can use your own bread recipe or just with yeast but it will take longer to rise.
kristi,
Sorry! No, typo. Only 20 minutes although 40 won’t hurt.
I’m a little confused with #4 and #5, so do I let it rise for a total of 40 minutes? Do I need to do something between steps and 4 and 5?
@butterbobbin,
I have not frozen these but I really think they would freeze well. Good luck!
So, I really would love to try this. I am curious how well it might freeze up and reheat if I did several of them – have you ever frozen one?
(I’m vegan and make my own substitute cheeses/cream sauces, etc, so it’s easiest for me to make Large Batches of Things… lol)
I made both versions, taco and peanut butter. I used your cinnabon dough recipe since I wanted to make them that night. Love the taco one, the peanut butter one is good, but the taco one was hit. I actually made a double batch of dough thinking I would need that much, but it ended up being way more that I needed. so I made another Taco bread and froze it before I let it rise. I pulled it out this afternoon and let it rise/thaw for about 4 hours on baking sheet and then baked it for about 25 minutes. It was perfect. So this will be a well used recipe considering I can make a few at a time, one for dinner on some for the freezer. Thank you.
Two words: Rhodes dough! (You can still get that homemade taste!)
@Anonymous,
The recipe for the dough is for one braid. Sorry if that was confusing!
Christy
Ok this might be a dumb question but the recipe for the dough – how many taco braids can be made in that?
I made the taco braid a few nights ago and loved it. And then I thought, what if I filled it with pizza toppings? my own calzone. so I did. And it was amazing. I think it’s the bread…
@Christie,
I would’ve totally added olives if I had any. Glad you liked it and love your name 🙂
Huge hit with my family. I did just a few changes, because of what I had on hand. I used refried beans instead and added olives (just because my family is addicted to olives). Thank you for sharing, it was voted as a keeper!
Those are absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to give them a try! Check out the cookies I just made myself:http://dafoodieadventures.blogspot.com/
I LOVE the little arms and hands. Makes me want to squeeze em. 🙂
I made the taco braid yesterday. My family voted it as a definite keeper. I did change a few ingredients and used by roll recipe. I didn’t have black bean on hand cooked, just dried. So I used refried beans. Thank you for sharing!
oh my gosh! I need to decide what dough to use and try these-esp the pb & j! Incredible!
I am so excited to see you have a food blog. I can’t wait to check out your recipes.
well shoot. i’m not positive which i’d like more!
I’ve made yeast braids before, and they’re fantastic. I love your inclusion of peanut butter and jam and the taco braid. These braids look great!
Chirsty-this is a great post and your pictures are awesome! I am friends with Lindsey and taken her bread class and make this stuff all the time! I am posting on my blog about the PBJ for a back to school idea and linking back to your blog.
Joy
mommaskindacrafty.blogspot.com
I’ve never heard of this kind of yeast. How in the world do they do it? Less than a hour? I’ve got to check this out.
Thanks for the great ideas. I’ve been looking for new recipes. I’ll bet the taco braid would work well if you froze it before cooking. Do you think?
jessyburke88@gmail.com
@Micah,
That sound good. Yes, bring the chips but only if we can give them to our kids during the game 🙂
These look so yummy Christy. I’ve only made one braid and it was for breakfast…eggs, sausage, and cheese… SO GOOD!
PS-i’ll bring a couple sleep chips to the game tonight for you to try:)
Are you kidding me? An hour is all? These look wonderful – thanks so much for posting these.
They’re perfect for a Sunday afternoon game-watching snack/meal.