Orange Anise Sweet Bread

Okay, so it's really Pan de Muertos (Day of the Dead Bread), but I made it a little late, so now it's just a tasty sweet bread. And if you don't put the traditional skull and cross-bones on it, it's just an unassuming little loaf of bread, tantalizing you with its orange and sugar glaze... Perfect for a cold fall evening, especially if served with a mug of Mexican hot chocolate!

I got the original recipe from allrecipes.com but after reading through the reviews, made a few tweaks that I thought would improve the final product. Oh, it sure is tasty, especially if you dig in while it's still warm. And the great thing is, you can make two loafs, one for eating right away, and one for serving a little later, so no one will know you already had some!

Note: I found the beginning was slightly quick-moving, so it helped to have the ingredients pre-measured so I could just tip them in as needed.

Orange Anise Sweet Bread
1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. milk
1/4 c. warm water
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3 c. all-purpose flour, 1 c. separated out
1-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
2 tsp. anise seeds
1/4 c. white sugar
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2 eggs + 1 egg yolk, beaten
2 tsp. orange zest

Orange Glaze
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 c. fresh orange juice
1 T. orange zest
2 T. white sugar - for sprinkling

1. Heat milk and butter in a sauce pan over low heat on the stove, until the butter melts. Add the warm milk. Remove from heat and add the warm water. Mixture should be around 110 degrees. If it's too hot, just let it sit a minute while you prep the next 5 ingredients.

2. In a stand mixer, combine 1 cup of flour, yeast, salt, anise and sugar. To these, add the milk and butter mixture. Add the eggs and orange zest, combining well. Slowly tip in the rest of the flour; dough will be soft.

3. At this point, I'm hoping you have a stand mixer with a kneading attachment (it looks like a hook). One of the ways I hoped to eliminate the second-day dryness people complained about was using the mixer to knead the bread rather than kneading it by hand (which I'll admit, I do find fun). Less flour should equal a more moist bread. Switch to the kneading attachment and let the machine do the kneading for 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

4. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to prevent the top from drying) and set in a warm place to rise. (I placed mine in front of a space heater - worked great!) You want it to double in size; this should take 1-2 hours.

5. After it has doubled in size, punch the dough down. This means pulling the plastic wrap back and punching the center of the dough with your fist once. (I had to call my mom to find out how you 'punch' the dough.) Place the wrap back on and let the dough sit for five minutes while it relaxes - it should have immediately sunk down when you punched it.

6. Shape the dough into one giant round loaf, or two equally portioned loafs (I did two loafs myself), and place on a baking sheet, covering loosely with plastic wrap. For this rise, I lightly sprayed the 'dough' side of the plastic wrap to prevent it from sticking to the buns when I pulled it off - worked great! Let rise for about an hour in the warm spot, until almost double in size.

7. Bake as is on sheet at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Don't open the oven during baking or pull pan out as large temperature changes will cause yeast dough to go flat! (I learned that the hard way a few weeks ago.) When golden brown, remove pan from oven and let cool slightly before brushing with glaze. Sprinkle with 2 T of sugar.

To make glaze: in a small saucepan, combine 1/4 c. sugar, orange juice and orange zest. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil for 2 minutes. Brush over top of bread while still warm. Sprinkle glazed bread with sugar. Leftover glaze is great for dipping the bread into as well :)

Enjoy!