Lemon Cream Cheese Braid

I found this recipe a while ago in my King Arthur Flour Catalog. I love cream cheese pastries and I love lemon and so I was real sure I would like this. I went on my diet break and so decided it was time to make it!

It really isn't a pastry dough, it's more a light bread dough, but it's very good. And looks nice, so it's a lot of "bang for your buck" as far as labor.

I put the dough ingredients into my bread maker on the dough setting and let the machine to the mixing and raising work. The dough came out beautifully. Then you roll it out into about an 11 by 14 rectangle. Mark off the dough into thirds. in the middle, you put the cream cheese/yogurt/sour cream filling you've made and then top with lemon curd.

You use a pizza cutter to cut the sides into angled strips. Then just alternate laying them across so they look like a braid.

 Then cover with plastic wrap and let it rise again. The recipe actually makes two braids. I didn't realize that when I started. After it's risen, brush it with beaten egg and sprinkle it with sugar. The recipe uses the coarse decorative sugar. I didn't have any and so I just used regular sugar.

 It tastes amazing! And now that I have the technique down, I have thought of ways to do several different flavor combos using jam. If you want the recipe, you can get on Kingarthurflour.com.