“Hey, mom?”

“What’s up?”

“I think something’s on fire.”

“You do? Where?”

“Here. In the kitchen.”

Zayley sounded remarkably unconcerned for a person who thought she was standing in front of a kitchen fire, but I ran into the kitchen just in case.

Thankfully, she wasn’t exactly right.

That is, the oven was indeed smoking. In fact, a visible veil of gray enshrouded the room, though there were no actual flames.

But let me start at the beginning.

See, the potato sourdough bread recipe that I use makes two loaves of bread. Usually, I make both loaves the same way and give one away to a friend.

After all, I usually bake a round of traditional sourdough on the same day, and our family can only eat so much bread in a week.

But this week is spring break. I probably won’t see my work friends, and I’ll definitely be responsible for more meals at home than usual.

So I decided to make something a little different with my bread dough. It’s a sweet dough, and the bread that it makes doesn’t taste much like a sourdough at all.

It’s more like a brioche or a regular white sandwich bread.

That’s why I thought it would lend itself well to a cinnamon swirl.

So I mixed in about a teaspoon of cinnamon mixed with a cup of dark brown sugar after the first rise.

The dough is fairly loose and sticky. It’s far too wet to roll out, so I just sprinkled the sugar mixture over the top of half the recipe of dough and juggled it around until it was swirled throughout. Then I plopped the dough into a greased loaf pan.

While I waited for the second rise, I remembered that I’d meant to pour a caramel sauce into the bottom of the pan before I placed the dough into it.

I figured I could accomplish the same goal by pouring the sauce over the top and gently inserting the tip of a butter knife between the pan and the dough to let it seep to the bottom.

And it worked!

It worked a little too well.

The loaf rose so beautifully that it pressed against the top of my pullman loaf pan.

The caramel had nowhere to go. The lid kept it from bubbling over.

So it oozed out the microscopic cracks in the ends of the pans.

That’s when Zayley called me to the kitchen. When I cracked open the door, I saw caramel sauce drizzling through my loaf pan, steadily filling up the sheet pan I had placed below it, and dripping onto the oven floor.

It was a mess.

We turned on the exhaust fan and the ceiling fan and opened the back door. Luckily, that kept the smoke alarm from going off.

And when the bread was done, I was glad to see that enough of the caramel had stayed in the pan to make a lovely shell over the whole loaf.

But next time – and there will be a next time – I’m definitely using a bigger pan.

Caramel Sticky Bread

Ingredients

About 1 pound bread dough, homemade or purchased

1 2/3 cups brown sugar, divided into 1 cup and 2/3 cup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

5 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup light corn syrup

Pinch salt

Splash (about 2 Tablespoons) heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

• If frozen, allow bread dough to thaw. Give bread time to rise once, covered, in a warm, draft-free place. In a separate medium bowl, mix cinnamon with 1 cup brown sugar. Sprinkle mixture over bread dough. Stretch dough a bit as necessary to incorporate all the sugar mixture. Place dough into greased loaf pan. (Be sure to use a large loaf pan or substitute a cake pan or casserole dish.) Preheat oven to temperature called for on bread dough.

• Make caramel sauce: in a saucepan over medium heat, mix butter, 2/3 cup brown sugar, corn syrup, and salt. Allow butter to melt and stir frequently to give sugar time to melt. Avoid bringing the mixture to a simmer; turn down heat as necessary. Continue cooking until sugar melts. To figure out whether sugar has melted, use a silicone spatula to mix. Scrape the tip of the spatula against the bottom of the pan frequently. If mixture sounds and feels gritty, keep cooking the mixture. (Do not be tempted to put your finger into this mixture… it will burn you.) Remember that your caramel will continue to cook in the oven, so pulling it a bit before the sugar is totally melted will be fine. Remove caramel mixture from heat and add a splash of cream and the vanilla to the mixture. Stir it in well.

• Pour the caramel sauce over the top of your bread dough. Gently slide your silicone spatula between the dough and the edge of the pan to allow the caramel to seep down the sides and bottom of the loaf. Cover pan with foil or lid and cook for recommended time. When loaf is cooked, remove from oven. Allow about 5 minutes to cool on counter and then carefully turn out loaf onto a platter. Enjoy warm for best results.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  Master Gardeners bloom at state conference

  By Ashlyn Joyner • 17 minutes ago