My First Daring Baker's Challenge!

I was very excited when my good friend MS told me about the Daring Baker's Challenge. Of course, I requested to be part of this wonderful group (there's a link off to the side there, if you're interested). June marked my first month involved and, let me tell you, it certainly was a tough one.

Danish Braid was the challenge set by Kelly of Sass & Veracity and Ben of What’s Cookin’? .

When I was growing up, we used to call them Butter Braids and we would sell them as a fund raiser for the dairy 4-H project. They were always soooooo good. Cream cheese was my favorite. But they also looked soooooooo hard to make.

When the challenge was posted I let out a little sigh. Oh geeze. Of COURSE it has to be super hard for my first month. But I didn't let it get me down. I went to the store and found all the necessary ingredients and got started.

Here's the finished product. I think I left it in the oven a little too long...it got a little too dark on the top. But it tasted SUPER GOOD.



We were provided with a recipe for an apple filling, but my pregnant tummy needed not only my childhood favorite of cream cheese, but apricot as well. So I made up some filling. I couldn't tell you now what I put in it. It was awesome, though...if I do say so myself!



Of course I used a nice light glaze for the top. The Other and I ate it right out of the oven. Ugh. It was so worth all that hard work (it took an entire day to create this beast!)

And here is a delicious slice.



Sam and I both took the extra braid (it made two) into work and it was a big hit, so I'm pretty sure it will be a repeat recipe.

Actually, I have TONS of cherries ripening on my tree right now, so maybe I'll make some cherry ones this week to freeze for later....yum. yum. yum.

Thank you, Daring Bakers, for making my first month awesome! Can't wait for many more months to come :)

And just to leave on a good note...here's a picture the Other took of Mont and I a few weeks ago. You can see my baby bump a little (it's MUCH bigger now). This was in between a streak of many storms we've had around here. Mont LOVED the rainbow and watches for them every time it rains now.