Oven-fried Dough
Necessity (and hungry teenagers) is the mother of invention. In this case, I made challah dough and promptly forgot about it. Suddenly, I had a baseball team to feed, and I created an oven-fried cinnamon sugar bread that brought raves. If you like doughnuts, you'll like this.

Dough:

1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup unsalted butter - melted (or oil)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla - optional
1 tablespoon salt
6 to 7 cups bread flour

Topping:

1/3 cup unsalted butter - melted
1 cup sugar
4 to 6 teaspoons cinnamon
confectioner's sugar - optional

In a large bowl, whisk together water and yeast, then stir in butter, sugar, eggs and egg yolk, vanilla, salt and most of flour. Add more flour until you have a kneadable dough. Knead until smooth and bouncy (dusting in more flour as required) for 8 to 10 minutes. Cover dough and let it rest 40 minutes.

Cover a (15-by-21-inch) baking sheet (or two smaller sheets) with parchment paper.

Gently deflate the dough and roll it out as best you can. Allow the dough to rest when it resists. Start by rolling as best you can, transfer it to baking sheet, let it rest a minute, then ease it, by hand, to fit.

Place entire baking sheet in a large plastic bag (a new trash bag is fine) and let dough rise until puffy (30 to 40 minutes).

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Brush dough liberally with melted butter, going over it a few times. Dust with cinnamon and sugar. Bake until browned (25 to 40 minutes).

Remove from baking sheet, cut into slabs with a pizza wheel or a sharp paring knife. Dust with confectioner's sugar (optional). Serve warm.

AUTHOR: Lori A