Kona Cafe Sweet Bread

Warning: this post contains a tangent which I promise will all tie together in a way that makes sense.

This weekend is the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend.  The last RunDisney race before the Princess Half Marathon and the Glass Slipper Challenge, an event that I'm running in (and woefully under-trained for).  Right now, my mind is buzzing with pre-race details and plans for our racecation and today was one of the last checkpoints before arrival day...  Early check-in!

For the Princess Half, we'll be staying at Disney's Polynesian Resort, which is an absolutely stunning hotel.  I was lucky enough to stay there in January of 2013 and I loved nearly every minute of it.  It's peaceful, it has a fun theme, it's on the monorail, it has a view of Cinderella's Castle, it's on a lake...  What's not to love about this hotel?  Seriously, any place that trusts me to use a self-serve Dole Whip machine that's within walking distance to my room is a great place.

The funny thing is, other than the required breakfast at Ohana and the rampant abusing of the bottomless refills of our resort mugs (pomegranate lemonade!), we didn't eat there at all.  No Tonga Toast, no pineapple pancakes, not even a Mickey waffle.  We always opted to eat somewhere else.  It wasn't until May of 2013 when a very last-minute trip meant that I was at the mercy of whatever was available and I decided to give Kona a try...  And I figured out why the lobby of The Polynesian always smells so good.  It's the delicious intermingling of the smells of Tonga Toast, pancakes, and sweet bread.  After a completely amazing dinner with wildly unique and delicious food, Kona went straight to the top of my "hidden Disney gem" list and I immediately regretted not eating there every single day of my January trip.

A mistake that will not be made again.

To bridge the gap between now and then, I've started to get all Poly-crazy.  We've watched "Lilo and Stitch" at least 3 times, I've made most of my social media skins something related to the Poly, I even researched the music they play in the gift shop so that I could build a playlist for the gym.  Then suddenly I remembered...  Hey, I have the recipe for Kona's famous sweet bread...  And I even tried to make it for the blog with less-than-spectacular results.  So off to the kitchen I went, with two goals in mind...  Vindication and the satisfying of a craving.

For those who've read my blog for awhile, it's no great surprise that occasionally yeast bread presents some challenges for me...  But I've fine-tuned my yeast bread magic since

then.  Trick number one? I turn my oven on to the very lowest setting it has while I'm making the dough, then when it's time to let it rest and rise, I turn the oven off, cover the bowl, and put it in the warm oven with the oven door open slightly for the first 10-15 minutes or so.

Brilliant, right?  Seriously, I think since I picked up that little trick, I haven't had bread go flat on me.  Then, if I have a second rise, I actually put the oven on to preheat, cover the dough, and put it on the stove.  That usually works, though I have to be careful that it's not so warm that the bottom of the bread is already starting to brown, meaning I'll have a burned bottom by the time it's done (if you laughed reading that, it's OK, I laughed writing it).

If somebody were to tackle yeast bread for the first time, despite my first failures, I'd say this is a great place to start.  Make sure your pineapple juice is nice and warm, but not too warm, don't over-knead and you're good to go. 

The final product, four amazing mini-loaves of bread, is so close to the real thing that it's hard to not eat it all right out of the oven.  Trust me, I know because I made them 4 hours ago and I'm already down to one loaf...

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Kona Cafe Sweet Bread

As is served at Kona Cafe, Disney's Polynesian Resort

 

°o°  1 cup warm pineapple juice
°o°  2 tablespoons active dry yeast

°o°  1/2 cup sugar

°o°  3 eggs, room temperature

°o°  4 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened  

°o°  4 3/4 cups flour

°o°  1 teaspoon salt  

Combine pineapple juice and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and allow to sit about 5 minutes, or until foamy.  Add in sugar, eggs, and butter and mix.

In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.  Add half the flour mixture into the yeast mixture and mix on low speed until fully incorporated, being careful to not over mix.  Turning off mixture, add remaining flour and incorporate using hands.  The dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl, but still be very sticky.

Cover bowl with a slightly dampened dish towel and allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

 

Turn dough onto a floured surface and divide into 4 equal portions.  Form each portion into a ball and smooth the surface (I do this by holding the ball in one hand and gently pulling down on the surface of the ball, pinching the excess to under the dough ball...  There's a good video here) and place on a cookie sheet that will be used for baking.  Cut an "X" on the top of each ball about 1/2 inch deep.

Cover with dish towel and allow to rise in the warmest part of the kitchen for about 45 minutes.  10 minutes before baking, preheat oven to 375.  

After 45 minutes has passed and dough has risen again, remove dish towel and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve warm with macadamia honey butter.

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