Streusel creamy bread

I need to bake! This has been such a weird week for me...I feel all out of whack and the only time I feel semi-normal is when I'm baking. I've baked almost everyday this week, and until I'm in sync again, I will probably keep baking to keep my sanity. Is this strange?

Since I have been making so many cakes lately, I wanted to make bread. I found this recipe for creamy bread from Grace's kitchen corner, a wonderful blog that I read all the time. She really liked the bread, so I knew I had to make it too.

Results?? This bread is so good...so good!! The bread is soft and full of flavor and the streusel topping just puts it over the top. It's a really delicious bread, you really really have to try it! Here's the recipe.

Creamy bread
adapted from Grace's kitchen corner
total time: 3 hours

200g bread flour
30g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
18g egg yolk (about 1 extra large egg yolk)
3g yeast
100g half and half (see note)
40g milk
15g butter, room temperature (see note)

Streusel topping: (see note)
15g powdered sugar
25g all purpose flour
2.5g milk powder
20g cold butter

1. Mix bread flour, sugar and salt together in a medium sized mixing bowl. Combine the half and half and the milk and heat until it's warm (about 25 seconds in the microwave). Add the yeast to the milk mixture and allow to rest until foamy, about 5 minutes. Combine the flour mixture with the milk mixture and knead until no longer sticky. Smear the butter into the dough and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

2. Place the dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with cling wrap to proof for 80 minutes.

3. While waiting for the dough, mix the ingredients for the streusel topping with finger tips until the texture is crumbly. Set aside.

4. Take the risen dough out of the bowl and gently flatten the dough into a rectangle. Roll the dough to out to a 6" by 12" rectangle. Cut the rectangle into 12 equal strips (appx 1" by 6").

5. Take three of the strips and braid them together. Continue with the rest of the strips. Seal the ends together by pinching the three strips together. Cover the braids with plastic wrap and allow to rest for another 30 minutes. (see note)

6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

7. Brush some egg wash on the dough and sprinkle the streusel topping on the dough. Bake the rolls for 15 to 20 minutes or until they are golden brown

Note:

• The original recipe uses heavy cream, I substituted it with half and half because that's all I had at the time.
  
• The original recipe calls for 20g of butter, I only used 15g.
• The original recipe made way too much streusel topping, I only used about half. The above recipe is a half portion of the original recipe.
• The original recipe makes two larger rolls. I decided to make four smaller rolls. The original recipe also tells you to divide the dough into six equal pieces, shape them into balls, and then roll them into strips. I always have a hard time rolling strips, so I use the above method. Hope it works for you too! =P