Watermelon Bread Fancy sandwiches

Watermelon bread sandwiches were certainly a hit with the ladies at my recent High Tea Bridal shower for my daughter.  It also was a lot of fun to make and I was happy with the look of the bread along with the taste.

The recipe for the bread 

2 T dry traditional yeast  softened in about 1/2 c warm water

2 T white granulated sugar 
3 - 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
1 cup milk 
1 egg 
2 tbsp  butter, softened

hand full of raisins

Since I always use traditional dry yeast, it needs to be softened first, or you'll have crunchy grains in the dough.

Mix yeast, sugar and about 1/2 c of lukewarm water, let yeast proof. 

Beat the egg, then add to warmed milk and melted butter.

Add egg mixture to yeast mixture

Mix in one cup of flour with spoon.

then another cup gradually until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.

The food color is then mixed in when about  2/3 of the flour is added as you want the dough wet and sticky but firm enough to be able to divide the dough. This way the dye can be mixed much easier into the mixture. 

The bread is divided into half and dyed pink. 

The other half is divided into half; one is left white, the other part dyed green for the rind. 

Raisins are added to the pink dough and more flour incorporated to form a soft dough.  Add a bit more flour to the other pieces of dough, knead, oil the dough, cover with saran wrap and let rest until dough doubles in size. 

Now the fun starts in shaping the watermelon.  

Punch down the pink dough.  Shape the pink into a smooth log shaped roll.  Check that the length of the roll fits a loaf pan.  

Roll out your white dough large enough to completely wrap around the pink dough, Brush the white dough and the pink log with milk.  Wrap the red log, making sure it is completely sealed so that the dough does not poke through.  One of my seams did burst, but still looked okay in the end. 

Repeat the same steps with the green colored dough. 

Pop the watermelon dough in a greased loaf pan. Let rise until dough doubles in size. 

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes. 

Let the bread rise in the pan, then on a rack until cool. 

Now the best part of trying a new recipe is the testers.

In figuring out the length of the roll to fit a loaf pan, there was pink dough left over as was some white dough when rolled out to fit the pink.  

The filling used was suggested by a friend who ran a Tea Shop in Carmen, Manitoba. 

8oz Cream Cheese was blended with a can of drained and dried crush pineapple in a food processor.

My friend, Nancy who was helping me prepare the sandwiches, suggested adding pickled ginger for an extra kick!