Instructions

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add in the water, scalded milk, sugar, and yeast. Use a whisk or spoon to just mix together. Add in the eggs and turn the mixer on to low to just start to incorporate the eggs. It’s okay if it doesn’t combine together.
2. Turn the mixer off and add in 3 cups of flour to the liquid and turn on low to mix. Mix until barely combined; you just want it to start to incorporate. Slowly add more flour and mix until it just barely starts to form a soft dough and starts to pull away from the sides (~5 minutes or so). Depending on your environment you can use as little as 4 1/2 cups and up to 5 cups of flour. When it starts to pull away, add in your salt. Mix for 1 minute and then add in 1 tablespoon of butter at a time. Allow the butter to start to meld into the dough before adding another tablespoon (this should take maybe 2-3 minutes). It may look like it’s not coming back together but it will.
3. Once there’s barely any butter visible, turn the mixer up to medium and mix until you have a dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl cleanly as it’s mixing and is smooth and shiny. ~8-9 minutes. A quick test is do a “Window Pane” test to make sure the dough is ready. You’ll grab a small piece of dough and begin to stretch it out thin. You should be able to see through it similar to how you would look through a pane of glass. The dough should not have any tears when you stretch it.
4. Put the dough in a large, buttered or sprayed bowl, cover, set in a cool dry place and allow to rise until doubled in size. ~60-90 minutes. When ready to use, remove the cover and punch the dough down.
5. Place the dough out a lightly floured board and divide into 2 balls. This recipe makes 2 loaves. You can wrap the dough up and set in the fridge to make after the one loaf cools or freeze it for up to 2 months. Roll out one loaf into a 12×8” rectangle. To the dough add half of the pistachios, cranberries and mini chips. Roll up the dough and then start to knead the ingredients gently into the dough. You’ll fold it over a few times, flatten it back out once or twice just to evenly disperse the pieces. Flatten out or roll the dough back into a 12×8” rectangle. Roll up the dough so it’s snug and pinch the seams together. For the ends, just tuck under and pinch them to seal against the bottom. The loaf should be ~12” long and ~4” wide. It should just fit into the pan.
6. In the bottom of your Emile Henry Italian Loaf Baker, sprinkle in 1-2 tablespoon of flour to evenly coat the bottom. Place the dough into the loaf baker, seam side down and place the lid on. Set the pan in a dry place and allow the dough to proof for 30 minutes. At this time preheat the oven to 400F, rack in the middle.
7. When ready to bake (do not remove the lid), place the Emile Henry Italian Loaf Baker into the oven. Bake covered for 40 minutes then remove the lid and bake uncovered for 10-15 minutes or until the internal bread temp reads 200F.
8. Remove from the oven and carefully remove the bread from the pan and place on a cooling rack. I tipped it over and allowed the bread to slowly roll out. Allow to cool for at least 30 minutes on the rack before cutting.