Dream of the brown turtle

Amazing what comes out of the oven: one day a beautiful, perfectly formed loaf; the next, um, a turtle.

Though it might not be immediately apparent, this is my interpretation of Ed Wood's cinnamon, fruit and nut loaf from Classic Sourdoughs. The recipe called for the dough to be rolled flat, spread with a sugar and cinnamon mixture, then rolled up and placed into a loaf tin. Not having any loaf tins of the right size I decided to try forming the two loaves-worth of dough into a single giant roll-up on a sheet.

Without a tin to hold the contents together a good deal of the molten sugar leaked out during baking, so that when the turtle emerged from the oven it was sitting in a small toffee lagoon.

It looked much more appetizing when sliced open (best not to think of it as a turtle at this point) to display the raisins, walnuts and cinnamon scroll pattern within.

The slices pictured here survived only briefly before being gobbled up by the kids. They enjoyed the toffee too.