With 22 breads down in the bread baker's apprentice challenge, it's time to take a quick peek back at what's been baked. It actually seems like quite the journey at this point, and I almost can't believe I've created so many delicious breads. From challah to brioche, it's been an interesting first half.
First up was anadama. A delicious bread, utilizing corn meal, it had a nutty, sweet flavour that tasted really good after some time in the toaster.
Artos, the Greek celebration bread provided a wonderful aroma. Including nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice, it was fantastic as french toast.
Bagels, were a hurdle I'd never attempted until now. Requiring an involved process of shaping, boiling and baking, they turned out decent. Although I still miss those Montreal bagels from my youth.
Deciding to go all out, rich man's brioche provided the next challenge. Oh so buttery, this dough was very strange to work with. Great french toast.
Casatiello was crazy combination of cheese and meat. Stopping by my local Italian store, I picked up a few cheeses and meats to create some different combinations. Definitely not your everyday bread, this would be fantastic to pull out for that company pot luck.
Challah was made more times than I can count during that week. From the basic braided design, to spirals, to loaf pans, it took on every shape. I also included raisins at one point to give the challah french toast that extra boost.
I'm still bummed about my ciabatta attempt. Mostly because I couldn't seem to get the air pockets. They tasted good at least.
The cinnamon buns proved to be fantastic. Light, fluffy and full of sugary goodness. The buns worked better than the cinnamon roll I also baked.
The cinnamon walnut raisin bread was a bit of a challenge. Every version I baked without walnuts was light and airy, but including the walnuts always left my loaves a little heavy and dense.
Making corn bread most of my life, this recipe was good, but didn't win me over. I do like the addition of bacon on top.
I totally forgot about the alien looking cranberry walnut bread until now. What a treat this bread was. Fully of crunchy, tart goodness.
English muffins!! So easy and tasty. I even made a loaf version, which was equally delicious, although it was a little hard to split the loaf with a fork.
Instead of going savory, I went sweet with the foccacia. Topped with sugar and loaded with raisins, this creation disappeared in no time.
French bread, which was very similar to
the Italian bread. Both of which were delicious, and way better than store bought versions.
My kaisers buns were decent. They didn't have the crust I wanted and I screwed up the recipe by including all of the pre-ferment. The shaping sure was fun though.
The lavash crackers were so quick and easy, I kept baking off batches during the week. Best of all, I found they went swimmingly with fresh pico de gallo.
The light wheat bread was exactly that. As you can tell, it ballooned in the oven, creating a perfect sandwich and toast bread.
The marbled rye recipe absolutely won me over. As someone who never appreciated rye bread (I'm not the biggest caraway fan), I've been making this bread on a weekly basis ever since the first loaf. So good. A must!
The multi-grain extraordinaire left a little to be desired. Best eaten as toast.
Pain a l'Ancienne was a great experience. The crust was bang on, and combined with the chewy interior it was fantastic.
Which brings me to pain campagne, and the middle of the challenge. I left this dough to rise, only to forget about it entirely. Coming home to a pile of WAY over proofed saggy dough left a lot to be desired. Maybe I'll go back, but with so many breads left, it's going to have to wait.
There you have it. 22 breads in, and 22 to go. What an experience so far, both for the mind and the tummy. With so much carby goodness, I'm surely going to have run a few extra miles when this whole thing is wrapped up. To any BBAC particiapants; is there a favorite yet? Maybe something like my marbled rye that you've added to your regular rotation? Any major fails? Do tell.
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With the recent disaster that was Pain de Campagne, I was really looking forward to Pane Siciliano. Hoping that in the 3 days it takes to complete, I would forget about past mistakes and dream about the future. I didn't know what to expect from the large portion of pre-ferment and semolina flour utilized in this recipe, but if the twitter talk was any indication, it would be fantastic.
Much like the pain de campagne though, the bread took a left turn. It boiled down to me not actually having semolina flour. Foolish right, why attempt to bake a bread that requires 8 ounces of semolina flour, when you don't have any. Exactly my first thought, but I really wanted to bake this. So I made an executive decision to substitute in 8 ounces of fine corn flour. (Hence the yellow hue of the picture above and below)
What's the difference. Well. Semolina is actually the gritty, sandy flour milled from durum. Something that most people would associate with pasta. High in protein, and low in gluten; semolina is definitely not corn flour. However, even with such a big change, the result was surprisingly good.
The corn flour add a bit of sweetness and texture. Maybe not as good after a few days, the fresh bread excitement was brought back by toasting the bread in the morning. I learned early on, from our first bread in fact, that corn meal and corn flour do wonders for toast.
I thought the pane siciliano journey would end there, but was surprised surprised to find a nice semolina flour gift waiting for me a few days later. Making it all over again, correctly this time (see above and below picture), I can't say enough good things about this bread. The semolina does something so fantastic for the taste. Nutty, sweet, all around delicious. This may be sliding into top spot for me.
Got some time to waste? Why not check out the #BBA tag on twitter, and surf around looking at some delicious bread.
