Day 90: Toasted Cornmeal Bread

I messed this bread up, but it still turned out okay. It's super dense as it usually is when I mess it up, but this one rose more than usual. To make this one you can either buy toasted cornmeal (which I didn't know they sold) or you can toast your own like I did. I just popped it in the 350 oven for about 20 minutes and it was perfect. This bread is supposed to be a light golden brown loaf with a great toasted flavor, but only some of those things came through. As I was making it, before I messed it up, it had such a great toasted aroma, but that didn't stick around long after baking it. You can still get some of the toasted flavoring, but it being such a dense brick of a loaf just kills any other enjoyment. This was the last corn bread, and it's kind of disappointing to end it on this note, but there's no going back! 

Day 89: Rudi's Stone-Ground Wheat Again

Back by popular demand, it's Rudi's Stone Ground Wheat! It is my mom's birthday today and I asked her what kind of bread she wanted. She doesn't really like whole-wheat breads, but this one obviously stood out. This bread was incredible back when I first baked it, and it's still just as amazing. It's loaded with bulgar, whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, wheat germ, molasses, honey, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds. There's a reason why my mom requested it. I don't know if the last loaf I baked got this big, but this loaf turned giant in the oven! Baking this was a good change of pace from all of the corn breads I've been making. I feel like it's been ages since I baked a whole-wheat bread. We're almost done with corn breads though! We have one left to go! 

Day 88: Steamed Corn Bread

This bread, like the other steamed breads I've made, come out as a super dense loaf. The recipe intended for me to make three smaller loaves and they were to be baked inside of coffee cans. I don't have any coffee cans, nor do I want to drink three cans worth of coffee! So I just made this one like I did the other steamed breads and put it in a pan, wrapped it in aluminum foil, placed that pan in another pan filled with water, and placed all of that in the hot oven. This one I steamed for three hours and it turned out perfectly. Apparently this is an old French recipe and they used to bake it in a cloth sack over a giant kettle of boiling water. That could be a lot of fun, but that sounds like a ton of work. Overall this bread is okay. It tastes just like molasses, so I can't complain too much, but I definitely couldn't eat a lot of this bread. 

Day 87: Taloa

These turned out amazing, but after a quick search, these are definitely not the traditional taloa that people eat. The recipe described them as Basque English muffins, which they totally are, but original Basque taloa are actually more like corn tortillas. This recipe uses yeast, water, cornmeal and white flour, while the traditional recipe is just water and cornflour (AKA corn starch here in the US). You let this one rise and roll out into round rolls and let them rise a bit before baking, while the originals you merely roll out and and throw on a hot surface to cook. Either way, these turned out great and are super delicious! I'm sure actual taloa is even better, and I'll definitely have to use a traditional recipe next time I want corn tortillas.

Day 86: Jalapeño Corn Bread

This corn bread is loaded with jalapeños, cheddar cheese, and onions. I thought it was going to be a standard corn bread with jalapeños just mixed into it, but this thing is on a whole other level. It was super easy to make, and was done baking in only half an hour. This might be might favorite corn bread so far, mostly because I love jalapeño things with cheese. Enchiladas are my jam, but this bread is a lot like a pot pie. It's got a great crispiness and chewiness to it. This bread was insane right out of the oven, but it's even delicious a bit later. We're almost through all of the corn breads! Slow and steady!

Day 85: Bacon(less) Spoon Bread

I'd never heard of spoon bread before, but that makes sense because I guess it's a southern thing. It's basically a custard or pudding, but made with a thick cornmeal paste and whipped egg whites. You can load them up with all sorts of flavors, but this one is packed with garlic and cheddar cheese. It turned out a lot like a quiche, only not as eggy. It's not very bready either, so it's somewhere in between. It does taste delicious though, so I can't complain about any of it. This, like most of these other corn breads, came together extremely fast, and were done baking in no time. If I did make another spoon bread, I would definitely change up what I put in it.

Day 84: Batter Corn Bread

This the first batter bread I've made with any yeast in it, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. You make it just like a regular batter bread, but let it rise for about an hour before you actually bake it. It was all pretty standard and it tastes delicious. It's got a hint of sweetness, but the cornmeal in and on the bread give it a unique texture. It does taste like a yeast bread, but it's more dense like a batter bread. I'm glad a bread like this was included in the book, because I don't think I would have ever thought of using yeast in a batter bread. 

Day 83: Gâteau Au Maïs

I'm not sure how to pronounce the name of this bread, but there sure are a lot of French dessert breads that use cornmeal. This bread is basically a cake, and it was amazing. It uses whipped egg whites that elevate this cake to the next level. It's a very small cake, but it packs a lot of punch. The egg whites give it an airy-ness while the sugar and cornmeal give it a good caramelized crunch. It was hard not to eat the whole thing right as it came out of the oven. This was actually the last recipe in the corn bread section, and I can see why. From your basic corn breads to actual breads with corn, they were all leading up to have you finish it off with this amazing corn cake. We're not done with corn breads however, and we've still got some delicious ones in the pipeline.

Day 82: Corn Bubble Bread

This is another one of those yeast breads that are just bread with some cornmeal in for kicks and giggles. The cornmeal is supposed to give it a unique texture, but I couldn't really tell. This loaf is also traditionally made with yellow cornmeal, giving it a darker texture, but I made it with white cornmeal, so it looks more like a giant dinner roll. This tastes a lot like them too. It's basically monkey bread, but instead of being sweet, it's just normal white bread. This recipe tastes really great and it never even occurred to me to bake regular rolls in a round pan. Bernard Clayton recommends that you let the bread rise for a few hours (up to 24 hours) in the refrigerator, or you can let it rise on the counter top for up to an hour. I only let it rise for about 15 minutes and it was getting out of control. I'm sure the recipe would turn out equally good no matter how you let it rise though. 

Day 81: Corn Corn Bread

Corn bread is so much better with actual corn in it, and it's even better with fresh corn. Unfortunately we didn't have fresh corn, but this bread still came out amazing. I also used white cornmeal, which is why it looks super white in the picture. I guess this just makes the actual corn stand out in the bread. This was another pretty standard corn bread recipe with the addition of the actual corn. It tastes amazing, looks incredible, and is best served warm. There isn't really a lot else to say about it because it's just so good all around. 

Day 80: Biscuits Au Maïs

This is a French recipe for corn biscuits, but in France, these would actually be cookies (which they were supposed to be) and I made them into bigger biscuits like the ones we think of in the US. Originally they are supposed to be made into tiny thin discs that taste a lot like shortbread, and you make a ton of them. I made them bigger and thicker, but they still taste a bit like shortbread. The recipe wanted them to be topped with strawberries, which would have been amazing, but I opted to go for some gravy instead. Biscuits and gravy is one of my favorite breakfast foods, and even if these biscuits were a little sweet, I was going to make it work. And work it did. In the picture, these biscuits look extremely white, but they are actually yellow. Unlike your usual biscuits as well, because these are made with corn meal and no leavening, they barely rose at all. This all feeds into the mentality that they're more cookie like. The recipe was incredibly easy (it was basically a shortbread cookie with cornmeal, eggs, and less sugar) and came out looking awesome. I'm really pleased how this one came out. 

Day 79: Rich Corn Bread

This corn bread seemed like your pretty standard recipe, but with a few added touches. For one, it has a bunch of cream and it, and only uses milk as the liquid. In the book he describes it as "a dairyman's dream." This was quite the turn off for me, because that amount of dairy seems like too much dairy. But the cornbread turned out okay, so I can't complain too much. It doesn't have any sugar in it, so it's still not hitting that mark for me. Like the other corn breads before it, it was super easy to make and bake. Another thing about this bread is that it is supposed to be made super thin, and because of that I had to use two pans to fit it all.

Day 78: Plymouth Bread

This bread has very little corn meal and a lot of molasses, but it still belongs in the corn bread section. This bread is actually incredibly soft and honestly just tastes like molasses. I think you can taste the corn meal a bit in the crust, because the crust tastes radically different than the rest of the bread. It's got a great brown color and tastes toasted on the outside, but soft and sweet on the inside. I cut the recipe in half, but it started with mixing what little corn meal I used in a pot of boiling water to create basically a sludge. The molasses was then added and you let that cool before adding the yeast. After that is was smooth sailing and everything just clicked. The dough was a bit sticky all the way through, but after the last rising it was perfect. I'm really happy how this one came out even if there was barely any corn meal in it, it still has a unique taste and texture to it.

Day 77: Broa

Messed this one up! I don't really know what happened, but I think I didn't knead it enough. It had the texture of when I was overloading the dough, but it was also a bit different. I'm not 100% sure but when I made the Irish freckle bread yesterday, I used the same yeast and it rose, and everything I used was room temperature. I don't know, but it came out super dense and didn't spring back at all. It tasted like corn bread so it wasn't a total waste. This is a Portuguese corn bread  that seemed really interesting and easy, and one of the first corn breads with yeast in it. I feel like I need to retry it because it was actually really easy to throw together, there were obviously just some hiccups on the way.

Day 76: Irish Freckle Bread

Switching it up for St. Patrick's Day! I've already made Irish soda bread and Scottish soda bread, so I didn't want to do any more soda breads. I was just looking through the book and came to this bread in the potato bread section. I've made a few potato breads so far, and from what I can tell they all use mashed potatoes and the potato water. This one has an awesome twist of using currants/raisins in it. My mom wasn't a big fan of this when I told her, but I'm always a fan of currants/raisins in bread. I'm super pumped how this bread turned out. It's so light and fluffy, jam packed with flavor, and looks beautiful. It's got the softness of your typical potato bread, but the raisins add a hint of sweetness that is just perfect.

It's hard to stop eating slices of this bread because they just melt in your mouth. I was tempted to halve the recipe, but I'm sure glad I didn't. I can't say it enough but this bread is amazing. I'm really into corn breads right now, but making bread like this just gets me even more excited to move on to the next great section. All in all I'm really happy how this turned out and I may make soda bread next year or I'll just make more loaves of this! 

Day 75: Johnnycake

Another cornbread without sugar! This one is a lot like the sour milk corn bread in that it just tastes like unsweetened cornbread and not buttermilk cornbread. The main thing is that it also has flour in it. Like all the other breads so far, it was extremely easy to put together and bake. The texture is fantastic, it's all nice and moist, and the color is spot on as well. This bread was really good right out of the oven, and it's even better with a bit of honey. I'm trying to go through all of the batter recipes first, but there are some good looking ones in here that I might save for the last. This recipe says that this bread gets it's name from early Americans journeying around. I'm not sure if that was Native Americans or the English, but apparently it used to be called "journey cake" and the name evolved from there. I'm really happy how it turned out, and these breads were a much needed change of pace from all of the sticky rye goodness. 

Day 74: Corn Muffins

I do love me some cornbread muffins. The recipe actually calls for making corn sticks, which apparently is corn bread baked into little molds of corn on the cobs. I didn't know that those existed, nor did we have one, so I just made it into muffins. The recipe was a pretty standard northern recipe, with sugar and flour being added to the batter. This cornbread still isn't as sweet as I would like, and I know I can just add sugar and make it that way, but I'm trying to experience the bread as the recipe calls for. It does have a lot going for it however. The texture is great, although they were the best right out of the oven, and obviously they look delicious. I was looking at the next few recipes and it looks like we're going to be getting into the actual breads that use cornmeal and need to rise and such.   

Day 73: Southern Corn Bread

Now we're talking some legit corn bread. The only ingredients in this one are white corn meal, eggs, buttermilk, salt, and baking powder. I feel like the fewer ingredients in a bread, the more traditional and legit it is. This is also the first time I've used white corn meal, and turns out it's exactly like yellow corn meal! Surprise! We're getting farther and farther away from the sweet corn breads that I know and love, but I'm okay with that. I'm just super over buttermilk at this point, because all you can taste in this bread is the buttermilk. This bread just tastes like cheese to be honest. It looks great, smells great, and the texture it top notch. The only criticism I have really, is that it uses so much buttermilk. I'm not sure what to do about it, and I think that's just how the bread is traditionally, but if I could change one thing, it would be that taste.

Day 72: Sour Milk Corn Bread

This corn bread is actually a lot more like bread than I thought it was going to be. When I think of corn bread I think of sweeter cakey bread, not an actual bread made from corn meal. I looked at a lot of the recipes coming up, and they actually seem like real bread made with corn meal, which I'm actually excited about. I went into this section thinking that I would just be making a dozen and a half different cakey sugary corn breads. So to start, I think I actually like this bread more than yesterday's bread. There isn't any sugar in it, which I'm not used to, and it didn't really rise much. It's not as soft either, which makes it a lot easier to eat.  I don't really know what to compare it to, but I think this might be just some regular corn bread to people. I'm still not a fan of buttermilk, and I don't know if that will ever change, but everything else about this bread was great. I'm really happy how it turned out.

Day 71: Yankee Corn Bread

Corn breads are awesome. I don't really know anything about them, and I've rarely made them, but apparently there are two main kinds of corn breads. Corn breads made in the north use yellow cornmeal and usually taller and thicker. Corn breads made in the south use white corn meal and are short and thinner. I don't think I've had anything besides northern corn bread, which makes sense. This one is a northern corn bread, obviously. It came out perfectly, and was super easy to throw together. I think that might be my favorite part of all of the corn breads: very little prep time, no rising times, and low baking times. This bread tastes pretty all right. I'm used to more sweeter corn breads, which I guess aren't the proper way to make corn bread. I'm sure there are recipes in here of all different levels of sweetness, so we'll get there eventually. I'm also pumped to make some corn breads that actually have corn kernels in them. 

Day 70: Barley Orange Bread

So this bread, just like the previous banana bread, came together very quickly, and turned out excellent. The recipe makes one 9 X 5 loaf or two 7 X 3 loaves, and since I don't have any 7 X 3 pans, and I halved the recipe, I got a 7 X 3 loaf in an 8 X 4 pan, making it a little awkward to look at. It tastes incredible however, which I'm really glad. I used the rind of one whole orange, boiled it a few times, and then cut it up to make a syrup out of. I don't know how one loaf with two whole orange rinds would turn out, because there is a ton of orange in here. The recipe even says that if you want a lot of orange flavor, don't boil the rinds before you make the syrup. That would just be way too much orange flavoring. You also use orange juice in the recipe, just to add an extra kick of orange. So long story short, this loaf isn't messing around when it comes to orange flavoring. The barley flour, like the banana bread, also gives it a great texture. It's crumbly, but in a melt-in-your-mouth kind of way. I was really happy how this one turned out, and kinda bummed that that's the end of barley breads. I looked up more recipes and they seem to be pretty generic ones, so it makes sense why there are only three in this book. We're going to move onto corn breads though, which I can't wait for!

Day 69: Barley Banana Bread

And we're back into barley breads! As far as banana breads go, this one is pretty high up on the list. I love banana bread, so I was pumped to see that I actually get to make some. I've only ever used barley flour once before, so I wasn't sure how this one was going to turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's basically a mix between a hush puppy and regular banana bread. It's got a grainy-ness to it, but it's also super soft and it melts in your mouth. The recipe actually calls for rice flour in addition to barley flour, but also said that if you didn't have any rice flour on hand, you can just use some more barley flour. I'd be interested to see how it differs when rice flour is used instead of all barley flour. Like other banana breads, this one is actually a batter bread, meaning that you don't actually make a dough, but pour a batter into pans. These breads are basically cake in bread pans and they're always awesome. This bread also has walnuts in it, giving it just a little extra texture and flavor. I was really happy how this one turned out, even though I was expecting it to be just like an other banana bread.

Wow look at that! We're already two-thirds of the way through barley breads! I rarely see anything that uses barley flour in it, so I'm glad we at least got something for it. I had to go to three different grocery stores before I found some, which just goes to show you how uncommon it is. I think tomorrow's bread is also a batter bread, so it's going to be some more smooth sailing then.

Day 68: Seeded Rye

This final rye bread definitely did not disappoint! Is turned out a lot like the heavy sour rye, which I loved, but a bit softer. At the beginning of the recipe you're supposed to take slices of old loaves of bread, soak them in water for a little, squeeze them out and then throw them in the mixing bowl. You also use some of that awesome rye sour I used in the heavy sour rye bread. I also put a bunch of extra caraway seeds when I was making this one. I halved the recipe and it still made a giant loaf of bread. I'm not complaining though, because this bread is awesome. It's got a great crust and look to it, the flavor is wonderful (really sour and loaded with caraway) and it's nice and soft in the middle. This bread has already proven itself as incredible toast, and I can't wait to make a sandwich with it. I'm really holding myself back by not eating the whole loaf tonight. 

Rye breads have really grown on me over the past however many days. I wasn't a big fan, but now I'm a huge fan. Making them was a pain in the ass sometimes because the dough is just insanely sticky and requires an immense amount of patience and work. This is probably a good thing however, because we're just getting started. We have so many more breads to get through, and barley breads are next.

Day 67: Westphalian Pumpernickel

So I guess pumpernickel breads come in two forms: great airy bread and super dense brick. This is, obviously, the super dense brick. I think this one might even be more dense than the first pumpernickel I made. That one also tasted better and was a lot easier to make. This bread starts out with a bunch of flour and barley mixed together, then a fourth of a cup of sugar gets burned in a pan and mixed with water. This is the liquid for the dough and is also meant to add a bunch of flavor to the dough. You then take the dough and leave it in the mixing bowl for 12-24 hours at room temperature. This is easy enough, and really thickens the dough. Once that is done you scoop it into the pan and attempt to smooth it out. You then have to steam it in the oven for four hours, and proceed to bake it at 300 degrees for 2 more hours. So there is a ton of just sitting around in the bread.

And it's not even really worth it. It is so dense it becomes hard to eat, and it doesn't even taste good. The only way I could stomach a whole piece was with a lot of cheese. I don't know why this recipe is in this book when the other pumpernickel brick bread is so much better. And both of them are no match for the third pumpernickel bread that is actually bread-like. I just hope that tomorrow's rye bread is a hit because this is a terrible way to end the rye section. 

Day 66: Heavy Sour Rye Bread

On the very first page of the rye section there is a recipe for a rye sour that you can make and use for certain rye breads and also as a substitute for others. I made it about a week ago and finally made a bread that uses it, and holy moly this bread is amazing. It's got everything you want in a rye bread and everything in a sourdough bread. The sour is made with a bunch of rye flour, caraway seeds and onions, giving it a really acidic flavor, perfect for sourdoughs.This bread has a really pronounced sour flavor, lots of caraway flavors, and a good crunchy crust. It goes great with soup so far, and I don't know if it'll last long enough for me to make something else with it. I just might keep the sour alive and make another sourdough bread with it when I get to that section.

So this recipe gets a thumbs way up. Easily the second best rye bread so far. I absolutely love sourdoughs and rye breads have really grown on me (when they're not being a pain in the ass). Making this bread was pretty easy too, except for the three risings and having the sour handy. Tomorrow's bread is going to be a giant pain, but after that is the last bread, which also uses this sour. I'm really looking forward to how that one turns out!

Day 65: Pizza Dough

My mom wanted to make some pizza and she asked if I would make some dough, so of course I had to make it. This is just like when she wanted to make kraut runza's and I just used that as my bread of the day. There is a pizza dough recipe in the bread book, but it's pretty crazy and makes a bunch of pizza doughs. This dough came together very quickly and effectively. I didn't mess it up like the other doughs (which makes me believe that I just don't know how to make rye bread) so that was a giant relief. I used the same yeast I used in all the rye breads so that rules out the idea that the yeast has been dead. I'm still not sure what the deal was, but I'm moving on. This dough turned out just like the one you can buy from the store, and it only took about an hour total to make.

We made two kinds of pizza, but of course I only took photos of the vegetarian one that I made. I can't wait until the summer when we can bust out our pizza stone for the grill and make some legit pizza. I'm going to back hard on the rye breads for the next few days while we still have some. I have a ton of rye sour that I don't think I'll use, so I may have to save that and mix it in with the actual sour dough starters once I get to those.

Day 64: Peasant Black Bread

This dense loaf is made with a ton of coffee which adds a great flavor to it. I'm not really a big fan of this bread other than that however, it's just a bit too dense for me. The recipe was pretty standard except for all of the coffee, but that wasn't really a big change. I think it would make pretty good french toast or croutons. I don't think is going to be a good sandwich bread, so I'm not how I'm actually going to eat all of it. 

We're almost out of the rye breads folks! Counting down the loaves! I've learned a lot from making all of these rye breads and messing a bunch of them up. Rye breads are delicious, but they definitely take some patience and time when it comes to kneading and getting them where they need to be. I can't wait to finish them off and move to the next few breads. 

Day 63: Pain Seigle

I have no idea how to pronounce the name of this bread, but French bread does rye a little bit differently. This recipe actually makes three round loaves, so I cut it in half and got two baby loaves. The thing about French rye bread though, is that they use a lot of fermentation and they don't use any caraway seeds. I'm not sure if this is how the first rye breads were or if people paired them with caraway right from the get go, but either way this bread tastes really good. It's got such a good fermented taste, it's insane. I made the starter three days ago, and after letting that ferment, I mixed it with a starter and let that chill for a day. Today I added a bunch of flour and water and boom it was done. The only real ingredients in this bread are actually yeast, water, and flour. It's that old school and it's that delicious. It doesn't look too good, but I think usually you're supposed to use a darker rye flour than what I had available.

I've been eating this bread nonstop with hummus as soon as it came out of the oven. This loaf is a bit crunchy when it comes to slicing, but the inside is nice and moist. If this bread didn't take so long to prepare I'd recommend people to try and bake it. I think we only have three rye breads left so we're going to cruising here soon!

Day 62: Pumpernickel Bread

This is the biggest bread I've ever made and boy was it a hassle. It all started with heating up some cornmeal with water into a paste. You then add a bunch of molasses, chocolate, and the regular ingredients. This went smoothly, but when it was time to turn it into a workable dough, it became a nightmare. Rye dough is notoriously sticky and this lived up to that name too well. I used probably 3 extra cups of flour to try and manage the stickiness. The recipe calls for kneading it for about 6 minutes and using a bit of extra flour, but it took me about 45 minutes to knead all that flour in. Biggest headache ever. Luckily though, this bread turned out magnificent.

The molasses kind of overpowers all the other flavors in the bread, but that's really okay. It is a massive, chewy, and fluffy loaf of dark bread that makes excellent toast, or tastes just great eaten on it's own. I'm really happy how it turned out, and it was definite hit with my friends and family, but I don't think I'll ever make it again because of how much work has to go into it. I now realize why every pumpernickel bread you buy is the dutch brick variety and not this one. We're almost done with rye breads though! 

Day 61: Dutch Roggebrood

This bread was quite an ordeal to make. There aren't a lot of ingredients, but two of them were potato water and brewer's yeast. Which means I had to go to a brewing store and get that yeast (which is only used for flavor, there isn't any leavening in this bread) and also make some mashed potatoes. This was a hidden bonus because tomorrow's bread actually requires some mashed potatoes! You then have to steam it in the oven for 3 hours before baking it for an hour, and then let it dry off in the turned off oven for another hour. The recipe describes this loaf as a brick, and that's really it is. It's a very chewy bread that you're supposed to slice extremely thin and serve with cheese. It's actually not that bad on it's own, but shines when it has some cheese. You can really taste the molasses in it.

If you ever see the loaves of pumpernickel in the store that are extremely blocky and have to be sliced thin, that's what this bread is. I've seen it a few times at the store but always thought it was weird to buy just a little loaf of refrigerated pumpernickel. Turns out, it's awesome and super easy to make (except for keeping it in the oven for 5 hours). I would recommend you go get some of that bread and some cheese and try it for yourself. Also, according to the recipe, it will last "indefinitely" if kept wrapped in plastic. This bread really is a brick. 

Day 60: Spicy Rye Bread

Now hold up, this bread isn't what you're thinking it is. It wasn't what I was expecting either. When I hear spicy, certain things come to mind: hot sauce, peppers, and burning. When I think of spiced, much different things comes to mind: allspice, cinnamon, and dessert. This bread has the name of the first one, but the ingredients of the other. It is made with ground allspice, cloves, and molasses, making it smell exactly like gingerbread. This bread however, tastes nothing like gingerbread, and more like actual regular bread. There are caraway seeds in it, but you can't taste them at all. It's a smaller, more dense loaf, that is better for spreads and toppings as opposed to sandwich making. I'm not sure the situation for making this bread, because you get barely any spiced flavoring from it. There are much better holidays breads to make in my opinion. 

While the name is awesome, the bread is pretty average. It's okay all around, and goes great with some butter, but I haven't tried it with anything else. We only have a few rye breads left, but they all seem like a doozy. The two pumpernickel breads that I have to make seem like some pretty advanced stuff.