Day 157: Schiacciata Con Zibibbo (Flatbread with Raisins)

This is some incredible bread. I've made schiacciata before, which is a lot like focaccia, but it was never on this level. You start this bread by taking half a cup of olive oil and add a ton of fresh rosemary to it, bring it to a boil, and then let it simmer for a bit. Half of this goes into the bread and the other half goes on top of it right before it goes into the oven. The raisins are kneaded into the dough so they don't get destroyed by the mixer, but it was hard to get them evenly distributed throughout the bread. Once the dough is kneaded, you spread it out in a cookie sheet, pour the olive oil and rosemary onto it and spread that out, then sprinkle sugar onto the bread. The sugar dissolves into the oil and then bakes into the bread, leaving just the infused sugar. I was thinking this was just a savory bread but didn't realize it was loaded with sugar. It gives it such a great contrast that I wasn't expecting.

Day 156: Three Herb Bread

This was originally called Six Herb Bread, but I just used a couple of the herbs I had to make this Three Herb Bread. The actual bread is pretty standard, but obviously, it's the herbs that help this bread stand out. I put in some fresh basil, oregano, and dillweed into this bread, and you can taste each herb in every bite. The original plan was to use this bread to make pizza grilled cheese, so I needed something with a lot of flavor. This fit the bill exactly, and was incredibly easy to make. I'll report back on how the pizza grilled cheese turn out! 

Day 155: Orange-Nut Bread

There are so many orange breads in the Fruit and Nut Breads section that it's crazy. This one is probably the most standard of all of them, but that doesn't mean it's the worst. For the nuts in this bread I decided to go with some pecans and mix it up. All the stuff on the top is actually an orange juice-sugar glaze that I spread on the bread about 10 minutes before it was done baking. This bread has a ton of flavor and texture packed into every bite and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm obviously still hopping around the different bread sections, and there's no end in sight! They're all too good and there's just too many of them! 

Day 154: Savory Bread

So far, this might be the most generic name for a bread yet, but that doesn't mean it's not delicious. This is a pretty standard bread except for the fact that an herb butter is spread over the dough before it was rolled up and thrown in the oven. This butter was loaded with oregano, garlic, onion, black pepper, and a hint of Tabasco sauce for some spice. The swirl wasn't very prevalent in the bread, but the flavor sure was. This one turned out delicious, and I'm sure it'll make some incredible toast and/or sandwiches. The name is, ironically, still very bland, but I'm happy with how this one turned out.  

Day 153: Vel's Date Bread

I don't think I've ever eaten dates by themselves, they've always been wrapped or stuffed, and this is just another thing on the list. This bread was a lot better than what I was expecting. The dates add a lot of moisture and texture to the bread, while also looking great next to the walnuts. This bread isn't too sweet, and it is very chewy. For a bread that I didn't think I would enjoy a whole lot, I'm really loving it. I always forget how delicious dates are in everything, and how much I need to start using them more. 

Day 152: Honey-Pineapple Bread

This bread got a little crispy, but even if it didn't, I think it would still be disappointing. On paper, this bread sounds really good: a bread loaded with walnuts, honey, and pineapple? Yes please. What this came out as though was just a pretty bland bread. I didn't taste any honey or pineapple in the bread, and the walnuts barely made a difference. I'm not sure what happened, and what could have made this bread better, but oh well, not every bread can be a winner. 

Day 151: Zucchini-Basil Muffins

I love zucchini, basil, and muffins, so of course when I saw these I had to make them. I think it's much better to skip around with all of these breads than to just make a ton of sweet batter fruit breads in a row and then make a ton of savory breads like these. Mixing it up makes them all seem much better over all because I'm not getting burned out by similar breads. These amazing little muffins are made chock full of fresh basil and zucchini and then sprinkled with Parmesan cheese before they got put into the oven. They're beyond delicious and I'm glad I decided to make them. Its going to be really hard not to eat all of them as soon I am done writing this, but I'm glad they turned out so well.

Day 150: Cherry-Pecan Bread

Another great fruit quick bread. You usually don't see a lot of cherry flavored quick breads of muffins, so I was surprised when I saw this recipe. It uses maraschino cherries instead of fresh cherries, but that's because they're a lot sweeter. You also use a little bit of the liquid from the cherries, and a splash of orange juice for flavor. Before it went into the oven the batter was a bright pink, and I was sad to see it turn brown in the oven. The pecans in the loaf add a bit of texture and some great flavor. I think this is the first bread to use pecans instead of walnuts, and I'm okay with that. While this one wasn't as good as the loyalist bread, it's still a pretty solid quick bread.

Day 149: Selkirk Bannock

Bannocks are a type of flatbread that is usually cut into wedges. These wedges are typically known as scones, and they're always delicious. This bannock is from Scotland, so of course it is loaded with raisins and butter. It tastes delicious, but didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to. It was supposed to rise a bit, and flesh out the cake pan it was baked in, but it only rose a little and was more on the dense side. The raisins helped out a ton in every way though. They added taste, texture, and some moistness to every bite. I think there are more bannocks peppered throughout the book, so I'm sure I'll bake more and keep comparing them.  

Day 148: Loyalist Bread

This bread is basically a giant crispy blueberry walnut muffin, and it is awesome. The story behind this is that after the British fled the US to Canada, one of the few things they could take were their recipes, and this was one of them. It's a pretty basic recipe until you add all of the fresh blueberries and then it gets knocked into the next gear. This loaf of bread disappeared pretty quickly, it was just too delicious. I'm down for anything with blueberries in it, and muffins are always king. I'm still skipping around, obviously, and probably won't stop for a while. 

Day 147: Peanut Butter Beer Bread

Another great beer bread! This recipe is pretty basic except for the fact that you heat up some beer, butter, and peanut butter into a smooth mixture before adding it to the dry ingredients. It can be a little gross when the hot beer starts foaming into chunks while you try and stir it down, but other than that it was pretty smooth sailing. I cut a piece and tried it and thought it was delicious. It just tastes like peanut butter, but not a ridiculous amount of peanut butter, which I'm happy with. I do love me some peanut butter, but I don't know if I'd like it in bread form. I did not toast this (the preferred way to eat it according to the book) nor did I add any jam or jelly to it, but making small sandwiches is exactly what I'm going to do next. 

Day 146: Potato Bread

Now this is some amazing bread. Potato bread has always been one of my favorite and this one might be the best I've ever had. Potato breads are usually really light and chewy. and this one excels in both of those categories. The flavor is incredible and right out of the oven this loaf is to die for. It's amazing with butter, and even better toasted. I haven't made any sandwiches out of it yet, but that's inevitable. This also the first recipe in a while that I didn't halve. I knew what I was getting into when I started this bread. I could easily eat an entire loaf of this, its just too good. I'm still hopping around in the section, but just couldn't resist this one when I saw it. 

Day 145: Pumpkin-Walnut Bread

Made another quick bread today, this time with pumpkin. I thought it would be a lot like pumpkin pie, but it isn't nearly as moist. The walnuts in it add a lot to the flavor and texture. There is also a lot of cinnamon and nutmeg in it, which also helps a lot. Its a little on the drier side, but nothing a little butter can't fix. I was expecting it to be as good as banana bread, but it didn't really stack up. There isn't a whole lot more to say about this one, other than it's just alright. I might make these later in the Fall and modify the recipe to improve it. 

Day 144: Bao (Steamed Bun)

The first and only time I had a bao was when I went to New York for the Governor's Ball Music Festival last summer with my friend Nguyen. He had wanted to go to the BaoHaus, a tiny hole in the wall bao place in NYC, to get some of the best bao ever. It was right across the street from a Michelin three star restaurant, so I already had some high expectations. They used flatter bao that was folded over ingredients (I got some bomb tofu) and eaten like a sandwich as opposed to being a stuffed dumpling. They were incredible and I was super excited when I found out there was a recipe for bao in this book. The same buddy Nguyen is here in town visiting me right now, so I thought that it was only right if we make some bao from scratch. Neither of us had made them before so it was quite an adventure. They turned out delicious and I would love to make some legit stuffed ones. I didn't know they were so easy to make either. I'm still skipping around in the recipes, but I had to do this one for the sake of my friend. 

Day 143: Rosemary-Garlic Bread

I made a different garlic bread a few days ago and, while that one was delicious, I think this one is better in every way. First off, it's not a soft sandwich bread, so it's a lot easier to eat in my opinion. Second, its loaded with rosemary and parsley, not just garlic. Lastly, I baked it in a steam bath, so it's got the same crispy crust and chewiness of a good French bread. This bread is incredible toasted, and even better with some pasta. I've been skipping around on the recipes because I don't want to dive into a single section yet, and I think I'm going to keep doing that. It keeps everything fresh, and thse few sections are very similar in recipes. 

Day 142: Strawberry Walnut Bread

You really can't ever go wrong with a fruit batter bread. If it's banana or blueberry, or even strawberry, it's always delicious because they're basically just cake. There is a strawberry rhubarb bread recipe in this book, but I just wanted to make a regular strawberry one for now. I wanted pecans in it, but I just went with the classic walnut for this loaf. This bread is so delicious. Everything with strawberries in is just heavenly. There isn't a whole lot more to say about this bread, other than it is amazing. I'll still be making the strawberry rhubarb bread later, but I just wanted some strawberry bread right now. 

Day 141: Dilly Casserole Bread

I tried to make a different bread today, and it turns out it's one of the more difficult breads to make, so I looked for a quick bread to make and this one caught my eye. I'll talk about that other bread once I can finally get it, but this bread was another one in the herb and spice breads. Apparently Dilly Casserole Bread used to be the thing to make back in the day, and now it's nonexistent. How it got that name exactly, I can only assume it's from the fact that it has dill in it and you typically bake it in a casserole dish. This bread starts with cottage cheese that is heated, then mixed with yeast, dill, sugar, salt, and powdered onion. I halved this recipe but it could have easily been the regular size, and obviously I didn't use a casserole dish. This is a light fluffy bread that tastes very oniony and not very dilly. If I make it another time I'd definitely up the dill and lower the onion. 

Day 140: Sourdough Pumpernickel

What a bread to end the sourdoughs on. This might be the last one but it's one of the best. I love rye breads and caraways seeds, but making pumpernickel breads is one of the biggest pains ever. This one was nowhere near as big of a pain to make, and tastes much than most. It has the best things of of both sourdough and rye worlds. You get the intense flavor of the sourdough mixed with the irreplaceable taste of caraway. I cut the bread in with a tic-tac-toe shape on the top and  one side turned out fine and the other side kind of exploded. It all still tastes so delicious though, so I don't really care about one side. That just gives me the excuse to eat that side first. I'm really happy how all of these sourdoughs turned out, and I'm definitely going to be hanging onto the sours I made so I can whip up a sourdough whenever I feel like it, or as a gift for someone. 

Day 139: Starter White Bread

I used the same starter for yesterday's bread as I did for this one. It was just a yeast starter that had to ferment for 5 days. There wasn't any yeast in this bread besides the one used in the starter, so it took forever for it to rise. I think that's why this bread is named Starter White Bread and not just another sourdough bread. The recommended way of baking it is to make a twin loaf, which just means that you split the dough in half, roll the two halves into long mini loaves, and put them into the same pan. They'll bake together, but look better than simply slicing down the top of the loaf. This one was also really delicious, so I can't complain about anything! 

Day 138: Sourdough Loaf

This bread is incredible. It turned out a lot bigger than I thought it would, but I'm okay with that because it is so fluffy and delicious. I used a yeast starter that took about 5 days to ferment. Like I said, this bread has a lot going for it. It's got some great flavor, the texture is top notch, and the dark color is amazing. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, especially after how the potato bread turned out. This was more from what I was expecting, and I'm glad this one tastes so incredible. This is definitely some sandwich bread of the highest quality.