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.