World Bread Day 2011

No matter how hot the weather, I enjoy baking bread. Actually, the hot weather behaves like an assistant, allowing the dough to rise without any extra measures. While I eagerly anticipate Zorra's Bread Baking Day every month, I also look forward to October 16, World Bread Day.





Regularly, I choose back issues from my cooking magazine collection and revisit the recipes. Sometimes I find the older ones more appealing than the new or current recipes. It so happened that I was leafing through a Cooking Light issue from September 2007. The recipe for Swedish Saffron Bread stood out, so that is what I chose to bake.

My daughter had given me a jar of saffron for Mother's Day, so this was a perfect use for it.




Yeah, my braiding was a little funky, but it didn't affect the flavor, which was wonderful. The dough is full of golden raisins and currants with overtones of cinnamon and saffron. It smells like honey, although there is none included.




And, the slices make heavenly toast. This is truly one bread that I will make often.



So, I'm sending this colorful and delicious Swedish Saffron Bread over to Zorra in honor of World Bread Day. I'm also looking forward to seeing what other breads have been submitted. I see much bread baking in my immediate future!



Happy Bread Baking!

TWD: Basic Buttermilk Biscuits

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie venture was a basic biscuit. There is a choice between a sweet milk biscuit and a buttermilk biscuit. I chose the latter, since I keep buttermilk in the fridge and need to use it before it spoils.




I've been making biscuits for several decades. I rarely cut them in circles, but pat out the dough to the desired thickness, then cut it in to six or nine rectangles. These biscuits taste delicious no matter the shape.




They baked up tender and flaky with a golden brown top.





Our hostess this week is Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort. The biscuit recipe can be found on Jennifer's blog.


Head over to the LYL section of the TWD website to see what the other bakers thought.

TWD: Apple Nut Muffin Cake

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a quick and tasty coffee cake that can be served for breakfast or for dessert. What's not to love about apples and pecans, oatmeal and raisins.




Raisins? Did I just admit that I used them in this cake?


Ah yes. I threw caution to the wind and added some golden raisins. And I'm still alive to talk about it.

This is definitely a cake worth remembering and baking, for your family or for company or for snacks.




This week's hostess was Katrina of Baking and Boys! You can find this easy recipe on Katrina's blog.

Don't forget to stop by the TWD website (LYL section) to see what the other bakers thought.

TWD: Flip-Over Peach Cake

This is one terrific dessert! Although the recipe calls for plums, I chose to use peaches, fresh from the farmers market. I'm picky about my plums and really only like the ones with a dark, purple-red flesh, and those plums are nearly impossible to find. Hence, the peaches.


My peaches were as large as softballs, and perfectly ripe. (Yay, farmers markets!)



I didn't change any of the spices, and I got to use my oval Pyrex baking dish.




This has to be one of my all-time favorite desserts from Dorie's cookbook. I literally could have eaten it all at once. But I didn't. I did share some with my neighbor so I wouldn't fall victim to its peachy charms.



This week's hostess was Becky of Project Domestication. She will have the recipe posted on her blog.


I suspect most of the other bakers used plums, so head over to the Tuesdays with Dorie site to find out for sure. (Use the LYL section to access the other blogs.)

BBB: Soft Pretzels

Last week I treated myself to yet another cookbook, Ruhlman's Twenty.

(While collecting cookbooks appears to be a long-standing addiction [500 and counting], I'm not ready for any interventions. I still have empty rooms to fill!)


The first tool/technique in the book is Thinking.

I do a lot of that, all the time. I'm experienced at thinking. I make my living by thinking.


I'm usually well-prepared when I cook or bake, but I believe there is always something to learn.

So, when I participated in this month's Bread Baking Buddy event, I decided to test my thinking abilities.



Making soft pretzels requires a variety of steps -- making the dough, letting it rise and rest, shaping the pretzels, giving them a bath, brushing them with an egg wash, then baking them. To do this successfully, you need to be efficient and coordinated, having your mise en place and equipment ready to go.


For the water bath part, each time I put in a pretzel, I thought about how to improve the process. By the end, I would place a pretzel up-side down, by hand, in the simmering soda water, push the 15-second button on my timer, then flip it over with the spider, count another 15 seconds, then fish it out and place it neatly on the rack.


The process went very smoothly, thanks to extra thinking. All pretzels were made and baked in slightly over two hours. I sprinkled half of them with Kosher salt, and the other half with cinnamon sugar. Twelve hand-sized soft pretzels, just perfect for a snack.


September's Babe hostess was Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms. Check out her blog for the recipe and to find the links to the other Babes.




It's time to munch a fresh, soft pretzel.

TWD: Salt and Pepper Cocoa Shortbreads

As I write this, I'm munching away on these delicious cookies. I like to think of these as on-demand cookies. I keep the roll of dough in the fridge, then slice off a few and bake them in the toaster oven while I'm eating dinner.

No fuss, no muss.

I sprinkled the first batch with a little extra sea salt for that crunchy, salty, chocolatey, sweet experience.





A few of the almond slice & bakes came to the party, too.



If someone doesn't like that hint of pepper, you could substitute another spice. Either way, these are tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookies.




This week's hostess was Tia of Buttercream Barbie. She'll have the recipe available on her blog.


On the Tuesdays with Dorie site, there wasn't too much chatter about these. Tune in to see what everyone thought.

TWD: Classic Brownies

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie offering is a classic chocolate brownie, chock full of walnuts, moist and chewy. This baking group has tried more varieties of brownies than I can count, each one delicious and each one suiting different types of brownie eaters.



This particular recipe comes close to my normal brownie recipe. Usually, I omit the nuts and substitute chocolate chips or mint chocolate chips. I could have done that this time, but wanted the full experience of the original recipe. It was a nice, substantial, delicious brownie.





In the future, either recipe will do.


Our hostess this week was Anne of Anne Strawberry. Check out her blog for the recipe. It's also a really cute and informative blog.

More brownie renditions will be found on the TWD website, so head on over there after you've baked your brownies.