Wee Feast

I’d like to think one of my better traits is loyalty. I would also describe myself as constant. Even when I’m being spontaneous—up and quitting my job, for example—it’s not really a deviation from the norm. After the congratulations, I usually also got an “I’m not surprised.”

One of those constancy traits that shows up is when I find a cook or baker whose work I admire, I keep following his or her recipes until the cows come home. So it goes with a small handful in my recent cooking and baking past: Deborah Madison, Dorie Greenspan, Ina Garten, Deb from Smitten Kitchen. Today is another Smitten Kitchen recipe. Even though my mom is always, “You got a recipe online?” they tend to turn out supremely awesome.

That was a long and complicated back story just to say, I hope you’re not bored with my recipes yet.

Read more…?

Baking bread is a metaphor for life. You have to be patient (I’m not). You have to slow down and wait for multiple rises (I don’t like taking things slow). You have to work with the same simple ingredients (I open up my fridge like, this is the crap I have to work with?). But if you can get over yourself, you can make something awesome. See, that’s a metaphor for life if I ever heard one.

This cinnamon swirl bread (originally cinnamon raisin bread, but I loathe raisins) from Honey and Jam has been popping up on a few blogs, just often enough to pique my interest. You know I like cinnamon more that is reasonable. And lately I’ve needed a big dose of reality, specifically life-is-like-baking-bread reality. Since I started baking with yeast last year I haven’t looked back; I love the chemistry of it all and how high and fluffy yeast makes baked goods. The original recipe credit goes to Martha Stewart (something like this recipe).

I made a few substitutions, such as less salt, less butter, and 1/3 whole wheat flour substituted for the white flour. The only change I’d make is not making a paste of cinnamon and sugar for the filling, but rather just sprinkling it on. I found that the water-cinnamon-sugar mixture was a little runny the next day. Still, gooey cinnamon bread that evokes a cinnamon roll? Delightful.

There is something extremely soothing about making homemade bread. It’s great for those weekend mornings when you wake up at the time you’d usually be up for work (early), and just want to putter around the house. You can even watch a mini-marathon of The Millionaire Matchmaker and pretend like you’re just watching it to pass the time during your loaves’ rises and baking time.

If you’re not southern (and really, that’s tough), you might not appreciate the glorious substance that is buttermilk. Buttermilk is what’s left over when you churn cream with some milk to make butter. The milk is really more of a milk bath, as all the cream becomes butter, and you’re left over with some tangy, low-fat milk. You can also make buttermilk by souring regular milk. This ethereal liquid adds a rich, sour flavor to baking. It’s sort of like the sour flavor in yogurt; subtle but creates body. It also makes your finished baked product tender with a fine crumb (as all milk tends to do in baking), with just enough fat to be interesting.

Read more…?