bread, bread, and more bread

I love bread. Everything from basic baguette to Chinese sweet taro buns...there's no discrimination. When Starbucks started marketing their sandwich line, I remember reading an ad in a magazine where no coffee was mentioned at all and the entire blurb was dedicated to the awesomeness of bread. I agreed wholeheartedly.

In the past two weeks, I found myself going through bread flour and yeast, waiting for batches to proof and rise, and filling my house with the unmistakable smell of baked goods. And of course, the results became breakfast for my mom and I, thank goodness she shares the same fondness for bread as I do.

First up...a cinnamon raisin bread. A great flavorful and moist bread for breakfast, simply toasted with a bit of butter was how we enjoyed it. A thick slice was bagged for A., who had her eyes on the brown sugary corner; something unintended for, but I guess at least she liked. My mom liked it so much, she gave me one of the best critiques, "You could sell this." I laughed and ate more bread. I baked a mini version (the lower left picture), which resulted in the cutest iconic bread slice (center right) with its overhanging domed top.

Up next...a Swedish rye bread with my own spin. I wanted to create something similar to a dark squaw or dark pumpernickel bread, but as a first attempt, this fell a bit short. The rye flour was definitely noticeable, giving the bread a distinctive taste. I'm going to experiment some more, possibly by adding more molasses, some unsweetened chocolate, etc. to create a flavor I recall from a restaurant that closed a few years back.

And last but not least...banana nut bread. I had some very ripe bananas, so my mom asked for banana nut bread. Quite a simple recipe, which was great, especially since it called for 3 bananas unlike another recipe I used before that called for 6. I substituted regular milk with a bit of lemon juice for buttermilk, and the results were undetectable. The only thing that I distinctly remember liking more from the 6 banana recipe was the sugary crust, which can be easily added to this recipe by sprinkling a few teaspoons of sugar on top right before baking.

All of the above recipes were from my Williams Sonoma Baking Book, a collection I turn to all the time to find inspiration.

Happy bread eating!