Bread Day

Yesterday I started with Bread Day. I made banana bread in the morning, followed up with sesame-peanut breadsticks to have with lunch. While making chili, I threw together some skillet cornbread, and after dinner I made the starter for the sour dough pancakes we're having tonight for dinner. My family always loves breakfast for dinner!

I had planned to make the banana bread for breakfast, but as I was mise en placing (organizing) my recipe, I noticed that when I originally transcribed it, I had forgotten the flour. The recipe was from my baking instructor, so there was no point in trying to find the original. Instead, I chose Shirley Corriher's recipe from BakeWise. Many times Shirley adds buttermilk and/or whip cream to her recipes to soften the crumb and create an extremely moist product. Although the baking times were off significantly, the bread was unbelievable. Where many recipes call for two bananas per loaf, this one required 4-5. And the toasted pecans hit a home run. It was moist, light and full of banana goodness.

The other great thing about Shirley's recipes (besides that I haven't had a bad one) is that she always tells you why you are doing something: the whipped cream, oil instead of butter (add to moistness), muffin method vs creaming method, etc.

The sesame-peanut breadsticks came from Coyote Cafe's Flavored Breads by Mark Miller (who has long since sold the Cafe). I was looking for something to compliment the Asian flavors of my Thai one-pot, and the sticks were it. I would, however, add some cayenne or other pepper to give it a nice kick through the nuttiness. The recipe was easy and didn't take long to rise. It is a soft dough, something I am not as comfortable with (I like my sour dough, but more on that later), so it was all good.

The cornbread recipe was created yesterday. Although it was very good, I'm not convinced. I was looking for simple and full of corn flavor, so I mixed only 25% AP flour with med-coarse cornmeal. I also used buttermilk instead of regular milk, so I think that lightened it, but the problem was still the texture. The AP flour separated and sank to the bottom of my cast iron skillet (or the cornmeal rose). I am wondering if it had to do with my oven temp. which was set at 350. Definitely something to work on.

Today is another bread day. My daughter asked me to make giant blueberry muffins for an after school activity. This is one of my favorite recipes from Shirley Corriher. Her blueberries and cream muffins uses her same muffin method of oil, buttermilk and whipped cream. She also uses baking powder instead of soda to increase the acidity (the lemon and orange zest help too) which in turn helps create higher peaked muffins.

I am also making a white sandwich bread today. I usually make sour dough, but since I just fed "Mother" last night after making the pancake starter, I thought I would make something different. The recipe comes from On Baking, my textbook from my baking class. And of course, the last bread item of the day is finishing the pancakes and topping them off with real and local maple syrup.