bread baker’s apprentice – In Good Taste

BBA Challenge (Week 20): Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire)

Maris Callahan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 15:41:00 +0000

Remember the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge? Well, that’s okay. I don’t either. Last May (or maybe it was June?) I signed on to bake my way through Peter Reinhart’s book, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, along with a bunch of other bloggers who would be baking their way through the book. The rules, very Julie-and-Julia style, were that you had to bake each bread from A-Z, no skipping, at a clip that suited you. For awhile I baked a bread each week, sometimes two breads. That didn’t last long. So here we are, on #20, which is actually a bread that I would make again and again. I’ve made it twice since my initial trial and love that you can shape it into a lovely little boule, my favorite bread to bake or follow the instructions for a more traditional loaf. If you’re serving a heavy meal like pasta but bread on the table is non-negotiable, this is a good one to try. It’s full of grains so you’ll get a dose of filling fiber and wind up eating less bread and saving more room for the main dish, whatever that may be. We aren’t blogging the recipes (buy the book!) but […]

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BBA Challenge (Week 19): Marbled Rye Bread

Maris Callahan — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0000

As you can see, I’m using the term “marbled” very loosely here, as the bread you’re looking at is not even remotely marbled. Before I start making excuses, maybe I’d better tell you how we got to this point to begin with. Last May (or maybe it was June) I accepted a challenge along with a group of bloggers, to bake our way through The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. With fervor, I baked light wheat bread, herbed focaccia bread and homemade English muffins. I met a couple of roadblocks along the way, especially when an attempt at producing a flawless loaf of French bread resulted in Plan B: a trip to my local market. Well, I know it’s been awhile since my last Bread Baker’s Apprentice post, so now it’s time for the excuses. Between starting a quasi-new job and taking an apartment without a dishwasher, I’ve unarguably done less baking since my move to Chicago than I used to do. But the real reason that it took me eons to bake marbled rye bread is that one of the key ingredients, light rye flour, was nearly impossible to track down at my grocery stores. Yes, from the grocery stores in […]

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BBA Challenge (Week 18): Light Wheat Bread

Maris Callahan — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Of all of the breads that I’ve baked in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice challenge, I have had a few favorites. To Peter Reinhart, selecting a favorite might be a little too much like choosing a favorite child, but for me the cinnamon buns and English muffins were, in their own rite, unrivaled. However, no one really needs cinnamon buns and I usually only buy English muffins if they’re on sale. Sandwich bread, however, is a staple and this week’s recipe for light wheat bread was one that I was able to make on a weekend and then not buy at the store that week (as if I only go grocery shopping once a week…). Made with whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour, it gets its name from its light caramel color rather than its nutritional value (which isn’t bad either). I can’t remember the last time I had white bread but I do remember the first time I had wheat bread – my mother started buying a new brand that came in a yellow wrapper, though I can’t remember what it called. It was suspiciously darker than the bread I was used to eating with peanut butter and jelly but […]

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BBA Challenge (Week 17): Lavash Crackers

Maris Callahan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:00:00 +0000

My deepest, darkest secret is that sometimes, I eat cheese and crackers for dinner. Actually, not sometimes. Often. It’s my go-to dinner when I don’t feel like cooking. For some people, it’s cereal and milk. For others, it’s takeout from the Thai place on the corner. When I’m not in the mood to cook, which is seldom — it’s more likely that I’ll not cook because I’m not in the mood to do dishes — I break out a box of whole wheat crackers, the creamiest brie I can afford and maybe some fig jam or my favorite store-bought hummus. However, eating cheese and crackers for dinner really isn’t such a shortcut when you occasionally bake your own crackers. Though I typically buy my own crackers, there have been few occasions that have merited baking them. Finding an especially delicious recipe accounts for one occasion and the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge is another. Lavash is a Middle Eastern flatbread, similar to the Mexican tortilla but baked to a crisp, golden brown sheet and then broken into shards, into rough, unevenly shaped crackers perfect for dipping or topping with a creamy cheese. I’m breaking the Rule again. I’m posting this recipe […]

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BBA Challenge (Week 16): Kaiser Rolls

Maris Callahan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I’m going to come right out and say this. I have long since thought that New York food is overrated. First though, let’s take a step back and start from the beginning. I made Kaiser Rolls, the 16th bread in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, recently. They were a nice change from my usual whole grain sandwich bread, but what I enjoyed most about eating them was realizing that the big, crusty, sesame-seed encrusted rolls seemed so New York. I might have bittersweet feelings towards my city, but I suppose that New York food is not all overrated. The Big Apple, is, after all, home to some of the best restaurants in the world. The problem is, most of those great restaurants are tucked away in Soho, hiding in the West Village, so that visitors often miss them in lieu of places like bustling pizza and pasta joints like Carmine’s or the famous that is the Second Avenue Deli. It’s not that any of these places are bad, but when I’m in a new city, I like to wander off the beaten path and look for hidden gems that I haven’t read about in the guidebooks. Places that the locals know and love. Though […]

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