Saturday, October 29, 2011

TBP: Banana Bread & Brioche-ish Bread


The snowstorm going on outside my window at the moment reminded me some of bread I'd made a few months ago and never blogged about. It was day of the hurricane, and as the power can sometimes be fickle at the apartment, D and I decided to use up as many perishables as possible. That meant eggs and butter that could possibly go to waste, so I put them to good use making potatoy egg bread. There was also banana bread (middle bottom).

I went a little crazy over that dud of a hurricane.

Recipe #1: Brioche-ish (from Epicurious)

So I guess this isn't necessarily a brioche, but there are eggs and butter, so I'm going to call it that. Textually it reminded me of brioche, and it was nice and sweet. The recipe says two loaves but I was able to get three decent sized ones out of it. D & I ate the smallest, the one on the left was brought to my fav bar, and the one on the right was frozen and later turned into a seriously delicious bread pudding for a potluck at the same bar haha.

I think this was the largest amount of dough I'd worked with at once- eight cups of flour! But it came together well and I loved the resulting bread. Will probably make it again at some point.


Recipe #2: Banana Feather Loaf (from The Bread Bible)

My previous try at a yeast banana bread was pretty delicious. So when I saw this recipe from The Bread Bible I had to give it a try. The loaf was very different, obviously- light and sweet, banana flavor only especially pronounced when you toasted it. Very good for peanut butter sandwiches, or just warmed with butter.

As it was I made far too much bread that day. Definitely kept that in mind during this snowstorm- though I did bake, and may post about it later, assuming I can find my camera. Don't hold your breath though haha.

Friday, October 28, 2011

TBP Week...???: Le Pain Quotidien Bread Class

It's been a very long time since I posted, I'm aware. Life got in the way a bit of bread, and although there were some loaves I did make and just never got around to taking pictures of and posting, there were a lot of weeks I just didn't have the time. Hopefully things will settle down so I can get back on track.

One thing that should hopefully help was a wonderful (wonderful!) bread class I took at Le Pain Quotidien. It was the Bread Basics class, and you can sign up for that and a few more here.

Yes, you read that right: Bread Basics. No, I didn't learn a ton I didn't know already. The main things were shaping (which I never really paid attention to) and the reminder that making bread isn't terribly hard. Also we stuffed bread with chocolate and nuts and other delicious things, which I now will have to try. But it was three hours of bread with a professional fancy oven, and we had to take home everything we made. And some people didn't take home their share so I got extra.

Here were the spoils:

baguette two ways

rolls stuffed with chocolate and butter, whole wheat bread with walnuts and apple

Not pictured: the pizza we made in class and ate for dinner. Also the pizza dough we made to take home. Also how happy I was.

Very highly recommended. And apparently they have classes in LA now!