A Year in Bread

Cleaning up after the move...

2010-07-21T23:19:00.001-05:00

Nothing like shutting down the old server to make you realize exactly what only existed there. Trivial things, like banners...sidebar images...my brain... I am off to search through the detritus that passes for a hard drive at my place for missing images, followed by a careful comb through the code for what else is freaked out. Sorry for the mess, it'll be better soon.

Too hot to bake bread? Make biscuits!

2010-07-09T06:39:00.003-05:00

Summer has descended on the northwest like a wet wool blanket. It hit 90 in our little fog valley yesterday, which is far too hot to spend much time in the kitchen. This leaves me craving homemade bread - and other baked goodies - but distinctly avoiding the means of making any.When that happens, I have a go-to recipe: biscuits.Specifically, I go to one of the most popular recipes on kitchenMage:

I really did not want to write this post...

2010-06-06T23:21:00.003-05:00

I hate posts like this, and writing them is worse than reading them, but I am taking a temporary break here. Let's pretend that's different from recent history somehow... In this case, I've been ill. Nothing serious but enervating and it leaves me too drained to focus on baking bread, let alone all the other stuff that goes into writing about it. Hell, I barely have the energy to eat bread these

We May Be Two Places At Once, or Not Anywhere at All!

2010-04-29T01:33:00.002-05:00

I just found this note to myself stuffed between the sofa cushions. Looks like it was written in late 2007, just about when we were starting this blog...Notes re: A Year in Bread Don't make stupid assumptions like that you will really quit in a year. You probably won't. Seriously, baking bread with some of your best foodie friends is not a gig you quit lightly. Make sure you map the domain

Wordless Wednesday: Sundried Tomato, Pinenut and Rosemary Bread

2010-04-07T17:29:00.003-05:00

Susan's Favorite Bread Baking Tips—What Are Yours?

2010-03-25T17:16:00.001-05:00

Freshly Baked Oatmeal Toasting Bread (recipe here) A few months ago I spent some time updating the Ten Tips on How To Bake Better Artisan Breads at Home post that I published on Farmgirl Fare back in 2005, and it was interesting to see the little ways in which my bread baking has changed over the past several years.I'm still following most of the tips, though I don't use my beautiful wooden bread

Bread Baking Tips: How To Clean Up Sticky Dough from Bowls and Utensils

2010-03-05T13:53:00.006-06:00

The other day a friend of mine, wildsheepchase, asked me if we had any tips on getting sticky dough off of utensils once you're done baking. This is a common problem; bread dough is notoriously difficult to get off of even smooth surfaces (like bowls), and small utensils can be tricky to get truly clean.You'd think the simple answer would be to do what you were taught about cleaning up as you go:

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-13T03:08:00.004-06:00

Isn't that pizza cute? I love it because it shows that everyone can do those adorable food tricks without spending years practicing - or a ton of money. As you cook, think about the shape of the final dish. Can you change it up for a holiday or just to be cute?Bread is a particularly good canvas for this sort of play since you can squish it into whatever odd shape you need today: Hearts for

How To Get a No Knead Bread Book for a Dollar

2010-01-29T15:31:00.005-06:00

And the giveaway winner! Thanks to everybody who entered our recent giveaway for a hardcover copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It's been lots of fun to read all your comments and opinions about the no knead bread phenomenon.Beth and I are already planning some more great bread book giveaways, but in the meantime, all of you no knead bread fans might be interested in a special little

Are You a No Knead Bread Baker?

2010-01-21T15:40:00.005-06:00

Win a Copy of Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day!Grilled Mozzarella on Susan's No Knead Italiano BreadIt's been over three years since 'no knead' bread practically took over the world. Who knew one little article in the New York Times would have such a global phenomenon, but it definitely did. The most wonderful thing to come from this craze? A whole slew of people who were inspired and

Wordless Wednesday: English Muffin Love

2010-01-06T08:16:00.003-06:00

English muffins and crumpets: an (almost) shared recipe

Christmas Tree Bread

2009-12-21T04:40:00.005-06:00

Wouldn't this be a delightful sweet bread to find on your table Christmas morning? It's a breeze to make, and you can use your favorite sweet bread recipe. Even small children can help; rolling balls of dough and arranging them into a tree is a great way to keep small people occupied while you do other prep work in the kitchen.Instructions, and my quick spicy adaptation for any sweet roll recipe

Wordless Wednesday:What's Proofing in My Kitchen Right Now

2009-12-02T19:23:00.001-06:00

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: What Are you Baking For Thanksgiving?

2009-11-18T09:41:00.004-06:00

Susan's Carrot Herb Rolls RecipeI think these are going on my Thanksgiving table this year. How about you? What are you baking? Leave a comment, with a link to the recipe if you have it posted.

Friday Favorites:Janneke's Whole Wheat Seeded Bread Recipe

2009-11-13T12:18:00.001-06:00

Janneke's Whole Wheat Seeded BreadWelcome to Friday Favorites, where A Year in Bread readers guest blog about their best bread recipes. If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section of that post.Click here to find out how you can become a Friday Favorites guest blogger. You'll find links to all of the previous

Friday Favorites:Jennifer's Reliable Food Processor Challah Recipe

2009-11-06T16:03:00.005-06:00

Challah: Messing with TraditionWelcome to Friday Favorites, where A Year in Bread readers guest blog about their best bread recipes. If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section of that post.Do you have a great bread recipe you'd like to share? Click here to find out how you can become a Friday Favorites guest

Calling All Breadbakers!

2009-10-30T16:45:00.004-05:00

Beth's Onion Cheddar Breadsticks (recipe here)We're making a list and checking it twice...Do you bake bread and write about it on the web? Post bread porn photos somewhere? If so, please drop a link in the comment section.To make this easier for us, please make the link as focused on bread as possible, meaning if you write about food in general and have a 'bread' tag or category, link that. Same

Slacker Sunday: Friday Favorites: Fauxcaccia

2009-10-18T23:11:00.004-05:00

Welcome to Friday Favorites, where A Year in Bread readers guest blog about their best bread recipes (also sometimes known as Slacker Sunday if we're posting one of our own favorite recipes). If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section of that post. Click here to find out how you can become a Friday Favorites

Friday Favorites : Kelli's Pain aux Raisins Secs et Noisettes ou Pacanes (Bread with Golden Raisins & Hazelnuts or Pecans) For the People

2009-09-25T23:00:00.008-05:00

A one rise, homemade and healthy bread recipe that goes from start to serving in under two hours!Kelli's Pain aux Raisins Secs et Noisettes ou PacanesWelcome to Friday Favorites, where A Year in Bread readers guest blog about their best bread recipes. If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section of that post.

Friday Favorites: One dough recipe, many breads...

2009-09-17T23:59:00.024-05:00

A versatile, overnight bread dough recipe using a sourdough starter that is perfect for sandwich loaves, hamburger rolls, hot dog buns, and even cinnamon rolls!Welcome to our delicious new series, Friday Favorites, where guest bloggers share their best bread recipes. If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section

Friday Favorites:Anne's Oatmeal Toasting Bread Recipe

2009-09-11T09:47:00.004-05:00

Anne's Oatmeal Toasting BreadWelcome to our delicious new series, Friday Favorites, where guest bloggers share their best bread recipes. If you bake a Friday Favorites bread at home, we hope you'll come back and share your experiences with us in the comments section of that post. Click here to find out how you can become a Friday Favorites guest blogger. Happy baking!Our first Friday Favorites

Wordless Wednesday: Gluten strands

2009-09-03T01:46:00.001-05:00

Introducing Friday Favorites:Would You Like to Guest Blog about Your Favorite Bread Recipe on A Year in Bread?

2009-08-22T12:23:00.010-05:00

Susan's Cottage House White Whole Wheat (recipe coming soon)As summer winds down and school starts back up, many breadies are rinsing the sand (or garden soil) off their hands and feet and returning to the kitchen, refreshed and ready to get back into the dough. Those of us who bake bread year round despite the heat—and without the luxury of air-conditioning—are simply thankful that cranking up

Gluten-Free Bread Porn and The Knead to Know:Do You Have a Favorite Gluten Free Yeast Bread Recipe?

2009-08-08T15:44:00.001-05:00

Gluten-Free Turkey Sandwich on Nutty Bread from Elana's Pantry (image via flickr, posted to the A Year in Bread flickr group) Have you ever baked gluten free yeast bread? I haven't had a chance to experiment with gluten free bread baking—I'm still struggling to master the intricacies of working with wheat and rye and oat flour, but some of you have been asking about gluten-free bread

Quick Tip from Beth: How to Save 'Bad' Dough? Turn It into 'Old' Dough!

2009-07-22T13:28:00.005-05:00

Old Dough saved for the next batch of Susan's Oatmeal Toasting BreadIt happens to all of us: a batch of bread dough that just doesn't work out. The recipe might be off, the yeast might be dead (says the woman who once blew half a dozen batches before tossing her yeast for fresh), or plans might change - sick kids, busted plumbing, alien abduction - and the necessary timing for baking up your

Wordless Wednesday: Challah

2009-07-08T04:38:00.002-05:00

Peter Reinhart speaks at TED

2009-06-23T12:59:00.008-05:00

We each have our own personal bread 'crushes' on certain bakers and it is no secret that one of mine (Beth) is Peter Reinhart. I have been a fan since the days of Brother Juniper's Bread Book, buying each of Reinhart's books as it hit the shelves, then disappearing into the kitchen to emerge hours later in a whirlwind of flour bearing freshly baked loaves of goodness.In fact, if I had to name one

Index of our Recipes!

2009-04-17T00:33:00.008-05:00

Beth's Potato BreadThis is one of those housekeeping posts that I've been needing to do for a long time, and I apologize for taking so darned long to get to it. Unlike Susan, I can't even claim to have been out in the barn with the totally adorable, entirely too cute for words baby lambs (and chicks).This list is arranged by month, in the order we did them, with additional recipes, tips and

The Knead to Know:Your Bread Baking Questions Answered

2009-02-28T10:15:00.002-06:00

Susan's 'Perfect for Beginners' Farmhouse White Sandwich BreadWe love to hear your feedback about our recipes, and we enjoy answering the many bread baking questions you ask us. But since our (often longwinded) replies usually end up buried in the comments sections of past posts, we thought it would be more helpful to start turning them into their own little mini posts instead. And besides, we

Math is NOT hard! Adjusting yeast for slow rise bread.

2009-02-25T17:52:00.003-06:00

Those of you who have read a few posts here may know that I am a huge fan of cold-fermentation. The long, slow process allows the flavor of the grain to fully develop and the ability to bake bread on my schedule, rather than the dough's, is extremely useful.Most recipes can be made using this method, just start with cold ingredients and reduce the yeast a bit. Therein lies the rub, or the knead.

2008 Food Blog Awards: It's Time for You To Vote! (And Some Sourdough Inspiration)

2009-01-22T11:58:00.001-06:00

It's great to hear that many of your 2009 bread baking goals (keep them coming!) involve sourdough. And we promise this really is going to be the year we finally take you step-by-step through the simple process of creating, caring for, and using your very own sourdough starter. I've been wanting to make the German Rye Sourdough in Local Breads since I first flipped through this wonderful book (

What Are Your Bread Baking Goals for 2009?

2009-01-20T12:39:00.001-06:00

White Pizza Goes Green: Susan's Swiss Chard Artichoke PizzaThe other day my foodie friend Mark Overbay, who works at the awesome Counter Culture Coffee in Durham, North Carolina, shared one of his New Year's resolutions with me. "I’ve vowed to myself to learn how to bake good bread from scratch in 2009," he confided in an e-mail. "My goal is to be able to provide my friends with loaves of

Sandwich Loaf Bread Recipes on A Year in Bread

2008-08-16T20:18:00.001-05:00

Susan's Farmhouse White - A Classic Sandwich LoafWelcome new visitors and hello old friends! Just in time for back-to-school, here are links to all the sandwich bread recipes we've posted so far on A Year in Bread. What could be better than sending your kids (or yourself!) off for the day with a lunch that includes a scrumptious sandwich made on homemade bread? We certainly can't think of

obsessions: oat flour

2008-05-05T21:35:00.004-05:00

Before.Organic rolled oats.AfterOrganic rolled oat flour.Process in food processor for a minute or so. Substitute for about 1/3-1/2 of the flour in recipes that aren't dependent on gluten, like scones or pancakes. You may need to increase the liquid in some recipes just a bit, although it is not consistent.Technorati: Food | oats | baking | bread | kitchenMage

We're Still Here - And Still Baking!

2008-05-04T11:57:00.017-05:00

Rumors of A Year In Bread's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Just think of our unaccounted for absence in bread baking terms. The yeast isn't dead - it's more like the dough is fermenting really, really slowly. And when that warm and crusty loaf finally does come out of the oven, it'll be better than ever before.In the meantime, things don't look as good for this little guy. We may be big

Question Of The Day:Can A Sandwich Loaf Be Bread Porn?

2008-04-01T09:14:00.005-05:00

Fiddling With Farmhouse White: Susan's New Honey Bran BreadYou may have noticed that it's been a little quiet around here at A Year In Bread. We didn't plan to all go MIA at the same time, but sometimes life and all its busyness get in the way of bread blogging. Two of us actually have good reasons for our absence. Beth has been diligently meeting deadlines for her upcoming cookbook about cooking

Beth: Onion Cheddar Breadsticks Recipe

2008-02-15T21:15:00.015-06:00

When I was a young'un, I moved from "Baja Oregon" to a very small coastal town in southwest Washington. A town where the locals joked, in some cases bragged, that, upon arriving, you should turn back your clock 20 years - to the '50s. (um, no) A town where, in the only 'ahead of their time' moment I witnessed there, they hated Calif…er, Baja Oregonians with a vengeance. Well, mostly. Read the

Kevin: Bite-sized Bread - Gougères Recipe

2008-02-07T18:16:00.001-06:00

In casting about for a topic for February we somehow came up with bite-size breads with cheese. Go figure. However, having arrived on that topic the first thing that occurred to me was gougères.Gougères are savory Pâte à choux puffs typically made with cheese, usually gruyere, but other cheeses are sometimes used. I frequently make them for parties because they keep easily for a day in the fridge

Susan: Cozy Breads For Cold Winter Days Recipe Roundup On FoodieView & Focaccia, My New Favorite Flatbread

2008-01-17T23:12:00.000-06:00

My First Foray Into FocacciaUp until the other day, I'd never made focaccia. When I decided to test my friend Stephen's Quick Rosemary Focaccia recipe for an article I was working on, I realized that not only had I never made focaccia, but I'd never even eaten it. I know, I know, where have I been? I have no idea. Probably too busy eating pizza. You know I love homemade pizza. What I know is that

Beth: Seasonal Breads: Challah Recipe

2007-12-17T16:36:00.001-06:00

When we were first talking about putting together A Year in Bread I made an innocent suggestion that we each share the first kind of bread we had baked, way back in the dark ages when we started baking. After a long moment of silence on the phone, one of us muttered something about 'whole wheat bricks' while another said something definitively negative. Then I was asked to describe my first,

Kevin: Seasonal Breads — Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

2007-12-06T11:50:00.001-06:00

Coffee and newspaper in hand, I stepped out onto my patio and into that strangely orange-gold light that suffuses a clear fall morning. Each season seems to have it's own special brand of light: the harsh, white clarity of a frozen winter morning; the sweet, yellow dance of spring; the somehow round color of summer; and, so, to the particular hue of fall.Traffic is light at 8:00 on a Sunday

Ever wondered how to cut an epi?

2007-11-16T22:48:00.000-06:00

Just in time to impress your friends and family with a lovely epi, or sheaf of wheat, loaf at a holiday dinner, I posted a step-by-step lesson in how to cut an epi. It is actually simple once you have seen it done and it offers a less common alternative to the dinner rolls we have been baking here this month.Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread baking | epi |

Kevin: Holiday Rolls - Yeast Beer Rolls Recipe

2007-11-15T09:11:00.001-06:00

No one in my family is a big bread eater. I probably eat far more bread than anyone else and that's mostly in the form of sandwiches (which I love — shut-up Beth). But the holidays seem to call for bread and, in particular, those soft dinner rolls your mother used to buy and finish baking.I've made these slightly sweet, tender, and buttery rolls in the past. Unfortunately I had no idea what

Beth: Holiday Rolls - Rosemary Fans

2007-10-26T19:15:00.000-05:00

Due to a recent move, I have found myself without my usual bounteous herb garden, which is a truly sad thing. While the place we are renting in theOtherCity has a couple of tiny beds with a few herbs in them, it is pretty thin pickin's around here at the moment.This, as you might imagine, throws a huge wrench in all of my plans for recipes that I was going to write about:Lovage? Nope. Thyme? Not

Bribery, Blackmail, and Physical Threats

2007-10-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

Let me begin with an apology for the delay in posting the winners of the essay/rap/poetry/short story/memoir contest for a copy of Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers. Susan kept saying, "Tell them how hard it was, tell them it was really tough." Pshaw! None of us had any problem picking a winner. Picking a single winner, though… Most of our

Kevin: Prosciutto Bread Ring Recipe

2007-10-11T19:58:00.001-05:00

Republished from Seriously Good.I read recently that the most popular sandwich in the US (discounting hamburgers, I assume) is ham. Although I presume most people eat of some sort of processed ham on some sort of commercial bread in their sandwiches, even some of those products aren't bad. And when you branch out into less common hams and handcrafted breads you can create some really spectacular

Kevin: Sandwich Rye Bread Recipe

2007-09-27T15:18:00.001-05:00

A few years ago I made a sourdough rye bread using wild yeast that I captured and cultured. I made a decent bread from it, albeit rather tough and coarse, but I already had a sourdough culture I was caring for and decided I didn't need twins in my life. Nevertheless, I do love a good sour rye bread for sandwiches and so I eventually got around to coming up with a good sandwich rye.The trick with

Beth: Honey wheatBerry Bread Recipe

2007-09-22T14:26:00.002-05:00

He’s as sweet as Skamokawa honeyJust like honey from the bee.Tupelo Honey, with apologies to Van MorrisonSometimes it is, as the kids say, all about the boy.We all know people who have done odd things for love: run up multi-thousand phone bills, changed names and careers, moved to a city they would never have considered otherwise, or tried to replicate a mass-market loaf of bread.Um,

2007-09-16T09:47:00.000-05:00

Beth: Feta & Chives Cornbread Recipe

2007-09-14T15:06:00.001-05:00

As the days shorten and temperatures take a nightly dive, my food cravings begin to turn towards fall's hearty soup and stew offerings. It's not that I am done with summer — there are still lots of tomatoes on the counter and the herb garden is bursting with late summer goodness – it's more that I feel the need to diversify a bit. Hedge my bets against the day the sun doesn't shine so

We have one winner!

2007-09-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

Where's the darned drum roll when I want it?It is our great pleasure to announce the winner of the random drawing for a signed copy of Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers.Bling! Bling! Bling!Our first winner is: Robin of Around the Island, written from around her kitchen island in Israel. She tells me it is not a food blog but I see recipes,

The Lost Stories

2007-09-06T18:22:00.000-05:00

When we started our contest to give away a copy of Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers, we thought that perhaps a few people would share an amusing story of bread-baking and we were right. A few more — maybe more than a few — shared heart-warming stories of baking bread, while others wrote a poem or a song. We have had a blast reading all of these

Deadline

2007-08-30T12:24:00.000-05:00

Today marks the cutoff date for our Local Bread contest. Susan, Beth, and I would like to thank everyone who's participated in the random drawing and particularly in the story contest. We'll announce the two winners within the next. In the meantime, here are the last of the story entries.First, Carla Shafer and Zorra both posted their stories on their blogs. Carla offers an amazing story of a

Breadtime Stories

2007-08-28T10:55:00.000-05:00

I'm not the only one who has compared bread dough to a baby's bottom. Louise Lewis has drawn the same metaphor in this story :If you have raised any children, or even babysat a lot, you probably understand my meaning in reference to bread baking!My first real go at solo bread baking came in the first year I was raising my boys who were born 13 months apart.I had decided to stay at home for a few

Being the Heartland

2007-08-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

One of the local Knoxville stations has a series named, "The Heartland." As might be expected the brief spots are deeply folksy, full of plaid shirts and chewing tobacco, and hosted by a charming fellow with an East Tennessee accent (making an ET accent charming is a skill) and what used to be boyish good looks but are now avuncular good looks.And you know what? He really is a nice guy with an

Beth: Quick Breads - Blueberry Muffins

2007-08-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

My oven is on the blink. More precisely, it's on the not-blink. As in the electronics are dead, the lights don't blink and the oven doesn't heat. The poor thing died about ten days ago and I am still doing research on its replacement — leaving me ovenless. Not to mention in baking withdrawal. As some people might say, I am in my dark place.Note to readers: if you have suggestions for a reasonable

Tales & Travails

2007-08-12T11:30:00.000-05:00

Laura has posted her baked brick story at LGirl's Blog and Susan offers a story about a bread-loving cat at Wild Yeast. Wan Bui has just recently started baking bread and shared her story with us:Six month ago, I was alien to the baking world. I had no idea what is the difference between all purpose flour, bread flour and cake flour. The only thing I know is that each time I craved for good bread

Kevin: Quick Breads - Cheese Bread

2007-08-09T11:17:00.000-05:00

This month we’re doing quick breads. A quick bread is one that uses something other than yeast for leavening, typically a chemical leavener. Biscuits are quickbreads — unless they’re sour-dough biscuits. Muffins are quick breads. Cornbread is a quick bread. Even popovers are quick breads, although they rely on eggs for leavening.The chemical leaveners are baking soda and baking powder and they

Bread Time

2007-08-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

Our first essay entries have arrived, we'll post a few every two or three days, so if you've sent us an entry and it doesn't appear in this post it will be in a later one.Leanne Abe has posted her entry named "Teddy Bear Bread, I Miss You" on her blog, Three Dog Kitchen. And Kansas Allen has a bread poem on her blog, Little Things I Do.Ruth Schall sent us this entry:Several years ago, a friend

Prizes! Awards! Gimmicks!

2007-08-02T14:01:00.000-05:00

Today we're launching our first contest at A Year in Bread. As the regular readers know, we've been looking at recipes from Daniel Leader's new book, Local Breads: Sourdough and Whole-Grain Recipes from Europe's Best Artisan Bakers, for the past three weeks. The book is due to be released this month, but we already have a couple of signed copies in our flour-covered hands that we're going to give

Beth: Italian Breads From Local Breads - Filone

2007-07-27T09:24:00.001-05:00

L et's start with the obvious confession: I'm off my game. Way off my game. So far off that I don't even have a razor blade in the house to make a decent slash in an unbaked loaf of bread. Look at that picture! Seriously, it has been almost five weeks of one handed cooking, baking, driving, and sitting on the couch with a good book (no, not that book, I'm swiping theKid's

Kevin: Italian Breads From Local Breads - Focaccia

2007-07-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

I was about 12 or 13 the first time I tried baking bread. I produced two whole wheat bricks. I tried again a number of times over the following few years but without any great success. I did produce some decent English muffins — although nothing as good as those I made using the No-knead Bread Dough.Then in 1981 I'd just gotten out of school and while I was trying to find a real job I decided to

Beth: Weights & Measures

2007-07-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

There is a reason that, though injured, I wanted to write this article. You see, here at A Year in Bread HQ, we have weighty discussions and a fundamental disagreement that seems destined to remain eternally unresolved. Fortunately for our friendship, we each know that we alone are correct and we are happy to let the other two believe what they want to believe. So we continue to be good friends

Patience

2007-07-08T09:36:00.001-05:00

kitchenMage is working on the next post, but is running late due to digital damage (a broken finger).

Beth: Summer Breads - Pesto Rolls

2007-06-20T19:00:00.000-05:00

Around my place, summer means casual food that can be grabbed on the run, or taken to impromptu parties and late night bonfires. Like tomorrow night's solstice bonfire, or tonight's impromptu birthday celebration. (Not that the birthday is impromptu, but the celebration is.)Summer is also when my herbMage aspect emerges in full bloom to fall upon the bounty of seasonal herbs, especially basil.

Kevin: Summer Breads - Buns

2007-06-13T16:31:00.001-05:00

"Pig sandwich boy." This is what my co-blogger and supposed friend Beth calls me. Does this sound like a term of endearment? A sweet and touching reference to my fondness for sandwiches and pork? Or does it sound more like opprobrium? A sly snideness hiding behind a mask of bonhomie. I think she's dissing me and isn't really one of my homies, bon or otherwise. Perhaps she has simply mistaken her

Breads for Breakfast and Brunch

2007-06-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

I've never been a breakfast person. Or, perhaps more accurately, I never been big on eating breakfast. A cup of coffee and a newspaper is all I want when I get up. But give me an hour or so for my belly and taste buds to wake up and I can match a lumberjack sausage for sausage, flapjack for flapjack, and biscuit for bagel. Consequently, I'm a huge fan of brunch.Early summer is the perfect season

Beth: Potato Bread

2007-05-31T05:44:00.001-05:00

When theKid was a young'un, I faced a challenge that I am sure is common to parental units across the country: white bread lust. For reasons perhaps best explained by marketing, a lot of kids — even those who usually make sane food choices—seem to prefer bland, white bread. Sandwiches, toast, pretty much anything has to be white bread, but especially sandwiches. And kids eat lots of sandwiches. (

Kevin: Basic White Bread

2007-05-24T09:39:00.000-05:00

I've said before, and I'll repeat it here, I enjoy baking bread more than I enjoy eating it. I like bread, and I certainly appreciate good bread, I'm just not a huge bread eater — with one caveat. I'm a sandwich fanatic. In fact, Beth has occasionally referred to me as Pig Sandwich Boy in reference to my dual loves of pork and sandwiches.There's a Web site named I Love Sandwiches that once had a

Coming Soon: White Bread -- The Series

2007-05-17T18:18:00.000-05:00

We're doing white bread and Susan is leading the charge. But she has sheep, beans, and tomatoes distracting her -- not to mention the bakery she's trying to launch -- so we'll get her post online as soon as we can.

Baking Better Bread

2007-05-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

Susan: Do some reading. Just don't overdo it. Pick one bread book and read it from cover to cover. If you like it and it makes sense to you, read it again. Then try a recipe. If you like the result (or if it came out terrible but you know it has potential), make it again. And again and again and again. It is better to make one bread twenty times than to make twenty breads one time.Beth: Don't be

Metaphor Gone Mad

2007-05-09T09:53:00.000-05:00

Kevin: No-Knead Muffins

2007-04-25T20:31:00.000-05:00

Of the three of us hosting this blog, I'm the artiste, while Beth and Susan are technicians. Alternatively, of the three of us Beth and Susan are the dedicated bakers, seeking perfection while I'm the gadfly with the attention span of, well, a gadfly. I prefer the first interpretation but suspect the second is far more accurate.Nevertheless, one of our goals was to present different approaches to

Reuben Braid

2007-04-21T19:53:00.000-05:00

There's a current Blog event named "Waiter, there's something in my..." where the host specifies a dish to find something in. This month it's bread — how could I resist? I found a fun recipe that consisted of a reuben with the bread baked around it. Tremendous fun and you can find my entry in the event at Seriously Good.Technorati: Food | recipe | baking | bread | artisanal | artisan | bread

Beth: noKnead Bread

2007-04-19T04:42:00.000-05:00

As the winter of 2006 was closing in, a lot of people were discovering an old approach to making bread. Writing in the New York Times, Mark Bittman described how to make a "no-knead bread" using a very wet (or "slack") dough that is allowed a long, slow rise and then baked in a covered, preheated dutch oven. The results were impressive: bread with a beautiful rustic, open crumb and a

Kevin: Calzone

2007-04-12T09:29:00.000-05:00

We had planned on a round up of pizza making hints today, but all three of us were side-tracked with other things that needed taking care of and, because we failed to decide on someone to blame if it didn't get done, it didn't get done. So I thought I'd post a brief note on a pizza alternative: calzone.In this case I rolled out about a quarter of a dough recipe into a circle. Although I usually

Patience

2007-04-05T08:25:00.000-05:00

Susan is in the midst of topping her pizza — when she's not birthing lambs. We'll have the post up shortly.

Beth: Pizza crust 2

2007-04-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note to talk about the 'wetness' of my crust. I've talked with a few folks about their experience and have come to a couple of conclusions.First, I underestimated you all and I apologize for that. I had this really wet dough and thought I'd adjust it a bit for sane people. So I reduced the water from 1 3/4 cups to 1 1/2, tweaked the rest a bit and published it.What a fool I am.You

Kevin: Hot Cross Buns

2007-04-02T08:18:00.000-05:00

This article was originally posted on Seriously Good in April of 2006."Results 1 - 10 of about 14,000,000." Google is nothing if not prolific -- one might even say prolix. It was the week before Easter and I'd entered "easter bread" as the search term. I'd planned on baking some sort of Easter bread last year but something had prevented it, so this year I was determined. Chocolates and rabbits

Beth: Pizza Dough

2007-03-29T04:24:00.000-05:00

Anyone who has been reading my writing for long probably knows that, while I think recipes have their place, I tend towards a somewhat improvisational approach to much of my cooking, including bread. After three decades, I possess a certain confidence when it comes to judging dough by feel. While this makes it simple for me to adjust, or even create, recipes on the fly, it means I am starting

Kevin: Pizza II

2007-03-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

This is gonna be quick 'cause I've a got a column to write, but I promised a follow-on to yesterday's pizza dough recipe and some addition tips. So…Too hard?Susan (she's A Year in Bread's self-appointed, pointy-haired manager — bless her heart) expressed some concern with the amount of time my dough recipe takes. Two rises and a partial third one seemed a bit long (and possibly intimidating to

Kevin: Pizza Dough

2007-03-21T16:24:00.000-05:00

Settle down folks, settle down. I've never seen so many eager pizza bakers in my life — and my first job was at a Shakey’s Pizza Parlor.This is real world baking so let's get straight to my screw-up. I planned on making my pizza Tuesday evening, but first I got distracted tweaking this blog's template for the Wednesday launch, and, when I finally got around to making the dough my house was cooler

Break bread with us...

2007-03-21T01:06:00.000-05:00

Beth: What the heck is the great plot? Susan sent me like two lines: "…baking bread… the three of us" And then she went away.Kevin: The plot is a joint project between the three of us.Susan: This was the original message I sent Kevin:I had an idea yesterday about doing a bread baking thing/ongoing project/whatever with you and maybe Beth if she's interested, but then I realized I was already

2007-01-11T20:52:00.000-06:00

Mark your Calendar! We'll begin baking on March 21, 2007!Do you yearn to to bake your own bread?Then you've come to the right place! We're going to spend the next year sharingbread-baking tips, techniques, resources, and recipes.We'd love to have you bake with us.More details will be posted soon. In the meantime, please join our mailing list.