My wife has these bread recipe books and makes a new one almost every time. There have been very few duds.

Zucchini bread and pear bread and pear butter or wild plum jam, delicious!

Early morning aromas in the store are amazing.

Next favorite though I rarely experience it is croissant baking everywhere early morning in Paris.

There's a little cafe near me that makes really excellent bread on site, which I buy sometimes.

Sunstreet Breads in Minneapolis has some of the best bread in the universe. I can walk over there and buy it. No cooking, no mess, no work.

We were a very poor family, but Mom would, on occasion, walk us seven kids (we never owned a car) to the Sally Ann bakery. They sold fresh loaves of bread, still warm from the oven, wrapped in plain brown paper, for 5 cents.

We would stand on the sidewalk outside, and Mom would break off chunks of the fresh bread and hand a piece out to each of us.

No butter, no toppings. We would eat the bread right there outside the bakery.

I'll never forget the smell and the taste of that fresh-baked bread, even more than 70 years later. It was a rare treat for us all.

I would never do all that otherwise. It's amazing how perfectly it toasts compared to store bought bread. I also love quick breads, blueberry almond being my favorite.

I have to say though, I was surprised how such a tiny paddle can do the job.

different.

Last edited Sat Oct 19, 2024, 01:49 PM - Edit history (1)

that's pretty much perfect...

and a plug for a recent discovery

Dave's Killer Bread




We toasted up a slice of this high-protein bread and went...ok kinda nutty.

Then we put together a Ham & Swiss with LTO took one bite and said OMG!

A huge number of flavors added.. plus umami.

Simply outstanding!

... or not, but I am wearing my King Arthur Baking School book out.

I have on hand at least six different flours, and all sort of nut, seed etc to add to a loaf, I started from inside of my pantry my own wild yeast for sour dough. I've been perfecting my sour Rye loaf and I'm going on to the next recipe next week.

You've found the one thing besides music and humor I am truly passionate about!

But I can't get it where I live. Only in Chicago.

No Knead bread.... let it sit for 18 hours then bake in my cast iron dutch oven....I have a 4 qt. This is my baby for delicious, Artisan bread... Griswold cast iron is a brand of cast iron cookware that was produced in Erie, Pennsylvania from 1865 to 1957. It has inside the lid, drip spikes I call them and it adds to creating a crunchy crust/ like a steam ....

I also make a scratch Pullman loaf of bread occasionally... sandwich bread delight.

Then, scratch biscuits.... This is how I roll...rarely buy store bought bread. I use King Arthur's Flour.

You can find the Griswold also on Ebay... I have a few of their cast iron skillets as well.

A good alternative is a Staub cast iron dutch oven ... their inner lids have the drip spikes...sold new at Williams Sonoma or Sur la Table.... different sizes are available... or just google Staub ...

https://staub-cookware.com/

A brand with many different factories will have different-tasting bread depending upon the water they use. I loved Arnold's bread in Philly, hated it in Jacksonsville, and in Pittsburgh, it's kinda meh.

In any event, nothing beats homemade bread, as long as the baker knows how to do it.

-- Mal

when I lived in South San Francisco. They had freshly-made bread coming out of the oven every hour.

https://www.raymondsbread.com/