In Good Taste

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge: Week 19 (Not-So Marbled Rye Bread)

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. 

A November to Remember...or Forget. And a Recipe Round-Up.

I sometimes describe myself as a person who is always "peeking over the fence." No matter what I've done, accomplished or earned, I always have my eye on the next step. The next promotion, the nicer apartment, the faster mile pace on the treadmill, the smaller dress size (um, or something).

Having just moved to a new apartment and lacking an internet connection, I haven't been able to keep up with blogging as much as I would have liked. I scheduled a few posts ahead of time but today, the well was dry. No photos, no blog-worthy recipes in the queue. So, using the sliver of signal I've managed to muster thanks to Comcast Bill I thought I'd do a new kind of post.

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge (Week 18) Light Wheat Bread

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, i 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 it soon became a household staple. 

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge (Week 17) Lavash Crackers

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. 

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge (Week 16) Kaiser Rolls

I'm going to come right out and say this. I think that New York food is overrated.

Well, let's take a step back and start from the beginning. I made Kaiser Rolls, the sixteenth 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 out-of-towners 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.