Brigid Mary

Banana Date Muffins sound really, really good. I'm totally looking forward to the blueberry ones and the orange cream cheese with Pepita crunch. YUM. My aunts making a babka for Easter dessert at her house so I can't wait to try it out when she makes it! So, my sour cream dough became a Swedish Tea Ring, double recipe because I didn't want to divide the dough. I gave it Carole's Favorite Streusel Topping, and the orange glaze instead of vanilla. I haven't actually tasted it yet, but from what I "picked" it's incredibly delicious!

I just bought this book yesterday. After seeing it at my aunts house, I knew that I had to have it! I've already made the Simple sweet dough into cinnamon Buns, and I currently have the Rich Sour Cream Dough sitting in my fridge. I want to know who else has this book and what you've made/plan to make! We have other threads based on certain books, I was hoping we could do the same for this one. It has a lot of great recipes and I can't wait to try them all! My brother's been begging me for a cherry danish, so I'll be making the danish dough soon.

AmritaBala:Those Raspberry Ganache Tartlettes are stunning! They look too pretty to eat. I love your photography! BeccaPorter: How did the Vienna Bread taste? It looks really good! Last night I made my favorite cookie, chocolate chip/chunk with walnuts! Best cookies I've ever made. This is my new favorite recipe. They were HUGE, even bigger than my dads hands. It was quite funny... Moist, chewy, chunky, gooey and still crispy...I used this recipe HERE. The only thing I can say is they slightly lack a certain flavor that the ol' Toll House recipe has that I really love. But everything else makes up for it. Definitely making these again!

Yes, the on from BBA. It really was like a thin-crust pizza. What I did was bake the lavash half way, then quickly pulled it out and threw on toppings before popping it back in. It was a bit funny going over the big bubbles in the bread, but it worked out fine.

Dinner last night: Peter Reinhart's Lavash Crackers with various topping/fillings. Really yummy!

Mmm...that looks so delicious! Believe me, I'm craving them too. Just looking at the pictures...it won't be long before I make them again. My family already started nagging me! I made Blondies the other day. First time I've ever had a blondie before. I was definitely missing out on something! If these are blondies, shouldn't they call brownies brunettes instead?

Wow...that looks gorgeous! I made cinnamon rolls tonight! I used Carole Walter's Simple Sweet Dough recipe, then free-styled the filling with lots of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. The dough was really soft, sweet, and flaky. I felt like I was making a pie crust when mixing the dough, not a yeast bread! It was really delicious. This is the third thing I've tasted that was made from this dough, the first 2 made by my aunt, and all three times it tasted heavenly. Of course, the frosting is cream cheese. =3

My auntie made the sticky buns with the simple sweet dough for dessert yesterday, and she also made some sort of coffee ring using the same dough and her own chocolate filling. They were heavenly! She gave me a few of the recipes from the book, I can't wait to try them out!

Eileen, I think my aunt may have just gotten that book. I'll have a look in there when I visit it next weekend. Ellen, that sounds really, really good. Your writing amuses me. Have you ever made Peter Reinhart's middle-class brioche? I have BBA, but not Baking with Julia. I may try and use is! Sounds oh so good. =3

One of the best cinnamon buns I've ever had was from Cinnabon. I love the ooey-gooey cinnamon and sugar filling, with the fluffy cream cheese icing and layers and layers of yummy, moist, fresh bread. So now cinnamon buns are on my list of tings to make in 2008. I'm looking for a great recipe. The buns must have lots of layers to peel and unravel, and the layers themselves must be tall and thin, not short and puffy. I hate when the outside of the bread gets dry and brown while baking. The filling should be gooey and almost pudding like. I find sometime tat the filing is really dry inside cinnamon buns. Frosting should always be cream cheese! Err, so now I wrote that...I'd love it if everyone would post their favorite recipe! Brownie points if you post pictures of the finished product! Thanks, Brigid

Kim: please, tell me what a PB&J cupcake is like! I've never had one before. Which part is the peanut butter, which is the jelly? Is there a filling? I'm intrigued! They look really yummy. I have those same paper cupcake holders!

I would LOVE this recipe too. Did you eat it straight up, or use it for sandwiches and such? ← We ate it straight up, mostly. I did toast it and put strawberry jam on it which was good. My dad did cinnamon and sugar, which he said was good. I tastes best warm, so I'd heat it in the oven or toast it very lightly, maybe with some butter. This was the recipe I had written down, I ended up needing a lot more flour, maybe about 4 cups in total. I was really winging it. 2 cups of flour 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 oats 1 teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons melted butter About 3 1/2 or 4 bananas, mashed 3/4 cup warm milk 2 teaspoons active dry yeast 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon 1 cup chopped walnuts Mix together flour, sugar, oats, cinnamon, salt, and bananas. Melt butter, pour into the mixture. Warm milk to dissolve ADY. Pour dissolved yeast-milk mixture to flour mixture and let sit for a few minutes. Then I used a dough hook to mix together a bit before putting on floured counter and kneading. The dough should achieve a satiny and smoothish texture. When your almost done kneading, knead in walnuts. Put in lightly oiled or greased bowl, cover, and let rise for about 2-2 1/2 hours. (In all honesty, it didn't rise much, but I seem to have bad luck with that. It puffed up real nicely during baking.) Divide the dough as desired and shape. Cover and lets rise for about 1- 1 1/2 hours. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes and sheet pan. Rotate and bake for about 20 more minutes. Side notes: Probably didn't need the oats. I had oats, so I felt like putting them in...haha. I used brown sugar, but granulated would probably be good too. I actually used buttermilk, but I think whole milk would be better. Those are the things I would change. Also, I just looked up banana yeast bread, found some recipes similar to mine. LOL. If you decide you want to try it, please let me know how it turns out!

Renka, I wish I was at you house when you made all those! They look absolutely stunning! Yesterday I made Banana Bread...with yeast. I felt like experimenting, so I made up a recipe and gave it a whirl. I've only ever had this kind of bread with baking soda or baking powder, but It was actually...good! I feel like it could have been a bit sweeter. If I ever made it again I would definitely change the recipe a bit. Haven't cut into the loaf yet. I'm very curious how it came out though!

I think they look delicious, Marlene. I made the French bread a few weeks ago, and it looked no where near that good! What's you secret?

I got what I asked for, for Christmas--this book! Yesterday I made the Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Swirl Bread. I have to say, that was the best bread I have ever tasted. It was so packed with raisins and nuts! I'm definitely going to make this again. Both loaves were gone before the end of the night and my family still wanted more. I feel bad for my sister who only got 2 slices....I think I had 5! Me, dividing the dough: Look how packed it is! Out of the oven: Inside: It was made with the optional cinnamon sugar swirl and the sugar crunch topping. My sister thought it needed a glaze, so out came the powdered sugar and milk! I had to use all purpose flour because I didn't have bread flour.

Wow, thanks so much guys! This is really encouraging. I hope to try and make more more bread on Thursday if I have time. I can't wait to try again!

I made my first "loaf" of bread today! I'm very excited because I've only used yeast by myself once before, and that was a few days ago making pretzels. Compared to what I see on here, it's a disaster, but overall I'm very happy with it. I thought it wouldn't bake well at all, considering it barely even doubled in size when it was proofing. I decided to put it in the oven anyway, and it came out way better then expected! It had a nice, hard crust and a chewy, bread-like inside. My brother and sister said they wouldn't have known it was homemade if I hadn't told them. I made the oven steamy when I first put the bread in, by putting a metal pan in the oven while it was preheating then pouring water into it. Here are some pictures: Toasted, with butter: As for the recipe, I was just fooling around with what I had read on TheFreshLoaf.com, so I didn't exactly have an exact recipe, just a few jumbled techniques and stuff. Judging by the pictures, what kind of bread would you call this? It's just flour, water, salt and yeast.