events

BreadBakingDay #08: Celebrate!

BBD 8 The range of flatbreads contributed to last month’s BreadBakingDay is nothing short of amazing. Check out Petra’s roundup and prepare to be inspired. And now I’m delighted to say it’s my turn to host my favorite all-bread event.

What holiday, festival, or special event are you celebrating this month? I’m thinking of Easter… Purim… St. Patrick’s Day… the vernal equinox… what others can you tell me about?

As one of the oldest and most universal of foods, bread is associated with celebrations in every part of the world. For this month’s BreadBakingDay, you are invited to share your own spring holiday bread tradition, explore one you’re not yet familiar with, or start a new one.

To participate, choose any seasonal holiday or event you’d like to honor with a special bread*. On or before April 1:

Bake a bread to celebrate or represent your holiday.
Post the bread on your blog, with a link back to this post.
Email me at [redacted], and include:
- Your name
- Your blog’s name and url
- The name of your bread and its post’s url (permalink)
- The occasion your bread celebrates
- Your location
- If possible, a 200-pixel-wide photo
- Whether you’d like me to notify you by email when the roundup is posted (which will be by April 5)

*Birthday breads will also be accepted, in honor of the March birthday of BBD’s charming founder and steward, Zorra.

Spicy Polenta-Pistachio Flowers

These blossom-shaped rolls are my entry for this month’s Paper Chef. The challenge presented by Ilva (Lucullian Delights) was to create a “flower”-themed dish using polenta, pistachios, and chili peppers.

Although Ilva helpfully suggested several culinary flowers one might incorporate, I chose to fulfill the theme through shape rather than ingredient. I hope this is considered an acceptable interpretation. Also, although the bin from which I scooped the coarsely ground cornmeal in the store was clearly labeled “Polenta,” I wonder if maybe it’s not technically polenta until it’s boiled. I didn’t boil it because I wanted to retain some bite to contribute to the bread’s texture.

But even if I’m disqualified on one or both of those counts, these are some tasty rolls that were fun to conceive and bake.

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Julia’s French Bread, by the Book

Julia Child’s French Bread - crumb

Do I really need to tell you I was ecstatic when Mary (The Sour Dough) and Sara (I Like to Cook) chose Julia Child’s Pain Français (French bread) as this month’s Daring Bakers challenge?

Probably not. But you may be surprised (or not) to know that, as iconic as both French bread and Julia Child are, and as much as I love to bake bread, I have never attempted this particular rendition of French bread before.

And I have to say that reading through the recipe gave me some pause. It wasn’t the 17+ pages of instructions, which include some very helpful notes from Mary and Sara. No, it was that this recipe has a few differences from French baguettes I’ve done before.

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Click!

No, you’re not seeing double, nothing wrong with your browser or reader. I am indeed posting this photo of Crisp Sesame-Semolina Flatbreads for the second time in just a few days.

thin sesame-semolina flatbreads

CLICK logo I’m re-posting the photo in order to submit it to CLICK, the monthly food photography event hosted by Jai and Bee of jugalbandi. This month’s theme is “Flour,” so I figured if I ever wanted to participate, now would probably be the time.

I like the photo because I was trying to capture how thin and crisp the breads were, and I think it succeeded pretty well with that. I don’t know if it meets any objective criteria for a good photo, but I was happy with it.

It was taken with my new Sony Alpha-100 DSLR, which I’m still getting to know.

Crisp Sesame-Semolina Flatbreads

It will be a long time before I buy crackers again.

Flash back to two hours ago: I need to decide on a flatbread for this month’s BreadBakingDay. Our host Petra (Chili und Ciabatta) has mandated no pizza. Pitas are out, because I just posted about those last month. I’d like to try Ehtiopian injera, but the 3-day fermentation doesn’t fit into my schedule just now.

I’m really in the mood for something thin, crisp, flavorful but not overly complex. And quick. I thumb through the newest addition to my baking library, Savory Baking from the Mediterranean, by Anissa Helou. The Sardinian Crackers (Pane Carasau) look interesting, and the wheels start turning.

What if I add sesame seeds to the dough, as Helou suggests as a variation? How about making them black ones, to add a bit of visual punch? I wonder if I could use a pasta roller to make them super-thin, and wouldn’t baking them on a stone make them super-crisp? And I’m thinking just a bit of olive oil and coarse salt would work well for topping.

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Bread of Love

Red wine bread with figs and pine nuts

For the record, let me say that any home-baked bread, and indeed all home-cooked food, has aphrodisiac potential. Any lover who does not recognize a lovingly-prepared dish as an eminently romantic gesture is clearly the wrong sort of lover.

That said, there are of course a few foods reputed to possess extraordinary amatory powers. In honor of this month of love, here’s a bread whose three starring ingredients are officially on Aphrodite’s List:

Red wine stimulates the senses and relaxes the body and mind.
Pine nuts are rich in zinc, an essential mineral for male potency. (Does anyone get “Pi|\|e |\|uts” spam?)
Figs‘ aphrodisiacal power is said to lie in their resemblance to the female anatomy.

The recipe, adapted from from Dan Lepard‘s The Handmade Loaf (a must-have for any serious bread-baker’s library), is my contribution to Mele Cotte’s Kitchen of Love.

This flat, dense loaf has an incredibly rich, sweet flavor that is amazing with tangy cheeses. Guaranteed to leave your beloved begging for more.

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