Date (and fig) Night

"We were in here earlier having dinner with our friend Sam.I.Am."

I was here earlier, talking about another bread.  The bread of the now is...

#71 Date and Fig Bread

"If we are going to pay this much for crab it better sing and dance and introduce us to the Little Mermaid!"

Today at the grocery store I was shocked to find ingredients I have been looking for the past few months. Dates and figs!  Just sitting beside the cute little pumpkins!  I couldn't believe it, so I bought them immediately just in case they disappeared before I could get back to the store.



After such a great score I had to make this bread.  I did have to chop a whole bunch of figs and dates for the recipe and found that they are extremely sticky.

"You put *your* junk in reverse!"

I didn't do as well mixing in the fruit as with my last bread, but it wasn't a failure like I've had previously. Here are my cute little loaves:

The one on the right isn't very cute, actually. The bread tasted ok. Much more sweet than I expected.

"He turned the gun sideways! That's a kill shot!"

All quotes and video from Date Night.

When Harry Met Sally Lunns...

There is no "Harry", guys.  Just me.

But for the rest of the day "we are going to talk like this"...



"I'll have what she's having."


#70 Sally Lunns


"Well, I just want it the way I want it."

This bread was pretty easy to make. The most difficult part was finding ingredients, which has been the delay on most of 29 breads I have yet to make. This recipe called for candied cherries. I learned that candied cherries are the weird/gross, green/red, sticky things inside a fruitcake. I couldn't find any so I subbed in maraschino cherries.

"It is so nice when you can sit with someone and not have to talk."

Cinnamon, orange zest, cherries and raisins had to be mixed in and some how I managed to do this pretty successfully. I surprised myself. I then had to flatten and roll the dough, which (if I do say so myself) was a triumph. I didn't lose any mix-ins until the baking inflated the raisins and they fell off the outside of the loaf.

Here's Sally:

This bread tastes amazing! The shiny stuff is a sugar glaze. It's like candy on top of candy, for people who don't really like candy.

I wish you could taste this! If you have any suggestions for breads I should try to make leave a note in the comments section.

"The fact that you're not answering leads me to believe you're either (a) not at home, (b) home but don't want to talk to me, or (c) home, desperately want to talk to me, but trapped under something heavy. If it's either (a) or (c), please call me back."

All quotes and videos from When Harry Met Sally....

Honey, I Changed the Recipe

#69 Honey and Saffron Loaf

"I'm on a special diet. No toxic waste."


This recipe came with the option to change one of the key ingredients.  Saffron is ridiculously expensive, so I omitted that and substituted mango chutney as Paul Hollywood suggested.

I did have a little trouble because the dough was really wet and it seemed that no matter how much flour I added it stayed pretty sticky.  I finally got something that would hold it's shape a little and moved on with the rising.

Here's the finished product (which I almost burned even though I had a few minutes before it was supposed to be finished):

"Help! Don't eat me!"

This bread was surprisingly delicious.  I don't know what else to say about it.







Stay safe, kids.


All quotes and videos from Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

How I Met Your Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread

#68 Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread

"It's gonna be legen... wait for it... dary!"

Today's bread is a dessert-y bread.  The cherries were supposed to be sour and dark (ooh...), but I could only find dark cherries or sour cherries.  I decided I'd go with the sour cherries since the bread is Chocolate and Sour Cherry Bread.

Now I have to figure out what to do with the rest of the cherries.

I still can't figure out how to mix stuff in.  I mean I seriously stink at this.  This time I tried mixing in and letting the bread rise for about 30 minutes then shaping for the final rise.  If anybody has advice on the mixing, I'd love to hear it.

"Haaave you met, Ted?"

I mean 'bread'.

How does it taste?  You might ask.  Crazy good!  If you've never had melted dark chocolate with bread you are missing out.  It seems crazy, but this is the softest bread I've ever made.  Hot, perfect bread!

Finished baking for the day...what should I do now?

All quotes and video clips from"How I Met Your Mother".

Eagle-Eye Cherry Bread

#67 Orange, Lemon, and Cherry Bread

This bread was so simple to make!  A little zesting of oranges and a lemon, some mixing and voil


à!...Bread!

I did have a few issues.  The recipe called for sour cherries and in my research I found out that the season for sour cherries is only a few weeks long and the last time I saw sour cherries in the grocery store was a few weeks ago.  I decided to go with dried tart cherries instead.

In the shaping of the loaf I had another issue.  It was supposed to be a two-strand "braided" loaf, but as it rose it came un-wrapped.

This is what I ended up with:

It didn't look that great, but it tasted amazing!  I had to force myself to stop eating.

Save tonight!

Shallow HALloumi

This bread was something else.  My kitchen smelled like toothpaste for a few hours.

#66 Halloumi and Mint Bread

Halloumi is a sheep's milk cheese from Cyprus and the bread is a "traditional Cypriot bread".  It is a weird cheese.  It doesn't melt.  It actually browns and gets a crispy crust when cooked.  The taste isn't really anything special, though.

"You Had Me At "Get Lost"."

I couldn't get the cheese and mint to mix in properly (which was no surprise), and I forgot to put the cuts in the top of the loaf before baking.  I didn't have high hopes for this bread anyway.  I mean, cheese and mint?

"She takes the whole bakery, Hal."

Here's what the final product looked like:

Crispy, brown cheese nuggets.

The cheese that doesn't melt.

The bread was not very good.  I'd rather be that poor kid from the pool than try it again.

Hasta Luego!

Quotes and video clip from Shallow Hal.

"You've got a date with justice, One-Eyed Bart!"

#65 Potato and Dill Bread

This bread was pretty easy to make and not that time-consuming even though the dough had to rise overnight.  Unlike most of the other overnight breads the dough was completely finished before it rested.

The most time-consuming part was cooking the potatoes.  I had to boil potatoes then let them cool.  Next, I had to cut the potatoes into quarters.  Then, I had to fry them in a little olive oil and butter (I actually used Earthbalance Original, making this recipe vegan).  Finally, I had to let the potatoes cool again then put them onto the dough.

The dill was sprinkled on top of everything.

"F.A.O. my Schwartz!"

While the bread was cooling on the stovetop, I decided to taste-test the potatoes that fell off during the baking process.  They were delicious!  The triple-cooking method made them crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Here's the bread:

It was very good!  It was my dinner tonight.  I tried the the second piece with hot sauce, barbeque sauce and sweet hot mustard and it really just got better tasting.  The bread was nice and crusty  with a super-soft inside.  I didn't look anything like the picture in the book, but I really didn't care because it tasted so good.

Good Night, all.  And remember, "Hay un amigo en mi".



All quotes are from Toy Story 3.