Monday, April 28, 2008

Cranberry Walnut Bread

Cranberry Walnut Bread -- another hit from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible. I have only one word for you: cheese course. Hmm, I guess that's really 2 words. But no matter. It is the type of bread traditionally served in French restaurants with the cheese course. Dark, nutty and firm. It gives you enough support for the cheese, but is not so crusty that you have to tag and pull on it with your teeth. A perfect tangy sweet accent that shows of any cheese in the best light.

I made 3 tiny changes to the recipe:
  • increased the salt by 1/4 tsp table salt (or by 1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher salt).
  • substituted about half of the finely ground walnuts with finely ground almonds. I was a tad short on walnuts and since they were a substitution themselves (the original recipe was for Raisin Pecan bread and I was making the Cranberry Walnut variation), I thought the bread would survive.
  • I opened the oven door for 20 seconds after the first 10 minutes of baking to let the steam out and help the crust to form.
Maybe I should embark on a project to make every single one of Rose's breads by the end of 2008. It's a bummer that Helen-Rose Project doesn't have the same ring as Julie-Julia project. Besides, I don't think I have the right personality.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hmmmmmm, next time I open the oven door when my mom is baking something to get a whiff of the delicious smell and she begins to yell at me. Than I will tell her I'm just opening the door to "let the steam out and help the crust to form." Bravo and thank you for giving me such a good excuses.

Boaz said...

About baking all the breads in "The Bread Bible, well, someone had already beat you to it! Marie, from breadbasketcase.blogspot.com had started a blog just for that purpose. She managed to complete all the breads from that book in the course of one year. It is an interesting account. At one point, well into the project, Marie's mixer broke, and Rose Levy Beranbaum got Marie a brand-new mixer... Marie has now moved to baking breads from other books, but she still regularly bakes from Rose's book as well.

Helen said...

Hi Boaz,

Thanks for pointing me to Marie's blog. It's really excellent. Though you might have ruined my productivity for a whole week :) It's very addictive reading about other people's bread adventures.

Cheers,
-Helen

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