Bread Links

I've come across some fun and interesting bread-related links this month, and thought I'd share them with you!

1.

Here's an article about the Fancy and Delicious Bread Cooperative in Buffalo NY. My daughter is the one pictured at the top of the article, wearing an apron made by her great grandmother, who, incidentally, baked delicious Parker House rolls. If you live in the Buffalo area, stop by the farmer's market to buy some bread, or sign up for a 12 week bread share (starting this week!). To keep up with the co-op activities, check out the Fancy & Delicious blog.

2.

A very cool event is happening in Maine this week: the 5th Annual Kneading Conference, on Thursday, July 28th and Friday, July 29th in Skowhegan, Maine. The Kneading Conference "brings together novice and professional bakers, grain farmers and millers, researchers, wood-fired oven enthusiasts and anyone who loves to eat handcrafted breads for two-days of participatory workshops, presentations, and panel discussions." The conference is followed immediately by The Maine Artisan Bread Fair on Saturday, July 30th. If the dates and locations don't fit, there will be a related Kneading conference West on September 15-17 in Mount Vernon, Washington. Details on all these events can be found here.

3.

Learn how Hot Bread Kitchen in Harlem is helping immigrant women pursue meaningful work as bakers.

4.

In case your interest in yeasty products runs to the academic and/or historic, here's a post about bread in the middle ages. Fascinating info!

I hope to post some more bread soon, but in the meantime, happy reading!

BBA Slow & Steady: Mulitgrain Bread Extraordinaire Roundup

Although I am dreadfully behind on posting our results, the bakers of the Slow and Steady subgroup of the BBA Challenge are still working their way through the book. Several of them have pressed on into the sourdough section and are currently nearing the end of the book The Bread Baker's Apprentice!

Their progress has inspired me to pick back up and post the next in the series of Slow and Steady roundups. We all baked the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire sometime back in 2010, but better late than never, right? Here is how the bread, which is famous for turning out extraordinary toast, turned out in our kitchens:

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Leslie of Lethally Delicious baked this recipe as rolls, and found the flavor to be "rich and deep." Read Leslie's post: BBA - Multigrain Bread Extraordinare

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The fourth time's a charm, and after a few failed attempts at making the soaker for this bread, Jessica of The Singleton in the Kitchen, with brown rice on hand, found the bread easy enough to make. As for the taste: she didn't find it to be "bread nirvana" but she reports that the toast was a pleasant way to begin her day. Her post: BBA S&S: Loafin' Around

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Natalia of Gatti, Fili e Farina
loved this bread so much that she got hungry for some when she was writing her post.
her post: BBA Slow and Steady: Multigrain Extraordinaire

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Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table thought that her bread wasn't much in the looks department (I beg to differ!) but loved the taste. Her family enjoyed this bread as toast, grilled cheese and sandwiches. Her post: BBA: Mulitgrain Bread Extraordinaire

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I baked this bread and posted it before the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. In fact, this bread is what convinced me to purchase Reinhart's book (I baked the bread from versions of the recipe I found online) See my post here. The bread makes such great toast that it's worth keeping little bits of cooked brown rice and other grains in the freezer so that the bread can be baked on short notice.