Midweek Roundup: "Truly Outstanding!"

Photo by Tony

One Crumb at a Thyme

This delicious and unusual bread was a sort of bread within a bread--which presented a few obstacles for the Alpha Bakers.  Not that it was that difficult to do, but without visual aids, a first reading of the recipe seemed to yield a "Huh?"  

As Tony said, "more hands-on pictures" would have been helpful.  On the other hand, having made the bread once, it became "a comfortable friend ... which I can not visit and re-visit ..., now armed with experience."  If you were afraid to make this bread because you were unsure about the instructions, never fear--Tony's blog has all the step-by-step pictures you will ever need.

For a different--but just as fun--instructional photo, take a look at Katya's cover picture of what happens when parts of the center part of the bread "escap[e] from its respectability blanket, resulting in delicious caramelized bits of white chocolate."  Katya couldn't quite escape from the original base recipe (a raisin bread recipe), and she added some golden raisins to the dough--something that Club Med never thought of--but who's going to Club Med?

Jen's "plain bread overcoat" also "split open at the seams during the bake," showing bits of white chocolate that she described as "funky."  To Katya, they were delicious; to Jen, funky.  Half full, half empty?  But the bits of funkiness, certainly didn't get in the way of a rave review of this bread--Jen described it as "soft and slightly sweet but not overly so....  It needs neither butter nor jam nor anything, not even a toasting.  It just needs a nice cup of tea and permission to be devoured in 24 hours."  Permission granted.

Jen mentioned that the bread dough made her stand mixer "dance across the counter," but Catherine did her one better (or one worse?)  She had just "popped into" the laundry when she heard a "loud, catastrophic-sounding crash" from the kitchen.  While she was checking the laundry, her stand mixer danced right off the counter, miraculously leaving the dough unscathed.  (No pieces of white chocolate were harmed in the baking of this bread).  In fact, Catherine is so taken with this bread that she's mulling over the possibility of opening a Club Med-Darwin branch and using a local crocodile to hand out the bread to guests.

Just looking at the loaf of bread brought out the poet in Vicki:  "It is the delicate ballerina white tutu of breads."  Like many people, she preferred it plain, rather than with jam (although there's really nothing "plain" about white chocolate bread).  Her daughter suggested that it might make a mean bread pudding, and, rather than filing that away for another day, she immediately whipped up an apple-white chocolate bread pudding.  Delicious.

Now Rachel actually went on a Club Med vacation once, and got a loaf of The Bread, so to her, the bread sort of evoked "the relaxed feeling of being on a vacation where everything was taken care of for me."  Unfortunately, this time she had to bake the bread herself.  But it all turned out okay.  "The bread itself was delicious.  Soft, very slightly sweet, with a great texture."  Her husband agreed, "slicing himself an inch-thick slab for dessert."  But Rachel, one thing you didn't mention--how did this bread compare to the Club Med version?

Next week, it's a cookie week again, but the Cookie Strudel is going to be unlike any cookie you've ever had.  When I looked at the recipe, I thought it looked interesting, although very un-cookieish.  I wasn't prepared for how delicious it was.  Do try to make this strudel/cookie!