February 2025 Cookbook Challenge

[Mike Nolan]

The challenge with providing a list of sources is that by the time the book is printed, half of those sources may no longer be current.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--Sorry to hear that you hurt your hip. I hope you recover soon. And thank you for inspiring me to undertake a recipe challenge for myself this month.

[skeptic7]

Chocomouse;
I'm sorry about your injury and hope it gets better soon.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
the bread looks great. I tried some of BBA's recipes and found it worked better if I held back some of the dry ingredients so the poolish and soaker were both rather moist. It seemed to me that having more liquid let the poolish grow more and the flour in the soaker absorb more moisture. It also made the poolish and soaker easier to mix together. I added the other dry ingredients in after the two liquidish portions were combined.

[RiversideLen]

I made white bread from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice, pages 268 - 280, variation 2. The recipe is for 2 one pound loaves but I only wanted one so I cut the recipe in half. Since the 2 loaf recipe calls for one egg, I decided to separate it and used the yolk in the recipe while saving the white for tomorrow's breakfast. I used honey instead of granulated sugar and olive oil in place of butter. Bake time is 35 to 45 minutes and should temp at about 190f. I thought the crust was browning too fast so at about the 15 minute mark I put a loose sheet of foil on top. I removed it from the oven at 35 minutes and it registered 205f. I'll check it at 30 minutes if I make it again.

I sampled it after it cooled off. It tastes good and has good structure. I'll make this again if I want white bread.

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[BakerAunt]

Great looking bread, Len!

Our local library is starting a kind of cookbook challenge. One of the librarians will choose a cookbook in March, and patrons are invited to select a recipe from it, which the library will xerox for them. There will be a potluck tasting later in the month, in which people bring the recipe they made. I'm not sure if I will participate. There is a lot of flu and respiratory viruses going around. Too many people skipped the flu shot.

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