Sunday, August 9, 2009

BBA Challenge: Ciabatta, Cinnamon Buns, Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Cornbread

I may be behind on posting my BBA Challenge breads, but I've been busy in the kitchen! Here are some shots of what I've been up to:

Reinhart's ciabatta was absolutely amazing. I made a sourdough variation, substituting sourdough starter for the poolish called for in the recipe, and the sourdough flavor added a lot of depth--absolutely amazing flavor! I made the dough really, really wet on the advice of other BBA challenge folks -- maybe even too wet as it was hard to do the stretch-and-folds called for by the recipe, and the dough stuck to everything! However, I was rewarded with huge holes and an excellent texture, so I was happy. We had the bread with pulled pork, homemade BBQ sauce, and collard greens; it was the perfect accompianment!
Next up was cinnamon buns. Cinnamon buns are one of those recipes I've been wanting to make forever but never quite managed to get to, so I was delighted to get to this page in the book! I found the recipe a little on the tough side, so I think I'd probably go with a different recipe next time to get that really pillow-y Cinnabon texture. Stil, the flavor was fantastic and the cinnamon buns didn't last too long in our house!
I didn't manage to get photos of the next two recipes, cinnamon-raisin-walnut bread and cornbread, but they were both very delicious. I made half the cinnamon-raisin bread with walnus and half without, because I have a housemate who's not a huge fan of walnuts. I liked both versions, and even though you might think of this as a breakfast bread, it was actually also really good on either side of peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

PR's cornbread is just the way I like it, sweet, salty, and ultra-moist. It's almost like a corn pudding, and was the perfect side dish alongside my housemate's jambalaya. I love that the cornbread has plenty of bacon, honey, actual kernels of corn. Some fellow BBA-ers weren't a fan of this one, but I think it's somewhat a matter of taste. To me, this is an ideal cornbread! It's also totally easy to tweak if you decide you want to make it, say, immediately: warm some milk, add lemon juice to curdle, and then quick-soak the polenta for just about half an hour while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

8 comments:

  1. What a beautiful ciabatta Sara.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your ciabatta looks wonderful! You mentioned you did a sourdough variety ... what was the texture like? did it still have all the "holes" ciabatta is known for? Thanks ... Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now that's multi-tasking. The cornbread is up next for me--I'm behind too!! Photos look great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Wow you seem to be on a baking roll. It all sounds really great and encourages me to try more of the recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Talk about 'yeasty' multi-tasking, wow! You really pulled out all the stops to catch up..and they all look amazing, especially the cinnmamon buns with that GLAZE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wow, you've been busy! Cinnamon rolls are next up for me, and I'm looking forward to them (have made them before). I want to give the ciabatta another try, probably increasing the hydration like you did.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm in the same boat as you with BBA. :) Your cinnamon buns are gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Sara! Just found you after adding myself to the BBA Google Map. I just discovered the BBA challenge, and bought the book after finding and making Peter's Foccacia recipe online (ohmygoshsogood). So excited to find another Berkeley BBA baker!

    Lauren
    theLemonZest.com

    ReplyDelete