Happy Thanksgiving! We wish you all a wonderful holiday and lots of fresh bread at your table to share with family and friends. I’m making these soft pull apart buns for our dinner tonight. They are perfect for sopping up gravy and making little turkey sandwiches. You can do this with any of our doughs, but I used the brioche from ABin5 to get a luxurious texture and the soft crust that so many people associate with this style bun.
It will soon be American Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d re-post our Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn bread. It’s based on the Portuguese Broa style (page 151 in the book)—it’s the regular Master Recipe, but with 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour taken out and replaced with an equal amount of cornmeal.
(photo by Mark Luinenburg)
We’re spending Thanksgiving with friends this year, and our family is doing the stuffing and bread for a table for 25. Sounds like a job for a household where they bake bread twice a day anyway…
I’m making the stuffing from basic boules, ball-shaped breads as above. You can use any lean dough you like, including whole-grain dough from the new book. Tomorrow I’ll be using the Peasant Bread from my first book, which is basically the white-flour Master Recipe, swapping out 1 cup of whole-grain rye for 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
Breads for the table are going to be a mix of seeded and unseeded rye breads, very rustic, maybe Anadama bread from the new book. All we’ll need is the belt-buckles on our hats.
Two other Thanksgiving recipes from the “library” are:
Thanksgiving Buns and Other Helpful Holiday Hints
Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn Bread
OK, let’s make some stuffing… Read More
Pumpkins are associated with the quintessential Thanksgiving dessert, a decadent pie filled with spices and sweetness. The pumpkin adds a smooth and luxurious texture that amounts to pure comfort food. Pumpkin is not only wonderful for its flavors but is also chock full of healthy vitamins. This was the inspiration for making a pumpkin pie brioche to include in Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It can be baked as a loaf, in a brioche pan or even made into our Indian Spiced Doughnuts (page 287) or as the bottom crust for the Pear Tarte Tatin (page 290). It is fabulous as dessert or breakfast.
Just in case you need a little guidance on Thanksgiving day, here’s some good information about our most frequently asked questions:
Dense Crumb or Loaves Not Rising Enough?
How to Improve Whole Grain Loaves?
Using a Different Type of Flour?
Too Salty or Not Salty Enough?
During the past week we’ve had several questions about making our various doughs into buns. These tiny little loaves are the traditional shape for the holidays and can be easily made from any of our doughs. Here is how: Read More
Read on for a discussion of how to roll things into stored dough. It works the same whether you’re rolling in dried fruit, nuts, or even herbs…
Before I launch into our Thanksgiving Cranberry Corn Bread, Zoe and I want to thank everyone who posted their bread stories into our blog this past week. Hearing other people’s stories about their bread has been the best part of doing this website. Kelly (see the post from 11/11) is the first winner of the signed book. Kelly does not use her bread machine and loves giving bread away. Bravo. Beth, who posted on 11/14, is the 2nd winner– a working mom with an active blog of her own. We’ll be in touch with both of you.
This week’s bread is a yeasted corn bread adapted for American Thanksgiving but based on the Portuguese Broa style (page 146 of The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day). It’s basically our regular Master Recipe, but with 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour taken out and replaced with an equal amount of cornmeal.
More in The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, and our other books.
It is nearly Thanksgiving and there are pumpkins in everyone’s shopping cart, generally in a can. If you want a real treat, that is easy and will have you wanting to skip the canned isle in the grocery store, try roasting your own pumpkin. Baking the pumpkin caramelizes the sugars and makes for a sweeter puree than boiling. You’ll want to start with a “pie” or “sugar” variety and avoid the BIG Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins which are great for carving but are too watery to eat their flesh. Once you have roasted your pumpkin you can use 1 cup for Oatmeal Pumpkin Bread on p. 100 of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, the rest is for your favorite pie recipe. Read More