Like several other bakers doing the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge, I was less-than-celebratory about making this week's Cranberry-Walnut Celebration Bread.We've been baking an awful lot of sweet breads. My bread-eating kid doesn't like nuts. Plus, this seemed awfully similar to one of the earlier loaves, Artos: Greek Celebration Bread (a sweetened, spiced bread packed with dried fruits and nuts.) And it was just a few weeks ago that we made Cinnamon-Raisin Bread.
I can't lie.
All of those things are still true.
Plus, there's this:
This bread (at least my rendition of it) just isn't very pretty, either.
Author Peter Reinhart recommends forming this loaf into a two-tiered braid. Since I planned to give one of these loaves away, I opted to make one three-strand braid and another boule. But the braid was so lumpy from all of the fruit and nuts, I just wasn't very happy with it.
See?
But, you know what? This bread is plenty tasty. It makes a fine breakfast, smeared with a little butter or peanut butter. And anybody who hasn't been up-to-their-eyeballs in sweet, fruit-flecked doughs would probably be delighted to have a loaf. Plus, this would be stunning in a few months, on a Thanksgiving table.It makes me all the more excited, though, for next week's challenge: English Muffins.
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