Today is my great-grandmother’s birthday! Even when they’ve died, we never stop thinking about a particular day being the birthday of a loved one.
My great-grandmother was a very special person to me & lots of other people. She ran a boarding house in Lynchburg, TN for a long time. As a result of that, she met thousands of people that came to eat lunch at her place. For me, she has been a role model & inspiration since opening my cake shop, Sugary Creations. So in her honor, anyone named Mary or Bobo can have a free cupcake on me. Be sure to tell us you saw it on my blog or twitter to get your free cupcake.
Here’s to you Mama Bobo!
PS. If you’re a Bobo, let’s figure out how we’re related!
Tags: cake shop, free cupcake, Lynchburg TN, Mama Bobo, Miss Mary Bobo, Sugary Creations
I’m a recipe hoarder. I admit it. There it’s out in the open. An interesting recipe that I haven’t tried yet tempts me like a shiny new penny. Then you’re on twitter.com & EVERYBODY is talking about this great bread recipe. Paula from @VanillaBeanBake has made 6 loaves this past week. You can see where this is going.
Yep. Have to try this bread recipe. It was quite an adventure. Was going to get started making it when I discovered I had NO YEAST! No yeast. Didn’t seem possible in this house but there I was. Wanting to get a lot done so didn’t want to break the work rhythm to go get it. Picked yeast up in the evening when I was running another errand.
Mixing the dry ingredients together using the trusty Kitchenaid. No yeast was in here as I discovered later. Oops!
Innocently heating the milk for the English Muffin Bread!
Get home & decide to get this going. Mixes up super easy. Got the batter in the loaf pans. Set them aside covered with a damp cloth. Go back to check them about 30 minutes later. They haven’t risen a bit! Big failure! The recipe says it takes about 45 minutes to rise so baring a miracle these puppies are NOT going to rise enough. Glance to the side. There sits my brand new unopened jar of yeast! Oops! Maybe it’s not the recipe. Maybe it’s operator problem. Maybe I’ll retry the recipe in the morning.
Here I am adding flour still under the delusion I'm making bread.
The batter that I so innocently was going to rise & make a beautiful loaf of bread.
Nice & cool in the morning so it’s a wonderful time to retry a bread recipe. Again the English Muffin Bread batter mixes up easily. This time I try making it WITH the yeast. Suspect that will have a positive influence on the outcome. Check the bread in the loaf pans after 20 minutes and lo they are rising. Must be the yeast! The bread rises just as quickly as the recipe says & I slide the bread pans in the oven.
"Real" bread--you know, the kind that has YEAST in it.
Bread cooks for the required time. Pull out of the oven 2 beautifully browned loaves of bread. Oh yes, it is going much better today. Naturally, I have to give the bread a taste test. Slice off a piece as soon as the bread has cooled, butter it & share it with Sarah. It’s good! That’s our verdict. I have to be honest though & say that I’m not sure how often I’ll actually bake this bread. As delicious as it it, & it IS delicious, I prefer breads that can serve double duty. We enjoy using homemade bread for our sandwiches & this is not a sturdy enough bread for sandwiches. If you’re only looking for something to slice & eat or slice, toast & eat, you’ll be very happy with this bread.
All those beautiful airholes are what makes for wonderful toast!
If you’re an experienced cook, I’m sure you enjoyed my “little” mistake. Probably reminded you of a few of your own mistakes when cooking. If you’re a novice cook, take careful note. Doesn’t matter if you’ve cooked for 50+ years, there are going to be times when you make mistakes. It’s not the end of the world. Just try again. Sometimes when you make a mistake, you’ll like the results better, but not when you leave the yeast out of your homemade bread. Trust me on that one.
Tags: bake, baker, bread, cook, cooking, English Muffin Bread, recipe, Sarah, vanilla