Comfort food

In my continuing efforts to fatten up my husband, I decided to bake some bread yesterday using the recipe my sister, Judy, brought with her when she came to help us last week.

I was intrigued because cooking and baking are not exactly my sister’s forte. But she insisted that this recipe, and all the recipes from a cookbook she purchased, was simple and that anyone could do it, as long as they followed the instructions.

After making the simple buttermilk bread recipe yesterday and using it as the base for cinnamon raisin bread, the book is now in my cart awaiting purchase at Amazon.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

My only concern is that my husband isn’t the only one around here who will be fattened up.

 

The recipe is easy to make. Yeast, sugar, salt, warm water, and then unbleached flour are all added to a big bowl and stirred until the dough forms. You then cover loosely, and in two hours the bread dough will have doubled and you can refrigerate until later. No punching down, proofing of the yeast, kneading . . .

I decided to make cinnamon raisin bread (sans the raisins). I rolled out a rectangle of dough, then brushed on an egg wash and sprinkled liberally with a sugar and cinnamon mixture. It was easy to roll up the dough, jelly-pan style, and place in a buttered bread pan to rest for 40 minutes.

 

Right before I put it in the oven to bake, I added the extra egg wash to the top of the loaf and sprinkled a small amount of sugar. This lent it a beautiful golden crust.

I made this in the early afternoon, so by tea time it was done.

We don’t really have tea time here. I’m just messin’ with ya.

 

But we did enjoy a wonderful slice of freshly baked bread with a cup of tea at approximately four in the afternoon.

 

I slathered it with a little butter and served it on my favorite new plate – one I bought on sale at Anthropologie this week.

And biting into this heavenly concoction, I believe I heard the angels sing.

And I saw my husband smile.

Damn, this bread is good.

 

I bought a new pair of slippers, too.

My favorite sheep slippers, ones I purchased years ago through the Garnet Hill website, had seen better days. I looked on the website, but this particular style from Haflinger was no longer available through Garnet Hill. I posted a photo of them here on this blog, back in early 2009:

Sheep slippers

Luckily, I found them available at Zappos. And even better, I had a store credit I hadn’t used yet. I love these slippers, so I took a photo of them for you. Please don’t mind my pajama pants and my dirty kitchen floor. Thank you.

Until tomorrow, my friends . . .