Tasting Party

   Fall is on its way and I've had several customers and friends ask "When will you have pumpkin bread?". The answer is, now! I actually received three recipe suggestions from a few friends, all for pumpkin bread. How in the world could I decide which to make for market by this weekend? A tasting party of course!
   Last night, I went by the grocery store to pick up a few cans of pure pumpkin, a few extra spices (cloves and all spice), and some whole milk (don't use skim milk for cooking!). I made each recipe, one at a time. After mixing the ingredients, I placed each loaf pan full of batter next to its recipe so I could keep track of them, as I prepared the oven.

   All three recipes called for a 25-30 minute bake time. However, each of them was originally for either muffins or cupcakes. So, when baking something in a more concentrated form, like in a loaf pan, you will need more time. It took about 45-50 for a toothpick to come out clean. After 10 minutes of cooling, the loaves slid right out of the pan onto my cooling rack.

   For the tasting party, I lined a large cookie sheet with tin-foil and placed the loaves on it, labeling them Pumpkin #1, Pumpkin #2 and Pumpkin #3. One recipe (the one for cupcakes) had seperate directions for cinnamon cream cheese frosting. I originally wanted to put cream cheese INSIDE the bread, but opted not to because I couldn't keep it cool all day - especially for market. My husband had the brilliant idea of making a cream cheese spread and offering it with market samples and then having a few 8 oz. tubs for sale. So I made a cream cheese spread as a variation to the icing (not nearly as much confectioners sugar) to accompany the loaves to the tasting party.

   Aside from one person, the office unanimously loved Pumpkin #3, which was the suggested recipe of my good friend Lisa Berg. Thank you Lisa! #1 and #2 were very similar except one called for water and the other called for milk. #3 called for 5 different spices, which clearly came out in the delicious fall flavor of the bread. Some feedback indicated #1 & #2 were a little more moist and that would be b/c they were made with a 1/2 cup more oil than #3.

   Conclusion: Pumpkin #3 will be the recipe for market, however I will add just another 1/4 cup or so of oil to make it as moist as the other two in the trial. The cinnamon cream cheese spread was also a huge hit and I think I will have to bring some to market, whenever I offer the pumpkin bread. They go wonderfully together! Yu-umm!

Roll With The Punches!

   For last weekend's market, I fully intended on making zucchini bread. However, I completely forgot to get my supplies on Thursday and then on Friday, forgot to stop at Willoughby's Produce on the way home from work to get zukes. I checked online and Publix wanted $1.99/lb for it :( I made it to Sam's - they don't even have zucchini. So, I found myself standing there in the produce section, blocking other shoppers with my stand-still brainstorming session, when it hit me....apple spice! 10 pounds of apples and a bag of walnuts later, I was headed home to try something new.

   I have made a cinnamon apple crumb before, but as I previously blogged, it is complicated and not cost effective. This new variation does not include an apple layer in the middle, but rather diced apples throughout the bread with a very light and not so complicated brown sugar and walnut crumb on top. Not nearly as much butter required for this one. (The cost of butter is practically $1/stick!) I also made some muffins for market. And the samples were a huge hit!

   Since my last blog about garlic loaf, I have tried it again and made it with 2 heads of roasted garlic in each loaf and also basted it in chunky garlic butter. Two!? You might say. Yes, two whole heads of roasted garlic, thus: Double Garlic Loaf. It smelled amazing! Instead of splitting the dough in half and baking it in round cake pans, I hand formed a torpedo loaf with one whole recipe of dough. I prepared three loaves and baked them next to each other on a large cookie sheet. They sort of bake together on the sides and you have to pull them apart when they come out of the oven - this is called a sister loaf. They looked and smelled amazing and sold really quick at market. Win!

Taking Suggestions

   Market day went pretty well. My last two were really slow and I ended up taking loaves home, so this weekend I made less and sold out. Win. As the weather cools off, it will pick up again and so will sales. Ah, the risks and rewards of being a small business. I also had a little help this week from a girlfriend visiting from Tallahassee @Stephanie Dion.
   Several weeks ago, my cousin who lives in Connecticut @Kristen Fisher Sperling, told me about a farmer's market she went to with her family and they saw a baker there who made a garlic loaf. Whole cloves of roasted garlic kneaded into the bread. It sounds fantastic! They bought some and said it was fantastic. While at market this weekend, a customer suggested making a garlic loaf that he had seen somewhere else and described a very similar bread. Possible a focaccia style with the garlic in it.
   So, tempation got the better of me. Steph and I went to the grocery store on the way home to pick up some fresh garlic for the experiment. I prepared a focaccia dough and roasted a head of garlic in the toaster oven for about 30 minutes until it was nice and mushy (sprinkle with olive oil and tent it with tinfoil). I peeled the paper off and made a garlic paste to knead into the dough. I let it rise for about an hour and then kneaded it again before dividing it in half and placing the halves into two round cake pans. Let it rise for another 30 minutes and then poked dimples in the tops with fingertips. Baked at 375 for 30 minutes on the middle rack.
   We cut it almost immediately. Although the bread itself was baked perfectly with just the right consistancy for focaccia, much to our disappointment the garlic taste was barely noticeable. Booo. Ian made a sandwich out of it and said it was really good. It will be awesome with tomato soup tonight.
   Next try - I'll roast 2 heads of garlic for the dough, in addition to using a garlic butter baste for the top before baking. I also think I'll form the dough into torpedo loaves instead of using round pans. If at first you don't succeed, try again!