HBinFive January 1st Bread Braid

Happy New Year to all! I hope you have had wonderful holidays.

We've been having pajama days, playing daily games of Apples to Apples, which Santa kindly brought, and eating dinner at a little table in the living room to be by the Christmas tree and the fireplace.

Speaking of dinner, the loaves for this assignment accompanied soups we made. Soups have seemed like the right nourishment for days spent shoveling snow and sledding. We've also shared some sadness this week, with the passing of a 14 year old girl we knew. Soup seemed like the right comfort for that, too.

We ate the 100% Whole Wheat and Flaxseed Bread with split pea soup. While I have decided that I really like the flaxseed flavor, I can't say that this bread was particularly flavorful. I already increase the salt in these recipes, but I kept thinking that this dough really needed more salt.

The Roasted Garlic Bread was a surprise. While I like to cook with garlic, it's going to take an assignment to push me to try something like this. The whole kitchen smelled like garlic when the dough was rising.

The garlic in the baked loaf isn't too strong, however, and the texture of the interior is moist and chewy, with a good thick crust. We enjoyed this with a maple parsnip soup that Husband (who would henceforth like to be called Mr. Savory, for his preference for savory foods over sweet) made.

A new year, a new name for my spouse, and a new header for my blog. It's not exactly the most original of ideas, but it's my photo of my bread, and I managed to do it myself...except for when it came time to remove the old one on my dashboard. I let Mr. Savory do that--I was too scared that there would be nothing but a big blank space up there. I can only handle a little technological bravery at a time!

It's good to be back. I look forward to another year of baking together. Cheers!