For the second year in a row I challenged myself to bake a bread each month. The year before I really enjoyed having fresh home-made bread and so it was an obvious path to continue the bread journey. Little did I know what the year 2020 would have in store… and so I did not manage to complete the challenge during all 12 months, but I did it 10 months! not bad at all! Most importantly I found at least 4 recipes worth repeating. I hope you find some bread that grabs your attention and you may begin your own bread journey.
January: corn bread
The start of the year caught me off guard without enough time to look for a novel recipe. I wanted to do something easy such as “almojábanas” a traditional corn-cheese bread from Colombia. But since I had no time to get the right cheese, I decided to go for this cornmeal bread from North America. Unfortunately I forgot to keep the link for the recipe.
Bonus points: 3/10 ok recipe, but too sweet for my taste.
February: missed it!
As the 2020 story goes, for many of us this was the month when our lives started to take a radical turn. At the beginning of the month I had a work related travel abroad, the last one for the time being. Then I became too overwhelmed with the pandemic, all the new developments were too much to take in, and so unfortunately the last thing in my mind was to find time for baking.
March: Kozunak – Bulgarian Easter bread
By March I was still adjusting to the “new normal”, but I was in a much better place mentally, and so the baking re-started. For Easter I wanted to bake something special and I was lucky to find this comforting fluffy white bread, filled with raisins and topped with flaked almonds it was truly delicious!
Bonus points: 10/10 a great finding! a recipe to be made again 🙂
April: Fresh fluffy flatbreads
As the pandemic progressed and more restrictions were put in place, soon it became routine to have lunch at home almost every day. In 2020 I cooked more home made meals than ever before! Since I’m not the best cook I decided to invest on a new book to bring some inspiration and diversify my weekly menu. The chosen book was “What to cook and how to cook it: fresh and easy” by Jane Hornby. In that book I stumbled on a recipe for fresh and fluffy flatbreads and was immediately tempted to make them.
If you’ve ever tasted Naan bread, Iranian or Georgian flatbread, you know it is difficult to eat just one, as they are so soft and flavorsome. I was curious to see if the result would be as good as a naan bread. But it turned out this recipe makes a drier type of flatbread, though still very good texture and perfect to accompany a good bowl of lentil or chickpea stew.
Bonus points: 7/10 surprisingly easy to make
May: mixed seed bread
I’ve been a regular user of the ‘BBC good food’ website for some years now, but if I recall well this was the first time I used a recipe for bread from them. I’m not sure if I remember well the taste of it at this point…but somehow I think it was too salty and it turned out a lot flatter than the one on the bbc website. Overall not an exceptional bake.
Bonus points: 2/10 meh, I would not bother doing this recipe again.
June: Focaccia
Is it a crime to have done my first focaccia following a recipe from a British guy and not an authentic Italian recipe? arguably yes. For most people it might not be the case, but for me it is, because I have been learning Italian for years and it would make sense to use those skills. Plus I have some Italian friends that would probably be happier if I were to use some authentic recipe from Liguria, which is the birthplace of focaccia. However, making a focaccia seemed quite daunting at first and so I decided the safest bet would be to follow a YouTube recipe. I stumbled on a recipe from Jamie Oliver and his italian friend Gennaro Contaldo, it seemed quite clear and doable, so I went for it. The experience and the result totally surpassed my expectations! it was super fun to make, specially the part where you make the little holes on the surface (‘buchi’). From the picture above you can see it turned out quite alright for being the first time. Very fluffy, good taste and aromatic, yum! but perhaps a bit too tall to be considered a true focaccia?
Recipe from Jamie Oliver and Gennaro Contaldo
Bonus points: 10/10 super easy and great results! worth to make it again and again!
July: Vanilla fruit scones
I had been dreaming of baking scones one day, since I started to watch ‘The great British bake-off’ TV show. I think even before that I knew they are a staple of British culinary tradition, but only recently I learnt they are originally from Scotland. I had a recipe for scones from my trusty Jane Hornby book “How to bake and how to bake it”, but I had never come around to baking them, as in that book there are too many other tempting cakes to bake. Anyway this year I finally baked them and it was a total win! I enjoyed plenty of breakfasts with them during summer, both indoors and outdoors, and the hint of vanilla taste was just wonderful!
Bonus points: 9/10 absolutely delicious! highly recommend!
August: Plain white bread
Again another recipe from the afore mentioned book from Jane Horby, am I her biggest fan? perhaps not, but one thing is sure, her recipes are trusty and so well instructed that it is almost impossible not to get a good result. If you read my ‘bread challenge’ from 2019 this bread might look familiar, because this is a re-make, and this is the bread which started it all. I made it for the first time in January of 2019 and liked it so much, that I baked it again. I think this year it came out even better! what do you think?
Bonus points: 9/10 a solid recipe, worth to make plenty a time! it is a plain white bread, but it perfumes the house so nicely that I felt transported to a bakery. Not to mention texture and taste, a total win!
September: missed it
There is no evidence of any baking to have happened in September, if I perused my files correctly. The thing is. during September I was way too caught up with work and stressed with different deadlines… so sadly the baking bread was neglected.
October: baby carrot bread
This bread has a particular story behind. I was visiting a dear friend who has a baby, and she had a book for families with small children. In that book recipes are split, with steps for adults and skipping some steps to adjust the recipe to the food recommendations for children. I had a look at the book and found a ‘carrot bread’ recipe and since I love carrot cake I thought this would be fun to make. In the end the dough turned out to be too wet and difficult to manage, so I had to put it on the muffin tray to be able to give it a decent shape. If I remember well the recipe did not give directions in terms of grams, but used cups or dl, so it was very difficult to get it right.
Bonus points: 4/10 not enjoyable to make and perhaps way too wet for my taste, but it’s ok, it wasn’t the worst
November: Moist date and nut bread
The darkest month of the year arrived and by chance I found refuge in the most scrumptious stuffed bread recipe. November days are so short and gloomy that you just want to indulge in some comfort food, so there was no room for rye bread nor sour dough bread, it was time for a chunky satisfying bread, that makes you jump out of bed with joy, and this was it! The original recipe called for a filling with dates and walnuts, but since I do not like the latter, I replaced them with pine nuts and it was a great match!
Bonus points: 9/10 it was extremely delicious!!! definitely recommend trying it! it would be a 10 but my health conscious inner voice, says it is too sweet to eat it every day (considering that a loaf like this, lasts me for a week or so)
December: Pistachios and cranberries bread
In December I was again in the look out of some comfort food and also looking for something special to celebrate Christmas. I found yet one more excellent recipe from ‘the spruce eats’ and again the recipe called for walnuts, but I replaced them with pistachios, which are tastier and compliment the red cranberries quite perfectly, for a Christmassy bread.
Bonus points: 10/10 closing the year with a colorful and original bread was very satisfying, and one more recipe to use multiple times 🙂
Bonus Points 