For the third year in a row I continued enjoying the world of bread making and managed to bake 12 breads! not all of them were good, but it was fun and always worth trying new recipes. I am amazed I managed to do all 12, although I used a pre-made kit for two months, but let’s say those count as well 😉

Are you among the people who started baking during the pandemic? have you ever baked bread? I haven’t fallen into the sour-bread band wagon, at least not yet. I like to keep it simple and mostly choose recipes with dry yeast. Each month I spent some time finding a new recipe, some months it was a bit of a hassle and tricky not to feel intimidated by complex recipes. But in the end no matter the complexity level and time spent, the best part is to feel the fresh bread smell and discover a new fluffy surprise coming out of the oven.

January: Maple-Pecan cinnamon rolls

The cinnamon buns above look a bit dry and strange, but they weren’t too bad for being the first time I make them. The recipe is from Jane Hornby’s book “What to bake and how to bake it”. The filling looks a bit strange due to the pecan pieces and cream cheese. I’m not convinced about the cheese, since most cinnamon buns I’ve tried did not have it, so next time I might choose a more conventional recipe.

Bonus points: 6/10 the taste was good, but the filling was too heavy and I would have liked the rolls to be a bit fluffier.

February: no-knead French bread

This bread was a total winner! the pictures might not do it justice, but you can see from the second one, the aroma was so irresistible, that I had to take a bite from the first slice before taking the picture. With this recipe, one has to bake the bread with a bowl of water below, which allows the bread to form a wonderful crust. I need to work on the shape of the bread, but the taste was on point!

Bonus points: 9/10 excellent! easy no-knead bread and the results are wonderful, that crust and fluffy inside are just a perfect match.

Recipe from: The spruce eats

March: Finnish archipelago dark bread (Saaristolaisleipä)

A typical rye bread from the Finnish archipelago. This rye bread stands out from others, because its ingredients also include cultured milk or buttermilk (piimä in Finnish), malt and dark syrup, which result in a sweet and soft rye bread. Absolutely delicious! For this recipe I only used half of the ingredients, since one loaf is more than enough for me.

Bonus points: 10/10 unique flavor and it goes well with all sorts of toppings, perfect if you want to have a Nordic style treat.

Recipe from: My dear kitchen in Helsinki

April: Traditional Italian Easter bread

This was a total fail! Although the bread looks quite nice in the first picture, the appearances are misleading, as you see in the second picture, and I discovered while slicing the bread. I don’t remember what did I forget to add or what went wrong. Perhaps it was just the baking time? or perhaps that I replaced the lemon extract with limoncello (Italian lemon flavored liquor) and it made a strange reaction? 😀 It was really disappointing as it was totally raw inside so I could not eat any of it.

Bonus points: hum not sure, 2/10? at least the shape and appearance looks good. But this is obviously not the recipe’s fault. I need to try and make it again some day and stick to the actual list of ingredients.

Recipe from: The spruce eats

May: Brown soda bread

This bread looks like a stone and indeed it was. It turned out to be a bit salty and crumbly. If you are into healthy breads like my sister is, perhaps you’ll like this type of bread. The recipe is from the America’s test kitchen “Cooking school cookbook” and it is based on wheat bran and whole-wheat flour, thus the fluff levels were near zero and so I did not enjoy the texture so much. It was ok, but not my type.

Bonus points: 5/10 flavor and texture could be better

June: Vanilla fruit scones (Blueberry scones)

Another recipe from Jane’s Hornby “What to bake and how to bake it”. I should ask her to sponsor me :D, But seriously that book is the basis of my progress with baking. I totally recommend it! and also totally recommend that you bake some scones if you have never done so. These scones have just the right amount of butter, milk and vanilla, that creates a super smooth bun. I loved having them for breakfast outdoors, during the warm June days.

Bonus points: 9/10 wonderful and soft, totally worth baking!

July: Finnish berries dark bread – kit

July was a hectic month and as chance would have it, I found this bread kit while on a trip in Mikkeli. Since I had little time for searching recipes, this was very convenient. If my memory serves, one is only required to add a bit of water. I was really impressed with the result, the taste was great and it had lots of blueberries and lingonberries.

Bonus points: 9/10 it was great, I would totally buy it again.

August: Chia seeds bread – kit

Another bread kit, but this time I did not buy it, a dear friend gave it to me. This kit is produced by Flowbake, a Helsinki based start up that makes gluten-free products. I was quite surprised and satisfied with the texture, it was quite fluffy for being a gluten free mix. However, there was something that I can’t pin point in the flavor, it was mild and quite different…it might need a bit more salt? or perhaps the flavor is something characteristic from the chia seeds?

Bonus points: 8/10 worth trying, specially if you are on a gluten-free diet.

September: sesame, sunflower and poppy seed bloomer

I was in total awe when this bread came out of the oven! how could it be so perfect and chunky, and slicing it was so satisfying! The crust and the inside were just the perfect texture! on top of that it had 3 different seeds: sunflower, sesame and poppy seeds, so it is quite nutritious and each bite was a delight.

Bonus points: 10/10 absolutely stunning! after the fails in April and May, this seed bloomer brought back my confidence in baking 🙂

Recipe from: BBC good food

October: Sally Lunn bread

I chose this recipe because I had heard good things about the Sally Lunn buns, a famous English batter bread, created in Bath around 1680. There are variations of the original recipe and I went for the one from Southern Living. It has quite a big amount of eggs, milk and butter, so it’s not the healthiest of breads. The aroma coming from the oven was awesome! but it was rather greasy, luckily I was meeting some friends that weekend and I casually gave them some slices.

Bonus points: 7/10 good taste, but it is too greasy and the texture resembles more a cake than an actual bread.

Recipe from: Southern Living

November: crusty no-knead bread

If you only try one recipe from this list, I strongly encourage you to try this one, please! it is very easy and the result is just amazing! super smooth, wonderful taste, aroma and a good crust.

Since this recipe is a no-knead bread, I let the dough rise 14hours from 11pm to 13pm next day, so it didn’t require much effort kneading. The recipe says to use a dutch oven (heavy iron pot), but I do not have one. So I used a big cake form and an oven tray as a lid, and it worked the trick perfectly!

Bonus points: 12/10 arguably the best bread I’ve made. Looking forward to bake it again and again!

Recipe from: The spruce eats

December: Festive brioche centerpiece with baked camembert

The last bread of the year was baked in the last 2-3 hours of the year. Like when you submit your homework at the last minute, I was baking the last bread in the last hours of 2021. I was actually planning to bake it the day before, but then I realized one had to leave the dough in the fridge over night.

I’m quite impressed with how the final crown turned out, because before baking it, the raw balls of dough looked more like potatoes than anything else. Luckily the oven treatment did them well and accompanied by the melted camembert cheese it was delicious! the original recipe includes a garlic filling, but I skipped that, as I was running out of time.

Bonus points: 10/10 highly recommended! it is a complex recipe, but you can modify it as I did 😉

Recipe from: BBC good food