Today was a surprisingly productive day. I didn’t get everything done on my to-do list, but I never do. I also haven’t done any reading, yet. Well, except for the recipe for that baking project I want to try, and it’s a good thing I finally read that!
I wanted to make panettone from scratch this year based on the recipe in my favorite bread baking cookbook: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Before I get into that, though, I have to put in a plug for how awesome this book is. If you really want to geek out on bread making, but you also want to understand what you’re doing and why, I highly recommend this book. Every recipe I’ve tried (so far) has been great.
(Side note: I just looked it up, and fun fact, I purchased this book in January 2003! Wow! I have been bread-obsessed for over twenty years!)
Okay, the thing about the recipes in this book is that a lot of them are multi-day projects. But that’s kind of what you need to do if you want to make really good bread. And, as it turns out, panettone is no exception. In fact, since I don’t have a barm ready to go, I need to make that FIRST before I can even get to the panettone making steps. So, yeah. Add four days (at least) to what was already a two day recipe, and now I think I’m going to be having these just in time for Christmas breakfast!
In other fun and festive news, someone in my extended family has requested that we revive my pre-pandemic attempt at doing a used book white elephant version of the Icelandic “Christmas book flood.” Since I am always on board for bookish holiday traditions, I agreed to organize it! Christmas Eve was already shaping up to be pretty fantastic with our plans for a dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with buche de noel for dessert. Now we might get to do a book exchange, too! Yeah baby! I think my holiday cheer may have just returned!
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