5 Little Things – Bread Challenge Edition

Holy Cow. I showed my little bread challenge who’s boss. 52 different kinds of bread. Yeast, and quick breads, flat brad and rolls, crackers and more. My oven has been busy to say the least. In the last week I have flooded you with bread challenge posts, playing catch up for all the posts I didn’t have time to get up over the holiday season. As a was to say farewell to the bread challenge I have a Sunday 5 for you. It’s just a little break down of the long list of recipes and a few thoughts. Then I promise the bread bombardment at Evolving Mommy will come to a close. At least for now.

1.) 10 Bread Challenge Breads with the Highest Scores

All of these recipes received a 30 or higher out of 33 points…

• Irish Soda Bread – Week 10
• Thin Wheat Crackers – Week 11
• Farmhouse White Loaf – Week 16
• Rotis – Whole Wheat Unleavened Bread- Week 17
• Garlic Studded Baguette – Week 21
• Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns – Week 22
• Challah – Week 35
• Whole Wheat Brioche – Week 42
• Chocolate Chip Cream Scones – Week 44
• Popover – Week 48
• Biscuits – Week 50

2.)  5 Most Remade Bread Challenge Bread Recipes

Even if the recipe has been changed up a bit these breads have become family favorites…

• Focaccia – Week 1
• Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns – Week 22
• Thin Wheat Crackers – Week 11
• Tortillas – Week 23
• Light Rye Bread – Week 5

3.)  5 Bread Challenge Bread Recipes I Won’t Make Again

These recipes just didn’t impress…

• Hot Cross Buns – Week 13
• Green Onion-Sesame Flatbread – Week 32
• Honey Whole Wheat Slow Cooker Bread – Week 15
• Cornmeal Pancake -Week 26
• Double Blueberry Muffins – Week 9

4.)  5 Bread Challenge Recipes I think Anyone Could Make

Simple, tasty and fast…

• Focaccia – Week 1
• Tortillas – Week 23
• Thin Wheat Crackers – Week 11
• Popover – Week 48
• Biscuits – Week 50

5.)  5 Things I learned from the bread challenge

• There are some amazing textures and flavors out there that you can create in your home kitchen. Usually the bread you make at home tastes more flavorful and feels better in your mouth that what you can buy in an average grocery store.
• I really do prefer the flavor and texture of whole wheat breads more and while “white” breads are yummy too they just don’t quite hit the spot in the same way for me.
• The total amount of time a loaf of bread takes is not really that important to me. I don’t mind having to think ahead and make sure I make dough so it can sit and rise for as long as it needs too. The thing that matters to me is hands on time. Hours of hands on time just isn’t appealing, unless it is for some truly awesome bread. In some cases the breads with the highest scores are not the breads that made the biggest impact on me, Luke and Maddy. In some cases their score was so high partially because of the score they got for time. Some of the recipes we loved received lower scores because they got a lower total time score.
• Things like bagels, English muffins, tortillas, crackers and hamburger buns are not difficult to make. They don’t require huge machines or magic, and the recipes used in the bread challenge tasted as good or way better than the store-bought versions we were used to.
• Once you are used to making changes to recipes to suit your dietary, flavor and texture preferences it is hard to go back to following recipes step by step ingredient by ingredient.

I learned so much in the last year. Yet I can’t help but be thankful that it is over. Now I can get back to freely tinkering with recipes, using whole wheat flour, flax meal, coconut oil and applesauce as I please without worrying about stay true to the recipe. Now I just have more knowledge of how ingredients work together to create different textures flavors and shapes. I have a feeling the recipe tinkering is going to a whole new level now.