Winter Herb Bread

Bread Challenge Week 38

I know it’s not winter, but as I flipped through Bread Made Easy: A Baker’s First Bread Book, by Beth Hensperger I came upon the recipe for a bread filled with herbs and I just couldn’t pass it up. Also the recipe said it would make 2 whole loaves of bread. Sandwiches for you and you and you and you! Sandwiches for everyone!

The Winter Herb Bread is a variation of Hensperger’s Milk Bread Recipe. Bread Made Easy: A Baker’s First Bread Book is book centered around eight basic breads and their recipes and includes several variations for each bread. I highly recommend this book for beginning baker’s as well as baker’s looking for good classic recipes.

Beth Hensperger calls this bread sandwich bread at its best. I agree. To an extent. The flavor is mind-blowing. The scent is is mouthwatering. The crumb is soft yet stable enough to slice. The twisted look of the bread makes my slightly food obsessive heart sing.

The only issue is all purpose white flour is, well, all purpose flour. I’m fairly certain you know my stance of white bread. I’m just a wheat bread lover. Once you go wheat you never go back. Or more realistically you venture back into the white bread realm ever so often and generally leave feeling a little cheated. Wheat bread just has so much flavor. Despite my strong whole wheat leanings this winter herb bread is one of my new favorites.

You know you have hit the jackpot of bread when while eating a sandwich using the bread you moan the whole way though the meal. You know you hit the bread jackpot when Luke walks in the door and announces that he can’t wait to eat whatever is baking in the oven. You know we have hit the bread jackpot when I go on and on and on about how we have hit the bread jackpot.

This bread took about 4 hours total from start to finish. Hands on time was a whopping 30 minutes of hands on time. I would spend double that to eat this deliciousness. The double rising required for this bread is what took the longest. The recipe calls for between 2 1/2 and 3 hours of rising time which I found to be pretty accurate.

I got two loaves from this recipe and after tearing chunks of bread off the loaf and dipping it in balsamic vinegar and olive oil with out shrimp pasta, making deli sliced chicken sandwiches with smoked cheddar cheese and just plain toasting it with butter we have finished off one loaf and have our sights set on the second one in the freezer.This loaf was versatile on its own but I can see it being a great dough to make rolls of all sorts to accompany meals or to build individual sandwiches on.

Rest assured I will make this bread again and again, even if I plan to play around with the some white whole wheat flour in place of some or all of the all purpose flour.

Flavor: 5
Hands on time: 4
Total time: 2
Recipe: 5
versatility: 5
make it again: 5
Catherine: 1
Luke: 1
Maddy: 1

Total Score: 29
(what is this Bread Challenge and how are recipes scored?)

Previous Bread Challenge reviews:
Classic Pretzel – Week 37
Sweet Potato Bread – Week 36
Challah – Week 35
Whole Wheat English Muffins – Week 34
Pumpernickel – Week 33
Green Onion-Sesame Flatbread – Week 32
Beer Bread – Week 31
Country Seed Bread – Week 30
Cinnamon-Raisin Bagels – Week 29
Crunchy Crackers – Week 28
Ciabatta Bread – Week 27
Cornmeal Pancake -Week 26
Lemon Poppy Seed – Week 25
Sourdough – Week 24
Tortillas – Week 23
Honey Wheat Hamburger Buns – Week 22
Garlic Studded Baguette – Week 21
Quinoa Bread – Week 20
Asiago Herb and Garlic Bread – Week 19
Cranberry Pecan Rye Bread – Week 18
Rotis – Whole Wheat Unleavened Bread- Week 17
Farmhouse White Loaf – Week 16
Honey Whole Wheat Slow Cooker Bread – Week 15
The Easiest Loaf of Bread You’ll Ever Bake – Week 14
Hot Cross Buns – Week 13
100% Whole Wheat Bread – Week 12
Thin Wheat Crackers – Week 11
Irish Soda Bread – Week 10
Double Blueberry Muffins – Week 9
Oatmeal Batter Bread – Week 8
Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls – Week 7
Cheesy Pretzels – Week 6
Light Rye Bread – Week 5
Country-Style Whole-Wheat Pita – Week 4
Carrot Raisin Quick Bread – Week 3
Potato Bread – Week 2
Focaccia – Week 1