Pandoro, which literally means "bread of gold" is a traditional Italian sweet yeast bread, popular around Christmas and New Year.  During the holidays, I saw this in a window display of Milano Market, a food shop that sells Italian food products.  The top shelf highlights the traditional Pandoro con lieve nota di miele (bread with honey) and the bottom shelf carries Pandoro al Cioccolato (chocolate).  Perhaps, next year, I’ll buy them to see how they taste.

Black and White Wednesday is a culinary photography event, which Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook created and hosts.   Stop by her blog to see who else played.  You can also learn how to play along with us there, if you’re interested.

Happy Black and White Wednesday!

Paz

A funny thing happened on the way to the oven to bake this bread. 

I saw this Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread recipe on mischief mari’s blog.   The idea of how the flavors of the main ingredients would taste intrigued me.   Lemon, pineapple and zucchini?  Together?   Hmm… I don’t know about that.   Would it really taste good?  I wanted to know and set out to make my bread.

Following the instructions, I put all the ingredients together.  As I mixed the batter and looked at it, I kept thinking to myself, “Hmm… I don’t see any green.”  The batter was the normal pale yellow.  I could have sworn that I’d used all the ingredients, so I dismissed my thoughts and poured the light-colored batter into the baking pan. 

After I put the batter in the oven, I started cleaning up.   I washed the bowls, measuring cups, spoons… and put them away.  I wiped the sink and stove top and looked around the kitchen to see if I’d missed any other dirty dishes.  That’s when I saw the two cups of zucchini, patiently waiting to be mixed into the batter.  Yikes!   I’d forgotten one of the main ingredients of the bread!  Fer cryin’ out loud!  I chastised myself.  This recipe is called Lemon Pineapple ZUCCHINI Bread NOT Lemon Pineapple Bread.    I, quickly, pulled out the hot bread pan and placed it on the stovetop.  By this time, the bread had been baking for about 10 minutes.   It hadn’t taken shape yet, so I mixed the zucchini into the heated batter, returned the pan to the oven, and prayed that I wasn’t too late to save the bread. 

My Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread did not turn out nicely.   The zucchini didn’t spread in the batter and stayed mainly on the top.  The rest of the bread had baked properly but the zucchini portion of the bread didn’t bake all the way through.  I returned the loaf into the oven.   The top portion of the bread never completely baked, while the rest of the bread became over-baked and even turned too dry.  What a mess!  We ate pieces of the bread but no one wanted to finish it.

The next day, I was determined to try again.   Luckily I had extra zucchini and pineapple to use.   I put the ingredients together, attentively, and placed them in the oven.   Voila!  A perfect Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread loaf.  I’m happy to write that we were able to eat and enjoy this second loaf of bread.  The lemon, pineapple and zucchini taste good together.  Mari’s description was accurate, "It’s got a nice, light, slightly zingy flava.  So yum."  Yup!  Delicious.  The bread tasted perfect with a nice, hot cup of tea, Ovaltine or hot chocolate.

 Morals of my story:   1- Don’t bake (or cook) if you’re tired or pre-occupied.   2- If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. 

Thanks Mari, for the recipe.  By the way, folks:  Mari has a recently published book called the coolest cookies on the planet.  It’s a gem of a book!  I enjoyed reading her stories that inspired some of her cookie designs.  Her baking and design tutorials are easy to follow (I like easy!) and the photos are absolutely fantastic.   Check it out HERE. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!  I wish you all a wonderful celebration.

Paz

My first bread did NOT turn out well.  Portions were unbaked.  So, I tried again.

Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread

as seen on  cha no ma-ri

original recipe from Feral Kitchen

3 c. all purpose flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2/3 c. canola oil
1 8 oz. can of crushed pineapple, drained well. (I found fresh pineapple at my local store. Chopped it up in with a super sharp kitchen knife. Perfect).
2 c. zucchini grated
1 Tbls. lemon zest

Directions:

Mari’s recommendations:

*I recommends having your zucchini grated, your pineapple crushed and your lemon zested BEFORE you start. Just makes the combining of all ingredients easier. Grate the zucchini with the grating blade on a food processor because it’ll take you ages if you do this by hand.  And I sure hope you have a super sharp microplane zester because dull ones are no fun.

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Grab two 4″ X 8″ baking pans and grease well.
2. In a medium-sized bowl mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil, pineapple, zucchini and lemon zest.
4. Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.  Mix until moistened.  Do not over mix. This will look like a thick cake batter, and that is okay, it’s supposed to be that way.
5. Add the mixture to the two baking pans and bake for 1 hour.
6. Cool on wire racks then remove loaves from pans.  Makes two fabulous loaves.

A fabulous loaf of Lemon Pineapple Zucchini Bread!

Focaccia Olive Cheese Bread.

Black and White Wednesday — A Culinary Photography Event. 

Hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook. 

Check out her blog to see a fantastic line-up of other Black and White photos.

More bread photos below.  Take your pick!

Paz

The other day, I felt like baking.   I felt like baking challah.   I’d baked challah only twice before — one sprinkled with sesame seeds and a honey-vanilla challah.   My braids always turn out very interesting-looking.   This current braid improved but I could still use more practice.  Also, I didn’t care for the color of my challah.  It seemed to come out darker than my last two.  I wasn’t sure what I’d done differently.  When I complained to Simona, she gave me some tips, which I’ll use the next time I bake.  I learned from her that the color of challah depends a lot on the kind of egg wash used.  She uses Peter Reinhart’s recipe and he specifically recommends not to use the color to estimate the doneness.  Instead he recommends that you use your thermometer.  Simona mentioned that she makes her egg wash with whole egg and her challah comes out a nice color.  Last tip was that the crust softens after it is allowed to cool.    Thanks, Simona!  I’ll keep that in mind for the next time I bake challah.

Paz

How much is that loaf of bread in the window?

This is my contribution to the fourth edition of World Bread Day, hosted by Zorra of Kochtopf.  The few times that I’ve baked bread, to my surprise, I’ve enjoyed it.  And my bread has turned out terrific!  I didn’t get a chance to bake bread for World Bread Day but luckily there are many stores in my neighborhood that provide delicious bread.  The bread displayed in the window was very tempting, so I bought some.

Zorra will post a roundup of the entries on October 24 and 25.  Be sure to stop by her blog to see other deliciously-baked bread posts.

Paz

Ed. Note:  You can find the roundup here.