from Tracey G

This was a fun recipe this week – and the joy of it being the King Arthur Flour Bakealong Challenge recipe this month, is that it is one “style” I honestly don’t think I would have tried on my own volition! I would have written it off as too much work – and it’s not! It was actually fun work, lol. This is the Butterflake Herb Loaf recipe, and it’s wonderful! Not only was it easy, it’s so customizable as well!!

Harry declared that is the bread I should make whenever we have spaghetti/pasta night instead of any other kind of garlic bread – homemade or not! LOL! To please the palates around here, I chose a few of the butter seasonings listed and modified one out of necessity. I chose to just use the salt, basil and fresh garlic. I grated the garlic on my larger-holed Microplane Grater, instead of mincing it as the recipe directs and it worked wonderfully. The ingredient I “modified” was the cayenne pepper. Somehow, someway, I discovered I was out of the stuff! That never happens! So, being in a pinch, I decided to add a few drops of Frank’s RedHot hot sauce – it added such a wonderful flavor, I will do that again next time I make it on purpose!

In this recipe you make your dough, after it is all done rising the first time, you divide it, then you roll it out and cut into circles. I didn’t have a 3.5″- 4″ cutter, so I did as they suggested and used a canning jar lid ring, worked like a charm! I cut out all my circles, spread with the seasoned butter, folded in half and lined them up in the pan. And then you repeat for the second half of the dough in another pan. Rise again. I will note here that it was a slow riser for me, it took the full 90 minutes, and then some, to get where it was supposed to be – on both the first and second risings. Once it was ready to bake, after rising in the pan, into the oven it went. And wow, did it smell yummy while it was baking! Not to mention, the recipe walk-through really helped see it was pretty darn easy to do!

Of course, after they were baked, the first loaf didn’t last long – that’s why I’m glad this recipe made 2, one to eat right away and one to photograph THEN eat! Kris and I have already started discussing some variations we’d like to try with this super versatile recipe. The Butterflake Herb Loaf is a certain keeper!

 

 

from Kris B.

As Tracey said, this month’s King Arthur Bakealong Challenge was a fun recipe to make and even more fun to eat!  When you first read the procedure for making the Butterflake Herb Loaf, it may sound a bit burdensome, but once you get going with it, the recipe is super simple.

This is a great bread to accompany almost any meal.  I have to admit that the loaves at my house never made it to mealtime.  They became an afternoon snack and then a midnight snack.  I did make the filling exactly as the recipe called for except that I omitted the caraway seeds.  Here in Texas, we always have cayenne pepper.  🙂  It is not something that I would have thought to add to a recipe like this, but it gave the bread the tiniest little kick, which we hot sauce and jalapeño-loving Texans like!  I will say that I did not add enough of the filling to my bread rounds as I went because I had more than I think I should have after my pans of bread were done.  So, when the bread came out of the oven, I brushed the tops of the loaves with the remaining butter and herb filling.  All I can say is yum!

There is something about bread though…it is often times hard to photograph.  It falls into that “brown food” category that Tracey and I joke about all te time!  Bread tastes so good, but often doesn’t look equally as good in photos.  Yes, you can add a little pop of color to the photo by using a colorful placemat or serving piece, but you have to be careful that the eye is not so pulled to the color that it upstages your tasty brown bread.  Something to think about when photographing any kind of food…remember that no matter how pretty your dishes and linens may be, the food is the subject of your photo!

Butterflake Herb Loaf recipe

Recipe walk-through

King Arthur Bakealong Challenge