Friday Bread Basket 12/18/20
What a Wonderful World
So this is probably going to be the last Friday Bread Basket for 2020, since one week from today is Christmas Day, and I’m planning to take a short holiday break from the newsletter after one last post next week, which means the next Friday post will be on 1/1/2021 (I might add or update recipes in the background if I have time, so keep an eye on the website in the meantime.)
FYI, a print of image above was a holiday gift to myself this year, to hang on my kitchen wall. It was taken by my friend Ashleigh Coleman, one of my favorite photographers. She also happens to be an excellent bread baker, thanks to the little push I gave her early on during the lockdown.
Sour Times
I only just now realized why I started getting a flurry of new subscribers to the newsletter over the last couple of days: it got mentioned in the New York Times on Wednesday, at least in a super roundabout way. In Farhad Manjoo’s opinion piece about the continuing solace he’s derived from baking sourdough bread during the lockdown—something most of us here already know well—he linked to one my early Cook’s Illustrated quarantinystarter recipes. The recipe post doesn’t mention Wordloaf, but the trail of breadcrumbs I left behind there leads to it, if followed far enough.
-> My 50-Pound Bag of Flour Is Gone. My Sanity Remains.
The Puffy Shirt
I loved this illustration from Malaka Gharib, an NPR global health and development journalist and artist. It was one image from a New Yorker piece she drew back in August on the “puffy sleeves” fashion trend.
I discovered it after having stumbled upon this wonderful tweet of hers:
-> A Guide to the Puffy-Sleeves Trend
Wordloaf Holiday Shopping Guide
My plan for the 2020 holidays is to give friends and loved ones homemade baked goods and other foods, and to make charitable donations in their names, since there are so many good causes to support, especially right now. I hope you’ll consider doing the same.
One thing I’m definitely not buying anyone is the abomination shown above, which offends just about every sensibility I’ve got.
Maybe next year I’ll create a round-up of my favorite baking and pizza tools to share here (you can probably already guess many of the things that would be on that list). If you are desperate to give someone a gift that keeps on giving, I do have one idea:
That’s it for this week’s bread basket. I hope you have a happy and peaceful weekend and holiday season.
—Andrew
Thank you, Andrew. My subscription to Wordloaf was a gift to myself, and I continue to be thrilled with it. I hope you enjoy your much-deserved break, and look forward to learning and discovering more with you in the new year.
Hi Andrew, recent subscriber. If you had anything to do with the pannetone recipe in "Bread Illustrated," you are a hero in our household. Toasted pannetone is one of my husband's favorite things, and I surprised him by making it for Christmas. It also became the bread for Christmas morning's French toast casserole (the candied orange is a lovely addition). Very, very sticky dough!