Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Good Cook. I have been compensated for this post. I am a Good Cook Kitchen Expert blogger selected by Good Cook to represent their brand. All opinions about Good Cook are my own.
I love to bake bread, which is no secret to my readers. I’ve gushed over the delicious artisan breads I learned to make last year, which everyone in my house continues to enjoy immensely. So, when Good Cook approached its team of Kitchen Experts about a new bread-baking event, I was in! This February, we’re celebrating the release of a new bread-baking cookbook from fellow Good Cook Kitchen Expert Donna Currie, who blogs at Cookistry. Her new book, “Make Ahead Bread: 100 Recipes for Bake-It-When-You-Want-It Yeast Breads
In honor of Donna’s new cookbook, Good Cook asked us to either bake and share a favorite bread recipe with readers or bake and share one of Donna’s own bread recipes. After reading through many delicious recipes on her blog, I chose Babcia Bread.
I love recipes with stories behind them, and this recipe has such an interesting backstory — it was handed down through their family by Donna’s husband’s grandmother (and originally written in Polish!) and I couldn’t wait to try it.
But before we get to that, Good Cook’s offering some bonuses for you too! If you need cookware from GoodCook.com, grab a 25% off discount for any purchase with promo code “BakeBread”. And, if you’d like to preorder the book “Make Ahead Bread” on Amazon, you’ll receive a FREE Good Cook 9″ x 5″ loaf pan! (To receive your free pan, place your preorder on Amazon by February 28, 2014, then add the information from your receipt at this link. You will receive your loaf pan within 8 to 10 weeks.)
Now, on to my experience with the delicious Babcia Bread… Just in looking at the ingredients, I knew this bread would be delicious. Look at all of that butter, milk, sugar and vanilla! I love sweet breads, and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Donna Currie’s Babcia Bread
1 stick butter
1/2 cup milk
2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) yeast
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour, divided
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
Note: For more detailed instructions, please visit Donna’s full recipe at Cookistry.com.
Put the milk and butter into microwave-safe container and heat to melt the butter. Do not boil. Cool (if needed) to lukewarm. Put the milk mixture into the bowl of your stand mixer, add the yeast and 1 cup of flour, and mix well.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit for 15 minutes. It will rise a bit during this time. Add eggs, and beat with the paddle attachment until well combined. Add salt, sugar and vanilla and beat well. Add the remaining 2 3/4 cups of flour, mix with the paddle to combine, then switch to the dough hook and knead well.. until very little is left on the hook. Stop the mixer and scrape it down as this happens.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest until doubled in size; it may take 2 hours or more. (Jill’s note: For me, this took almost three hours.) Sprinkle cornmeal on the bottom of a 10-inch loaf pan. Knead dough again, shape, and put into a bread pan. Let it rise again until doubled in size. Brush top with beaten egg yolk mixed with water, if desired, for a shiny top. Bake at 325°F until deeply browned, 45 to 55 minutes. Let the loaf cool for five minutes before taking it out of the pan to cool completely on a rack before cutting.
This bread is delicious! If you like sweet breads, like Hawaiian or beer breads, it’s somewhat similar to that, but it’s definitely got its own buttery-sweet flavor. The only thing I would have done differently is thinned my egg yolk mixture to brush the top — I believe I had it too thick in some places and it browned unevenly on top. But this didn’t affect the flavor. Babcia Bread got a thumbs-up from everyone in the family! P.S.: That Good Cook nonstick bread knife is the best thing that ever happened to my homemade breads. Before I got it, I was crushing my freshly-baked loves attempting to use a serrated kitchen knife to cut them. This knife goes right through (pardon the pun) “like buttah.”
Feel free to check out some of the other Good Cook Kitchen Experts’ breads baked as part of this event:
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Good Cook. I have been compensated for this post. I am a Good Cook Kitchen Expert blogger selected by Good Cook to represent their brand. All opinions about Good Cook are my own.
Outlander says
I’ll have to try this. I looove baking bread and do it all the time. I probably made 5 in the last 3 days. I’ll have to give you my favorite recipe – it’s for Challah bread, but I use it for everything, it’s such a great dough.
mickeyd says
We are huge fans of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes – a staple in our house nowadays. But since I’m Polish and my mom is my kids Babcia I’ll have to try this Babcia bread. My mother isn’t much of a baker so maybe I need to be the future Babcia that bakes for my kid’s children!