A Whole day of Baking

Today was my day off, which miraculously coincided with a day that I didnt have class. So I chose to spend the entire day baking! I made hot cross buns, which some research reveals are traditionally eaten Good Friday until Easter, not really for Easter itself, which is what I had previously thought. I used Yozza's recipe that I found on this site:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16868/still-hot-baking#comment-109513

They are delicious - soft and moist and cinnamon-y. Luckily all of them are going to an event tomorrow so I wont be tempted to eat more than the one I already had. If there is anyone looking for a hot cross buns recipe I'd highly recommend this one. The only thing I did differently was to substitute the water for whole milk and eliminate the milk powder, and I didnt use peel (I would have if I could have found it today!), bun spice, or bread improver.

I also made a loaf of my Pinto Bread:http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12214/pinto-bean-bread    

This is a staple bread around here and is really quick and easy to make. The other project was making my second loaf of Sour Rye. I got this recipe from the Northwest Sourdough website and I was very impressed with it. It's such an easy recipe for how well it turns out: http://www.northwestsourdough.com/newsite/recipes.html

 The dough is very easy to handle and it rises predictably - probably because it doesnt have lots of rye flour in it, but it contains enough to still impart a great flavor. This was a giant loaf of bread by the way. I'll be giving half of it to another bread enthusiast.  I'd say that all in all it was a productive day off!