Metron Ariston

 A year and a half ago I discovered The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking, and my friend Ariella bought it for my birthday after I’d re-checked it from the library for several months. I fumbled through a few recipes in the fall of 2009. I liked baking bread, but found it extremely frustrating when loaves didn’t turn out. I started reading the author’s notes on making bread and watching videos on kneading techniques. At this time, I was mainly just making Olive Bread [Liv’s favorite]. For 2010, I decided to bake my way through my bread book. A new recipe, every week. Fair enough, I’d probably have been better off choosing one recipe and making it every week to perfect it, but my way allowed me to try lots of different kinds of bread while perfecting the skills we always use in bread making.

I didn’t make it through the whole year. Even though I made bread while in Montreal for the CPA, the week I spent in Germany [with Martha Nussbaum. Sorry, I can’t say that enough] was the first week I didn’t make bread. When I returned back to Canada I moved, which slowed me down a bit, and then I sliced through the tendon in my right index finger. Being splinted and unable to do dishes pretty much killed bread making.

Once the splint came off, I didn’t pick up my pre-Germany pace, but I still tried several new bread recipes a month. I made a repeat recipe only once; Olive Bread for Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.

As a side note, the best thing about being American living in Canada is two Thanksgiving dinners. Bring on the pumpkin pie, and vegan Turkey if Dylan is roasting it.

I’ve just returned home from visiting Tiffany and Davis in Connecticut, so I have just enough time for a final bread recipe. I flipped through my book, referencing my list of breads I’ve made thus far, trying to pick the perfect bread to end the year. I am limited in a few ways--having just returned, I’m out of several baking essentials, namely eggs and butter. The recipe I made will have to be fairly basic--or I could use a number of my vegan substitutions, which I did for a number of recipes. Remember when I actually was a vegan? Armed with my Christmas gifts--vegan cookbooks--I may take it back up. Damn butter, being so tasty in baking. If it weren’t for butter . . .

Anyway, I finally settled on “Brother’s Bread.” It seems appropriate, given what Brother Curry, the Jesuit who put together my bread book, has written: “This was the first recipe in our loose-leaf binder at Wernersville and this bread was probably made more than any other.” What better to end the year with than the first recipe in Brother Curry’s collection? I must confess, it will also be excellent in the “Peachy French Toast” I plan on making for New Year’s Day brunch. You have to check out the other amazing cookbook, from which comes the yummy French Toast recipe, that I got for Christmas: The Harrow Fair Cookbook.

Brother’s Bread is rising in the oven. I could tell from the feel of the dough as I kneaded it that it will be fabulous. Mmmm.

Here’s a few favorite bread-making memories from the year. Following that, I posted a list of all the breads I’ve tried this year. I have not yet made all the recipes in my book, but it’s getting close. I starred some of my favorite recipes, and indicated which ones failed to turn out.

Top memories:
Last New Year’s Ariella and I made Challah, but we forgot to add the eggs at the appropriate point. We added them right before kneading. I was sure it would be a disaster, but it turned out to be one of the best recipes I made--probably Ariella’s magical [Jewish?] touch.

When Ariella was in Toronto and I was watching Sushi, I baked bread at her house because it allowed me lots of Sushi-cuddling time. Ariella’s smoke detector is sensitive and it started going off. I couldn’t get it to turn off, I couldn’t get the smoke to leave the kitchen, and Ariella’s landlady came into her apartment and berated me for trying to bake and trying to take the smoke detector off the ceiling. Oops. I think this disaster occurred while making Spy Wednesday Biscuits.

Another time I was making bread at Ariella’s, I made a poppy-seed loaf for Dario, who adores poppy seeds, as a surprise, only to find that he spontaneously went to Toronto for the weekend. It was gone by the time he got home. Sorry, Dario. I’ll come to Montreal and make it for you.

Having Adam in town when I made sourdough. You have to knead that sucker for twenty minutes, not the usual eight to ten. We took turns, and made three sourdough loaves that week.

Making three-seed bread on my birthday. First bread since my finger injury! Breadmaking has become a regular practice in my life, and I was probably pretty grouchy that I hadn’t been baking for so long. I couldn’t have done it without alot of help from Patrick because my finger was still splinted at that time--at least, I couldn’t really knead--but it was lovely to be baking again.

Here’s the weekly list. If you ever want a loaf, let me know. I love baking them! My favorites [yes Becca, you can have more than one favorite] are starred, my least favorites have crosses.

1. Week of December 27 : Challah ★
2. Week of January 3: St. Alphonsus Rodriguez’s Raisin Bread
3. Week of January 10: Apricot, Orange, Cranberry Bread
4. Week of January 17: Sister’s Herb Bread [did not turn out]
5. Week of January 24: Yeast Rolls
6. Week of January 31: Rick’s Cranberry-Walnut Buttermilk Loaf
7. Week of February 7: Bran Corn Bread ★ [also, made Sister’s Herb Bread and it turned out]
8. Week of February 14: Poppy Seed Braid Loaf
9. Week of February 21: Date and Walnut Bread ★
10. Week of February 28: Sweet Potato Bread ★
11. Week of March 7: Green Chili Corn Bread
12. Week of March 14: Brother Buchman’s Cracked Wheat
13. Week of March 21: Sourdough
14. Week of March 28: Spy Wednesday Biscuits
15. Week of April 4: Jesuit Easter Bread
16. Week of April 11: Brother Andrew’s Pumpernickel Bread [did not turn out]
17. Week of April 18: Bagels
18. Week of April 25: Holy Thursday Apple Bread
19. Week of May 2: Whole Wheat-Wheat Germ Bread
20. Week of May 9: Onion Bread ✝
21. Week of May 16: Brother Leikus’s Oatmeal Quick Bread [substituted applesauce for oil and eggs]
22. Week of May 23: Honey Whole Wheat
23. Week of May 30: 100% Whole Wheat
24. Week June 6: Sweet Potato Cornbread
35. Week of August 22: Three-Seed Bread
41. Week of October 3: Loyola Buttermilk Bread
43. Week of October 17: Rosemont’s Bread ★
45. Week of October 31: Brother Fitzgerald’s Basic White Bread
48. Week of November 21: Pane di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph’s Bread) ★
49. Week of November 28: Altar Bread
51. Week of December 12: Johnnycakes
52. Week of December 19: Christmas Morning Cinnamon Buns ✝
53. Week of December 26: Brother’s Bread

Recipes from the bread book I made prior to 2010:
Olive Bread, French Bread, Potato Bread, Pan de Sal [did not turn out], Wernersville Corn Bread, Maple Corn Bread, O’Brien’s Oatmeal Bread [did not turn out], Irish Soda Bread, Overnight Basic Italian, Cracked Wheat Bread ★, Oatmeal Bannocks, Zucchini Bread