The Soup & Bread Cookbook - excellent 5 stars

The Soup & Bread Cookbook: More Than 100 Seasonal Pairings for Simple, Satisfying Meals by Beatrice Ojakangas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am one of those nerds who like to read cookbooks. For me, the thing that constitutes a cookbook that is fun to read is a bit of history, a bit of narrative, some instruction, and great recipes. This cookbook fell a little short on those counts and wasn't a great read, but the recipes turned out really fabulously.

Ojakangas built this book with soup and an accompanying bread to go with it, so the net result was that there were an equal number of soup and bread recipes. I made a few recipes from the book, but I'll discuss just two of them here.

By now, those who read my reviews know that I love to make bread... not the super easy way. I've been experimenting with some fairly complicated artisan breads. So what ended up being outstanding bread from this book? A simple Amish White Bread recipe and Old Fashioned Cream Scones. The bread came out with a fine moist crumb and the cream scones were beautiful and went fast. Both recipes were family favorites and didn't last long.

Overall, this was an excellent cookbook with recipes that were as tasty as they looked in the book.

Old-Fashioned Cream Scones - I used my food processor to make these and followed the instructions to a T and these came out with a subtle sweetness. Perfect with morning coffee, or tea.

Amish White Bread - this was supposed to make just one loaf, but as you can see, the one loaf rose to the size of two loaves (I used my bread machine for the dough, which may be the reason). Next time I'll split it between two loaf pans. What did I do with the giant loaf? I cut the top section off and ended up with two loaves of bread that was so good that not a single crumb was wasted.

I would post the recipes, but I'm pretty sure there would be some copyright infringement issue. You'll have to buy the book or get it from your library.



View all my reviews