AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! (Taste & Create)

OK so first let me apologize for disappearing for a week. My computer is still MIA (and so far nothing can be found wrong with it, which is so NOT reassuring) and we were out of town for 4 days. I went to the Ohio State/Michigan football game. Bring on basketball season! ‘Nuff said. 🙁

Anyway, on to the Aaaaagghhh! I was paired up with Happy Cook of My Kitchen Treasures, a blog located in Belgium, for Taste & Create this month. Although she has a lot of Indian food, an ongoing favorite with me, I was instantly attracted to her baking. After a lot of hemming and hawing I chose her Sugar Bread (Suker Brood). I have been wanting to make a sugar bread–a yeast bread studded throughout with pieces of sugar–for some time now, so I was super psyched to see hers. I even bought imported pearl sugar from Belgium, which I found at Sur La Table when I was home last week.

And then, in a moment of stunning absent-mindedness brought on by entirely too much enjoyment of the keema I had made for dinner (a sign I should have stuck with the Indian recipes?), I did not hear the timer go off (even though it was 2 feet in front of my face at the dinner table) and I forgot about the bread.

I have some hope for it, as I sit here staring at the black sugar exterior, because it only got to about 210 F, which is a little overdone but not too bad for yeast bread. The problem is that the sugar leaked through a crack and completely burned while I forgot about the bread. I am hoping I can just shave off the burnt sugar.

My changes: I used buttermilk in place of water, I used honey in place of granulated sugar, I used a loaf pan, and I added a teaspoon of cinnamon. I realize that last one probably broke all the rules, but it just sounded so good to me.

I have no pictures–although frankly that is not a bad thing at the moment, given that black sugar exterior. I am hoping to get my computer back over Thanksgiving, so hopefully I will be able to start posting pictures again after that. Especially because you guys will not believe the progress that has been made on the house! The siding is almost all up, the walls have been painted (peach), the tile is half laid but no grout has been put in yet. At the risk of sounding too impressed with my own interior design skills (who knew?), I nearly swooned with happiness when I saw how the peach walls looked with the tiles.

And yes if you are wondering, I definitely plan to make the bread again. It smelled fantastic (before I burnt it), it was easy and I think it will make tremendous breakfast toast. So go check out the recipe for yourself.

Edited to add: we sliced off the burnt parts and it was outstanding.