Bread - Buns - Bagels

Atwater Market is a landmark market in Montreal and is one of the most charming (and oldest) outdoor markets in North America. It is also where I shop, recently rented a studio near to shoot a cookbook, and where I could to sip coffee at an outdoor cafe and ponder the street traffic. It is also where I first had this amazing olive bread. This is not really a regular bread or loaf but rather flat, coiled rolls that are bursting with black olives, garlic and spices. Nice to bake these up and enjoy with fresh cheeses and salads on the side. It's one of those meal-maker breads. I use a variety of black olives - the more and more different they are - the merrier.

Golden, moist, crunchy: heaven. No yeast and who cares when you are serving up such a terrific little quick bread. These are, as they say, rather fine. Stone ground cornmeal is key but if you do not have it, I promise rather wonderful results nonetheless. If you don't want to make mini corn breads, dump this into a cast iron skillet or 9 inch square pan for a hospitality sized corn bread. Buttermilk and a wee kiss of vanilla makes this extra special.

These are soda bread-for-two sort of soda breads, wonderfully rustic but taken up a notch with a touch of vanilla and an addictive Irish cream glaze. To give as gifts, wrap a couple of these in brown paper or a pastry box with a green ribbon, or in two’s in a cello bag with a green ribbon and a side packet of Irish Breakfast tea.

Bagel dough fashioned into a twisted loaf. A crusty, amber exterior with tender, light interior. This is a nice study in contrasts - A hefty coating of minced onions, garlic, poppy seeds and coarse salt turns this into a centerpiece bread for an meal. 

This starter is your basic white flour and water starter. You can let it ferment more and longer and simply rely on airborne yeasts or add the small pinch of dried yeast to speed things up. Purists forego the pinch of added dry yeast but newbies and flexible bakers don't mind it a whit. Besides, over time, the sourdough will grow and evolve, amassing yet more wild yeast and morph into a very respectable, healthy, mature starter that is natural enough. Spring water is better than chemical treated tap for less yeast interference.

This is one of the easier ways to make yourself a legend in your own lunch time. Rolled wedges of dough and savory ingredients come out of the oven as cheesy, golden "croissants" that taste even better than they look. These can rise a bit (for a chewier snack) or not (for a crispier texture). Make them up, freeze, and bake as needed –they freeze great for school lunches of after school pizza pockets (well, pizza pockets at the next level). Variations include smoked turkey and Swiss cheese, feta and spinach, smoked ham and sharp cheddar. Double the dough and increase the ingredients slightly to make oversized versions to be served as a meal. Use BetterBaking.Com Classic Pizza Dough as the foundation dough.

Oh. My. Goodness. It's totally misleading to refer to these as 'classic' Parker House Rolls. They are iconic. Buttery little bundles of dough are tucked into a mini-loaf pan or regular muffin pans. They bake up into a tender roll, reminiscent of a French croissant in taste but with the velvety crumb of a traditional rich, white bread roll. These are supposed to be ‘side’ rolls but frankly, anyone who experiences them realizes they are the main event. After eating one of these warm treasures, the rest of the meal is and incidental memory. I use Saf yeast on these - it's high performance with rich doughs and I also throw the whole recipe into my bread machine (Dough Cycle) since the Kitchenaid is generally busy whipping up Pumpkin Cheesecake or quadruple batches of biscotti.