A Bakers & Best Year In Review
It’s the time of year when mailboxes are stuffed with letters detailing the year’s adventures, so why not get in on the action? 56 posts and 7,900 visitors later, 2013 is in the books. Here’s your Bakers & Best 2013 Year in Review!
You knew 2013 would be good when it started with apple cinnamon stuffed french toast and me finally getting around to posting a detailed photo recipe for Tartine country bread.
Just because February is shorter doesn’t mean it got shortchanged on blog posts, in fact it features some of my most popular ones yet. The bread making got started with a new favorite, sesame oat sandwich bread which transitioned to my annual Valentine’s Day nutella bonanza, this year a rose shaped bread. Valentine’s Day part 2 was even more successful, featuring apple rose tarts.
March featured delicious puns, and pork bao, and a very successful large pizza party in our not so large apartment.
No fooling, April began with whole wheat sourdough for a Game of Thrones party and then watched as I impatiently made piles of tortillas while waiting for Michigan to play in the NCAA basketball title game. At the end of the month we celebrated Bakers and Best’s 1 year blogversary (blirthday?).
May, like March, began with puns, this time of the cornbread variety. I finally made a 100% whole wheat loaf that wasn’t a brick and turned out some pretty tasty chocolate sourdough. It also featured the introduction of a now time honored Bakers & Best tradition, the Michigan football bread photoshop.
The chocolate sourdough kick extended into June, now in muffin form. In the meantime, I made the kitchen way too hot while perfecting my pita technique.
In July I honed my sourdough skills (or skillz if you prefer) via sesame semolina and seedy salt bread, which excitedly came by reader request.
Determined to not let the summer heat stop me, I churned out some great marbled rye bread in August and got great oven spring on my bacon and caramelized shallot sourdough.
Not before long September was here, as was the grain mill I got in the mail from my fiancée’s parents, which started me on the next great part of my bread baking adventure. My tasty orange and toasted almond scones were soon dwarfed by Kevin the minion, the birthday cake I made for my fiancée that is now responsible for about 20% of my blog traffic.
The fall recipes were out in full starting in October with pumpkin bagels and Jeremy Gallon had a record day against Indiana, catching 14 loaves for 369 yards.
The pumpkin train kept on rolling through November with beer bread and pasta. I discovered a grain multigrain loaf in Struan bread and got treated to a surprise bachelor party in Chicago, complete with Michigan football and whirlyball.
December has wrapped the year up nicely, with some delicious deep dish pizza and a new holiday favorite, chocolate cherry sourdough.
Bread-wise, there are lots of good things to come in 2014. I received my copy of the new Tartine book last week to my fiancée’s parents and my favorite bread blog, Tartine Bread Experiment, appears to be starting back up again. And then, of course, in 6 months my fiancée and I are getting married! See you in 2014!
