One of my goals for my 25 before 25 list was to bake 25 breads before April 7, 2016. I got a late start on the project – I didn’t bake my first bread of this project until October! But since then I’ve been baking about a bread a week and I’m close to reaching my goal. Some of them I forgot to take a picture of, but all were delicious and it was so fun to make them. Check them out below for recipe sources, photos when I have them, and a little review.
#1: Peasant Bread
Recipe: From Alexandra Cooks
Review: So good! It stuck to the sides of the baking dish for me, but the taste was awesome. We ate it (both loaves) in about two days – I would definitely make this again.
#2: Homemade Pizza
Recipe: From Elise Joy
Review: Really amazing. This has become our go-to dough recipe because it bakes up perfectly and is so delicious. I recently made a double batch and stored the dough balls in the freezer to be thawed for fresh pizza whenever.
#3. The World’s Easiest Vegan Sticky Buns
Recipe: from Minimalist Baker
Review: So good, but I shouldn’t have eyeballed the butter measurements for the glaze – our glaze ended up sort of just soaking into the buns instead of getting really nice and sticky like it’s meant to. These were easy and looked beautiful but the taste wasn’t as good without the glaze.
#4. Chocolate Banana Bread
Recipe: from Smitten Kitchen
Review: This was yummy! I made it with plantains instead of bananas by accident so the taste was a bit different than your typical banana bread, but it was still good.
#5. Pumpkin Bread
Recipe: from My New Roots
Review: A really yummy, simple bread. It was made harder because I had to make the pumpkin purée from scratch but she even includes instructions for that so it was no big deal.
#6. Pan de Yuca
Recipe: from my boyfriend’s mom
Review: These are easily one of my favourite Ecuadorian foods and it’s fun that I actually learned how to make them from scratch! In Ecuador they come out perfect every time, but back home in Canada you sometimes get mixed results. Still, awesome.
#7. Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread
Recipe: from Joy the Baker
Review: Not to be made in the toaster oven again!! Or at least not without a little more watchfulness. This bread rose so much when it got put in the oven that the top ended up getting a little burnt. It was still a yummy bread, and wasn’t too hard even though it looked pretty impressive when it was done.
#8. Sally Lunn Batter Bread
Recipe: from Smitten Kitchen
Review: Unfortunately, this one got burnt at the top too, but after this I got a lot more careful with my breads in the tiny toaster oven (read: watching and the use of aluminum foil). Despite the tiny burned spot, this bread was delicious, I would definitely make it again.
#9. Herbed White Bread
Recipe: Not sure
Review: I whipped this one up one afternoon when I was having a really bad day, and ate a lot of it when I wasn’t feeling very well. So needless to say I don’t have overly fond memories of this bread.
#10. Easy Little Bread
Recipe: from 101 Cookbooks
Review: Just like the name says, this one is easy to make, and yummy to eat. I would definitely make it again.
#11. Cornbread
Recipe: from Closet Cooking
Review: This was a baking soda + baking powder bread that I made before I learned how to bake at Quito’s 2900+ meter altitude, so it didn’t work out exactly right. It was a little too crumbly and not all that good – I remember promising Paulo I would make another, better one soon.
#12. One Banana Banana Bread
Recipe: from Faux Martha
Review: Sadly, this was the victim of the great January 2016 Loaf Pan Shattering and so I have no idea how it would have tasted. It looked good when it came out…for about 3 seconds until it fell to its death. I might try making it again because it seems like a great recipe for when you just have one lone banana.
#13. The Best Damn Vegan Biscuits
Recipe: from Minimalist Baker
Review: Why yes, these were amazing. You could tell by how quickly we ate them. I didn’t have vegan butter so I used regular, and they turned out perfectly. Yum.
#14. Homemade Crescent Rolls
Recipe: from Baking Bites
Review: Good, not great. Definitely not Pillsbury quality (of course), but just had a flavour to them I didn’t love. They were super cute, however.
#15. Cinnamon Swirl Bread
Recipe: from Pinch of Yum
Review: So impressive-looking, not hard to make, and really and truly delicious. The cinnamon filling is just gooey enough that it reheats really well.
#16. No-Knead Loaf
Recipe: from Sandra’s Easy Cooking
Review: A simple, nothing-fancy bread that we ate and enjoyed for a few days.
#17. Zucchini Bread Muffins
Recipe: from Smitten Kitchen
Review: I made these into muffins instead of the loaf and they were awesome. We enjoyed them while my friend Katie was visiting, and it was nice to have them ready to go as breakfast or snacks for the week.
#18. Canadian Living Banana Loaf
Recipe: from Canadian Living
Review: Yummy, but not as good as I remember my mom making it. Again, I made this for when we had guests and it went very quickly.
#19. Carrot Muffins
Recipe: from Cookie + Kate
Review: Delicious, and a great way to use up old carrots. Ours started to go bad after a few days and we had to throw away the last few, but they were nice while they lasted.
#20. Maple Cornbread Muffins
Recipe: slightly adapted from Averie Cooks
Review: Very yummy and very easy! I brought them to my book club and they were a big hit.
#21. Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread
Recipe: from PopSugar
Review: Yummy, but not worth the long rise time – it tasted just as good as some of the other simple loaves on this list that were easier.
#22. Best Pizza Dough Ever
Recipe: from 101 Cookbooks
Review: Good, but fussier than our other favourite pizza dough recipe. This one needs longer rise times every time you want to make a pizza, which is not so fun. We’ll be switching back to our other recipe soon.
#23. Masitas for Ecuadorian Easter
Recipe: from my boyfriend’s mother
Review: Easy, yummy, and kind of adorable. Excessively good for snacking on several at a time.
