A Little Sweet Yeast Bread Research

Friday night, I drove home from work with a smile on my face and the entire baking section of my local public library on my passenger seat.  Yes, that is them pictured above - four whole books.  Welcome to life in a small town!

Here is what I found:

Tea Breads and Coffee Cakes by Elizabeth Alston

This book, while very sweet and cute, focuses on all cakes and quick breads.  Not much help when I want to learn about using yeast to make sweet breads.








Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery by Nancy Silverton

I love this book! It is the compilation of years of baking and testing recipes.  Silverton is really obsessed as the introduction states, and includes information about almost every type of bread you can possibly imagine.  There is an extensive section on sourdough... so I have a feeling this book will be hanging out at our house for a while.  However, no real dessert or sweet breads are included.





Cook's Library: Baking Parragon Publishing

This is probably the most "general" baking book I have ever seen.  Surprisingly it is not just about breads and cakes... it is about anything you can bake from appetizers to main courses to desserts.  Not really the book I was looking for.





Better Homes and Gardens: Complete Book of Baking Editor: Shelli McConnell

I almost this one at the library and I am now glad that I didn't.  It is really the only one of the four that includes some information and recipes for sweet yeast breads.  It has a basic recipe for a Sweet Roll Dough that is used as the base for many of the other breads.  The demo I will be attending is going to teach a basic recipe like this one that can then be adjusted to suit the needs of many different recipes.  So while not the perfect reference (like the suggestion to use your microwave for yeast breads!) it is the best I have.



From this book I am going to attempt the Lemon variation of the Orange Bowknot recipe. Mmmm.. gooey lemony drizzled breads sound oh so good.  I will be sharing these with friends tonight and have the results for you soon.