Conchas (without food dye)

Welcome to the September edition of the Bread Baking Babes! Today also happens to be Mexican Independence Day, and since I am the this month's Kitchen of the Month, I decided it would be both fun and timely to challenge the BBBabes and all of the potential BBBuddies to head into the kitchen to bake up my personal favorite of all Mexican breads—CONCHAS!

Now, if you've been hanging around here for any amount of time, you may know that I've already shared two different concha recipes in the past—but it's been 4 years since the last time I did, so I think it's time to revisit them.

Conchas translates to shells in English, and they get their name from the beautiful sugar crust that tops them, since it is cut to resemble the shape of a seashell. If you have a good Mexican Panaderia (bakery) near you, you've probably seen these colorful sweet rolls before. If you've never tried them, I recommend getting to the bakery early and loading up a tray with a pile of them, still warm from the oven. Seriously, a concha and a cup of coffee is enough to bring a smile to anybody's face in the morning.

Acharuli Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese and Egg Bread)

I'm incredibly intrigued by this month's Bread Baking Babes featured bread. Aparna is our host kitchen of the month, and she has chosen Acharuli (Adjaruli) Khachapuri, or Georgian Egg and Cheese Bread. Apparently Khachapuri, described as a "warm, gooey cheese-stuffed bread that oozes and drips with heart-stopping goodness" by the website Gudaturi, is one of the most popular dishes in Georgia. Apparently each reason is famous for a different variety of this bread. The The boat-shaped Adzharuli that is filled with salty cheese and topped with a raw egg and butter hails from the southwestern Adzharian province.

I made this very last-minute and didn't use the correct (traditional) type of cheese. Not that I could easily get my hands on a soft sheep's milk variety, but Saveur uses a mix of Muenster and Feta that looks like it might be a fairly good substitute. I actually thought that I still had some feta around, and was going to mix it with mozzarella...but apparently it was eaten sometime between when I made the bread and the last time I looked. So I had to improvise. I used mozzarella and Parmesan instead. It was good, but it didn't give me that soft gooey filling.

Tangzhong Whole Wheat Bread | #BreadBakingBabes

I'm so excited about this month's Bread Baking Babes challenge, as chosen by this month's kitchen-of-the-month, Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories. She assigned us the task of making a Tangzhong-style bread, which is one of those things I've been wanting...meaning...to make for years. I don't know why I've put it off. I tend to do that. It was definitely worth the wait—but it does make me want to kick myself for not getting with the program sooner.

Not familiar with the Tangzhong method? Basically, a tangzhong is a cooked water roux (or flour paste). One part water and five parts flour are cooked to 149° F (or 65° C) and then cooled. The tangzhong is then used as an ingredient in bread dough, which makes for an incredibly bouncy bread that can stay soft for days.

Conchas - One SHELL of a Roundup! #BreadBakingBabes

As the designated Kitchen of the Month for the Bread Baking Babes, my challenge to both the BBBabes and anybody else who wanted to join in as a BBBuddy was to bake a batch of my favorite Mexican pan dulce—CONCHAS!

I shared a recipe in the post for a basic sweet dough, that is enriched and very slack, similar to a brioche, as well as links to a few other recipes for conchas. All of them are basically the same, producing a tender, but sturdy, base for the real star of the show—the gloriously crumbly and sweet sugar shell.

I encouraged everybody to experiment with the not only the basic ingredients such as the fat and the sugar, but also the color, flavor, and cutting/forming of the topping. As a concha lover, I dreamed of the legions of submissions that would come rolling in...making me long for a hollow leg and the metabolism of my youth. But it turns out that only three brave souls stepped up to my challenge this month.

Power Bread | #BreadBakingBabes

Today is the 16th, and that means it's time to reveal this month's Bread Baking Babes challenge. One of our newest BBBabes, Judy of Judy's Gross Eats, is our Kitchen of the Month, and she challenged us to make Peter Reinhart's Power Bread. I imagine the name comes from the fact that this loaf is high in fiber and protein, which when combined, make you feel fuller with fewer calories. Protein boosts your metabolism, while fiber allows for sustained energy release in the hours after you eat. POWER!

Don't let the fact that this bread has steps or "sections" to it scare you off. The pre-soaker, soaker, and biga each only take a few minutes each to pull together, and then you let them sit for hours on their own before moving on. It looks like you'd have to start days in advance, but really you don't.

For me, it took 2 days, but most of that time was unattended. It went something like this:
Day 1

• 7:00 am - combine ingredients for pre-soaker and allow to sit at room temperature. Combine ingredients for Biga into a ball that resembled wet sand, but held together; cover and refrigerate.
• 8:30 pm - puree pre-soaker ingredients together, then combine that with the rest of the soaker ingredients until they form a "moist" ball (which I found oddly pleasing).

Muesli Rolls | #BreadBakingBabes

I'm quite sure that I have no idea how we've hit the midway point in June already. But somehow today is the 16th, and that means it's time for another Bread Baking Babes challenge reveal! This month, Karen from Bake My Day! told us that it was "time to get rolling" with a breakfast roll of champions that is packed full of seeds, dried fruit, and chocolate; it also has oats, and when combined, those are the components of Muesli—hence, Muesli Rolls!

Here's the thing, though—these rolls don't scream breakfast to me. Like, at all. I do love a good muesli in the morning, but when deconstructed and put into a substantial roll? Not feeling it. That being said, I actually loved the rolls...but I'd rather eat them with lunch or dinner. They actually seem very "harvest-like" to me, as if they'd be perfectly at home on my Thanksgiving table. Split in half, they make one heck of a perfect vessel for a turkey sandwich.

Are you with me, or are you sitting there wondering how a roll with chocolate in it could possibly taste the way I'm describing it? Here's the thing—I left out the chocolate. I'm not one for chocolate in my muesli. Instead, I used some pepitas (pumpkin seeds) that are tossed and roasted in cocoa, giving a nod to the flavor profile without having to bite into actual chocolate bits. But, do you know what's funny? When I told the other BBBabes what I did, a few mentioned that even though they used chocolate, it wasn't all that noticeable anyway. So, take that and use it as you will.

Romanian Easter Braid | #BreadBakingBabes

Today is the 16th, and that means it's time for another Bread Baking Babes reveal!  This month, BBBabe Elle from Feeding My Enthusiasms challenged us to bake up a Romanian Easter Braid. Easter may be over, but I'm pretty sure this enriched loaf would be welcome at any table year-round. The dough itself is lightly scented with lemon from the addition of some finely grated zest, and the filling is a sweet, nutty swirl that be switched up to meet anybody's preferences.

So, Elle told us that according to wiki, this Romanian bread can differ significantly from region to region. Essentially it's a sweet bread that is enriched with butter, eggs and milk, but you can find anything from the lemon zest I used to orange zest, raisins, or rum flavor in the dough itself. The actual recipe the challenge is based on used ground almonds in the filling, but I went with one of the more well-known options, walnuts. Hazelnuts, vanilla, rum, even poppy seeds, raisins, or cocoa powder are other choices.

 I did want to add a little twist to my nutty swirl, though. I liked the thought of adding rum (obviously), but I wanted something a little out of the ordinary, as well. I have a few bottles of flavored rum, and I thought the coconut variety might add a little something special if I also used some fat, dried coconut flakes. I was pretty pleased with the taste of the filling (I had to walk away from my spoon lest there be none left once the dough was ready for it).

Granary Loaf

Unbelievably, March is already halfway over. Today is the 16th, and that means it's Bread Baking Babes challenge reveal day! Our mission this month was set forth by Tanna of My Kitchen in Half Cups. She reeled us in with talk of a loaf that is "considered classic, simple, conservative but with a potentially unobtainable ingredient" and reminded us that creativity is as much a part of being a BBBabe as the love for baking bread is. We were to make a Granary-style loaf in which "good tasty bread", not authenticity was the goal.

Well, I may disappoint, because I went completely authentic. After doing a bit of reading on granary bread, I discovered that it's something of a treasure. People love it; it has a flavor all its own that comes from the flour which contains slowly toasted malted wheat flakes. Um, hello! I wanted to try the original before getting all creative up in here. So, I did what anyone who loves a good loaf of bread but can't find the proper flour locally would do—went directly to Amazon.

And guess what? I found it. Before I could think too hard (about the price), I added a bag of Hovis Granary Bread Flour to my cart and immediately checked out. It was shipping from the UK, so I had a good amount of time to anticipate its arrival. Three weeks later, the most expensive bag of flour I've ever purchased arrived on my doorstep.

Kouign Amann

Before I say anything else, I have to tell you to muster up every last ounce of your willpower and let these cool to room temperature before eating them. It'll be hard, this I know. Actually, go ahead and eat one while it's still really warm—I want you to compare. You see, once they've come to room temperature, and you bite through the crisp outside and into the soft, flaky layers...the cooled butter and sugar will have formed these gooey little sugar pockets that explode onto your tongue. It's kind of magical.

Kouign Amann, pronounced "koo-WEEN a-MON" or "queen a-mahn", is this month's Bread Baking Babes pick as chosen by Lien (our BBBabes Kitchen of the Month). I'll go ahead and admit that when Lien told us what we'd be making this month, I had never heard of it. But after looking around a bit, I first discovered that the name translates to "butter cake" in Breton, which is the ancient Celtic language of Brittany, France. Well, that in itself is enough to get me excited.