BBA S&S;: Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread

Celebration bread just seems like such an odd term to me. When I think about celebrating, I'm generally thinking more along the lines of champagne, a nice glass of wine, festive decorations, a fabulous meal, or a cake. I can't say that I really think of bread. My dad has a love affair with bread, his daily bread; it's the staff of life, after all. Maybe that's why I don't associate bread with celebrations: bread is for sustenance (albeit delicious sustenance), cake is for celebrating. Peter Reinhart points out that this bread is perfect for Thanksgiving, and that's a celebration, isn't it? A celebration of plenty . . . and isn't this loaf of bread appropriate, because there's plenty of it!




I was so very unenthused about making this bread. For one thing, it came right on the heels of cinnamon rolls and cinnamon swirl bread, and I was thinking longingly of a nice crispy loaf of ciabatta bread. I knew I was going to give this bread away, I just had to figure who my victims would be. Luck would have it that we went out of town for Labor Day, and I needed a hostess gift. Problem solved: a nice, giant loaf of Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread. I have issues with giving away things that I haven't tasted, though. What if it's awful? What if it shouldn't be eaten at all? I made the big double braid, plus a small roll for me to taste. It turns out that this bread is actually fantastic, and I really do think that it would be perfect for a Thanksgiving celebration or any fall dinner party. I will definitely make this bread again, and I'm glad that I tried it, otherwise I'd never have known what a nice bread it is.

(One observation, though: the recipe calls for way.too.many.cranberries! I happen to love cranberries, so I put the full 3 oz. in my dough. Oh my word. The cranberries create little pockets in the dough, and when rolling out the strands, all of these little pockets created a very strange, ropy texture in my dough that wasn't altogether pleasant. I would reduce the cranberries to 1.5-2 oz. next time.)

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