"loaf" news and stories

In the grocery store the other day (traveling sans camera, so no photos!), I spotted a relatively new product in the bread aisle. Orowheat seems to have released a half loaf of bread. Instead of the nearly two pound loaves of whole wheat and other popular flavors, you can now buy just a handful of slices at a time. These loaves aren't lacking in anything but the number of slices; the height and width of the bread is the same. They seem like they are designed to appeal to singles and couples who don't run through a whole loaf of bread during the average week, as if you fall into this category, you know how irritating it can be to have to waste an uneaten half-loaf at the end of the week when it is uneaten, but past its prime.

The only remaining question is why did it take so long to come up with this idea in the first place?

Meyer lemons are a slightly sweeter version of regular lemons and are becoming more and more popular with bakers as they become easier to find in stores. The distinguishing feature of the lemons, aside from their small size and thin skin, is that they have none of the bitterness that is found in regular lemons. This means that anything they are used in, from lemonade to lemon tarts, will have a very intense lemon flavor that is not cut by an overly tart aftertaste of any kind. Jen, the Barmy Baker, took advantage of their fantastic flavor and baked up these Meyer Lemon Loaves using a recipe from Pierre Hermes' Desserts and some lemons from her small Meyer lemon tree. The loaves are only a tiny bit lighter than a pound cake and are rich with butter and sour cream. They are also spiked with a little bit of rum, which makes them seem a little bit more festive for the holidays.

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Contrary to what you might expect from the name, this bread does not use any orange soda. It is based on soda bread, or Irish soda bread, which is leavened with a combination of buttermilk and baking soda. This use of a chemical leavener allows the bread to be prepared quickly, as opposed to a time-consuming yeast-raised bread. From Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once, this Orange Soda Bread gets its flavor from a generous amount of orange zest that is added to a fairly standard soda bread recipe, but it offers a surprising crunch from the sesame seeds that Haalo included in the dough. The bread is not overly sweet, so it would be best served alongside breakfast or as a snack, perhaps with butter and jam, in the mid-morning.

For variations, you could switch the orange zest with lemon zest and use poppy seeds instead of sesame. Raisins are a typical inclusion in soda breads, so you could add in a small amount of just about any dried fruit, as well.

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A good meatloaf makes a great dinner, but it makes an even better sandwich the next day. I like to use barbecue sauce or ketchup to complement mine, but Jennifer, at Kiss the Hem of Her Apron used soy cheese and mustard to spice up her "meat"loaf sandwich. Soy cheese? I should mention that the delectable looking "meat"loaf that she made is completely vegan, from a recipe that she put together using the vegan loaf generator. Her loaf used primarily rice and beans for the base, but the generator allows you to put together a combination of many different ingredients, including soy-based meats, if you are so inclined to try. Whatever you make your meatloaf out of - beans or beef - a sandwich is surely the best place for it to end up.

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The vegan loaf generator, which we have mentioned before, is a little application that pairs various combinations of veggies, spices and binders to create veganized "meat"loaves. As strange as that may sound, many of the loaf combinations are delicious and since there are so many options, you can probably make one without having to take an extra trip to the store. But if you don't want the responsibility of selecting the ingredients yourself, there is now an automated mystery loaf generator, which automatically generates loaf combinations and names them. The recipe changes every 5 minutes, so if you don't like a given option, just hang in there and hit refresh. As the site promises, you'll never be "loaflorn" again.

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