Delicious Bread! I'm Not In Love With The Sauce, Though.

I wanted a sauce for dinner to pimp up the veggie/rice scene so I chose SPICY GARLIC TOSS FOR NOODLES. I was underwhelmed.

SPICY GARLIC TOSS FOR NOODLES.
p. 83 HIAV
Prepared 10/10/06

There is a lot of Braggs called for in this recipe, at least relative to the amount it made. The whole thing tasted really salty and as if it was something a 10 year old who was learning to cook had made up off of the top of her head. And I don't think the problem was that I was serving it over rice instead of the recipe-mandated noodles but instead that it was simply a random conglomeration of a bunch of spices. The younger male didn't seem to care for it much either. The older one said that it was too salty and a little of it went further than he thought, though he liked how spicy it was. This is probably my least favorite recipe that I've reviewed so far.

BUT! BUT! BUT!

I wanted to make something that could easily be sent to a dear pal. I chose the APPLESAUCE RASIN SPICE LOAF-- and I am so, so happy with the way they (I doubled the recipe and made two loaves) came out.



APPLESAUCE RASIN SPICE LOAF
p. 173 GOV
Prepared 10/10/06

This recipe is really fabulous. I don't really care for raisins, but my son does and demanded that I give him some while I was measuring them out for the bread. Since there weren't enough for both the bread and the kid, I gave him the raisins and made up the difference in the bread with dried cranberries. This only added more yumminess.

I used a mess of whole wheat flour...and cornstarch as my egg replacer. And I forgot to add the vanilla (those of you who are baking with toddlers underfoot may empathize).

So to recap: despite the fact that I don't even like one of the ingredients, and the fact that I forgot to add a fairly essential element of deliciousness, this bread is really good and I recommend it as strongly as I discourage my gentle reader from ever trying the above-mentioned gross sauce.

The other adult bread reviewer found the bread to be very sweet, which he enjoys. He thought that the addition of the raisins wasn't that great-- he is selective about his raisin consumption. It was a good snack before dinner...the two-year old contingent was photographed nabbing corners off of one of the loaves as it cooled, and contendedly ate a slice while taking a diaper-disposal trip out with his father.

One last note on my loaf pans: I was definitely channeling the energy/spirit of some of my relatives tonight. My mom gave us the silicon loaf pan (in a bold mustardy orange!) and the glass one was inherited from my grandmother's stash of bakeware. In writing this, I have to laugh, because my well-educated guess is that that loaf pan saw many a meatloaf! The silicone one was dreamy to bake with but the resulting loaf was imperfect in form.