Chocolate Cherry Bread

I feel a bit ashamed to admit this, but I am one of those people who judge a book by its cover. This is particularly true when it comes to cookbooks. Maybe I am a bit shallow when it comes to these things, but I just can't seem to help myself. I'm a visual person. I need the pretty pictures and lovely layout. Well, maybe I don't need them, but I certainly want to have them around.

I think, secretly and deep down, you do too.

I was in my local bookstore this weekend when I spotted a gorgeous cookbook in the bargain section. A loaf of bread on the cover caught my eye, gave a little wink, and I was immediately smitten. After paging through it in its entirety (do you do this too?), I knew I had to have it, if only for this Chocolate Cherry Bread recipe.

Well, this weekend I tried out a couple recipes and I've decided that maybe being pretty isn't what it's cracked up to be after all. I loved the ideas in the book but, in reality, the recipes didn't measure up. They were poorly written, the method for baking some of the bread was off, I questioned the quantity of certain ingredients, and I didn't love the finished product. It was edible, yes, but that's not exactly my criteria for sharing recipes with you.

I ask more of my food than simply being edible.

Nevertheless, I took the idea of the Cherry Chocolate Bread and ran with it. On the second try, this beauty was born. Stuffed with cherries, chocolate chips, and a hint of delicious, the idea for this bread was worth the cost of the cookbook.

Which just so happens to be $7.10.

This Chocolate Cherry Bread is, no doubt, a dessert bread. It makes for a seriously decadent snack (or breakfast, if you can't resist a bite or two). This bread is made with yeast, which brings a light quality to the bread and great flavor. Chocolate chips and dark sweet cherries are kneaded into the dough before baking and litter the finished product with pockets of decadence. Happily, this bread uses canned cherries so you don't have to wait a year for cherries to come back in season (no one should have to wait that long in anticipation). This bread does not need anything to taste delicious—no butter spread, no jam. It is perfect just the way it is.

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Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread

Today I had a very real lesson in the value of a good night's sleep. It wasn't pretty.

For the last month, I've neglected to mention that I started working at a patisserie. While I love making pastries for people, I don't love getting up at five in the morning to do it. Oh, the joy of a baker's hours! It has taken awhile, but I can successfully pull myself out of bed at precisely 5:12 am (so long as I immediately turn on the light. A few seconds too late and I'll find myself sleeping like a baby right through the workday). The only problem is that I can't seem to get myself to bed before eleven.

Less than six hours of sleep every night, for a month, leaves a mark. It usually takes the form of a nasty burn from a cupcake pan or a gash from a bagel knife.

Today my lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I had the mother of all off days. I forgot to put on my apron and only remembered after I spilled flour down my front (may it be known that I am ever graceful.). I dropped pans with horrific clanging. I charred bagels to a gorgeous shade of ash. I often wandered around having completely forgotten what I was meant to be doing or what tool I was trying to find.

Though that last one happens more often than I'd care to admit.

Perhaps worst of all, I went to reheat some chocolate in the microwave. After setting the timer for 30 seconds, I went back to work. After a good bit of time had passed, my coworker let out a yell as plumes of black smoke poured out the microwave. Apparently I hadn't set the timer to 30 seconds, as I had thought. Lord knows what I actually set it to.

The patisserie filled with a thick, hazy smoke. Many a coughing fit was had. Customers walked in very concerned that something was on fire and we hadn't noticed ("Is everything okay back there? Are you sure?... Are you sure you're sure?"). My coworker commented she had never seen chocolate so burnt.

Not getting enough sleep means burning chocolate. It means hurting yourself with hot and sharp kitchen tools. It means wasting time wandering around in mass confusion. It means burning pastries and messing up recipes. It means being exhausted all day, every day.

While getting to bed at a reasonable hour is hard (a month later and I'm still working at it), I've learned that getting sleep is actually important (who knew?). So, if you'll excuse me, I think I hear my pillows are calling me. It's must be time for bed.

Luckily, this Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread is so simple to make even a sleep-deprived person couldn't mess it up. True story. Soda bread, if you've never made it for yourself, is a quick bread that rises without needing yeast. The bread itself reminds me of a biscuit—crumbly, dense, and ever so sweet. This tender bread is perfect served with jam for breakfast or a thick spread of butter as a side with dinner.

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Zucchini Bread

About this time of year, gardens everywhere begin to overflow with ripe tomatoes, peas on the vine, fresh cucumbers, and... the dreaded zucchini. Now don't get me wrong, I like zucchini. We're real good friends when he's fried in butter with onions and potatoes. But there's only so much zucchini a person can take. Even a couple zucchini plants in the garden can produce a monstrous number of zucchini children.

And oh do those children grow up fast...

In my neighborhood, zucchini is rampant. We've become so infested with the green vegetable, we'd certainly be doomed if they ever gained sentience and turned on us (zucchini apocalypse, anyone?). I'm not only faced with the problem of having about 10 zucchini too many, but so is everyone else. It's reached the point where we can't even give zucchini away.

Just a few days ago, someone left a bag of zucchini under the mailbox. The poor zucchini sat there for a long time, begging to be picked up, to be loved, to be eaten. It was a couple days before someone took pity on the poor souls and brought them home. You know the infestation is bad when people turn away from garden ripe vegetables.

My parents have a running joke with friends that around this time of year you need to keep the car doors locked and the windows up because someone might just leave a zucchini in your car if you aren't careful. They've even taken it a step further and stashed zucchini in their friend's cars when they weren't looking. I have a hard time imagining my father as a zucchini fairy, but too many vegetables can mess with your mind.

If you happen to have this very same green vegetable problem, zucchini bread is a great (and delicious!) way to use up a few of your vegetables. But, if you still find you have one too many of these vegetables after baking up a storm, you could always find an open car window...

This Zucchini Bread is moist, dense, and lightly sweetened. The bread has hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and is made with brown sugar, which gives a hint of molasses to the finished product. The best part of this bread is that you can customize each loaf with an extra touch. I made one loaf with chocolate chips and the other with walnuts (though I imagine a loaf of zucchini bread stuffed full of raisins would be a dream). Topped with a thick spread of butter or jam, this bread is perfect for using up all the extra garden zucchini.

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