Misshapen But Delicious: Paul Hollywood’s Pecan Loaf

I always enjoy returning to what is, realistically, my favorite and most-used cookbook, Paul Hollywood’s “How to Bake.”  The pecan loaf pictured above was made from that book, and I’ll get to that particular comedy of errors that somehow miraculously yielded something yummy in a bit.

Matt and I are slowly approaching our wedding, which is October 2020, and I am really enjoying the planning.  I decided that the thing that I really wanted to do over the Christmas break was figure out the cake, so I scheduled some tastings that we have been attending for the last few days, and let me tell you, it rocks.  Honestly, its worth getting married just for the free cake.  Also, Matt doesn’t like sweets, so I’ve had to personally do all the tasting.  Oh darn.  Such a burden to bear.  The last place we went even sent these adorable little baby cupcakes home with us!

So cute, right?

Like most people, we’ve been trudging through the worst part of the holidays: putting all of the Christmas stuff away.  I have always found this task to be way more horrible than it actually is, and get irrationally angry and volatile during the packing-up process.  However, it has been easier this year because I’ve been able to enjoy some super awesome gifts from people that I love, so I thought I would do a quick roundup for anyone that is interested.

1) This automated cat laser light thingy from my future father-in-law.

Tonight, for the first time in living memory, my man-friend and I were able to eat dinner without having to shove our cat, Alexander Hamilton Cassady-Day, A.K.A. Hammy, away from our plates ten bazillion times.  I almost didn’t know how to eat in a non-defensive way.  It was like….too easy or something.

2. An awesome new grill from my man-friend!

(Please excuse our icky garage floor.)  I really like to grill, but I’ve only ever used one of those round Weber charcoal grills that offer no actual control over the temperature.  My usual method has been to dump charcoal in, light it up, throw some meat on, and just hope it all kind of turns out ok.  While this has worked surprisingly well, it is nice to take a slightly more confident and informed approach to my grilling.  This is a Kamado Joe, and I tried it out tonight.  It was so weird to be able to, like, regulate the temperature.  It was almost too easy.

3) Winter-themed dishes from my mom to add to my collection:

My mom got me part of this beautiful pattern last year, and added on to it this year with more plates and some pretty serving bowls.  I LOVE holiday dishes and I just think this pattern is so classy.

4) A diffuser and some essential oils from my future mother-in-law:

This is something that I’ve wanted for a while, but I haven’t had the time or the connections to figure out how to get it.  I love this diffuser because it lights up and it has a timer, which makes it much less likely that I’m going to burn down the house or something.  One of the oils I was gifted is “Holiday Peace” and you better believe I’m going to be diffusing that all year.  I mean, in my world, everyday is Christmas.

5) This awesome new apron from my friend and colleague, Jennifer:

It’s a Minnie Mouse apron with my name on it.  Need I say more about it’s obvious perfection?

I was also able to add to my recipe book collection a little.  I received the original Christina Tosi cookbook, Milk, in addition to a giant Thomas Keller book about pastry that is both intimidating and exciting.  I’m sure those books will feature in future posts, stay tuned.

Back to that pecan bread.

I was invited to a mid-century-themed fondue party by my dear friend Ed yesterday, and this bread seemed like the perfect thing to take.  Hollywood advises in his description that this bread is designed for any cheeseboard, and it looked crusty and durable.  I rummaged to make sure I had the right ingredients, cleaned my kitchenaid mixer (oops), propped open the book, and started measuring out my dry ingredients.  Note the food scale.  If you are interested in baking and don’t have a food scale, get yourself to a target ASAP.  Best ten dollars you’ll ever spend.

Paul’s recipes always start the same.  Measure out the flour, add the salt to one side of the bowl, the yeast to the other, add most of the wet ingredients, and scrunch the mix with your fingers to start combining.  This recipe called for some interesting things.  It used three flours: rye, white bread flour, and wheat.  It also called for black treacle, but since we aren’t in England, I decided it was ok that I had no idea what that is or where to buy it, and used some molasses instead.  Maybe they are the same thing?  Molasses is kind of black and treacly….  I know I could google it, but that requires effort.  Not pictured: the large dollop of molasses that I somehow spooned directly off the edge of the counter and onto my own foot.  I was nervous about the rye flour because the last time I tried to use it I produced what could charitably be described as a technically-edible hockey puck, but I decided this recipe would be my redemption.  Paul advised mixing and kneading this dough by machine, so I hooked it into the mixer and let it go for about 12 minutes.

This dough was pretty sloppy and loose, which worried me a little, but that must have been right because it turned out ok.  Warning: do not add the two cups of pecans while the mixer is on high speed.  If you do, you will create a pecan explosion in your kitchen that will take you several minutes to clean up.  Apparently some things I have to learn the hard way.

I left it to rise in the bowl while putting away the Christmas ornaments, and was pleased to see when I checked it in an hour that it has risen ALOT.

Here’s where things went a little wrong.  Matt and I had to leave to go to another cake appointment, so I decided to shape it and let it do its second prove while we were out.  The actual knocking back and shaping went fine.  I knocked out all the air, rolled it out into a rectangle, and rolled it up to form the long oval shape.  I then popped it into a big bag and left to drive to the cake shop.  However, we were gone much longer than I anticipated, and the bread overproved and split, something that has never happened to me before.  Check it out:

In the photo above, the left is the dough before proving, and the scary blob on the right is the overproved version.

I stared at it horrified for a minute, and then remembered that Paul says that you can allow your bread to rise up to three times.  He had been referring to the first rise, but surely the same principal applies to the second rise?  I knocked it back, reshaped it, and let it rise again.  It worked very well and retained its shape.  I then made a fairly critical mistake and made my slashes on the top too deep:

I think this is just an experience thing…. I’m kind of glad it happened, because I learned.  I’ll do better when doing slashes next time.  It caused it to split open a little while baking, but since this was for real life and not a baking competition, I think we’ll all live.

Pro tip: if you aren’t sure if your bread is done, go ahead and lift it up to look at the bottom.  It should feel light, like there isn’t much moisture left in it.  Tap on the bottom firmly…. if it sounds hollow, it’s done.

In my humble opinion, this bread was super good with the classic gruyere fondue, and is very versatile for other uses as well.  I toasted it with butter and smeared some onion jam on it to go with my dinner tonight, but it would also be great for french toast, fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, bread pudding, cheeseboard crostini, and as a side for any sort of cheesy soup.  It’s a delicious bread for winter!  Here’s a link to the cookbook from whence it came!

To all my teacher friends going back to school the day after tomorrow: we got this.