Day Two: Rich Yogurt Bread
Last week, I made naan. It turned out fantastically, and I’ll definitely make some again as part of this project, but the upshot of this is that I bought a tub of plain yogurt to use in making the naan. Plain yogurt comes in handy for a number of things…but not when you’ve got a fridge full of holiday leftovers, unfortunately.
Enter Meg Hirshberg’s recipe for Rich Yogurt Bread. Prior to making the naan, I hadn’t really made bread with yogurt before. I’ve made bread with milk, buttermilk, cream, almond milk (which is one of our favourites, in fact, and will likely show up later down the line in The Breadening) …the list goes on. And of course, plenty of less rich sorts of bread as well. But yogurt was a new thing entirely. It lent a silky, soft texture to the naan, and I expected it would do the same with this bread as well.
Boy, did it ever! The texture…I can’t even begin to describe it. It’s light and fluffy and tender and sweet, almost like Hawaiian bread. I don’t think I need to add that it’s delicious after that description, although of course it’s that as well. I’m definitely quite pleased. I was a little surprised by how yellow it was once it had baked, but I think it’s quite appealing. It’s a sunny, happy loaf of bread, so its interior decoration seems only fitting. (Note: I decided, however, that I didn’t need to make two loaves of it—so I halved the recipe.)
Of course, it’s always a good idea to plan ahead. I thought that this bread would make a lovely casing for a Croque Madame. Made a Mornay sauce, laid down some ham, and fried an egg to grace the top of each one. As you can see in the photo, my Madame’s yolky hat is unfortunately falling off of her head, but perhaps I shouldn’t tell you that at all, and should instead claim it’s the “to go” version. 
(In my defense, ace photographer and co-conspirator Joe thinks the stove isn’t quite level. I’m not sure, to be honest.) At any rate, I served this with Chris Schlesinger’s Tidewater Coleslaw, which my sister and our friend Damon made to much fanfare at a family gathering awhile ago. It’s still our favourite coleslaw recipe, although I use a bit less mayo as a rule.
Janaki
on January 2nd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I just wanted to say that you take GORGEOUS food pictures. Food is tough thing to photograph – so many dishes that taste good just look gross when photographed – but you do it so well!
on January 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 am
I once made soda bread with banana yogurt instead of milk and sugar… it tasted alarmingly like eating a banana and I couldn’t decide whether it was disgusting or delicious. I ended up settling on “weird.”
This sounds like a much better use of yogurt – and the picture is mouth-watering.
I wish you success in your new business!
on January 3rd, 2008 at 6:17 am
Lise: It isn’t me, it’s all Joe. Even with the ace Panasonic Lumix he’s got with the crazy Leica lens (OMG this lens is fantastic) and the ace “auto” function it’s got where you do literally just point and shoot and it’s brilliant, I still cannot manage to always get things in focus. Or framed properly. I am TERRIBLE at taking photos.
But Joe is kind enough to take the photos for me. He claims he isn’t talented, but I think the photos say enough for themselves. I’ll pass his compliments along, and make sure he reads this. Thank you!
Michael: Nice to hear from you! Hope things are going well at the library, and thanks for the good wishes!
Have you made banana bread before? Is it just that you object to bananas in bread, or was it the nature of the soda bread itself? I wonder only since most banana bread recipes are also risen with soda, so to a degree they’d be kind of similar. Then again, I’m not entirely sure what the yogurt would do to it, so maybe it would be really weird. Interesting experiment?
on January 3rd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I’m pretty sure I’ve made banana bread before a long time ago with my mom – I’ve certainly eaten and enjoyed banana bread before.
I think the problem was more that the yogurt was too heavy to substitute for the buttermilk and so the bread didn’t really rise much and had an odd consistency. That and the yogurt, like all fruit yogurt was way too sweetened.
Your site is making me jealous as I look at the microwaved sweet potato that is my dinner
on January 4th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Ah, well…I wouldn’t use banana yogurt in place of actual bananas in banana bread, anyway.
And yes, it’s disturbing how overly-sweet a lot of fruit yogurt is; I can’t imagine it would really work well as an ingredient in something else. XD
I love sweet potatoes! Hrrm. Now you’re making me think about looking into a sweet potato bread. Clearly I’m on an orange kick, I think. XD
on February 2nd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
Here’s an easy Yogurt bread I made last night
http://i12etu.com/2008/02/tangy-yogurt-bread.html
on February 4th, 2008 at 6:21 am
That looks and sounds FANTASTIC. I’ll definitely give it a try later this year!
Thanks very much for the link!