Day 5, Week 1: baking day, with bean salad

Finally we get to bake bread! I'd thought about making this Day 2 of the Challenge, because it is so rewarding. But it's a reward that requires an overnight rest and I wanted you to have something delicious on your first day.

So today, divide the Whisk Bread Dough you prepared yesterday in half. You can bake both loaves at once, but if you are cooking for just one or two, you might want to return half of it to the refrigerator. It will keep for two weeks.

Shape the dough and let it rise as shown in the video below.

While the oven is preheating, prepare Baked Pears with Cinnamon Yogurt Sauce. Make a double batch of sauce so you can serve it on baked sweet potatoes for breakfast tomorrow. Bake a sweet potato for each person while you bake the pears. I used homemade yogurt, which we'll be making next week.

If you have fresh mint leaves, tuck them in at the top of each pear half as garnish. (This makes a beautiful and light vegan dessert.) Drizzle with Cinnamon Yogurt Sauce.

When you take the bread out of the oven, remove it from the pans right away and let cool on wire racks. In the picture below, half the dough baked in a loaf pan and the other half baked free form on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

For dinner, make Bean Salad with Fresh Corn, Tomatoes, and Peppers using the black beans you prepared on Day 3. Have Baked Pears with Cinnamon Yogurt Sauce for dessert.

Comments

[greg]

I don't have any pears but I might use some cut up apples with the yogurt sause - or bananas - really don't want to turn on the oven yet!

[Heather]

The bread was a definite hit. Nice, light crust and texture. A little saltier than I'm used to bread being, though.

I made the bean salad, but couldn't bring myself to eat any. It is awaiting future willingness, after I have satiated my fat cravings (perhaps with the pesto). Also, I was apparently wrong about how many cups of beans to save for today, as it only took 2 cups to make this batch. Hmm.

Did not get to the pears and sweet potatoes, as emotions stemming from pregnancy hormones and insufficient animal products took over my brain for the night. (I know from past experience that eating vegetarian for too long makes me go a little crazy, but I think the process was accelerated this week by the whole gestating thing.) I think I'm going to have to figure out where to add meat into these menus. Adding ground beef to black bean stews and other mixtures is an obvious choice, but I'd like to get a bit more variety of meat, too. Any suggestions?