I went through a bit of a bread phase years ago.  It’s been something that I’ve missed since we moved into the new house and I went from having a fairly nice oven to cooking everything in a toaster oven.

I was planning on doing a tiny Pate en Croute for a picnic, which ended up getting delayed due to the weather, but not before I bought some mini loaf pans.  I was staring at them in the morning when I remembered a really good cinnamon sugar swirl bread recipe from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.  If you’re at all interested in bread baking, check his book out, It’s got a really good detailed section at the front explaining the importance of each step in the bread baking process.

I forgot how fun bread was to make, and how impressed everyone always is when you make it.  The recipe for that one is pretty easy, just a bit of waiting for proofing.  It all went well, but if I did it again, I’d probably roll it out a little thicker and do less of a swirl.  It turned out great, though, and the little loaves are really cute.

I got the bread bug back a little now.  I made some plans to build a wood-fired bread oven in the driveway behind my house, but Maggie said that I can’t do that right now even though it will cost basically zero dollars, so I’ll focus on getting the most out of the toaster oven and see how hot I can get the smoker after I swapped out the heating element.  I think I’ll do some mini cheddar chive loaves tomorrow.