It’s a long time till Good Friday, but these are too good to wait for! I have a special love of fruit bread, especially those spiced with cinnamon, so hot cross buns have always been a favourite of mine.

The supermarkets have been selling Hot Cross Buns since after Valentines Day, but I am yet to buy a single one. I made a promise to try to make more things myself. At Christmas I refused to buy mince pies and instead made my own – and I would never buy them again now. Why should it be any different for Hot Cross Buns?

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Wow I am really not getting any better at the Fresh from the Oven challenge, am I? I wake up on reveal day (at noon, guess I am still getting over the jetlag) having had the intention of getting up and having the bread in the oven by that time.

This months challenge was brought to us from Claire at Things We Make. She chose a No Knead bread, which is cooked in a Dutch Oven, so in my case my new Le Creuset Casserole dish.

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In true Coffee Muffins style I yet again forgot about the posting date for the Fresh from the Oven challenge. However at least this time I remembered to make it before deadline day! This months challenge was hosted by Chele.

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Everything had been going so well this month, I had been posting regularly with some seasonal recipes. I got my Daring Cooks post up on time, made mincemeat and all manner of other interesting recipes that I have yet to share with you all.

However November has suddenly vanished from underneath me. I missed the Daring Bakers deadline yesterday, and have no time (nor any real wish) to make the Cannoli next week. I am off work for three days next week and have barely planned anything to do. More importantly however at the start of November I signed up for the Fresh from the oven Challenge, posts are meant to go up today. Have I started? Barely. My plan is to update this post during the day as I finish off my challenge bread.

Update: I have now finished my loaf, but you can read my updated commentary below.

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I made this bread last weekend when I was feeling a little bit under the weather, which is my excuse for why the few pictures I took are so bad.

This is my first attempt at a braided loaf, and I found the instructions on braiding hard to follow. I spent 5 minutes reading the instructions, trying, and unweaving the strands, before it dawned on me – I already KNOW how to braid. All that time playing with Barbie’s hair wasn’t for nothing!

The bread is quite impressive, both in shape and size, so this would be a good loaf to give as a present or to take to a barbecue. The weather here isn’t exactly barbecue weather, so we had to eat it between us. This was a shame as there was way too much for two people to eat before it went past its best.

As for the actual loaf, it has no butter in it but to me had more of the texture I associate with brioche. I loved this bread and I am sure I will make it again.

I’ll tell you a secret, until this very night I have never tasted the somewhat strange combination of stale bread and summer fruits that makes up one of Britain’s most loved desserts.

Over the past few months the need to finally try this dessert has come over me slowly. It started with the Great British Menu, a TV show that highlights modern twists on some of our favourite british foods. With James Sommerin’s Summer Pudding Trifle and to a lesser extent Nigel Haworth’s Summer Fruit Pudding.

Now that the summer fruits are finally available, and the weather (albeit briefly and in amongst thunder storms) is getting better, the need has become stronger.

Summer Pudding served with Creme Fraiche

I am going to let you in on a secret, I love fruit breads! I don’t buy them often but when I do I skip my normal breafast and eat the toasted bread with the tiniest sliver of butter, my idea of heaven. So when I started flipping through my copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread I was overjoyed to see so many wonderful recipes that I could try at home.

Artos Greek Celebration Bread

So you baked your first loaves in the BBA challenge. You have two fresh loaves of beautiful bread that are wafting wonderful smells through your home, and you just want to try it. Right now. Well go on. The problem comes once you’ve had that first warm slice – what do you do with the rest of it?

A lot of people seem to make it and give one loaf to a neighbour. I wouldn’t know a neighbour of mine if I passed them on the street. Now maybe that’s a bit sad, I am sure I’d like to get to know my neighbours – but knocking on their door one night with a loaf of bread in hand may put me firmly into the crazy neighbour spectrum.
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Some weeks ago I bought the Bread Bakers Apprentice, as I had heard so much about the Bread Baker’s Challenge. The aim of the challenge is to cook our way through all the breads listed in the book in order!

Anadama Bread loaf

The first recipe in the book (after several chapters on the theory of bread making) is Anadama Bread.
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Cherries are an integral part of the summer for me, and linked with France because of all my childhood holidays there. On one holiday in Paris as I got on the metro, the doors closed! My Mum and I on one side, my Dad and little sister on the other.

I was distraught, in the days before mobile phones, how would we ever find each other again? However due to my Mum’s quick thinking I didn’t worry for long. Because thankfully we had the cherries, and my biggest of memory of the day is sitting on the platform eating cherries!

Fresh cherry bread, yum!