Michelle Safirstein and her members over at  BigBlackDog look like they’re having a lot of fun baking bread and “hanging out” online together.

Michelle formed a baking group, HBinFive, around the popular no knead bread book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day. They just started baking their way through the book in January, and will be baking together for at least the next 2 yrs. So if think you would enjoy some bread baking camaraderie with fun like minded people, now is a good time to jump in.

Judy, one of the members, says “We post our finished loaves on our recipes twice a month. It’s a fun group, and I am trying recipes I probably never would have tried. I tend to stick to favorites, and this is getting me to try new things. I LOVE the soft whole wheat sandwich bread!!!”

Here’s an example of one of the groups “Bread Braids“.

If you’d like to join HBinFive or have any questions, contact Michelle at ms dot bigblackdog at gmail dot com and she’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Well, how about this. I received an email from Saveur yesterday informing me that Breadtopia has been nominated in their 1st Annual Best Food Blog Awards (Most Innovative Video Content category)!

Saveur is a hugely popular foodie site, so I figured I’d embark on a shameless self promotions campaign and see how I fare.

If you have a minute to spare, I’d be mighty grateful if you’d cast a vote our way.

If you aren’t already a member of Saveur, registration is required in order to vote. When registering, you can uncheck the 2 boxes authorizing receipt of emails if you like, or opting out later is easy enough also. So nothing is too insidious about the process.

Here’s a direct link to the category we’re in: http://www.saveur.com/contest_bow.jsp?ID=1000011143

Last week someone filed a complaint against me for bad customer service through the Ripoff Report website. You can click the link to read it.

I only wish you all could have been in on the conversation and I wish he had reported it verbatim. Just for the record, I did tell him to grow up, but you have no idea how much restraint I had to exercise to keep it that mild.

Don’t worry, I’ve retained the same top damage control consultants who handle Toyota, Tiger Woods and most politicians. So I’m hoping to claw my way back to respectability over the next several years.

Sourdough Rye

You’ll find a new video on the Breadtopia web site… finally!  This one is a fine sourdough rye. If sourdough is not your thing, no problem, we cover the instant yeast version as well.

For a bread that delivers on so many levels, it’s surprisingly easy to make and the ingredients are readily available in most grocery stores.

I’m looking forward to seeing if you share my overshadowing fondness for this bread.

It’s been a good day.

Maybe this photo of Denyce’s cake will save me a thousand words.  Think chocolate and raspberries.

I brought up the rear with a Coconut-Chocolate Bread recipe from Jim Lahey’s new book, My Bread. Hard to go wrong with 1 1/2 bittersweet chocolate Lindt bars per loaf. Used sourdough starter in lieu of dry yeast .

Then a nice walk in the serene snowy woods before logging yet more time taking in some winter Olympic action.

Another Denyce Masterpiece

Jim Lahey's Coconut-Chocolate Bread

Bakers, Farmers Hail Grant to Boost Local Organic Wheat Production.

There was good news today for those who like to buy locally-made organic bread, and for the farmers who grow the wheat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded well over a million dollars in grant money to researchers at the University of Maine, as they work to enable more farmers to produce high quality organic bread wheat.

Click link at top for whole story

I made croissants this morning, my first ever foray into the pastry world, normally the domain of my wife. You’ll have to trust me that they were a lot better than they look. It’s 9 pm now and I’m finally recovering from a croissant induced coma.

There are some other cool things you can do with laminated dough. I’ll try fruit Danish next time and maybe pick a day when I don’t have to drive or otherwise be functional.

I’m wondering if it would be valuable to shoot a video to demonstrate how this novice can klutz his way through a challenging recipe and still achieve praise worthy results.

Next time I’ll work on the presentation. I thought that part would be sort of easy. Boy was I wrong… as you can see.

Bread crust can help fight bowel cancer, according to a new study in the European Journal of Cancer Prevention.

“Pronyl-lysine, a product obtained from bread crust, is a potent free radical scavenging antioxidant exerting chemopreventive activity by reducing oxidative stress.”

I hope this counters the massive amounts of butter I slather on every slice.

Dianna Wara of Washington, Ill., was the winner of Wednesday’s National Festival of Breads baking contest.

Contestants from around the country gathered in Wichita for the event sponsored by King Arthur Flour and the Kansas Wheat Commission.

There are some fun videos on the National Festival of Breads and other wheat related videos on the Kansas Wheat web site.