The very first time I flipped through My Bread: the Revolutionary, No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey, the photo of his Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread immediately caught my eye. This bread contains both peanut butter and whole peanuts in the batter, as well as a swirl of jelly inside. You sprinkle chopped peanuts on the bottom of the loaf pan and on top of the loaf before baking, just for good measure. I love PB&J as much as the next person, and I figured this bread should be sensational.
I had some problems with this dough sticking when I rolled up the strawberry jelly inside it, even though I was working on a well-floured silicone mat. The loaf got a little mangled as I tried to get it into the loaf pan, and as you can see in the picture above, my jelly swirl ended up as a bit of a mess. But otherwise, my version looks pretty close to the picture in the cookbook.
Both Tom and I were incredibly disappointed with this bread. The texture and flavor were fine -- if you just wanted an ordinary slice of bread. But it didn't taste anything like a PB&J. There wasn't enough jelly flavor (there is 1/3 cup total in the loaf), and I thought that the peanut butter and peanuts would make the bread very peanutty, but it wasn't. Also, while the peanuts on the top and bottom of the loaf were crunchy, the ones inside the loaf that had been mixed into the batter at the beginning of making the dough were slightly soggy (after all, they had been in a wet batter for about 14 hours before baking). It was way too much effort to make this bread for what I got in return. Next time I want a PB&J, I'll just make a plain loaf of bread and add the peanut butter and jelly!
Recipe: "Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread" from My Bread: the Revolutionary No-Work, No Knead Method by Jim Lahey.
I had some problems with this dough sticking when I rolled up the strawberry jelly inside it, even though I was working on a well-floured silicone mat. The loaf got a little mangled as I tried to get it into the loaf pan, and as you can see in the picture above, my jelly swirl ended up as a bit of a mess. But otherwise, my version looks pretty close to the picture in the cookbook.Both Tom and I were incredibly disappointed with this bread. The texture and flavor were fine -- if you just wanted an ordinary slice of bread. But it didn't taste anything like a PB&J. There wasn't enough jelly flavor (there is 1/3 cup total in the loaf), and I thought that the peanut butter and peanuts would make the bread very peanutty, but it wasn't. Also, while the peanuts on the top and bottom of the loaf were crunchy, the ones inside the loaf that had been mixed into the batter at the beginning of making the dough were slightly soggy (after all, they had been in a wet batter for about 14 hours before baking). It was way too much effort to make this bread for what I got in return. Next time I want a PB&J, I'll just make a plain loaf of bread and add the peanut butter and jelly!
Recipe: "Peanut Butter and Jelly Bread" from My Bread: the Revolutionary No-Work, No Knead Method by Jim Lahey.
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