This was meant to be my inspiring Easter recipe post. That, as it turns out, just wasn’t to be.

My idea was this: I would raid the used book store for old cookbooks and unearth lovely recipes for quaint and classy baked goods from their disintegrating pages. And so it was that I began work on a Finnish Coffee Bread–perfect for your Christmas, er, Easter table!

I knew disaster was lurking, even before I started. I didn’t want to deal with a “ten-plus cups of flour” dough volume. Did that stop me? Yes! Until I tried to do the math and the division by three became increasingly ridiculous. I got to the “4 eggs” and, since I had never made this bread before and I didn’t know what I should be looking for if I went by touch, I put the calculator down, crossed myself, and proceeded full steam ahead with a full batch.

All my liquids and spices and 5 cups of flour in, it was so far so good, until…
 
 

Well, no picture due to me lunging across the counter for the off switch while shouting “Oh, for Chirst’s sake!” (I know, not exactly, um, honoring the season) as the dough climbed up and over the dough hook and into (that’s right, into) the stand mixer arm.

So what we had here was another edition of “Wonderland Kitchen: Scrubbing eggy dough out of my stand mixer so you don’t have to!” Once I turned the dough out onto a well floured counter and worked the rest in that way, I was sailing along just like a scullery maid, visions of Downton Abbey fueling my little fists of furry.

The dough doubled, it was braided, and the oven was pre-heated. The loaves were slow risers on the second round, but I was getting impatient, tired, and cranky, so I jumped the gun a bit and wrestled all three into the oven. The appliance temperature plummeted and I couldn’t get it back up fast enough. Lessons were learned the hard way.

In the end, the bread was not as soft and airy as I would have liked and the braid was torn asunder from the eventual but delayed oven spring. It’s not terrible, but it’s not something anyone would want to showcase at an Easter feast this weekend, as initially intended.

Not all that tasty; not all that attractive, either. Plus, it's kinda burnt on the bottom.

I do have three loaves of it in the freezer now, however. Hmmm, a bread pudding just may be in order!

To be continued…