TWD: Finnish Pulla

Okay, so I have to update what I said about the best ever brownies last time. This is my new favorite recipe from Baking with Julia! We made it as part of our Christmas Treat Advent today. I've honestly never had better soft bread in my life. It's slightly sweet with a perfectly balanced hint of cardamom. The sliced almonds and pearl sugar on top add great textural contrast.  If you still don't believe how good this is, we baked it tonight and there is only this much left:

I just keep going back for one more slice! Honey makes it even better.

I would never attempt a bow again though. It was harder than the braid and pretty much blended into the loaf. Other than that, I would definitely make this again! Kyle mixed up the dough as written, except we didn't have cardamom seeds, so he just used 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder. I'm pretty sure this would still be good without the pearl sugar, so if you don't have that, give it a try anyway! Here's the recipe and other blogger's experience. 

TWD: Pizza Rustica

I made this latest recipe this past weekend for a wonderful brunch with my great friend Naomi. We had brunch during the break in between sessions of General Conference, which is one of my favorite events of the year. Food with a good friend made it even better! I was definitely expecting something more like a real pizza, but this ended up being a quiche. It was still pretty good. Naomi brought some hash brown muffins which paired perfectly with the pizza! We also had a spinach and goat cheese salad with dried cherries. 

 I didn't mess with the filling too much, I just added 3 oz of sopressata in addition to 3 oz of pancetta. I reduced the sugar in the crust to 1 oz because a really sweet crust with a savory filing didn't sound that enticing. I really liked the balance with the reduced sugar though. I made the crust the night before and chilled it so that it would be easier to work with. If you use a thermometer in baking, I found that if you take it out while it's 155 in the center it finishes cooking outside the oven and sets up perfectly.

Overall the recipe wasn't too difficult. Next time I might add some veggies to mix it up and I'd probably use my favorite pie crust instead. You can find the recipe at Capitol Region Dining Blog or The Place They Call Home.You can check out other people's interpretations at the TWD blog.