Cook the Book: Tiger Bread and Celeric Soup

As I noted in my 2025 Goals Post, I wanted to start making recipes from the dozens of unopened cookbooks I bought last year. I made TWO last week! One - a bit of a failure but the second was DELCIOUS.

Cook the Book Recipe #1

My MIL recommended the King Arthur Big Book of Bread and at first I passed on it because I have several bread books but when I got a look at it, I realized how many unique, global bread recipes there were and grabbed it on sale. 

King Arthur is always great at explaining recipes, in detail - this one even has QR codes to videos - and gorgeous photographs. 

I started with Tiger Milk Bread because I've made plain milk bread many times without problems. And it's a stunning bread inside:

I was kind of doomed from the start. I exploded my butter in the microwave. Then I was supposed to warm my cocoa powder and milk to set aside - but I threw in the chocolate chips too - that were supposed to added directly to the dough. So...do over there.

Then...and this was the biggie mistake. I was to divide the dough for a plain layer and a chocolate layer. I did that but I proofed (let the dough rise) both layers at the same time. I was supposed to mix in the chocolate then - before proofing. 

I thought all was ruined. Very bad words were yelled in my kitchen lol but then I was like F it - can this be saved?? So I punched down the future chocolate layer and tried to mix in the chocolate sauce and chips. It went...okay. It never fully incorporated because the dough was dough had proofed and couldn't anymore. But I figured, it's got some chocolate and it did re-proof a second time, so I plowed on.

It did not get the solid big swirls like it should have because it the chocolate layer was a little too moist from not absorbing all the liquid chocolate. And it wasn't the super soft bread like milk bread should be. (If you haven't had Japanese milk bread before it's very similar to US Wonder bread - very soft and doesn't go stale as fast, using a method called tangzhong - cooking a flour/milk mixture first then adding to dough), but it turned out to be pretty decent bread. More like a good toast bread. 

I feel like there's a life lesson in there somewhere - not to give up when things go wrong or let go of perfection or something like that lol

I'm going to give this recipe a 4.5 out of 5. It is a bit more advanced recipe (I would say moderate) but all the mistakes were on me getting flustered. I had read the directions, several times, and watched the video but I'm just a nervous baker lol Having said that - with ALL those screw ups, it still tasted pretty good!

Cook the Book recipe #2 

Kevin bought me Seven Spoons by Tara O'Brady for Christmas. It's been on my list because I'm fortunate enough to have year round farmers markets with really rare/unusual local ingredients and this cookbook had, what looked like interesting, ways to use them.

One such ingredient was Celeriac. It's the ugly root ball of celery and tastes a little like a cross between celery and maybe a turnip/parsnip. It's easy to peel and cut up with a large knife even though it looks super intimidating. You can eat it raw or cooked - roasted, pureed. mashed etc.

I chose Celeriac Soup with Green Horseradish Oil. It was an easy recipe - roast the celeriac and garlic (I added carrot), then add to broth, seasonings, parmesan cheese rind an simmer - then blend. She used a potato to thicken but I substituted a can of cannellini beans. Kevin is pre-diabetic and the beans are lower carb and add protein and fiber, making it healthier for him. 

I was a little iffy about the horseradish sauce. It's a mix of parsley, oregano, lemon, garlic and horseradish with olive oil. It was STRONG lol but a drizzle over the mellow soup added just the right amount of flavor and was delicious. I also added a dallop or yogurt. This tasted like a restaurant quality soup and I will definitely be making it again and trying more recipes from this book. 

Easy, pretty (although sucky pic) and delicious! 5/5