Last year, I found this wonderful cookbook about Italian baking in my local library. It was called Italian Baker. I took a few of the recipes in this cook book and tried them out to see how well the recipes were written and if they were as tasty as I thought they could be. I was very happy and so was my belly. I was so happy to not only keep a copy of the recipes that I tried, but copied a few more recipes to try in the near future. With some free time recently, I revisited these recipes that I hadn’t tried yet and picked one to try out.

I picked the Walnut Bread recipe as a breakfast bread for my family. I was able to finish this recipe in a day and found that it was softly nutty taste within the bread. It was also beautifully soft in texture that made it nice to eat. Just look at the picture of the loaf below!

It was a little too soft for spreading butter and cream cheese on, but a visit to the toaster gives it a stiffer texture that is needed. It was gobbled with pleasure, but was a bit much for all of us to eat. So with half a loaf left that was dried out, I took the pieces and create bread pudding that was rich and nutty. (Bread pudding recipe is still in the works so it is not featured yet).

The only downside is that the bread is very one note, which is the walnut. The nuts are the only taste. I love a variety of textures and flavors so I personally would add another flavor note into the bread. I think raisins, cranberry, apricot, and dates are perfect additions that you can add. It will still be the same good bread, but enhanced.

I am really happy that I discovered Italian Baker. It has wonderful recipes that are tasty and easy to follow by offering multiple methods of creation and cooking. I think I may try a few more recipes that I had saved, or buy this cookbook for my personal collection.