Toad Bread: Attempt 1

Two weeks ago, The Ghoulfriend and I were inspired by a video posted last year which has been resurfacing again this season. In it, Nikk Alcaraz (@practicalpeculiarities on Instagram) promotes his Halloween-themed cookbook, Peculiar Baking, by showing a sneak peak of one of his recipes: Toad Bread!

This is what we were attempting to recreate:

Click above image for Instagram video

We both knew that we had to attempt something similar, but Alcaraz hadn't published his recipe online anywhere, and since we didn't have his cookbook, we decided to do some internet research and try our own hand at it.  Eventually, we found this recipe for Frog Bread from The Fresh Loaf!  

The Fresh Loaf's beautiful frog bread.

It's your average basic dense bread recipe. They shaped it into a frog, but we wanted to use the same recipe and make it more toad-like as Alcaraz does in his video.

We followed the recipe instructions pretty closely, but perhaps not close enough... *dramatic foreshadowing*

The Fresh Loaf's recipe instructed us to let the dough rise for 90 minutes, then shape it into a frog and cover loosely with a towel, letting it rise for one more hour.  Here is where we messed up. We lost track of time during the second, post-shaping rise.  

Meaning our toad went from this:

To THIS:

 

A rather plump fellow!  We would have been happy with our unexpectedly big-boned toad, but by over-proofing the dough, all the gluten had begun to lose its strength!  As soon as I began shifting it into the oven, our poor boy began to deflate.

After applying an egg wash and baking him one rack-height too high, we had our own "Toad" Bread!

The air bubbles did make some fun warts though!

Despite bearing a closer resemblance to Lepidobatrachus laevis than Bufo bufo (though the former is nicknamed "Freddy Kreuger frog" so at least it's still Halloween-y!) our bread was delicious!  I have no doubt The Fresh Loaf's recipe would have worked fine without our proofing mistakes.  

But the most ironic part? On the very same evening, Nikk Alcaraz actually posted his full original Toad Bread recipe on YouTube!  After a year of it being exclusive to his cookbook, he posts it for free mere hours after we tried to emulate it.  So now, of course, we'll be attempting it again!

Ain't that just the way...

Still tasty, though!

Stay tuned for Attempt 2!

Friday the 13th Pizza

This is a fun idea from Beau Coffron (@lunchboxdad)

Would have attempted this today had I bought ingredients ahead of time.  I definitely want to give it a shot in the future.

Happy Friday the 13th!

It's time

On the night of September 1st, as I was walking the ghoulfriend home from an event, we both inexplicably stopped in the middle of her quiet neighborhood street.  The wind blew, rustling the fallen sycamore leaves.  It was a cool 75° (cool for central Florida).  The New Moon meant it was dark, save for the streetlights.  We turned and looked at each other, wordlessly communicating that we both knew... it's time

"I'm normally a stickler on dusting this one off before the threat of hot days have
passed, but this year I'm appealing to the feeling over the calendar. It’s time folks"
- Sam Heimer, original artist

More-so than last year, it really feels like Halloween is coming.  Among friends and online circles, there has been a steadfast patience for the arrival of the season; a patience not felt last year (as Sam Heimer pointed out in this post) when many jumped the gun, declaring "spooky season" as early as July.  For whatever reason, I didn't see that as much this year, and I think we are better for it. 

The next day, September 2nd, we invited a close friend over to have a cozy day in.  We watched Fantastic Mr. Fox and baked homemade pizza and pumpkin bread (both of which I make quite well, if I do say so myself).

The ghoulfriend and I are very ready for this season to start.  This will be our first Halloween together, and I can't think of anyone else I'd rather share it with!

Deep Fried Savory Bat Wings

A fun and disquietingly realistic-looking recipe by Hellen Die from The Necro Nom-Nom-Nomicon (EatTheDead.com)  

Click below for the recipe