Artisan Treats

This past Christmas, I was gifted a set of Artisan jams: Strawberry Balsamic, Pear & Ginger, and Apple Pie in a Jar. With such unusual flavor pairings I was immediately intrigued. However, I felt that such gourmet jams deserved to be coupled with more than your every-day-grocery-store breads; they needed to be enjoyed on fresh, thick-cut, still warm from the oven, homemade bread.

This past weekend I finally got around to making bread. Though, as is typical of my adventures making bread, it wasn't without a little excitement. I started the yeast going before I checked to see how much flour I had on-hand.. turns out I was about 4 1/2 cups short. Whoops! Luckily, we did have some pancake mix in the cupboard and I figured that, since it's mostly just flour, it would be a fair substitute. So, really, this bread is half pancake, but it worked pretty well. And, though a little more fluffy than typical bread, it still tasted great with the Artisan jam.