Babes in Harvestland

Fall is in full swing...lots of brightly colored leaves and cobalt skies...the final tomatoes harvested and old plants pulled up in the garden...planning for the holidays begun...the smell of woodsmoke on chilly mornings.

This is the time of year that many of us celebrate the harvest. Mother Nature has had a busy summer and early fall and has blessed parts of the world with fruits and veggies and grains galore. A traditional icon of this abundance is the cornucopia, spilling out the harvested goodies. Since grains are part of the bounty, it is very appropriate that Susan of Wild Yeast, our Kitchen of the Month hostess, has given the Babes the delightful challenge of making a bread dough cornucopia!

Although the available time and energy this month to do the challenge were limited, I'm really glad that I tried it. It was a sort of arts and crafts project requiring poster board, aluminum foil, tape, and ropes and ropes of a special bread dough.

Although the drying time is long, the actual making time is fairly short because you don't retard the dough at all...it's mix and sculpt! Here is how my cone looked at the beginning. Later it was covered with foil, filled with scrunched up foil and I stapled parchment paper over the opening to keep that foil inside, then sprayed the foil with baking spray and set it, point up, on a Silpat lined baking sheet.

The chocolate dough didn't seem to hold it's shape as well as the plain which meant that the textured piece I started with sort of spread under the weight of all the plain dough on top and lost any texture it began with. The light dough was rolled into long, thin ropes

and then wrapped, round and round the cone, until the cone was covered and there was a bit beyond the cone to twist into the tail.

Once I laid the cornucopia on its side I jazzed up that droopy rim of dark dough with some twisted ropes of dark and light, spaced around the rim. It still looks a bit like a grade school art project, but once the cornucopia has baked and dried and is filled with seasonal fruits and veggies, it is impressive.

I'll bet yours will look even nicer than mine...and you can be a Buddy by getting the recipe from Susan's blog (link below), baking it and posting about it by November 26, then letting her know about your post. There will be a Bread Baking Buddy round up shortly after. You know you want to be a Buddy and create your own Harvest Bread Cornucopia!

Be sure to visit the other Babes to see their cornucopia creations! Links are at the right of this blog.

Don't forget, details will be coming soon regarding our Third Anniversary request for recipes. I'll get them up as soon as I have them. In the meantime, scour you archives, cookbooks, binders, etc. for a bread recipe that you think the Babes should make to honor three years of baking bread!

Now on to the cornucopia:
Recipe can be found at Susan's blog Wild Yeast. Thank you Susan for an enjoyable bread project, and one which I most likely would not have attempted. Awesome choice! This post will be sent over to Susan for the wonderland of yeast recipes that is her weekly Yeastspotting event. There may even be some additional photos in the next few days when I'm able to stop running around like a chicken with it's head cut off....we'll see.

XO Elle