What follows is my submission for the the food memoir prompt issued this week by Kim. Enjoy!

I love my Wel-Bilt bread machine. Absolutely, unfettered, with no holding back unadulterated love. I bake Blueberry bread, Sweet bread, Pumpernickel, Rye, Tomato bread (awesome for BLT’s), Raisin bread, and a Caramelized Onion Walnut Focaccia. But the one bread I love to bake more than any is my semi-famous stuffed bread.

I stumbled across the recipe in the late 1990’s as I was surfing the Internet looking for info about the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (still on my bucket list). There was, on the festival’s home site, this most amazing looking slice, more like a chunk, of bread that had a tantalizing stuffing spilling out of its center. Ground sausage, cheeses, onions, and peppers all mixed together and inside that bread.

I had to fix that bread!

The first time I fixed it was for a Superbowl party. Following the recipe to the tee meant a two

day process, so I made two loaves; which turned out to be a good thing because the second loaf served as a breakfast treats the day following the big game. Yes, the bread was such a hit I was asked to bring it to work.

Even my ex-wife loved the bread. Sure, she was apprehensive because I was spending all that time and money on two loaves of bread, and this apprehension was connected to the time she brought me a $5 a pound piece of red snapper to fix. I took the snapper, cut it into bite sized morsels, rolled the morsels in beer batter and deep fried them. She thought it was a waste of good fish and set about bitching about my cooking malfeasance the entire time she ate a healthy potion of the awesome fish meal.

Each piece of the bread is like a meal in itself. Each piece seems to be eaten with the “omg” punctuation.

Since then, I have learned the true pleasure of cooking. Cooking can be sensuous, sexy and hot. If a preparer can feel the moment, all else becomes unimportant. And this is how I approach baking my stuffed bread. It has evolved into a passionate act of love making with the ingredients, and I dance the primordial tango of life with the utterly sumptuous stuffed bread being the sum of our union.

I tossed the original recipe long ago and make the delectable bread totally by feel now. In fact, all I use the bread machine for is to make the dough, a typical 2 pound loaf whose recipe can be found anywhere there are bread machine recipes. But, before we can event think about the dough, we have to start with the stuffing, and we have to work that up about a full day we want to bake the bread.

I’ll fry up 1-1/2 pounds of spicy sausage and drain MOST of the grease before putting in a large mixing bowl. Then it’s 3 8oz bags of shredded  cheese (3 different varieties), a half a cup of parmesan cheese, ½ cup of sliced jalapenos (add some of the canning juice to the mix), and one diced onion (white, red, or Vidalia).

With your loving and gentle hands, thoroughly mix all those ingredients well with the sausage, cover and put the bowl in the refrigerator for 24 hours. The idea is that the entire mix will become infused with the sausage grease and pepper juice.

The next day: Once the dough has risen, prep a large counter or table top with a coating of flour and begin working the dough by pressing, tugging, and grinding with your fingers, fists and palms. Then you need to roll the dough out flat, about ¼ inch thick, and into a rectangular shape. I don’t use a rolling pin, instead I have a half full wine bottle in the refrigerator that is perfect. Sprinkle flour over the dough to reduce the friction and begin the slow methodical process of achieving an tear free Zen rectangle.

Once the dough is seductively shaped, take the stuffing mixture from the refrigerator and spread it evenly across the dough, coming to about an inch shy of all edges. Then starting at one of the short sides of the rectangle, roll and fold the dough and mix (think jelly roll) until you have a loaf. Pinch the ends together and seal them, as well as the “seam” of the loaf with egg whites.

Bake in a preheated oven at 435 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown.

Let it cool, then slice and serve this sexy meal in a loaf. My guess is you’ll have friends and family demanding that you make the bread for their parties.

© 2010, Alex Crabtree. All rights reserved.

Years ago I started writing Flash Fiction for just the sheer enjoyment of writing, and now it has turned into a full blown addiction. I can't quit the horse, man! Another dirty little secret about me is my ability to write all kinds of web content. SEO content, articles, blog posts, manifests; you name it, I'll write it. Looking for some help? My gun hangs at r.alex.crabtree@gmail.com

Alex Crabtree

View all posts by Alex Crabtree
Alexs website

Tags: food, memoir, sexy, stuffed bread

This entry was posted on November 20, 2010 at 2:39 pm and is filed under Memoirs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.