What is your happiness? Three months ago my happiness was hope. Holding onto that shred of hope that I just might be able to break from the career path that I’d thought I’d wanted. An insurmountable mountain, threatening to squander my happiness with the flick of the pen. But I surmounted. Recently, happiness has been anticipation. Anticipation for the freedoms I’ll have in a new country with fresh faces and a reinvigorated life. Today, happiness is calm. The calm as I sit on my grandpa’s porch, soaking in the smell of his tobacco pipe and Georgia in the fall. The calm in knowing that it’s all going to be alright. And today, happiness is also finally, after many failed attempts, perfecting this pull apart bread. Knowing that I can do this. Like, I did this! And you can do it! And the happiness that comes from making bread magic + sweet citrusy pomegranate carbs = happiness to surmount all. And I’m especially happy because I discovered two ways to make this recipe (happiness = choices). The first is a loaf. We’ll essentially roll out our dough (with a Nalgene bottle because it’s too early in the day to be using a bottle of Jameson as a rolling pin…and because I still haven’t got around to investing in a rolling pin), then cut out circles (with a mason jar because, shockingly, I don’t have cookie cutters either). Spread a bit of butter onto a circle, sprinkle a bit of orange zest + sugar on it, fold it in half like a taco, and place it in a greased bread pan (sidenote: happiness also = greasing a bread pan with soft butter all messy like a true masterchef). Then there are the muffins. For these we’ll roll the dough, butter it up, and cut out strips. Sprinkle each strip with orange zest and sugar and layer them all on top of eachother. Cut your stack of dough into 8 or so mini stacks, and place each into a greased muffin well so the layers are facing up like an accordion. Whichever route you go, you’ll need to let it rest and rise for about an hour before actually baking (happiness = watching dough rise). Then you’ll just bake it/them about 20 minutes until brown. Pomegranate time! I experimented with many many ways of integrating pomegranate into this recipe, to include putting the pomegranate seeds in the bread itself (→ soggy) and making a pomegranate syrup of sorts (→ inedible). The winner ended up being a simple combination of powdered sugar and pomegranate juice. Whisk the two together to create a smooth icing, then mix in some pomegranate seeds. The icing really just acts to hold the seeds together so that they’ll rest beautifully and tastily atop your pull apart bread. Happiness = orange pomegranate pull apart bread. What’s your happiness today?
