Coked-up Bread

The last week has been a busy one at Chez Boeckman-Walker as we prepare for the start of another school year. As a result, I'm a bit behind in posting some culinary misadventures. While I take a few (hours? days?) to recoup, enjoy one from the husband.

--The Faudie
Angela's already shed light upon the many abuses and uses of Coca-Cola, and while I'm still keen on making some cola marsh sherbet, Angela suggested I get my cola fix from one of the recipes in The Bread Machine Cookbook II:

Cola Bread3/4 C cola
1 1/2 T margarine or butter
2 C bread flour
1 t yeast

1. "Flatten" the cola by arming it in the microwave to remove some of the bubbles.
   
2. Place ingredients into bread machine in the order suggested by the machine's manufacturer.
   
3. Select the Normal, Basic or Sweet option on the machine, then start the cycle.

Yield: One 1-pound loaf

Nutritional Info
Not provided, but bear in mind that the key ingredient has been rumored to be an effective toilet cleaner.

The Bread Machine Cookbook II gave us permission to substitute "any flavor soda, diet or regular," as desired. Since Coca-Cola only tastes good to me when it comes out of a fountain (and Pepsi, IMHO, just plain sucks), I used an HEB Original Cola. If you can't get to HEB to pick up one of their colas...well, consider moving to Texas!

The boy helped out with this fairly simple recipe, gleefully microwaving the cola to remove the bubbles. We used the Breadman model TR444, which I was curious to try using again after making that tasty but flat loaf of pumpernickel.

Unlike the pumpernickel, the cola bread rose nicely in the bread machine. It came out looking good, if oddly lumpy (a side effect of the remaining carbonation in the soda, maybe?):


And as for the flavor...well, Angela thought it tasted a little sour. If someone were to sample the bread without knowing that cola was an ingredient, I'd imagine they'd just assume we were trying to make a slightly sour bread. Knowing what went into the bread, though, the slight cola flavor is pretty unmistakable, which poses a problem: What kind of sandwich, exactly, can you make with bread that tastes like cola? (I'm guessing it's not going to make a great tuna sandwich.) Yet the flavor is so underwhelming that the bread alone seems like it needs something more...but what?


The best serving suggestion I've been able to come up with is a slice of plain coke bread with a glass of whatever soda you have after making the bread. Just be sure to save a little bit of the cola for the next time you need your toilet cleaned.