National Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Day

September 16th is National Cinnamon-Raisin Bread Day in the United States.

This is both one of the more specific national days and one of those that are exactly what they sound like - cinnamon-raisin bread is a type of sweet bread that has cinnamon and raisins in it.

Cinnamon is a spice that comes from the inner bark of a number of Cinnamomum trees. Cinnamon is used in savoury dishes, but it is also one of those spices that are extensively used in sweet dishes too, particularly with apples, but with other things as well. The various different Cinnamomum trees produce different types of cinnamon. One of these types is known as true cinnamon whilst the rest are commonly known as cassia. Cinnamon, when purchased, is normally either a powder or in sticks.

Raisins are dried grapes, and the meaning of the term does vary, as in some countries the word raisin is used to exclusively refer to the dried form of the large dark grape - currants are small Black Corinth grapes and sultanas large golden grapes - whilst in others the term is more general.

National Zucchini Bread Day

National Zucchini Bread Day is on April 25th in the United States.

Bread is one of the oldest foods around that has not been harvested, gathered or otherwise acquired from natural sources, but has instead been made, dating back tens of thousands of years. Different breads can be made by adding other foods to the mix before baking, zucchini being one of these.

Zucchinis, which are also known as courgettes, are a type of summer squash - summer squash being squashes that are harvested whilst they are immature and their rind is still soft. Although eaten as a vegetables, they are actually a type of fruit.

To make zucchini bread, ripe zucchinis would be mashed and added to the mixture, not dissimilar to how banana bread is made. Zucchini bread can be either a sweet or savoury bread, mostly depending on what other ingredients are also added to the mixture.

National Sourdough Bread Day

National Sourdough Bread Day is on April 1st in the United States.

Sourdough is, as the name suggests, a type of bread which has a slightly sour taste to it.

Normal breads are made using cultivated yeasts (the yeasts are used as a leavening agent in the dough; leavening agents lighten and soften the dough). Sourdough is made using natural yeasts and lactobacilli, rather than cultivated ones. The sour flavour comes from the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli.

Sourdough is a very old way of making bread. How old is not known, but sourdough bread has been found dating back almost six thousand years, and it probably pre-dates that by several thousand years. Most bread in history is sourdough; it is only in the past century and a half or so that cultivated yeasts have been used. Sourdough may not be as common or popular as it once was, but it is still produced.

National French Bread Day

National French Bread Day is on March 21st in the United States.

French bread, sometimes called a French stick or a French loaf, is a type of bread also known as a baguette. The name "baguette" simply means wand or baton, and wasn't used as a name for a type of bread until the 20th century, although long, thin loaves had been cooked for much longer than that.

French bread is a long, thin loaf - and the composition of the dough is defined under French law with a distinctive crisp crust to it. The loaves tend to be 2-2.5" centimetres in diameter, but the length can vary quite a lot, with 26" being the most common although both longer and shorter can be got.

French bread can be used like any other type of bread, but its long, narrow shape makes it very popular for sandwiches. A full French loaf would not be used; it would either be cut into sections or a shorter, "sandwich" baguette can be used instead.

National Banana Bread Day

National Banana Bread Day is on February 23rd in the United States.

This is another food that is pretty much what it sounds like - it's bread made with bananas.

Banana bread started becoming popular in the US in the early to mid twentieth century. It is often a type of quick bread - bread which is leavened with ingredients other than eggs or yeast, such as baking powder, which can result in a bread that is moist and more like a cake than a bread. Some recipes do resemble traditional breads more, and use yeast.

Banana bread is made using bananas that are very ripe; if fact, too ripe for normal usage, which makes it a good way of using them up rather than throwing them away.

Other ingredients can be added to the bread, such as raisins, nuts and chocolate chips.

National Bread Machine Baking Month

January is National Bread Machine Baking Month in the United States.

Bread has been around for many millennia, and has been cooked at home for years. It has been cooked in both sweet and savoury versions, or simply plain, which can be used either way. Many smaller urban areas, even after bread was no longer baked at home, would still commonly bake it communally, using communal ovens, or those that were available.

In recent years, bread machines, which are also known as bread makers, have become more popular. These have also made making bread at home a whole lot easier. Gone is the preparation time; it is now a largely hands-off process. All the ingredients are simply placed inside the machine - and there are many commercially available bread mixes that contain almost all of the required ingredients, the main excluded ingredient being water - and the machine will make the bread to the chosen programme. These machines also commonly come with timers, allowing them to be set up hours before the bread is needed - and you really want a machine with a timer. The use of a timer means that a bread machine can be completely set up before going to bed, and you can then make up in the morning to a freshly cooked, warm loaf of bread.

This loaf will usually be smaller than many commercial loaves, but is still adequate for the average sized family. For smaller families, the loaf will last a couple of days. If bread machines have a flaw, it is that they still need time in which to cook the bread, usually a few hours, so you cannot decide that you want bread in the next few minutes, you need to plan it beforehand.

National Wheat Bread Month

January is National Wheat Bread Month in the United States.

What is wheat bread? And why does it deserve a different name? Aren't most breads made from the same ingredients?

Well, to a large proportion, the last question isn't true - there are many different flours that bread can be made from. This is a fairly normal type of bread, which is also called brown, wholemeal and whole wheat bread.

The difference is, generally, that this type of bread contains a lot of whole grain flour - in this case, the grain is wheat. Whole grain means that all of the grain is used to make the flour, rather than just the endosperm of refined grains.

Whole wheat bread is less processed and therefore generally better for you than the typical processed white bread. It's also quite common to find "bits" in it; this is sometimes done deliberately these days but, as a consequence, can make it less popular with children.

National Date Nut Bread Day

National Date Nut Bread Day is on December 22nd in the United States.

This is another really specific food day, as it celebrates not just any old type of bread, but one with two particular ingredients.

Bread, in all its many different varieties, is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the dawn of agriculture. It is quite a flexible dish, as many additional ingredients can be added to it. Date nut bread is one of the varieties that is of a sweeter, rather than savoury, nature.

The date is the fruit of the date palm, and dates have been harvested for thousands of years. They originated in the Middle east, probably in the region of Iraq, and, given that they would have been collected by hunter gatherers before they were cultivated, have been a source of food even longer than bread. The other ingredient, nuts is similarly a foodstuff that would have been gathered prior to being cultivated, but "nut" refers to many different varieties of food, many of which are not even, botanically, nuts.

Homemade Bread Day

November 17th is Homemade Bread Day.

The name "bread" covers a wide range of foods prepared using a dough of flour and water. Breads can be sweet, savoury or neither, and can be made using a range of different flours, and then have different things added.

It is one of the oldest foods and still a staple today. At one time, it was common for many households to make their own bread, but this became less common, and purchasing pre-baked - and, for loaves, often pre-sliced - bread became the norm, certainly in the more developed countries. Lacking the time to make their own bread, households would instead buy it from supermarkets and other shops.

There were always some who continued making their own bread and, today, thanks to the invention of the breadmaker, it is now much easier to do this than it used to be. You can make your bread in the traditional way, baking it in an oven, or, instead, you can use a breadmaker to make it, often using pre-mixed kits, so all you need to do to have your own homemade bread (and that's a lovely smell to wake up to) is pour the required ingredients into the breadmaker and select the right programme, and everything is done for you.

November is National Raisin Bread Month

November is National Raisin Bread Month in the United States.

This type of bread is considered to be a sweet bread. Just as the name suggests, it is bread that has raisins mixed into it. Raisins are a type of dried grape; in many regions and countries, raisin is used to specifically denote those made from a large, dark grape.

Raisin bread is normally flavoured with cinnamon, and made from a white dough, although it can be made with other flours as well. Other ingredients may also be added; these include brown sugar, honey, butter or eggs. Chopped nuts are also a common addition, such as hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts.

Henry David Thoreau is supposed to have created raisin bread in the nineteenth century, but there have been recipes around since the late seventeenth century, and bread made with raisins in it has been made since the fifteenth in Europe.

There are different types of raisin bread, including some regional specialities, such as the German stollen, which contains marzipan and icing sugar, and is served at Christmas. It is frequently eaten for breakfast, often toasted. The cinnamon swirl, which looks like a Swiss roll when sliced, is a common type of raisin bread. This would be sliced and served toasted. Other raisin breads are used to make sandwiches, or served with cheese. In the United States, bread called raisin bread must have a weight of raisins that is at least 50% of the weight of the flour used to make it.