What does Taylor Swift have to do with sourdough bread? In a podcast where Taylor revealed the name of her upcoming album (well, newly released by the time you see this) she talked about her current obsession with making bread and her plans of making her then boyfriend, now fiance’s, nieces, funfetti sourdough. Pillsbury heard this news and jumped into action immediately. Now Pillsbury doesn’t really do bread mixes. They have some quick bread mixes such as banana and cinnamon swirl, but nothing like sourdough. However, they came out with a Funfetti sourdough box mix with a color scheme and box decoration that matches Taylor’s newest album. They produced only 1500 boxes and placed them up for sale on their website and then almost immediately sold out. I am proud to say I was able to get one of these mixes. I’m gonna test it out today and we’re gonna decide how good it is and if Pillsbury should sell it full time.
I have a love and hate relationship with bread and I have to be honest I’ve never made a homemade sourdough. I have eaten plenty of homemade sourdough and I will happily pay the price for the big beautiful loaves but I rarely have the patience to wait for the many rises bread requires. This box mix is no exception and has some rising to do.
So first off, there are two packets in this box. There is a flour and sprinkle packet and an instant sourdough packet that replaced the need for a sourdough starter. You combine these and then add your warm water and mix it together. Once mixed you knead it for 5 minutes, either by hand like the box suggests, or with a mixer like I did. After that you shape the dough into a ball and place it on your baking pan. Now sprinkle it with flour and cover it with a towel to rise for an hour.
I’m starting to think bread hates me. There is no reason for me to mess up this clearly detailed recipe for bread yet the hate for bread goes deep into my brain and affects my baking ability. You would think after numerous box mixes on this blog I could follow directions but alas I messed up this recipe twice already. I think that this is blog is like a resilience test for bread recipes. How badly can I mess it up and till have it turn out?
After the hour is up and your dough has risen, you take a really sharp knife and score your dough in an x shape. Then you need to cover it with aluminum foil (but don’t let it touch the dough) and put it in the oven to bake. The bread bakes this way for 20 minutes, then you remove the foil and bake for 15-20 more. At 20 minutes it looked barely baked and I put the timer on for the next 15 minutes and got distracted so I didn’t check on it until the 15 minutes were up and it was definitely overcooked and I suspect at 20 minutes it would have been burnt. I really forgot my own rule, don’t trust a box mix bake time, they are always wrong. I was blinded by my bread frustrations.
Aside from being a little overcooked, the bread smelled amazing and you could see some of the sprinkles poking through. The x shape on top was definitely too deep as it no longer resembled an x. At this time you’re supposed to wait 30 minutes before cutting into the bread so I did just that. This bread has now taken about 2.5-3 hours in total to prepare and I’m impatiently waiting to get a taste.
One really weird thing that Pillsbury promotes on the side of the box is topping a slice of this Funfetti sourdough bread with frosting. I can’t say I have ever done that nor have I wanted to but when the dough boy himself suggests it, you know we have to try it. After waiting, I finally cut into the bread and got a taste. Unfortunately my first impression was not good. It has a very gummy chewy consistency and the flavor is tangy sour with the sweetness of the sprinkles. I can honestly say I never want to eat sprinkles inside of bread again. You know that distinct flavor of box mix cake? This loaf tastes exactly like Funfetti cake if you’d removed all the sweetness out of it and replaced it with that imitation sourdough flavor. It seems they keep promoting it with frosting because that’s the only thing that saves the flavor of this. The flavor was hidden well under a layer of frosting and made it taste better. I really wanted to like this. I kept tasting it again and again hoping for something different but I couldn’t get past the consistency and the weird flavor. This mix was not it. I’m bummed but you no longer need to worry about missing out on this box mix.
Leave a Reply