Tomatoes have long been a favorite fruit of mine, especially when I grow them.  During the winter months however, we have to resort to hothouse or imported tomatoes.  Aside from fresh, tomatoes come in endless preparations.  Besides, canned tomatoes, puree, crushed and paste there is a product called Tomato Powder.  Some time ago I purchased some from an ‘on-line’ vendor and proceeded to use it once in tomato pasta.  Having rediscovered it in my refrigerator, I decided that it is time to either use it or discard it.  Not prone to throwing food away, I decided to start using it.

My first venture this weekend  with the tomato powder was to make bread, since in fact we were out and homemade bread is so much better than store bought.  When making bread, I don’t usually use a recipe and I didn’t this time either.  You just have to get the right proportion of dry ingredients to wet and to know how much yeast to use to get it to rise properly.  When I made this bread though, I did write down the ingredients and their quantities so that I would have it for future use and to share it with friends if it turned out the way I wanted it to.

I realized after I baked it and tasted it that it is tastes and has the texture of Challah, one of our favorite breads.  Then of course I realize why.  There are two eggs in the dough (my Challah recipe calls for 2 eggs) and there is ¼ cup of butter, another ingredient thatis used in Challah.  The flour was largely bread flour along with one cup of whole wheat flour and the sweetener was honey  instead of sugar.  I also used shredded Parmesan Cheese in the dough and the tomato portion was tomato powder and sun dried tomatoes that had been packed in olive oil.

The complete recipe will shortly be posted under the recipe section of this site.  Go to ‘Recipes’, then ‘Baked Goods’, then ‘Bread’ and the recipe will be there under Tomato Bread.  If you don’t have or can’t find Tomato Powder, substitute a 6 oz. can of Tomato Paste.  Please try it, enjoy and let me know how you liked it.

There will be future blogs using the tomato powder and I may even start a whole new cook book with different flavors of Challah!