Thanksgiving Bread From Billy Bread: The Menu, the Dates, and How to Serve It Warm

Thanksgiving is the one day a year when bread gets to be a side dish, a utensil and a second dessert all at the same table. I take that seriously. Here is what I’m baking this year, when you can order it, and how to get it onto your table warm.

The Thanksgiving menu

• Pumpkin Milk Bread Dinner Rolls, a dozen for $25. Soft, pull-apart milk bread with pumpkin in the dough. They come par-baked, which I’ll explain below, because it’s the nicest thing I can do for your Thursday.
• Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, small for $13 or a large 8×8 for $30. A buttery cake on the bottom and a soft, gooey pumpkin layer on top.
• Sweet Potato Candied Pecan Sourdough, $16. Roasted sweet potato in the dough, pecans candied in brown sugar, and a little spelt, rye and whole wheat alongside the bread flour. It’s this month’s special, and it belongs next to a turkey.
• Coyote Sourdough and Rustic Sourdough, $12 each, for the people at your table who just want good bread and butter. Every family has those people. I’m one of them.

A word on gooey butter cake, since people outside the Midwest sometimes look at me funny when I say it. It comes from St. Louis, and the story usually told is that a baker there in the 1930s got his proportions wrong, tasted the mistake, and sold it anyway. I respect that enormously. Some of the best things in baking started as somebody’s bad day. Mine has a pumpkin top, because it’s November.

The dates

• Thanksgiving ordering opens Wednesday, November 18 and closes Sunday night, November 22.
• Pickup is Wednesday, November 25, at my place in Newbury Park. Pickup only that day, no deliveries. I’ll text you when your order is ready.
• The week before, I’m baking on Wednesday, November 18 instead of Friday. Order sourdough by Monday night, November 16 and your loaf is guaranteed.
• No bake on Friday, November 20 or Friday, November 27. Fridays come back December 4.

A Wednesday pickup for a Thursday dinner is on purpose. You get the bread a day ahead, so it isn’t one more thing to run out for on Thanksgiving morning. A good sourdough is still great the next day, and the rolls are built to be finished in your oven anyway.

Why the rolls come par-baked

Par-baked means I bake the rolls most of the way and stop before they brown. You finish them in your own oven. That way they come out hot right as dinner starts, and I don’t have to pretend I can get warm rolls to forty houses at the same moment on Thanksgiving Day.

Keep them in the fridge until Thursday. When it’s time, bake them at 325°F for 15 to 20 minutes, until they’re golden. They can go in while the turkey rests, which is exactly when your oven is free.

How to warm up a sourdough loaf for dinner

Put the whole loaf, unsliced, straight on the rack of a 350°F oven for about 10 minutes. If it’s a day or two old, run it under the tap for a second first. That sounds wrong, but the water turns to steam and brings the crust back. Slice it at the table, not before. Please don’t microwave it. It will be lovely for about ninety seconds and then turn into a hockey puck.

If you’re buying bread more than a day ahead, here’s how I store sourdough so it stays fresh.

How much bread do you need?

Plan on two rolls a person. Plan on three if your family is like mine. One sourdough loaf, sliced, covers a table of about eight as a side. If you’re doing both rolls and a loaf, the loaf is mostly for Friday anyway.

What to do with the leftovers

Leftover sourdough makes the best stuffing, croutons or bread pudding. Cut it into cubes, spread them on a sheet pan and let them dry out overnight. And the Friday after Thanksgiving, a slice of sweet potato sourdough with leftover turkey and cranberry is reason enough to buy one more loaf than you think you need.

The shop is here. Thanksgiving items appear on Wednesday, November 18. Whatever ends up on your table this year, thank you for putting some of my bread on it. Happy Thanksgiving.