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Scones
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbs honey
2 ½ cup unbleached or organic white
flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
Beat the egg, milk, baking powder and
salt. Stir in flour, honey and butter. Add in blueberries or grated semi
sweet chocolate. Knead the dough several minutes. Roll out about a ½
inch thin into a regularly shaped rectangle. Cut in smaller rectangles,
and then cut these on the diagonal to make triangles. Bake at 400 for
20-25 minutes.
Waffles and
Pancakes
Basically these are the same recipe but
waffles have more oil
2 cups flour (mix unbleached white with
whole wheat, or add some corn meal, or buckwheat flour in the winter)
1 cup milk
2 tbs honey
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 to 1/3 cup safflower oil (depending
on pancakes or waffles)
2 eggs
Mix eggs, salt, baking powder and milk
well. Add oil and flower. Add more milk, if necessary, to get a good
pouring consistency for pancakes. You may preheat your waffle iron, and
use a stick of butter to rub on plates to prevent sticking.
Biscuits
2 cups flour (1 cup unbleached and 1 cup
whole wheat)
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup safflower oil
2/3 cup milk
Mix wet ingredients with powder and salt
well. Add flour. Roll out to 1/2 inch thick and use a lid to cut
circles; or drop biscuits with a spoon on oiled baking sheet. Bake-12-15
minutes at 400. Check to see that your oven is not overly hot.
Cornbread
¼ cup oil
1 cup corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp molasses
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
Mix wet ingredients well along with
baking powder and salt. Then add meal and flour. Pour into oiled cake or
8 x8 pan. Bake at 32-40 minutes at 375. To spice this up, add chopped
green or jalapeño chilies. Also adding frozen corn or grated cheese is
tasty.
Focaccia
This is a nice yeasted bread that
doesn't take too long for an evening meal. This can also be used for
pizza dough.
1 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
3 tbs olive oil
pinch sugar or honey
2 ½ cups unbleached or organic white
flour.
Dissolve yeast in warm water with salt,
oil and sugar. Stir in flour. Knead as you add in flour to keep from
sticking, until dough is smooth and shiny. Let rise, covered, in a warm
place for 30 minutes. After risen, turn dough out and work it into two
oval shapes. Put these on oiled baking sheet and let rise 20 minutes.
Bake in oven at 375 for 20-30 minutes. If you want a thick crust, you
can put a cast iron pan at the bottom of the oven, and pour in boiling
water just before you close the oven door on the bread. Rub bread with
butter when you take it out to make a shiny crust.
Yeasted
Bread-An Art in Itself
This is the sponge method loosely based
on the Tassajara Bread Book I have found it takes about five hours to
make bread. The three keys to making a great bread are sufficient
kneading, salt, and sufficient time to rise.
Sponge
6 cups warm water
3 tbs yeast (3 packages)
½-3/4 cup honey
7-9 cups whole wheat flour
Sprinkle yeast over warm water. Stir in
with honey. Beat flour in, adding several cups at a time. The concept of
a sponge is to get the yeast growing well without the hindrance of oil
or salt. When well mixed, cover and place in a warm place to rise 45-60
minutes.
2 ½ tbs salt
½ cup safflower oil
6-8 cups unbleached or organic white
flour
2-3 cups additional flower for kneading:
Sprinkle the salt over the bowl, and
pour the oil around the bowl. Beat in with a large wooden spoon. Add the
additional flour several cups at a time. When it gets too thick to stir,
begin kneading the flour into the bowl. When the dough begins to hang
together, take a sharp metal spoon and scrape all the pieces of dough
off the sides of the bowl and incorporate into the dough. Prepare a
kneading area by sprinkling it with flour. Work the dough by flattening
it into a rough rectangle. Fold the dough in half toward you, and use
the heels of both hands to push the folded dough back away from you.
Turn the dough a quarter turn, and repeat, folding it, then kneading it
by pushing the heels of both hands into the dough, then turning a
quarter turn again. This is the critical stage. Knead at least 7
minutes. When the dough has a sheen about it and a hangs together well
in a ball, you are done. It should not be gooey or too dry either. Clean
the bowl out in which you mixed the dough in and then oil the bowl.
Place dough in the bowl, cover and put in warm place. Let rise 40
minutes. Punch down. Vigorously punch the dough with your fist several
times. Recover the bowl, and let rise again 40 minutes. Turn dough out
and use pastry cutter (my favorite kitchen tool) to cut dough into
thirds or fourths. To make a loaf, punch and pull dough into a
rectangle, then roll dough up. Put in oiled loaf pan with seam side
down. Take a sharp knife and slice 2-3 diagonal cuts in the top of the
loaf. Let dough rise in loaf pans 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 35-45
minutes. To check to see if it done, you can take hot pads and turn
bread out. Knock on bottom of loaf to see if it sounds hollow. Turn
loaves out of pans to cool when done. Rub butter on the top of crust to
keep crust soft, when you take it out
Challah or Braided
Christmas Bread
1/4 cup warm water
3 tbs yeast
4 cups milk, scalded and cooled
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar, honey or molasses
6 eggs
2 tbs salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts
15-18 cups unbleached or organic flour
Mix yeast, water, and sugar. Then add
milk and melted butter. Add enough flour to make a sponge, set aside.
Separate eggs and beat whites until stiff. Fold whites into beaten
yolks. When dough has doubled add spices. Fold in egg mixture and fold
in flour. Knead very well. Let rise again until double. Cut dough in
half. Make nine sections of one half of dough. Roll these sections with
your hands like clay until they are long round pieces. Pinch the top of
the nine pieces together and begin braiding, bringing the side piece
over the rest, then the opposite side piece under those. Continue
braiding with the newly emerging side pieces. Pinch bottom ends
together. Braid second loaf. Put loaves on oiled cookie sheets. They
will rise when you bake, so leave sufficient space between the loaves.
Let rise 20 minutes. Put on separate oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for
30-40 minutes. Check bottom as above to see if done.
Cinnamon
Rolls
Use ¼ or ½ of the yeasted recipe dough
before making into loaves. Melt 1-2 sticks of butter and add ½ cup
honey, as well 1-2 tbs cinnamon. You need a lot of cinnamon. Roll dough
out into a very thin, long rectangle, about 5 inches wide. Spread a
portion of melted mixture on dough. Roll dough up into a log. Cut 1 ½
inch sections with pastry cutter. Pour a generous of melted mixture
into the bottom of a cake pan so that it covers the bottom. Put cut
sections into pan with cut view facing up. Place so that the sections
are touching but not too close together. Let rise 20 minutes. Bake 20-30
minutes at 375. The key here is to have enough of the melted mixture on
the bottom so that when you turn the rolls out on a plate they are
gooey. You can also put the individual sections into muffin pans, and
then you would need to put some of the melted mixture in the bottom of
those pans.
Muffins
2 cups flour (1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup
unbleached or organic)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg
¼ cup oil
½- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
1 ½ cup milk
Mix the wet ingredients with the baking
powder and salt well. Add dry ingredients. Spoon into greased muffin
tins. Bake at 375 for 15- 20 minutes. Obviously there are a lot of
variations here- blueberry, poppy seed, nut, raisin-cinnamon.
Popovers
1 cup unbleached or organic flour
¼ tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbs safflower oil
Beat all ingredients with a beater to
make sure there are no lumps. Put in well oiled muffin tins. Fell each
tin less than half full. Bake at 425 for 25-40 minutes.. They should pop
up and over. Serve hot.
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