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HOME BAKING: Fresh Bread, Pies and Oatmeal Cookies
Hmm, fresh bread! The aroma fills the entire house, causing all within to follow the fragrance to the kitchen in hopes of getting a slice of hot, buttered bread. The perfect pie crust is the mark...
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HOME BAKING
Baking Homemade Bread -- Not as Hard as it Sounds
In a world of instant mixes, frozen dinners, and fast food, the simple pleasure of baking bread has almost been forgotten. From early childhood, I have pleasant and cherished memories of my mother and grandmothers baking yeast breads and batter breads-hearty breads for meals, sweat breads for desserts. Baking bread, much like sewing, crochet, and knitting, is fast becoming a lost art, but the truth is that baking batter breads doesn't take much longer than a bread mix.
Hmm, fresh yeast bread! The aroma fills the entire house, causing all within to follow the fragrance to the kitchen in hopes of getting a slice of hot, buttered, yeast bread. For as long as I can remember, the smell of bread baking has been a comforting sign of home. There are so many things that come to my mind when I think about bread: my grandmother's old stories of times when bread and cheese, or worse, bread and water, were all that was available to eat; the five loaves Jesus blessed and fed to 5,000 men (the women and children were not counted); the unleavened bread of remembrance for the body the Christ sacrificed that the world might have peace with God; the buttered bread toasting in the oven on a cold winter morning; the first time I punched down the yeast dough, then baked the loaf and served it to my new husband. . .
So many things come to mind that I can spend an entire, serene morning just thinking while enjoying the scent of rising and baking bread. Even batter breads (breads leavened with baking powder or a combination of baking soda and buttermilk rather than yeast), such as the cornbread my mom served with hot brown (pinto) beans, lend a sense of home and belonging.
Grocery stores have long sold boxes of cake mixes on their shelves (I confess that I occasionally use one of them.). For some time, now, they have also sold different types of bread mixes, biscuit mixes, cornbread mixes, and frozen yeast breads and rolls. While these are usually ok, they just don't have give your home the ambience of handmade, fresh breads. Nor do the pre-made, brown-in-the-oven varieties.
Think you don't have time to bake bread? While it is true that yeast breads take some time, after all, they need to rise, many bread recipes don't take much, if any, longer than using a mix. For instance, to use a cornbread mix, you open the package and pour it into a bowl, add egg, oil, and milk. To make cornbread from scratch, you measure cornbread, flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl, and then add egg, oil, and milk. While it might, maybe, take two extra minutes to measure four items, the taste difference is incredible! Another example would be homemade biscuits. To make biscuits from scratch, measure flour, salt, and baking powder into the bowl, add oil and milk. Depending on the biscuit mix you buy, you can open the package and pour it into the bowl, or open the container and measure the appropriate amount into the bowl, then add oil and milk. Not much difference, is there?
It doesn't even take too much longer than "whampum" biscuits (store-bought refrigerator biscuits in a roll can). Even with those, you have to open them and put them in the pan. Frozen biscuits might be faster, but again, the difference in taste is definitely noticeable. I have memorized three bread recipes: the yeast bread I use for both pizza crust and table bread, the cornbread my mother taught me to make, and the biscuits my husband loves. The following three quick bread recipes, with full instructions, will help you recapture the aromatic art of baking bread.
Yeast Bread
Can be used to make 2 loaves or to divide and use as the crust for two pizzas.
2 cups warm water
2 tablespoons dry baker's yeast
4 tbsp. oil
2 tsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
5 cups flour
In a 2 cup measuring cup, add the yeast to the warm water and mix well. Add the sugar, salt and oil. Stir liquid and let sit for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease two pans (loaf pans or pizza pans, depending on which you are making) with 1 tablespoon of oil for each.
Pour yeast liquid into a mixing bowl. Add half the flour and stir gently with a fork until moistened, then add the rest of the flour. Stir with fork until dough forms ball around fork (about 25 stirs). Flour hands and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Divide dough into two balls.
For bread loaves, roll each ball into an 18" X 9" rectangle. Starting at the small end, roll dough into a log shape. Pinch edges together, and tuck ends under. Place into oiled pan, cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden.
For pizza crust, press each ball into a 12" to 14" oiled pizza pan. Make sure that the dough is distributed evenly. Top each with ½ cup pizza sauce and your favorite toppings. Bake for 20 minutes until toppings are done and bottom is lightly browned. After 10 minutes, I trade places with the two pans, moving the one on top to bottom, and the one on bottom to the top. This prevents one being overdone and the other underdone. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before slicing.
Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3 tsp. baking powder
¼ cup oil
¾ cup milk
Preheat oven to 420 degrees F. Measure the dry ingredients into a medium mixing bowl. In a glass, liquid measuring cup, measure ¼ cup of oil. Into the same cup, over the oil, pour in milk to the 1 cup mark (mixture will bubble). Pour all at once into the dry ingredients. Using a fork, stir until dough follows fork, then stir 10 more times. Flour your hands, and knead dough ten times. Roll or pat dough onto a cutting board or clean counter. Cut into squares or use a floured glass to cut round biscuits. If you are in a hurry, you do not have to roll the dough. Pat it out and tear off biscuit size pieces and put them into the pan. If you want the biscuits to be crispy, butter or oil the pan. Otherwise, just place then in the pan.
If you prefer the sides to be crusty, place the biscuits 2" apart on the pan. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until light golden brown.
Mom's Cornbread
2 cups cornmeal (yellow is best, for the color)
1 cup flour
2 tbsp. aluminum free baking powder
1 tsp. salt
¼ cup oil
2 eggs, slightly beaten
Enough milk to make medium dough-should not be as thin as cake dough, but not as thick as cookie dough.
Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a 12" baking pan. The best pan to use in baking cornbread is an iron skillet. Pre-heat oiled pan. This allows the cornbread crust to crisp nicely.
Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl. Add eggs and oil and stir to make a crumbly mixture. Add enough milk (start with 1 cup, and add a little more at a time until you have enough), to make a medium dough-dough will pour, but not very fast. Do not over-mix. Pour dough into iron skillet. Bake for 20 minutes. Delicious with bean soup of any kind, corn and ham chowders, or just crumbled into a large glass of milk for breakfast!
Whichever bread you prefer, the aroma of baking bread will bring your family running to the table. Spend a few extra minutes to create some special memories for your children, or even better, let them help measure the ingredients and roll out the dough! Bread making, once a common, daily activity, is not almost a forgotten art. Learn to bake bread, make some memories, and help a tradition that spans thousands of years to survive!
Oatmeal Cookies For Breakfast?
As adults with busy schedules, we often find ourselves in a hurry early in the morning.
Sometimes, this means drinking a cup of coffee on the way to work. It could even mean a morning donut or other pastry from the drive-through bakery. Why not have a more nutritious quick breakfast?
While flour, at least the whole grain, unbleached kind of wheat flour, is good for you, the rest of the ingredients in your morning donuts and pastries are questionable. Grocery store breakfast bars, and even most dry cereals (for those who have time), have ingredients you do not want to put into your body. A good rule to follow is: If you cannot pronounce it, you probably should not eat it.
The following recipe has wholesome ingredients, less sugar than most, and heart healthy oatmeal. Old fashioned oats are a low glycemic food that enters the bloodstream more slowly than instant oats. Cinnamon is known to help control blood sugar. Local honey is helpful with allergies. The egg and milk provide some needed protein. Nothing in the ingredients is unpronounceable or unidentifiable-and most of us have these ingredients in our kitchens. We can even cut down on the amount of aluminum we ingest by purchasing baking powder without aluminum.
Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies or Bars
2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1 3/4 cups flour (preferrably whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
Mix all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, mix egg, honey, oil, and milk. Mix all ingredients together. For cookies, place by tablespoonfuls on greased cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees F. For bars, spread dough in greased 9" X 13" baking dish. Bake at 375 degree F oven for 20 minutes or until done in center. Makes 24 big cookies or 24 large bars.
While most cookies would not be appropriate for breakfast, these wholesome cookies would be an excellent substitute for donuts or pastries. They don't take long to make, and keep well for several days in a sealed container. Two to four cookies in the morning are a hit with both adults and children, and provide a solid foundation for a busy day.
Secret to Making the Perfect Pie Crust
There are really two secrets to the perfect pie crust. The first is quality ingredients. The second and most important secret is the temperature of the butter and the water. Butter and water must be very, very cold when making a crust to ensure a flaky, delicious crust.
The recipe below is wonderful for use with pumpkin, coconut, or pecan filling. As a doubled recipe, it works well for a cherry or apple pie. For a 9" X 13" pot pie dish, the recipe can be multiplied by 4 to have enough dough for a top and bottom crust. There will even be a little left over to make decorations for the top.
Perfect Pie Crust
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 stick (1/4 pound) butter, chilled and chopped into small pieces
3 to 4 tbsp. cold water
Grease 9" pie plate. Sift flour and salt into a mixer bowl. Add butter. Using mixer, mix at slow speed until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Into one cup water, add two to four ice cubes. Water must be very cold.
Add enough cold water (no more than 4 tbsp.) one spoonful at a time to make a firm dough. Using hands, scrape all dough from bowl and knead into a ball. On lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Fold dough in half, then into quarters for easy transfer to the pie plate. Unfold dough onto the pie plate, pressing dough into bottom of pan. Trim excess dough around pie plate edges, leaving enough to cover edge of pan. Using thumb and fingers, pinch edges into an attractive pattern. Refridgerate for 30 minutes before filling. Makes 1 9" pie crust.
Double for a double crust or lattice crust recipe. For custard and cream cheese type pies, prick bottom of pie crust in an overall pattern to keep crust from bubbling or shrinking. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.
The perfect pie crust is the mark of an excellent cook, and for many cooks is a matter of pride. If you follow the directions precisely, this recipe will give you the perfect crust every time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Linda Pogue is the webmaster of www.momsredkitchen.com where she regularly posts information about kitchen products, reviews cookbooks, and shares family recipes.
CULINARY MYSTERY TOUR www.brianalanburhoe.com
Bon Appetit!
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