Modern Marvels - Bread pt 1

Some Food links

Good Things Catered

Peppermint Tea

Grans Apple Tea Cake

Make it from Scratch 60

Carnival of the Recipes

My Quick Lunch

Easy Quesadilla... sort of no real spice here!

My lunch was a quick "what do I have in the fridge" kind of thing.

I had a package of Tomato Basil sandwich wraps, some baby spinach & grape tomatoes and I always have some kind of cheese on hand.

2 sandwich wraps
2 grape tomatoes quartered & seeded
6 baby spinach leaves
hand full of shredded mozzarella cheese
hand full of shredded cheddar cheese
pan spray

I sprayed my flat griddle pan put down a wrap, then the mozzarella, spinach, tomatoes, cheddar & second wrap.

Fry until the cheese is melted & the wrap is lightly browned.

Cut into wedges, I usually use my pizza cutter for this, and enjoy!

Pepper Wedges

Broiled Stuffed Pepper Wedges

Now I'll have something to do with all the peppers I am planning on coming out of the garden this year!!! Or at least what to do with that one leftover pepper I always seem to have...

Of course I'm sure I'd make my own cream cheese spread... garlic anyone!!!

Sourdough Chocolate Cake

Again from my Yahoo group... I made this so I can say it is yummy. It was also a coarser grain than a normal box mix cake. I also didn't think the cake itself was very sweet as a stand alone cake. I made it 2 layers with canned frosting (half chocolate, half cream cheese whipped together). It didn't last long at all.

SOURDOUGH CHOCOLATE CAKE

INGREDIENTS:


½ cup sourdough starter

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 cups sugar

¾ cup powdered cocoa (not instant)

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 eggs

1 cup milk

½ cup vegetable oil

¾ cup cold coffee

1 teaspoon vanilla


PROCEDURES:


Put the starter in a large bowl, cover loosely and allow to stand at room temperature until active and bubbling. Then add the rest of the ingredients, in the order given, beating well after each addition. It is not necessary to sift or premix any of the ingredients as long as you are careful to get the baking powder and baking soda evenly mixed.

Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans. Pour in the batter, which will be thin, and bake in a preheated 350F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the layers test done when poked with a toothpick. The cake will have pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Allow to cool about 10 minutes before removing from pans, then finish cooling the layers on wire rack. Do not frost until the cake is completely cold.

A mild chocolate butter cream frosting is nice with this cake.

Adapted from: “Baking with Sourdough.”

Sour Dough English Muffins

*** Found the link for this recipe From my Sourdough Group on Yahoo... I've copied it exactly. So here are my thoughts & comments... I think the flavor of this bread is delish. I made a bunch of muffins & a round of bread (so no I didn't follow the recipe, of course!) I also have half the dough in the fridge still. So this make a bunch of muffins.
I didn't fry them, I baked them on corn meal. The bread round was yummy & the muffins were tasty but I forgot to remove the wax paper from the pan before I baked them. So I have a bunch of muffins with wax paper bottoms, eww. I am going to fry the batch of dough I have in the fridge so I'll have to update when I do.
I also did all my kneading in the stand mixer, lazy I know!


Sourdough English Muffins

Another recipe stolen from the net. This time, it's Jo-Ann who provided this stunning English Muffin Recipe. The taste is awesome.
English Muffins My son, who doesn't like English Muffins had 3 of them for breakfast. The next day we made Eggs Benedict, and he announced he
liked the English Muffins better "without all that stuff on them".

The Night Before:
(Recipe from: Bake Your Own Bread & Be Healthier-Stan & Floss Dworkin)
1 C starter
2 tablespoons honey
2 C reconstituted powdered skimmed milk (or whole milk)
4 C unbleached white flour

Mix starter, honey and milk in mixing bowl until smooth. Add 4 C flour, 2 C at a time, and mix in. There's no need for gluten development now, so
do not whip-just get all the flour thoroughly wet. Cover with clean towel and leave at room temperature in a draft free place.

The Next Morning:
1 scant teaspoon baking soda
1-2 C unbleached white flour
2 tsp sea salt
cornmeal for sprinkling.

Stir down mixture (it will have risen considerably). If it has risen too high and fallen, no problem, just stir down the rest of the way. Sprinkle
a scant teaspoon baking soda and 2 teaspoons sea salt over the surface of the dough and work in.

Flour your board with 1 C flour or more (up to 2 C), until dough is medium stiff - enough to roll out. Once you have enough flour in (I go by feel-
never too dry and always moist) and the dough longer sticks to your hands, give it a 5 minute kneading.

Get 2 baking sheets or jelly roll pans and line with waxed paper-sprinkle corn meal over both.

Flour board again and lightly roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Take a 3 inch round cutter ( a bit larger diameter, different shapes, OK) and cut
as many rounds as you can-rolling the left over dough out and cutting more until the dough is all used up. Try to keep them very uniform in thickness
and diameter.

As you cut each round, place on cornmealed wax paper-don't allow raw muffins to touch--they will stick. When all rounds are cut, sprinkle corn meal
over tops of muffins.

Allow to rise in warm place, covered, for about an hour or until risen again.

Now Comes The FUN Part!
Preheat a griddle (I used a non stick T-Fal 12 inch griddle pan) with a TINY bit of butter, until butter sizzles. Use a low flame or heat setting so
the inside of the muffin bakes and outside does not burn. Pan bake one side for about 4 minutes and turn. Squish down a bit with spatula and pan bake
other side for about 4 minutes. Turn only once so be sure the one side is cooked before turning. While you can skip the butter if you have a
non-stick skillet, they won't taste as good without it!

They look like store bought, and taste supreme!

Enjoy and have fun.
Jo-Ann

Mike comments... while the muffins taste great, they don't have the texture I usually associate with English Muffins - no big holes. I figure,
maybe it's me, so I'm still working on it.

It's 2008, if only barely, and I STILL haven't gotten back to this recipe. However, I have received a number of emails in regards to this recipe.
And the common theme is, "don't be in a hurry, let the muffins rise a bit longer and you'll get the big holes you're looking for!" Another message
I received was from an English lady who told me that in England the muffins don't have holes as large as I seem to be expecting, so the muffins are
probably right on target.

Sorry

I do so dislike leaving a paid post as my last for so long...

So I'm gonna get my behind posting a few recipes so stay tuned.

Roofing choices

Explore GAF Roofing Options!
I am starting to look at roofing materials again. We just attended a home show & I found the neatest product, looked like slate but wasn't. Of course for the money they wanted I could do slate!!!

So when I stumbled across these GAF Elk Camelot Slate look tiles I am more than a little interested. These tiles come in a wide array of colors & from the pictures on the website sort of look like slate, which is the look I'm going for. I'd have to look at the samples in person but I'd lean more towards the Williamsburg Slate or the Sheffield Black.

My roof isn't one that we can just climb a ladder & lay down some shingles. I wish I could say that it was but 3 1/2 stories above ground & very sloped is not where I would want to be!!! The site allows me to look up local distributors & I found a few I just haven't found a price. That is the biggest concern. I want the most bang for my dollar ya know!!!

It is over 400 pounds per square (which is heavy?) & claims to be 60% thicker than most other premium shingles, I haven't verified that claim yet. It has stain guard & was tested in a controlled situation to withstand 110 mile per hour winds.

I am looking for a LONG warranty, preferably lifetime & transferable, which these claim to be. I'm sure there are stipulations that have to be followed for installing to keep the warranty (aren't there always). But again, it's not like I'm going up there with a bucket of nails & some shingles anytime soon!!!

Of course the Camelot aren't the only GAF choices, there are plenty of other styles & lots of colors. And I’m sure your contractor can get them (or special order them from your local lumber supply place!)

Sourdough success!!!!

This recipe made a really sweet dough, perfect for breakfast. It was ok with the egg salad we had for lunch but it was better with the cinnamon sugar & butter.



This is all that is left of the round & the broken loaf is gone as well. Guess I'll have to cut into the 2nd loaf for lunch!

I am rising a second batch using 1/3 cup of sugar & about 2 T flaxseed. I'll see how this one behaves!

Sourdough second rise

***Edited to add that I used 1/4cup of vegetable oil & 1/4cup olive oil in this.***

After having revived my original starter mix I started the bread making process yesterday. I used the following recipe from my Sourdough group

SOURDOUGH BREAD

INGREDIENTS:

2/3 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup active starter
1 ½  cups warm water
6 cups bread flour

I start with 5 cups of bread flour and then add the remaining cup as needed, depending on the humidity.

Mix ingredients in a large bowl.

Grease or oil a container. (I use a clear, straight-sided plastic container)  Put dough in container and flip over
to cover top of dough with oil or grease.  Cover with a clean, damp cloth.

Let stand 6-8 hours or overnight.

Punch down and divide into 3 parts.  Knead each part 8-10 times on a lightly floured surface.

Shape and put into 3 greased (I use a non-stick cooking spray.) and brush tops with oil (or butter).

Cover and let rise 4-5 hours.  I put pans in a large plastic bag and tuck the ends under the pans to make it airtight. 
Make sure you “tent” the bags.

Bake at 325F to 350F for 30-35 minutes.  I use an instant read thermometer to 197F.

After baked, brush tops with butter and cool on cooling rack.

When cool, wrap in plastic cling wrap, then aluminum foil and freeze.

Note:  This recipe originally called for a potato based starter, but I use all my starters with this basic
recipe.  It is a slightly sweet bread as I have doubled the amount of sugar used in the original recipe due
to demands from my “guinea pigs” at work.


Adapted from a recipe at www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,164,147175-243201,00.html

I have 2 long loaves going & one round. They are currently sitting for their 4-5 hour rise.





This is a picture of my "sponge" I will be using this to make my bread tomorrow

Corn Bread Mix - MYO

Corn Bread Muffin Mix

I made the 12 3/4c version.

6C Flour
4 1/2 c Cornmeal
2 C Sugar
1/4 C baking powder

I mixed all the ingredients in one of my large plastic storage containers.

To make muffins
3/4 C Milk
1 egg
1/4 C Oil
2 C + 2 T mix

350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes (12 muffins)

These were yummy even though I left them in the oven about 5 minutes too long. I am going to use the leftovers to make a bread casserole for dinner tonight.

Baking & Chicken

I am planning on making these today for baking tomorrow... Sweet Cinnamon Biscuits

I bought fresh buttermilk so I used some for making chicken yesterday. I soaked the legs in buttermilk & water for a few hours & then breaded them in the corn bread mix I made (I'll post that next!), I didn't fry them but I bet it would have been better. I baked them on a cookie sheet at 350 until they were "done." The sweet corn bread coating was very yummy & the kids liked it too!!!

Sourdough

Sourdough Home

Sourdough & Starter


The Bread flour starter has finally started to rise after 5 days of feeding & stirring. The rye flour one has had some rising but not nearly to twice it's size so we'll keep going.

I also pulled the first starter I tried out of the fridge, divided it into 2 jars & have continued feeding that as well.

I will be dividing the bread flour starter later today or tomorrow before feeding it. Since the technique I am using calls for discarding half of the starter once it begins to double in size, I figure I can keep the discards for now. At least until I get more jars than I can handle. There is a Pizza Crust recipe that you can use the discards for.

Sour dough attempt #2

After having failed to make a yummy loaf of bread with the starter I was working on I decided to try the more basic method.

I have 2 going and I am on day 2

Jar #1 Rye Flour

Jar #2 Bread Flour

So far I started with 2 Tablespoons of flour & 1 1/5 Tablespoons of water in mason jars. Today I added another 2 T of flour & 1 1/2 T water & mixed it in to yesterday's. It's kind of like paste & looks really gross, but after joining a sourdough group I am going to go the natural way.