Italian Sweet Bread

 

I used to make this recipe a lot back in the day.  For most of my life I've liked to bake some type of yeast bread or quick bread (like biscuits or cornbread) to accompany soups.  For the past couple of years and trying to eat more low carb, I've gotten away from that.  

A couple of weeks ago, though, I was preparing a birthday meal for my daughter -- lasagna and salad, and wanted a homemade bread to accompany it.  I just wasn't in the mood to make focaccia bread, which might be my usual go-to.  But then I remembered this Italian Sweet Bread -- which isn't actually very sweet, as it contains only 1/4 cup of sugar.  I remembered it as being quite easy, and it makes two loaves, which is a definite plus when one is feeding teen grandchildren with hearty appetites!

The only problem was that this recipe uses a bread machine to make the dough, and I no longer own one.  So I decided to tweak it and see if I could make it work with a more traditional method.  Here's what I did, and thankfully it worked.

ITALIAN SWEET BREAD

3/4 cup warm water
1 Tblsp. active dry yeast
1 Tblsp. sugar
2 Tblsp. butter, softened
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tblsp. sugar
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp. salt
3 cups flour

 In a small bowl, combine the warm water, yeast, and 1 Tblsp. sugar.  Stir well and let stand 5 minutes until bubbly.  Stir in the butter.

In a large bowl, beat the egg.  Stir in the 3 Tblsp. sugar, the cream, and salt.  When well blended stir in the yeast mixture.  Stir well and then add the flour.  You may need a little more flour to make it less sticky.  Turn dough out on a floured surface.  Let rest while you clean the bowl and grease it. Knead the dough a few times and form into a ball.  Place in the greased bowl, turning to grease the top of the dough ball, then cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled in bulk, about 50 to 60 minutes.

Then punch down the dough and return to the floured surface.  Cut the ball of dough in half and shape each half into a ball.  Flatten slightly and place each half into a greased 8-inch or 9-inch round pan.  Cover pans with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.  

Recipe calls for brushing an egg wash (1 beaten egg/1 Tblsp. water) on top of the loaves before sprinkling on some Italian seasoning and baking.  I didn't want to go to that trouble, so I brushed on some cream instead.   Then I sprinkled lightly with Italian seasoning.

Bake the loaves at 350º for 20-25 minutes or until loaves are golden brown.  Remove from pans to wire racks to cool.  Makes 2 loaves, 3/4 pound each.  Photo shows the loaf cut in slices, but we chose to cut ours in wedges.  

This bread went over big at the birthday dinner!

Weekend baking report: Chocolate Chai Tea Loaf and more

Photo from Taste of Home

This Sunday it was my turn to provide the snacks for our coffee break at church.  I made several baked items in addition to taking cheese and crackers and a large container of fresh strawberries.

All of the baked goods went over well, but this Chocolate Chai Tea Loaf was absolutely amazing.  Thankfully I had left one smaller loaf at home!

I made just a couple of tiny changes in this recipe which is linked above.  Instead of 2 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate, I just used 2 ounces (1/3 cup) of semisweet chocolate chips because it was simpler.  Also -- the chai latte tea mix (Oregon Chai)  I used came in packets, so I measured it by the tablespoon right from the packet.  When it came to the frosting, the recipe called for only 1 tablespoon, but there was more than that left in the package -- nearly another tablespoon, I would say.  I just used it all in the frosting rather than have a small amount left in the packet.  No doubt it gave the frosting a more pronounced flavor of tea and spices, but it was delicious!  Also, I made this recipe gluten free by means of the Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 gluten free baking flour.

Although I carefully measured my loaf pans to be sure they were the size called for in the recipe, I still ended up with batter left over, so I used another, smaller loaf pan for the extras.  If you didn't have one, you could probably make a couple of muffins with the excess batter.

🍓🍓🍓

Since yesterday was St. Patrick's Day, I also took along a pan of Gluten Free Irish Soda Bread which also went over very well.  It goes over well at home, so I was pretty sure people at church would also enjoy it.  This recipe doesn't rise as high as traditional Irish soda bread, but it has a rugged rustic look.

🍓🍓🍓

And then lastly I made a pan of very simple Cheese Danish.  Here is what you need for this recipe:

SIMPLE CHEESE DANISH SQUARES
2 cans crescent roll dough
12 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup melted butter
Cinnamon-sugar for the top

Unroll 1 can of the crescent rolls and press into the bottom of an ungreased 13x9 pan.  Press carefully to seal all of the perforations.

In a bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla.  A beater will work but using a wooden spoon works just as well.  Spread the cream cheese over the dough in the pan.

Open the second can of crescent rolls and arrange the dough over the top.  Seal perforations if you can, but you don't have to get too finicky about it.

Spread the melted butter over the top as evenly as you can, then sprinkle liberally with cinnamon-sugar.  Bake at 350º for 25 to 30 minutes.

These always go over well.  I have a perfectly wonderful recipe for traditional Cheese Danish pastries (find it here: Cheese Danish) but it is a lot of work.  I may make those for Easter, but for just an ordinary Sunday the quick recipe works fine.

And that was my weekend baking!  You might enjoy trying these recipes, too.

From the November archives, part 3

Okay, here is the last and relatively brief post of links from the November archives.

In the mood for some comfort food that's hearty and yet a bit unusual?  Try this delicious autumn supper  which would be good all winter long.  It's a flavorful chicken stew which I served with pumpkin biscuits.  Both recipes are included.

And then finally, this post: Preparing to prepare for Christmas describes some steps I took to get ready for Christmas preparations like crafting and baking in 2015.  Although your own details and preparations will likely be different, I think you'll find some inspiration in this post.

And so ends my browse through the November archives.  Tomorrow will be December, and I'm hoping to post daily in my Christmas blog -- and possibly do "December Daily" posts here as well.  We will see!

A dilly of a recipe

Photo from Taste of Home

Last week in my post about February Favorites from the Archives,  I shared a link to our recipe for Cheeseburger Soup.  This is such a warming winter soup, though it's good anytime of year.

Photo from Taste of Home

It's become a real favorite in our family. Some years when our daughter and family have flown in from far away, we have served this as a "welcome home" supper.

Ever since I first began making the Cheeseburger Soup, I have made these Dilly Rolls to serve alongside.  I think when we began serving these together, we thought that since dill pickles go so well with cheeseburgers, Dilly Rolls would go well with Cheeseburger Soup.  And they do!  Actually, probably almost any rolls, or biscuits, or corn muffins, would go well alongside, but we do love our dilly rolls.  The dill flavor is not too strong, really just about right.  But if you don't enjoy the flavor of dill, you'd probably do better to use a different roll or biscuit for accompaniment.

My dictionary says:

dilly 1 |ˈdilē|
noun (pl. dillies) [ usu. in sing. ] informal
an excellent example of a particular type of person or thing: that's a dilly of a breakfast recipe.
 
ORIGIN late 19th cent. (as an adjective in the sense ‘delightful’): alteration of the first syllable of delightful or delicious.

And that is why I say this is a dilly of a recipe.  The soup is, too.  Hope you enjoy these rolls (and the soup!) if you try them.

Trivial pursuits

An unexpected snowstorm this morning has given me more time at home than I thought I'd have today.  Do you ever find that when you're given an unexpected gift of time, you have trouble figuring out to do with it?  I finished my quiet time early with the intent of heading out to do the grocery shopping.  As it became light out, however, I realized it was snowing quite steadily.

I've been puttering ever since at various tasks, the most important of which would be my Sunday School lesson.

Image from Amazon.com

I'm all set with the lesson for this Sunday, but I have to work ahead as it often takes me a couple of weeks to prepare.   And it often takes close to a month for our class of ladies to work our way through a lesson together.  I hope that everyone else is learning as much as I am!  And yes, I realize that learning and applying are two different things, and both are necessary for true spiritual growth.

Another thing I did was to put together my Valentine ribbon board.  This is something I try to do every February ... display some of my vintage Valentines as well as other special items from this season.  I've got all the items in place, just need to hang the board in the front hallway.  And I will do a post, probably next week, on my simple Valentine decorating.

This is from 2010, I think.  This year's is more sparse.

I'm also working on making tags from 2014's Christmas cards, always an inspiring task while snow falls outside the dormer window in which my little crafting desk is located.

Again, these are from a previous year.  I'm just getting started with this year's.

And I'm also planning, if time allows, to put together a little sample craft for a "Christmas club" I'm helping out with at a local library.  I'll share pictures when I get it figured out.

I think I'll make a Baked Fish Chowder for supper, and maybe some Iron Skillet Biscuits to go along with it.  My hubby dearly loves the biscuits from that recipe!

Lastly, I've been looking for a chance to slip in these pictures of a rather random sewing project I recently completed: simple pillows for a kitchen rocker.  We have, in our kitchen, a somewhat shabby rocking chair with chippy green paint.  When my grandmother gave it to me, the seat was missing, and my then-12-year-old son and I wove a red and white checkerboard replacement out of macrame cord.  (My kitchen has a strawberry theme.)  I've been reluctant to repaint that chair -- although it certainly could use it and in fact needs more help than that -- because I'm pretty sure my grandmother painted it herself.  Anyway, over time the seat got less comfortable so I padded it with a couple of pillows.  These were small square pillows made from washcloths trimmed with cotton fringe.   (Anyone recognize that as a home decor project from the 1960s?)  Someone had given these pillows, made from red washcloths with ecru fringe, to my mother as a gift.  There was literally no place in my parents' house where red pillows would look even remotely at home, so my mother passed them on to me.  They have lived in that rocker, with time out for occasional washing, ever since.  But they had just given out.  Flat, stained, ugly pillows that I cringed at every time I noticed them, which wasn't terribly often.  I knew I had to replace them, and I thought the best choice would be to make some more washcloth pillows.  So "washcloths for pillows" has been an item on my shopping list for awhile, but I never had time to browse that aisle in Walmart.

One day I was cruising past the clearance section and came upon a package of five microfiber "bar mop towels" in two nice shades of green.  Inspiration struck, and within a week I had carved out the time to make my pillows.

This is the darker green, though it doesn't appear all that dark in this photo.  See below for one of each.

I made each pillow out of two shades of green, so I can have two darker green pillows, two lighter green pillows, or one of each.

The colors are a bit truer-to-life in this lower picture.  My camera is so random at times!  One never knows what it will do.

Are they perfect?  No.  Will they stay pouffy?  Probably not.  Do they serve the purpose and look as good as I need them to look?  A resounding YES!

The rocker itself will have to be a project for another day.

I've taken the fish out to thaw, and fed the wood furnace.  The snow continues to fall.  Now back to tag making!

She can bake!

Photo from Taste of Home

My hubby and I arrived home the other day to find that our 11-year-old granddaughter had baked up a storm while we were out.  She has been helping me cook and bake for many years, and knows her way around my kitchen pretty well by this point.  So, when she took the notion to bake something, she looked through my cookbooks and found this recipe: Triple Chocolate Quick Bread.


Then, she located the right size of loaf pans (a size I hardly ever use!) and made sure she had all the ingredients that would be needed.  When we came in, four lovely loaves of bread were cooling on a rack and the house smelled fantastic.  And was that chocolate bread ever good.  My hubby ate most of a smallish loaf within a couple of hours.  This girl can bake!

Our favorite focaccia bread

Photo by Taste of Home

 My grandddaughters especially love this Focaccia Bread which I make often.  I've used this Taste of Home recipe for years, but I guess I may never have shared the link here.  I made a batch of this on Friday night to accompany a spaghetti casserole, and was reminded how good it is.  It's a nice, easy bread machine recipe, but to my mind it produces the best focaccia bread I have ever tasted.

Yesterday, I took what was left, about a third of the batch, along to the church potluck lunch.  It got raves even though it was a couple of days old.

If you don't like rosemary, don't worry.  You could use basil, oregano, or, as I often do, Italian seasoning.  Also, if you are like me and seldom keep dry milk on hand, there's no need to fret about that either.  You can leave it out with no problem.  I nearly always substitute olive oil for the softened butter in the dough, as well.

Hope you will give this delicious bread a try.  It's wonderful alongside any pasta dish and it goes great as an accompaniment to soup (which we are eating a lot of this winter!).  Hope you enjoy the recipe if you try it!

My best tips for easy meals during December

From my collection; my mother baked from one of these.  Notice the price!

 December is such a busy, festive month!  I'm sure we can all think of ways to simplify the season, and maybe even ways in which we could make our lives less busy, but we always have to eat, and to find something good to feed our families.  I have a couple of tips which some may find helpful.

1.  I first read this quote from a subscriber in the December 1995 issue of Cook & Tell.   I think of it every year about this time and try to heed the advice.  Laura White's mother was one wise woman!

"... As Christmas started to approach, my mother used to make a huge batch of escalloped hamburg, a gigantic stew, a couple of meat loaves, and soup from the Thanksgiving turkey.  They were to 'sustain' us, while she did the cookies and other Christmasy things which left her no time for creative meals.  Not a bad system."  ~ Laura White

I wholeheartedly agree!  Other things that I have found to work well are a couple of pans of lasagna, to be cut in squares and warmed as need, or a big batch of macaroni & cheese; sometimes even a large batch of potato salad to accompany sandwiches.  If you happen to find turkey or ham on a great sale, get one and cook it.  Now you have some meat for sandwiches or other quick meals.

2.  The crock pot is your secret weapon during this busy time.  I just put a tray of chicken thighs, sprinkled with seasonings and barbecue sauce, in the crock pot.  The chicken will cook happily and be ready to serve with easy accompaniments and leftover baked beans at supper time.  And the oven will be freed up for baking Christmas cookies.

Here's a post I did a few years ago on this very topic:  Recipes to Simplify the Season.  One of my favorite ways to simplify meals is to serve a soup from the slow cooker and bread from the bread machine.  This post includes a bunch of stew and soup recipes and one bread recipe, but here are 2 more bread recipes for your enjoyment!
Cheddar Cheese Bread

Cranberry Oat Bread

I hope you find these tips and recipes helpful!  They sure have been a blessing to me!

A delicious autumn supper ~ chicken stew and pumpkin biscuits

Photo from Taste of Home

This week I tried a couple of new-ish recipes and thought I would share, since they both came out well and we enjoyed them.

I am doing much more crockpot cooking these days as I try to get a lot of crafting done for Christmas gifts and try to keep my head above water with housework, caregiving, and all the rest.  For a few minutes' work filling the slow cooker, one can have a nice meal cooking all by itself.  If making a stew or soup, a loaf of bread baking in the bread machine at the same time gives you a complete meal!  This week I made a slow cooker meal for my dad, with plenty for our house as well.

Here's the recipe I tried: Chicken Stew.  The recipe calls for potato gnocchi but suggests one could also use rice.  I cooked some rice and added about a cup or a little more of the cooked rice to the finished stew.  I don't think I have ever cooked with parsnips before, but this recipe called for them and my dad loves them, so I did use parsnips in the stew.  Also, I didn't want to fiddle with bone-in chicken thighs (skinning them, then later deboning) so I used a couple of boneless chicken breasts.  (One large one would have been enough.  I ended up making the second, nicely cooked one into chicken salad.)  This stew turned out to be delicious and I will definitely make the recipe again.


To go with the stew, I made these: Pumpkin Patch Biscuits.

Photo by Taste of Home

Yes, they are made with a generous amount of real pumpkin!  I doubled the recipe because it said the yield was 6 biscuits.  With the double batch, I ended up with 16 biscuits!  But that was no problem because they were really, really good.  I only tasted part of one because they are not gluten free, but I think I will have to figure out a way to make them so.  These biscuits are not super sweet, nor do they taste like pumpkin pie (there is no spice in the recipe).  They are just slightly sweet, very moist and went very well with the  chicken stew.

Hope you enjoy these recipes if you try them!

Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread

 (or muffins, as the case may be).
I promised to share the link to the recipe I used for this, so here it is: Gluten-Free Irish Soda Bread.

 *The above photo is of regular Irish soda bread,  just a photo from Taste of Home.*

As I mentioned yesterday, I opted to make this gluten-free soda bread into muffins.  I was in a hurry.  I don't know why I can't learn and retain just how long certain kitchen tasks are going to take me.  I have been cooking for well over 50 years, having started young.  So I reasoned that since I didn't have time to cut margarine into the dry ingredients, I would just use oil and make these into muffins, shortening both the prep time and the baking time.  I baked the muffins for 20 minutes at 375º, but do test them to be sure.  That was just about right for mine, give or take a minute.

I don't care for caraway and didn't have any orange peel,  so I used a scant half-teaspoon of orange extract.  If I had an orange on hand, I would have used the peel.

The muffins were delicious!  In fact, they were so good that I might bake another batch today.  Not very sweet, so they are good with hearty dishes like the Irish coddle I made last night.  Good with coffee too, and I imagine they would be top-notch with tea!

Not gluten free?  You are blessed.  Sometimes I look at all of my old, beloved bread recipes and nearly cry,  thinking how good they were.  (Although thankfully, there are some wonderful recipe sites out there to make up for it.)  But anyway, if you just want a regular, and very good, Irish Soda Bread, this is the one in the picture.

Linking today with Gooseberry Patch's St. Patrick’s Day recipe round-up.

The absolute BEST gluten free sandwich bread!

Photo from The Baking Beauties

I'm not a frequent sandwich eater, preferring leftovers or a baked potato for lunch, but one thing I have missed since going wheat free nearly 2 years ago has been the occasional sandwich.  Especially for picnics.  I've tried several gluten free sandwich bread recipes and have been quite disappointed in how crumbly and hard the bread turned out.  I've also tried several [expensive!] gluten free breads from bakeries or the supermarket, and have again been disappointed.  The best one of those I tried was a millet bread, but now that I've found this recipe: gluten free sandwich bread from The Baking Beauties , I will have no need to purchase gluten free bread again.

I baked this bread before our little getaway up north.  We picnicked en route both on the way up and on the return trip, and it was so nice to have a wheat free bread that tasted so good.  It's a nice soft bread with a whole grain type of flavor to it.  If you are looking for a good gluten free bread recipe, your search is over.  Head on over to The Baking Beauties and check out this wonderful sandwich bread.  You'll be glad you did!

Gluten free cinnamon rolls ~ simply the best!

The Baking Beauties

Yes, these are the best gluten free cinnamon rolls imaginable.  You simply can't tell they are wheat free.  They are well worth the trouble it takes to make them -- which is no more work than a regular cinnamon roll made with wheat flour.

As some readers may know, I've been avoiding wheat for about a year and a half.  I tried it for about six weeks to see if it would have any effect on some stomach issues I'd had for years.  It did (almost immediately) make a huge difference in how I felt, so I continued with it.  One of the toughest things for me is the area of baked goods.  I really enjoy baking, and so, although I can have wheat-free desserts by sticking with things like fruit, I'm always on the lookout for good gluten free baking recipes. 

I found this one -- Best Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls -- at The Baking Beauties just before Easter.  It was perfect timing, as I had signed up to bring baked goods to our Easter breakfast following the sunrise service at church.

These turned out perfectly.  They didn't look as perfect as some sticky buns I've seen -- the underside of the rolls were a little lighter in color than they could have been, but that seems fairly typical of gluten free baked goods.  As a result, since these didn't look as appetizing as the regular sticky buns, they were pretty much ignored at the breakfast.  That was fine with me as they were absolutely delicious.  I took the leftovers home and froze them (in a plastic container separated by layers of waxed paper) and I am still enjoying them, one sticky bun at a time.

I should add, too, that these can easily be made without the syrupy stuff in the bottom of the pan, for just regular cinnamon rolls.  I had made 1 1/2 times the recipe (just the dough part; making only the 1 batch of the syrupy stuff) and so I had leftover dough.  I made that into just regular cinnamon rolls, and they were wonderful.  I think another time, I would just do that and skip the sticky bun aspect to the recipe.

If you or someone in your circle of family and friends prefers to not eat wheat, give this recipe a try.  If they've been missing cinnamon rolls, these will be a real treat for them.

Mid-week meanderings

Photo by Prairie Flower Farm

There is certainly not a lot going on in our little world this week, but somehow I am still tired. I am taking to heart this quote which I recently read on Abby's blog, Little Birdie Blessings: "If we really have too much to do, there are some items on the agenda which God did not put there."  -- Elisabeth Elliot

You can read the entire quote here:  Everyday is a Gift and the brief post will be well worth the read.  Abby's blog is one of the most inspiring out there.  It will leave you with some food for thought every time.

Let's see, what I have I been up to that I can share with you?  Last Friday I had three of my grandchildren here for several hours while their mom was at an appointment.  I thought it would be fun to try some new fudge recipes with an eye to Christmas giving for next year.  The fudge came out  fine, but didn't really meet my criteria for kitchen gifts.  You can read about our fudge making adventures here.  I didn't think to take pictures, sadly.

This is not the fudge we made, but I think this is a splendid idea for a gift.

For Sunday's potluck, I tried a new recipe from my new Gooseberry Patch Weeknight Dinners cookbook.
 
 It was Chicken Tortilla Soup.  You can find the recipe and a review here : Chicken Tortilla Soup at my friend Linda's blog, Prairie Flower Farm.  A visit to Linda's farm is always a blessing!

Yesterday, I cooked a chicken in the crockpot and used the meat (which falls off the bone when cooked in a slow cooker) to make a pot of chicken soup and a large container of chicken salad sandwich filling for Mr. T's lunches.  I made these Brazilian Cheese Buns to go along with the soup. 

Picture from King Arthur Flour

They didn't turn out just right this time (looked more like pancakes) and I'm not 100% sure what I did wrong, but they still tasted good.  They are made with tapioca flour and are one of my favorite quick gluten free breads.

Last night we enjoyed a winter concert which two of our granddaughters were taking part in at the elementary school.  The students did a fantastic job and we were thankful for the opportunity to go.  Several last-minute issues on the way out the door made us later than we intended to be (although we were not late), so we ended up standing for the entire time.  It was only an hour or so, so that was not too bad.

I've been enjoying making some new pages for my "What Do I Know About My God?" notebook, using the concept outlined in Mardi Collier's book of the same name.  If you need some encouragement in your spiritual life, I highly recommend this book.  It will get you into God's Word in a new and very encouraging way.

Last week I made a couple of winter-themed mug rugs for a little gift and hope to post pictures of them soon.  In other craft news, I've been working on a cross stitch for my granddaughter Emily's birthday and am continuing to plug away on the pieced place mats.

Two of the more recently finished place mats

Today is warm but the roads (the back roads, like the ones we live on anyway) seem to be rather messy.  I need to go out this afternoon so am praying for safe travels. 

Well, there are my mid-week meanderings.  Hope your week is going well wherever you are!

Brazilian Cheese Buns

(Photo from King Arthur Flour)

I have been wanting to post this link for awhile now: Brazilian Cheese Buns.  Since beginning to avoid wheat about five months ago, I am always on the lookout for a good wheat-free recipe.  This one is gluten-free; it is made from tapioca flour and is absolutely delicious.

I tried this recipe because it looked easy and I have had good results from most gluten-free recipes I've tried from the King Arthur Flour site.  It has very good reviews.  I have never visited a Brazilian steakhouse, but these buns are said to taste very similar to the ones served in those restaurants.  These buns have a fantastic aroma as they bake and are quite addictive when served warm alongside soup, salad, or pasta.

The recipe said nothing about using these for sandwiches (they are on the small side for that) but I tried it anyway because one thing I really do miss is a good sandwich now and then.  I've used these for sandwiches using fillings such as ham and cheese, turkey, and chicken salad and they were all really good.  It would just need to be a filling that goes well with garlic and cheese flavors.  The buns are a bit chewy for sandwiches but really not bad at all.  I enjoy them.

I should add that the cheese buns freeze very well.  The recipe does make quite a few, so it's good to know they will freeze.

Don't reserve this recipe just to use for your friends and family who may be avoiding wheat or gluten; anyone who enjoys garlic and cheese and ethnic flavors would probably like these.  Hope your family enjoys the Brazilian cheese buns if you try them. 

A yummy fall recipe ~ Pumpkin Spice Amish Friendship Bread!

Photo from Susie QT pies Scraps of Life

Who would ever have thought such a recipe existed?  Certainly not me!  But I found the recipe here at Susie QT pies Scraps of Life:  Pumpkin Spice Amish Friendship Bread and just had to try it.  I happened to have some friendship bread starter in the freezer ( freezing the starter in one-cup amounts is a great way to use it up when people give you starter and you can't keep up with it all).


Our review:  It's delicious!  Somehow my hubby, 8-year-old granddaughter and myself have gone through half a loaf in the past couple of hours.  Good thing the recipe makes 2 loaves!

Sausage Asparagus Skillet

 (Photo from Home Joys)

We tried a wonderful main dish last night... absolutely delicious.  It came from Gina at Home Joys.  Here is the link to her recipe:  Sausage Asparagus Skillet.  This dish has marvelous flavor.



One-dish meals like this are so good.  We just served some of Gina's  Miracle Bread on the side,

 

 (Photo by Home Joys)

and what a yummy supper!  We love asparagus, and this is one more wonderful way to use it.  I would have never thought to combine asparagus with potatoes or sausage, but it is so good.

My favorite versatile recipe for baked goods

Last week (or was it the week before?) I had some leftover mashed potatoes in the fridge and remembered this wonderful recipe I often made in years gone by. It makes 100 rolls, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, or whatever. Even though I had plenty of mashed potatoes, I divided the recipe in half. I made half of the dough into dinner rolls and half into cinnamon rolls. I used the doughnut glaze recipe (again, half of it) on the cinnamon rolls. This is a fantastic recipe! If you don't have leftover mashed potatoes on hand, this is so good that it's worth cooking a few potatoes for. The recipe is from the More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Jantzen Longacre.


Edna Ruth Byler's Potato Dough Baked Goods

Makes 100 doughnuts or rolls

Dissolve:

3 pkg. dry yeast in

1 cup lukewarm water

Mix in large bowl:

1 quart scalded milk

2 cups mashed potatoes (no milk added)

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

Let cool to lukewarm, then add:

Yeast mixture

6 cups flour

Let stand until mixture foams up (about 20 minutes)

Add:

2 eggs, beaten

1 Tablespoon salt

11 to 12 cups additional flour

A little more flour may be needed, but dough should be soft. Turn out on floured board and knead until satiny. Let raise in warm place until doubled in bulk.

Doughnuts:
Roll out dough, cut doughnuts, place on trays and let raise until not quite double. Fry in hot shortening (375 degrees). When drained and while still hot dip in glaze mixture. Insert a stick through holes and let a number of doughnuts drain over glaze bowl until next ones are ready to do.

Glaze:

Combine:

1 pound powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of mace

Enough rich milk to make thin icing

Cinnamon buns:
Prepare a mixture of sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Roll a piece of dough to about 18″x9″. Spread dough with butter and sprinkle over some of the sugar mixture. Roll up the dough as for jelly roll. Cut 1 ½” chunks and place in greased pans, pressing down lightly on each chunk. Cover and let raise in warm place until nearly double. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until browned. These may be iced with doughnut glaze as soon as they are taken from the oven.

Sticky buns:
Handle dough same as for cinnamon buns, except make a mixture of brown and white sugar, cinnamon, and a little white corn syrup and water. Spread in bottom of heavily greased pans with nuts, if desired, before putting in rolls. Immediately after baking, invert pans over trays and let syrup run down before removing pans.

Dinner Rolls:
Shape dough as desired; place on greased pans, and bake at 400º starting on a lower rack and changing to upper rack about halfway through for 15 minutes of baking time. Brush tops lightly with butter to remove any floury appearance.

Coffee Cake:
A good way to use all the leftover bits of dough -- put dough in greased pan, dab or punch holes in it, and spread leftover sugar, syrup, or butter mixtures over. Let rise and bake as for cinnamon buns.

To freeze:
Let baked goods cool. Wrap or place in large plastic bags and freeze the same day.

Note: This recipe is also quite good using part freshly ground whole wheat flour in place of some of the white flour.

Hearty fare for a cold winter night

(Photo from Taste of Home)

It's sooooo cold up here in northern New England. This morning around ten it was still 11 below zero, with a wind chill of minus 33! Right now I think it's around zero, but still well below zero with the wind chill factored in. For supper, we are having Rosemary Chicken with White Beans -- a warm, hearty, healthy meal. You can find the recipe here: Rosemary Chicken with White Beans. I usually add more carrots, especially, and sometimes a bit more celery. And I don't bother to brown the chicken. It always tastes wonderful anyway!

I'm also baking bread this afternoon -- 2 more loaves of Miracle Bread . This time, I experimented a bit by using 2 cups of white whole wheat flour as part of the 6 cups of flour it calls for.

Can't forget to keep the woodstove stoked up... it's predicted to be another chilly one tonight.

Miracle Bread: a fabulous bread recipe!

(Photo from Home Joys)

I tried a new recipe for bread yesterday, and it turned out so delicious I just had to share. Gina, over at Home Joys, has been doing a series on homemade bread. The information she is sharing will be of special interest to those who have never tried making bread, or have tried and failed. However, it's also very helpful to those of us who may have been baking bread for years. There is always more to learn in life!

This recipe is super simple and requires no kneading. It produced two gorgeous loaves of French (or Italian)-type bread (or it can also be used to make bread in loaf pans or even to make cinnamon rolls). The bread is simply delicious. (I used poppy seeds on mine since I was all out of sesame seeds.)

As I was mixing the dough, I told myself that if the bread turned out well, I would use the recipe to teach my 2 oldest granddaughters (ages 7 and 9) how to bake bread. So I will definitely be doing that! I can just imagine what a feeling of accomplishment it will give them to have produced something so wonderful with just a minimum of effort and a few basic ingredients.

So check out the recipe and give Miracle Bread a try. I predict that your family will love this bread as much as mine did!

Thanksgiving Tried & True #5 -- homemade dinner rolls

I very seldom make homemade rolls for Thanksgiving. For one thing, rolls are something that people who prefer not to cook will sometimes offer to bring. They can then buy rolls at a bakery or even a supermarket and bring those to the big meal. For another thing, my daughter Carrie makes a wonderful recipe called Honey Rolls which our extended family always hopes and expects to see on our Thanksgiving table.

But if I were to make rolls myself for Thanksgiving, the following recipe is the one I would most likely use. It’s easy and has never failed me.

DINNER ROLLS

2 cups warm milk, scalded
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 or 2 eggs
5 to 6 cups flour
1 packet dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar

Mix together the milk, butter, 1/2 cup sugar, salt, and eggs. Now add 2 to 3 cups of flour and mix well. Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1 tsp. sugar. Add to the flour mixture and beat well. Now add as much more flour as you need to make it the right consistency to use -- about 3 to 4 cups. Cover dough and let rise in bowl.

When dough has doubled in bulk, punch down, divide in half, and roll each half out like pie crust -- into a circle. Dough should be at least 1/4-inch thick. Cut dough into triangles. Roll triangles up into crescents and place on parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Repeat with second half of dough.

Let rise until light. Bake at 400º for 10-12 minutes.

Yield: About 3 dozen

This wonderful recipe is one that I used when I cooked at an inn many years ago. Most people today probably don’t want to go to the trouble of making crescent rolls from scratch, but these are truly delicious and really quite easy to make.