Old English Oatmeal Bread

This bread is easy to make.  The texture is perfect, not too heavy and not too light.  The flavor is delicious and it goes with just about everything.  This bread especially tasty with steaks, chicken and soups.  I get rave reviews every time I make it.  The two loaves are rather small, it would take both to feed about 8 people.  It is also good for sandwiches.  I hope you like them as much as we do!  And next time I make them I will refrain from eating them long enough to take a picture, maybe. 

Old English Oatmeal Bread
Prep Time: 15 minutes + cooling and rising
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Yield: Makes two 13-oz loaves

Ingredients:
1 c. old-fashioned rolled oats, plus extra for tops of loaves
3/4 c. milk
3/4 c. water
1/4 c. unsalted butter
1 T. dark molasses
2-2 1/2 cups unbleached bread flour (I use regular bread flour)
1 t. salt
1 pkg. (2 1/2 t.) quick-rise yeast
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 t. water, for glaze
Directions: Place the 1 c. oats in a large bowl or the bowl of an electric stand mixer.  In a saucepan over low heat, combine the milk, water and butter and bring to a boil.  Pour over the oats and let stand until lukewarm, about 30 minutes; stir often to hasten cooling.  Stir in the molasses, 1 1/2 c. of the flour, salt, and yeast.  Gradually stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough that holds its shape.  Knead by hand or with a dough hook, adding flour as necessary.  Knead by hand until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes; knead by hook until dough is not sticky and pulls cleanly from the bowl sides, 6-7 minutes.  Form the dough into a ball and place in a clean, greased bowl, turning to grease all sides.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 45-60 minutes.  Lightly flour a heavy baking sheet.  Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and press flat.  Cut in half, knead briefly and form each half into a ball, stretching the sides down and under.  Place well apart on the prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly.  Cover loosely with greased plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, 20-30 minutes.  Preheat an oven to 425 degrees.  Uncover the loaves, brush with the glaze and sprinkle with oats.  Bake until golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottoms, 25-30 minutes.  Unmold the loaves and transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

(This recipe is originally from Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library Breads Cookbook)

French Baguettes

The word baguette does not mean "very difficult to make".   It actually means "narrow stick loaf" for those who really want to know.  When my husband and I got married almost 12 years ago his sweet great aunt Arzula gave us a Williams-Sonoma Breads cookbook.  I looked through fairly casually because I felt that so many of the recipes required "fancy cookery" that I didn't own and didn't have the money to buy, (ie a brioche mold, muffin rings, and baguette pans, and a stand mixer).  It has sat on my shelf for a long time.  There are only two recipes that I have tried, one of which is this baguette recipe and the other I'll tell you about another time (it's one of my favorite breads to make).  I finally decided to bite the bullet and make the baguettes after I received my stand mixer for Christmas.  I shared with my husband (he ate a whole loaf by himself) and the other three were shared with friends.  They all thought it was great.  Now a few things about this recipe.  It isn't hard.  It really isn't.  Follow the directions and you should be munching fresh, warm, crunchy, soft baguettes in a little over 3 hours.  Most of that 3 hours requires absolutely nothing from you.  Second, it isn't a traditional baguette recipe as it doesn't start with a polish (pronounced 'pol-eesh'), or a starter, which makes it appealing to me because I never plan that far in advance.  It doesn't have that sour flavor that I've come to expect from baguettes, but it still is pretty darn tasty with a warm bowl of soup, or by itself with pats of butter.  Thirdly, the recipe calls for 5-5 1/2 cups of flour.  The two times I've made these now I've only used about 4 1/2 c.  The dough is soft but not really sticky.  Fourth, I put the pan of tap water in the oven and then preheat my oven and it is boiling by the time I put my bread in, as opposed to trying to pour boiling water into a pan already into the oven, but whichever.  Do not skip this step.  It is imperative for getting that crusty crust.  One word of warning: The oven is set very hot and it will be quite steamy in there when you open the door to take your bread out so remember to stand back and let the steam escape before you stick your face down there.  The steam actually set off my smoke detector the first time I made these.  Lastly, you don't need baguette pans or a stand mixer.  I still don't own baguette pans.  I just use large rimmed baking sheets and they still look like baguettes to me.   If you don't eat all of them right away (what? you can't eat 4 loaves of baguettes in a single sitting). Wrap loosely after they've cooled.  I warmed mine in a toaster oven (thanks Karyli) for about 10 minutes and they were practically as good as when they came out of the oven the first time.  So there, you too can make baguettes.  Bon Appetit!

French Baguettes
Prep Time: 15 minutes + rising time
Cook Time: 20-25 minutes
Yield: Four 1/2 -lb baguettes

Ingredients:
5-5-1/2 cups unbleached bread flour (I use bleached bread flour)
2 t. salt
1 pkg. (2-1/4 tsp.) quick-rise yeast
2 c. lukewarm water (110 degrees)
boiling water, as needed
cornmeal for pans
1 egg white beaten with pinch of salt, for glaze
Directions: In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, combine 4 cups of the flour, the salt, yeast and water.  Stir until blended.  Knead with the dough hook until the dough is elastic and pulls cleanly from the bowl sides, about 10 minutes, adding flour as needed.   the dough will be very soft.  Turn out onto a lighly floured surface and knead for 1 minute. Form into a ball and place in a clean bowl.  Dust lightly with flour, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, 45-60 minutes.
Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured work surface.  Press flat, knead for a few seconds and return to the bowl.  cover with plastic wrap and let rise again until doubled, 20-30 minutes.
Line each of 2 double baguette pans (4 molds total, or two large baking sheets), each 18 inches long and 6 inches wide, with a kitchen towel and sprinkle with flour, lightly rubbing it into the fabric.  Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface; press flat.  Cut into 4 equal pieces, knead into balls and let rest for 5 mintues.  Press each ball flat and then fold into thirds.  Roll each into a rope 16 inches long with tapered ends.  Place in the towel-lined pans.  Cover with a kitchen towl and let rise until doubled, about 20 minutes.  Preheat an oven to 450 degrees.
Place a shallow pan of boiling water on the floor of the preheated oven.  Pull the pans out from under the towels.  Grease the pans and sprinkle with cornmeal.  One at a time, flip the loaves into the pans, underside up.  Brush with the glaze.  Using a sharp knife, make three 1/4" deep diagonal slashes on each loaf.  Bake until brown and crusty, 20-25 minutes.  Transfer the loaves  to a wire rack.  Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Honey Wheat Rolls

One of my Christmas presents was my very first stand mixer. I am still giddy every time I use it. I love making bread in it because I don't have to get my hands dirty and it does all the work for it. However, now I have to do extra arm exercises to replace the workout I got from kneading. My husband is just as thrilled with this new found love of bread. You see whenever I make anything and I ask if he likes it he'll tell me “It's good.” That's about as much as I ever get out of him. However, when it comes to bread he still doesn't say much, usually because his mouth is full of bread. It's the only thing that gets a rise out of him (sorry I had to). I found this recipe for honey-wheat dinner rolls and thought it might be time to start using the 300 lbs. Of wheat down in my basement. They are completely delicious. My kids gobble them up. The dough is really sticky, which is a bit of a pain. However, they are light, full of honey flavor, and oh so, mouthwatering-delicious warm out of the oven. I hope you like them too.

Honey Wheat Rolls

Prep Time: 15 minutes + rising times + cooling

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Yield: 16 dinner rolls

Ingredients:

1¾ c. whole milk, heated to 110 degrees, plus 1 tablespoon

6 T. plus 1 t. honey

5 T. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 large egg

2½ c. whole wheat flour

1¾ c. all-purpose flour

1 T. instant or rapid-rise yeast

2¼ t. salt

Directions: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 200 degrees. When oven reaches 200 degrees, turn it off. Grease large bowl and 9 x 13 pan. Combine 1¾ c. milk, 6 T. honey, 4 T. butter, and egg in 4-cup measuring cup. Using a stand mixer fitted with dough hook, mix whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, yeast, and salt on low speed until combined. Slowly add milk mixture and mix until dough comes together, about 1 minute. Increase speed to medium and mix until dough is smooth and almost clears sides of bowl yet still sticks to bottom, 6-8 minutes. (I found that I have to scrap the bottom of my bowl occasionally to make sure it all mixes in.)

Transfer dough, scraping sides of bowl, to greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in turned-off oven until dough has doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Punch down dough on lightly floured counter. Divide dough into quarters and cut each quarter into 4-equal pieces. Form each piece into rough ball by pinching and pulling dough edges under so that top is smooth. On clean counter, cup each ball with your palm and roll into smooth, tight ball. Arrange in prepared baking dish and cover loosely with plastic. Let rolls rest in turned-off oven until doubled in size, about 20 minutes.

Remove rolls from oven and discard plastic. Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine remaining 1 T. butter and remaining 1 t. honey in bowl. Brush rolls with remaining 1 T. milk. Bake rolls until golden brown and register 200 degrees, about 20 minutes, rotating dish halfway through baking. Brush with honey butter and let cool in dish on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove rolls from dish. Serve.

MAKE AHEAD:

Instead of 20-minute rise in step 4, baking dish with formed rolls can be refrigerated, covered, for 24 hours. Let dough sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before brushing with milk and baking.

Recipe originally found in Cooks Country Magazine, Nov. 2011, photo from cookscountry.com

Best Cornbread in the World

I know that is a supercilious name. I have no idea if it's even true. It's the name on the recipe as I received it. I have, however, tried several cornbread recipes and while most of them are just fine, this one is a little more so. It just has that little extra something that makes it taste better. It also bakes up pretty tall, not wussy like some other cornbread recipes that come out an inch tall. I would like someday to try and double this and put it in a 9x13 pan because as I said yesterday my kids really really like cornbread and we never have leftovers. My son especially loves to come home from school and eat leftover cornbread if possible. If you don't have buttermilk (I never do, okay rarely do) you can substitute with soured (or clabbered) milk. Do not put your milk out until it gets sour, instead put one tablespoon of vinegar in a 1 cup measure and fill with milk; let sit for 5 minutes. Do not use buttermilk powder, I can't seem to get that to work. ENJOY!

Best Cornbread in the World

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

Cook Time: 25-30 minutes

Yield: 9 servings

Ingredients:

½ c. margarine, softened

2/3 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 c. buttermilk

½ t. soda

½ t. salt

1 c. yellow cornmeal

1 c. flour

Directions: Blend margarine, sugar, eggs and buttermilk. Add soda, salt, cornmeal and flour. Mix well. Pour into a greased 9x9-inch pan and bake at 375° for 25-30 minutes.

This recipe was originally found by me in a church cookbook.

Parmesan Cloverleaf Rolls

There are days when life just doesn't as planned or are completely unplanned  to begin with.  I very rarely use mixes because I don't like not being able to make things unless I have a mix on hand.  But someone gave me a Taste of Home Fast Fixes with mixes cookbook, so after perusing through it I found these rolls.  Starting with a hot roll mix these can be done and on the table in less than an hour.  They are warm and tender and a perfect pairing for spaghetti and other Italian dishes.  If you're not feeling like Italian just switch up the seasonings on top.

Parmesan Cloverleaf Rolls

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15-20 minutes
Yield: 1 dozen
1 package (16 oz.) hot roll mix
2 T. butter, melted
¼ c. grated Parmesan cheese
2 t. pizza seasoning or Italian seasoning
¼ t. garlic powder
Directions: Prepare roll mix according to package directions.  Divide dough into 12 portions; divide each portion into three pieces.  Shape each into a ball; place 3 balls each in 12 well-greased muffin cups.  Brush with butter.  Combine the cheese, pizza seasoning and garlic powder; sprinkle over dough.   Cover and let rise in a warm place for 10-15 minutes.  Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from pan to a wire rack.  Serve warm.

Photo originally found on www.tasteofhome.com

Biscuits Supreme

I have a request, my first one!  These are just a basic biscuit, nothing exciting but it's a must in your recipe collection.  I make these several times in a month.  I love how quickly they go together, how quickly they cook and how quickly they get eaten.  A little honey butter smeared in the middle of these tender biscuits makes them even yummier.  My husband doesn't believe in using anything but butter on his bread because anything else masks the flavor of the bread, so you may enjoy it that way.  We use these for breakfast sandwiches (just cut a little bigger), as a side to casseroles and stews and just about anything else I want.  I found by chance that if you let them rest for a few minutes after cutting them out and before cooking them that they come out softer.  Remember,  this is a quick bread so don't play with the dough and get as many cuttings out of the first rollout as possible.  Enjoy!
Keep a look out for another recipe called Cathead Biscuits in the near future, I haven't tried them yet, but I think I'll like them.

Biscuits Supreme
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 10-12 minutes
Yield: 10 biscuits
Family Friendliness: We all love biscuits!

Directions:
1. Stir together 2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Cut in 1/2 c. butter, margarine, or shortening till mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Make a well in center.  Add 2/3 c. milk all at once, stir till moistened.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Quickly knead dough by gently folding and pressing dough 10 -12 strokes or till nearly smooth.  Pat or lightly roll dough to 1/2" thickness.  Cut dough with a floured 2-1/2 inch biscuit cutter. 

3.  Place biscuits 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in a 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or till golden.  Remove biscuits from baking sheet and serve hot.      


(This recipe is originally found in the Better Homes and Gardens Red Plaid Cookbook, 70 year celebration edition, 2000)

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Muffins in general are some of my favorite foods.  I love all the possibilities that a muffin offers.  They lend themselves to blend perfectly into any season and almost every meal.  And unlike bread they require no rising and they bake faster (although these take a bit longer than most muffins because the apples have to cook), which is just what I need when I am in a hurry, which seems like I always am.  I make muffins a lot!  These tasty morsels have been one of my two favorite muffins of all time.  They are lovely for fall with a soup or salad.  Warm out of the oven is best, but you can eat them with a glass of juice or a mug of hot chocolate as well.  The streusel topping makes a lot so you don't have to be stingy.  Enjoy!
 

Apple Pumpkin Muffins

Prep Time:  20 minutes

Cook Time: 30-40 minutes
Yield: 22 to 24 muffins
Family Friendliness:  We all love them!

Ingredients:
2½ c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. soda
½ t. salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. pumpkin
½ c. vegetable oil
2 c. peeled, finely chopped apples (I've actually stopped peeling mine.  I do not like peeling apples and I can't tell that it matters.)
Directions: Combine first five ingredients in bowl.  Set aside.  Combine egg, pumpkin, and vegetable oil.  Add to dry ingredients.  Stir in apples.  Fill muffin cups ¾ full.  Top with streusel topping.  Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes.
STREUSEL TOPPING: 2 T. flour, ¼ c. sugar, ½ t. cinnamon, 4 t. (NOTE: teaspoon, not tablespoon) butter or margarine.  Cut butter into dry ingredients.  Sprinkle on muffins.

*Tip for making quick breads, including muffins:  They should always be stirred by hand and stirred as little as possible.  If you stir them too much they will not be as soft and you will incorporate too much air in the batter causing holes and what my practical homemaking teacher used to call “chimney tops,” a pointed top that allows steam to escape and we don't want that. 

Breadsticks

I guess technically this is not a new recipe.  I have been using it for years and it's one of my favorites.  Sometimes we just have these for dinner with pizza sauce and some green beans and a bottle of peaches, my kids' favorite meal hands down.  Obviously they are also great as a side dish.  Pair them with soups or pasta and enjoy.  Let me know if you like them.

Breadsticks

Prep Time: 10 minutes + rising time of about 30 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Yield: About 20 breadsticks
Family Friendliness: Like I said, my kids love these.

Ingredients:

1 T. yeast
1½ c. warm water
2 T. sugar
½ t. salt
3 c. or more of flour
melted butter
garlic powder/onion salt (opt.)
Parmesan cheese or grated cheese
oregano
Directions: Combine yeast, water and sugar.  Add salt and flour and let rest 15 minutes.  Roll dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle.  Using a pizza cutter cut in half horizontally and then cut in strips vertically.  Take two strips and seal two ends together and twist the strips together sealing at the opposite end.  Melt about ¼ c. butter and pour on a cookie sheet.  Roll the breadsticks in the butter and place on the cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with herbs and cheese.  Let rise for 15 minutes.  Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.