Crusty French Bread

2 1/2 cups warm water
1 TB dry yeast
2 TB oil
1 TB salt
2 TB powdered milk
6 1/2 - 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 egg white, lightly beaten with 1 TB cold water

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.  Add oil.  Combine salt, powdered milk and 5 cups of flour together, then stir into yeast and water mixture.  Beat vigorously until well mixed.  Add enough addtional flour to make a managable dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes - adding flour as needed - until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Place dough in a large greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise until double in bulk.  Punch the dough down and divide into 2 equal parts (for French bread loaves) or 4 equal parts (for French baguettes). 

To form 2 loaves:  using the palm of your hand, flatten each piece of dough into a long rectangle and roll it up - cinnamon roll style - tucking the ends under to form a loaf as long as your pan.

To form 4 baguettes:  on a lightly floured surface, use the palms fo you hands to roll each piece into a rope about 14 inches long and 2 inches across. 

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Place the formed loaves in lightly greased pans, cover and let rise in a warm spot for approx. 40 minutes, or until double in size.  Brush each risen loaf with egg white mixture.  Using a razor blade or sharp knife, slash each loaf at an angle lenghwise three or four times.  Place in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, then spray with a fine mist of water and lower oven temperature to 375 degrees.  Bake for 15 minutes more, then spray loaves again.  Bake for 10-15 minutes more, until the crust is dark golden.  Remove loaves and cool on racks.

Note:  If you are using a perforated french bread loaf pan reduce oven temperatures by 25 degrees.

English Muffin Bread

We LOVE this bread!  We use it for french toast and breakfast sandwiches and just about anything else you may need bread for.  We've tried several English Muffin Bread recipes and this one tops them all.  It freezes nicely...in case you like to make all your bread at once as I am prone to do.

Ingredients

• 5 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups warm milk (120° to 130°)
• 1/2 cup warm water (120° to 130°)
• Cornmeal

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and baking soda. Add warm milk and water; beat on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl occasionally. Beat on high for 3 minutes.
• Stir in remaining flour (batter will be stiff). Do not knead. Grease two 8-in. x 4-in. loaf pans. Sprinkle pans with cornmeal. Spoon batter into the pans and sprinkle cornmeal on top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
• Bake at 375° for 35 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks. Slice and toast. Yield: 2 loaves.
  

Bread....with no milk, or oils

A friend gave me this recipe. It's wonderful...well technically I've never made it but I have eaten it and it's great!

10 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
3 Round Tbl spoons of saf-instant yeast
3 Tablespoons of honey or Lecithin
4 cups hot tap water

Mix dry ingredients. add honey and water. Mix for 1 min and check consistency. Add Flour or Water as needed. Mix for 5 more min. Spray counter and pans with pam. Shape loaves and cover with a dish towel. Let raise for 25 min. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 min. This recipe makes four loaves of bread.

For Wheat bread use the same recipe but add one cup of applesauce as aprt of the hot tap water. Mix for 10 min.

Monkey Bread made with Amish Bread

Amish Bread (this is a sweet bread)

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof until yeast resembles a creamy foam.
2. Mix salt and oil into the yeast. Mix in flour one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, and turn dough to coat. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
3. Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes, and divide in half. Shape into loaves, and place into two well oiled 9x5 inch loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until dough has risen 1 inch above pans.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes.

Once you have the Amish bread made then you gather these things and do this:

Brown Sugar: 1/2cup will be needed
* 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
* Bundt Cake Pan (feel free to use dorky shapes)
* Cinnamon: 2-3 teaspoons
* 3 cans of Buttermilk Biscuits (the non-flaky ones)
* Sugar!: 1 cup

Now before you do anything…go ahead and preheat that oven to 350 degrees You’ll need this in about 10 minutes.

Open up all three cans of biscuits and cut each biscuit into quarters. (Or in our case cut up your bread dough into small pieces.)
At this time you’ll want to combine the 1 cup of regular sugar with 2-3 teaspoons of cinnamon. I use 3 teaspoons of cinnamon and this gives it a fairly strong cinnamon flavor. If you’re not so hot on cinnamon, cut it back to 2 teaspoons. Dump these into a 1 gallon zip bag and shake to mix evenly. Drop all of the biscuit quarters into the cinnamon-sugar mix. Go ahead…all of them. Yes, they’re sticking together right now, but just trust me.
Once all the biscuit quarters are in the bag, seal it and give it a vigorous shake. This will get all those pieces unstuck from one another and nicely coated with the cinnamon-sugar. You might have some excess sugar left over and that’s okay.
Spread these nuggets out evenly in your bundt pan. I suppose you might want to grease this pan before doing this, but I’m pretty sure the gallon of butter we are about to add will keep it safe.
At this point, you’re going to want to melt those two sticks of butter together with 1/2cup of brown sugar. This can be light or dark brown sugar. Stir together over a medium-high heat until the two become one.
Once the brown sugar butter has become one color, you can pour it over the biscuits.
At first…it’s going to look like too much. It’s okay though.

Bake this @ 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes until the crust is a deep brown on top.

If you have the willpower, allow this to cool for about 15-30 minutes before turning it over onto a plate. If it doesn’t slide right down onto the plate, give it a few love-taps until it plops. It’ll hold.


If you'd like a tutorial (probably because it just looks SOOOO yummy) click here.

Manna from Heaven Orange Bread

In a mixing bowl, combine:
3 cups white flour
1 cup wheat flour
5 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 ½ tsp salt
½ cup brown sugar

In a separate mixing bowl, combine:
3 eggs, well beaten
½ cup oil
1 cup milk
1 cup orange juice (approx. 3 oranges)
4-5 TB orange zest

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and combine until flour is just moistened.

Add:
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Scrape batter into 3 medium (greased and floured) loaf pans. Bake at 375 degrees F for 35 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately remove from pans and cool completely.

Note: This recipe came from Grandma Staples files. I'm not a big fan of orange and chocolate together, but this bread was very good. It is not especially sweet, but it has plenty of flavor. The wheat flour gives the bread a nutty quality.

Morning Glory Muffins

½ cup raisins, packed
½ cup fresh or frozen cranberries, chopped
1 cup fresh or canned crushed pineapple, drained
1 tart apple, peeled, cored, finely chopped
½ cup shredded coconut
About 4 large carrots, peeled and grated (2 cups)
½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup oil
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

TOPPING
brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine all fruits, coconut, carrots, and nuts. In another large bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and add to wet mixture. Stir until just blended. Stir in fruit mixture. Divide among muffin cups, filling almost to top. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until done. Cool in pans at least 10 minutes then remove. Serve warm. NOTE: you can refrigerate batter over night to let the flavors blend. Makes 16-18 muffins

Zucchini Bread

Another really delicious recipe from my neighbor Cecily.

I know the zucchini season is over, but I had some in my freezer I needed to use, so I made some muffins and bread and took a picture and you get the recipe now.

Cream together:
3 eggs
2 c sugar
3/4 c applesauce
1/4 c oil
2 t vanilla


Add:
2 c zucchini, shreaded
Mix.

Add:
3 c flour
1/4 c cocoa
1 t cinnamon
1 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1 c chocolate chips.

Place in 2 greased loaf pans, bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees. Bake muffins for 15 min.

60 minute rolls

I'm always up for easy bread recipes, and it doesn't get much easier than this!!


60 Minute Rolls

1/4 cup butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
4 1/2 cups flour
5 tablespoons sugar
2 pkg. yeast (1 tablespoon)
1/4 cup warm water
1 egg, beaten
1 1/4 cup milk

Heat milk to lukewarm. Add butter and stir until melted. Stir in salt, beaten egg and 5 tablespoons sugar. In meantime, add yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in 1/4 cup water. Stir with wooden spoon until dissolved. Let yeast rise for 10 minutes. Add flour to milk mixture; add yeast mixture and mix well. Knead dough until smooth. Cover and let dough rise about 20 min. Punch down and knead until smooth. Add a small amount of flour if needed. Shape into your favorite roll shape. Put in a greased pan, let rise 20 min. (covered). Bake 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees. Brush top of rolls with melted butter when done.

Traditional Roll Dough

My wonderful mother-in-law gave me this recipe when James and I got married and I use it all the time for all kinds of things.

3 1/2 - 4 c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine softened
1 tsp salt
1 Tbs yeast
1/2 c very warm water
1/2 c very warm milk
1 egg

Mix 2 c flour, sugar, butter, salt, and yeast. Then add water, milk, and egg. Stir/knead in enough remaining flour and so dough is no longer sticky. Let rise till double. Form rolls and allow to rise again. Bake at 375 for about 18 min.

Bread 2 Loaves

Combine 1/2 C milk and 1/2 C water, scald and let stand.

1 C “almost hot” water, add to this 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp sugar and 1 Tbls yeast, stir and let stand.

In mixing bowl, mix 1 egg, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 Tbls oil, 1/4 C sugar and ½ C potato flakes. Add yeast mixture, then, slowly add scalded milk/water, (slowly enough not to cook the eggs). Add 6 cups flour, knead dough 15 minutes with kitchen aid, cover, let rise. Punch down with greased hands. Shape into 2 loaves, put into greased loaf pans, cover and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Turn onto cooling rack, butter tops and let cool.

This can be done with all white, all wheat, or a combination of both. It takes a time or two to work out exactly how it will work best for you. I like a combination, but my favorite is with whole Spelt flour (not wheat). But if you try it, just make it your own way, this just gives you a basic idea.

Cloud Biscuits

2 c flour
1 T sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c shortening (I like to use softened margarine)
1 beaten egg
2/3 c milk

Cut shortening into flour. Add rest of ingredients. Roll out 3/4 inch thick, and cut out biscuits. A regular size canning ring is just the right size. Bake at 375 for 10 to 15 minutes.

Pizza Crust

I got this recipe out of my Newdale cookbook that I got as a wedding gift from Dad's cousin Carol who lives in Newdale. I make pizza probably twice a month, and this crust is really simple. I've adapted the recipe just a little bit, and it is so simple it would really be hard to mess it up.

Pizza Crust

1 T yeast
1 c warm water
1 tsp. salt
2 T oil
1 T sugar
2.5 - 3 c flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, oil, sugar, and flour. The original recipe only calls for 2 c flour, but that never seems to be enough for me. Mix then knead till not sticky anymore. This is enough dough for one pizza. Roll dough onto pizza stone then poke with a fork to keep any large bubbles from forming. Bake at 375 for about 12 min. Remove from oven and add whatever toppings you want. Then bake for another 10 min, or till toppings are done.