Suburban Homestead Store
Archive for the ‘In the Kitchen’ Category
Preserving the Harvest
The garden is in full swing this time of year. Vegetables are picked daily and the vacancies are replanted for another round of late summer or fall crops. The kitchen is abuzz with cleaning and chopping and blending and boiling.
This is the time that canning begins in earnest.
Our cooler than normal temperatures this summer have been a God send for summer canning. What would normally be a hot, sticky task has, so far, been a great pleasure. We’ve already canned blueberry, apricot and mixed berry jam; peach chutney, spiced peaches, zucchini relish and festive mild salsa. In a month there will be tomatoes – paste, stewed and sauce for pastas and pizzas.
I first learned to can with my mom. We had a neighbor on our street that made almost everything from scratch. From baking bread and making hamburger buns to canning jams, jellies, chutney’s and pie filling she made them all at home and in season. When our home garden overflowed we would take the extra produce to our neighbor and she would help us “put it up” for the winter. I loved the process of canning – getting produce ready for each recipe, stirring a bubbling pot over the stove, and then labeling colorful jars full of homegrown produce that would line our pantry shelves. Each bite throughout the winter would remind us of our summer garden and the days spent canning with friends. It was a country girls dream come true.
First time canning can be a daunting undertaking. With the fear of spoilage and the potential for botulism it’s a normal reaction. But, with proper handling and adherence to processing guidelines, the chances of causing harm are minimized. But, rest easy. Today’s methods of preserving are much easier and much more foolproof thanks to the two-piece lid closures from jar manufactures.
If you’ve decided that preserving food is on your homestead “TO-DO” list there are two important things you must do. The first is to destroy all micro-organisms such as bacteria, molds and yeasts that are naturally present in food to prevent them from spoiling the preserved food. The second important thing is to make sure your preserving containers are well sealed so that other organisms can’t enter, or they will also cause your carefully prepared food to spoil.
For the first-time canners simple recipes like jams are quick and easy. Or, try small batch canning (recipes that produce 2 to 4 pints or half-pints) until you feel more comfortable with the process. Anyway you approach it canning will bring summer’s colorful bounty to your family’s table all winter long.
To learn more about preserving the harvest check out these helpful links:
For canning books that would make great additions to your homestead library check these out.
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Small-Batch-Preserving-Year-Round/dp/1554072565
Red, White and Blueberry
I always look forward to this time of year. It gives me a chance to reflect upon our great nation, with the liberties and freedoms we enjoy, regardless of budgets and economies and politics and climates. My mind turns to those, known and not known, who have paid the ultimate price to preserve what I enjoy every day.
Our small town celebrates the 4th with a community-wide picnic at the local park. Hundreds of families spread out on blankets eating fried chicken, potato and macaroni salad, watermelon and a festive dessert, while they wait for the military fly by and of course a wonderful fireworks display.
This time of year is a busy one on our suburban homestead. Veggies are picked daily and canning is a weekly occurrence. It’s also a time that we share the bounty of our farm with friends and family. And now I want to share some of our favorites with all of you.
Red Raspberry Crisp
1 quart raspberries
1/3 cup sugar
½ cup butter
2/3 cup flour
2/3 cup brown sugar
1-1/2 cup rolled oats
Blend butter, flour, brown sugar and rolled oats. Spread half over bottom of 9-inch baking pan. Sprinkle raspberries with sugar and spread over oat mixture. Top with remaining oat mixture. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serves 6.
Serve a warm or at room temperature with homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.
White Peach Cheesecake
Base
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
Body
24 ounces cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons flour
3 eggs
16 ounces white peaches, peeled, pitted and sliced
1/4 cup Amaretto
Base
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg.
Add flour; mix well. Spread dough onto bottom of 9-inch spring form pan. Bake at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Body
Combine cream cheese, sugar and flour, mixing at medium speed on electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add peaches and liqueur; mix well.
Pour over crust. Bake at 450 degrees, 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 250 degrees F; continue baking 1 hour and 5 minutes. Loosen cake from rim of pan; cool before removing rim of pan. Chill.
Garnish with toasted almond slices and additional peach slices, if desired.
Blueberry Jam
9 cups fresh blueberry puree
6 cups sugar
Wash and remove stems. Discard any bruised or damaged berries. Using an immersion blender, blend berries until smooth. Measure after each batch until you have 9-cups. Pour into large stock pot and add sugar. Bring mixture to a boil and cook for 20-30 minutes. Jam is ready when it is thick, jamlike and sticks slightly to the bottom of the pan.
Pour into hot, scalded half-pint jars, leaving ½-inch headspace, and seal. Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 9 half pints.
Because the blueberries are blended the consistency of the jam will have a fruit butter texture.
photo credit: Rubber Slippers In Italy
Gadzukes… Zucchini’s!
Zucchini is a delicious and simple addition to any garden. They are very common in many gardens because they are beautiful, so easy to grow and prolific. But, these garden staples can produce too much of a good thing.
If you suffer from “what to do with all these zucks”, try this simple relish recipe and put a lid on all those zucks. This recipe was given to me by my mother-in-law and has been a staple in our pantry for years. It makes a great substitute for sweet pickle relish on hamburgers and hotdogs and is the main ingredient in our homemade Thousand Island dressing.
Zucchini Relish
10 cups – grated zucchini
4 cups – grated yellow onion
5 Tbsp – salt
1 each – grated red and green bell pepper
3 cups – sugar
2 Tsp – dry mustard
3 Tsp – turmeric
2 Tbsp – cornstarch
2 Tsp – celery seed
½ Tsp – pepper
2-1/2 cups – cider vinegar
2 small jars – pimiento
Mix grated zucchini, onion and salt. Let stand overnight.
Rinse and drain. Place in large stock pot. Add red and green peppers, sugar, mustard, turmeric, cornstarch celery seeds, pepper and vinegar. Cook on low to medium heat until thick, stirring constantly, about 5-minutes. Do not over-cook. Ladle into sterilized, hot jars and seal immediately. Makes about 6 pints.
photo credit: seelensturm
You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream
I don’t know about you folks, but financial crisis or not, chores or not, homesteading or not, I gotta have my creamy dessert – preferably fresh made – and I don’t want to wait long to get it either. If you suffer from this same affliction have I got news for you…
…super quick, super easy and super fresh made ice cream from your very own kitchen. There’s no complicated recipe to follow. No fancy ice cream maker needed. Just a few ingredients and a glass pan is all you need, then you too can dive into your own creamy creation.
Here’s the recipe.
Blender Ice-Cream
5-cups fresh strawberries, sliced OR 24 ounces frozen strawberries
½ cup sugar
1 ½ cups heavy cream
If using frozen berries take out and let stand about 20 minutes so you can slice them.
In a blender, combine berries and sugar, stopping several times to stir and make sure berries are finely chopped.
Slowly add cream while blending, stopping a few times to stir, until thick
Pour mixture into a shallow glass pan (about 9”x13”x2”) and freeze for about an hour, or until it’s scoopable. To use later, freeze solid, then remove from freezer and let stand for about 15 minutes to soften and become scoopable. Can be stored in the freezer for up to one month in an airtight container.
Can’t wait an hour for the mixture to freeze? Not to worry.
This ice cream will send you to the moon it’s so easy. Imagine – ice cream in seconds!
I discovered it purely by accident. Wanting a dessert of berries and cream, but not having any fresh berries on hand, I poured half-and-half over a bowl of frozen raspberries. The milk didn’t pool in the bottom of the bowl, but coated and froze to the berries, top to toe, completely covering them in a luscious frozen creamy snow.
Frozen Berries and Cream
¼ cup half-and-half
1 cup frozen berries (raspberries and blueberries work best)
Place berries in a bowl. Pour cream over the top. Gently stir to coat. Enjoy!
Now you can have homemade ice cream faster than it takes to run to the ice cream parlor and back. And, you’ll be avoiding the expense and the unwanted funky chemicals that are in commercially made ice cream. Plus, it tastes so much better.
Once you’ve mastered the, oh so difficult recipes above, experiment with your favorite berries or other kinds of fruit. Summer’s just around the corner and trees and canes and vines will soon be bursting. So get creative folks! And enjoy those lazy summer dazes with your own creamy delights.
photo credit: Rain Rabbit
Tricks to Peeling Fresh Hard Boiled Eggs
With all kinds of people raising their own chickens these days and more people buying fresh eggs at local farmers markets you knew there had to be a downside to this picture perfect farm product, didn’t ya?
Well, there is.
And, I was reminded of it this afternoon when I went to make myself lunch – fresh, homemade egg salad. Sometimes it seems nearly impossible to peel a fresh egg so that it looks good enough to use for anything other than what requires chopped eggs.
As you can see from the photograph above–they turn out looking like craggy moonscapes or postmarked, unsightly and just plain old ugly.
Standing there looking out the kitchen window trying in vain to peel the eggs I needed for my lunch, I chuckled to myself, remembering the battles my dad had using fresh eggs for his much-loved deviled eggs. It also reminded me of dad’s solution:
When he planned to make a dish that required pristine perfect hardboiled eggs, like for deviled eggs, he would set aside the number of eggs he needed a week or so in advance. Older eggs peel more easily, mainly because the air pocket inside the egg grows larger. As eggs age, the membrane of the egg doesn’t cling as tightly, allowing nimble-fingers to peel up a well-crackled shell by picking at a bit of membrane and zipping everything off in two or three swipes.
But, if dad was in a hurry, or just couldn’t wait to make deviled eggs, forcing him to use fresh eggs, it was hard to make them look as pristine as the older ones, and so, although they tasted great they never looked anything like ones made with older eggs.
If you can’t wait to use your homegrown eggs either try these tips for peeling fresh eggs. But remember - no matter how careful you are, fresh eggs are hard to peel and may not come out perfect every time.
Set eggs out so they come to room temperature; place in a pot and fill with water so you have at least 2-inches of water covering the eggs. Place on stove over medium-high heat until water comes to a full boil. Take pan off stove, cover and set aside for 12 to 15 minutes (18 minutes for extra large eggs). The hot water will continue to cook the eggs.
When the time is up, drain off the water and replace with cold water. If the water reheats, drain and refill again. (Remember to recycle the water in the garden or on potted plants.)
Once the eggs have cooled completely, gently tap the large end of the egg against a hard surface like your kitchen counter. This should crack the shell.
Turn the egg and crack the other end, then gently crack the shell all the way around. The shell should peel off easily at this point.
Here’s another…
Follow the cooking instructions above. When eggs are finished cooling gently crack them on the side of a pan or the counter. Find the membrane that lies between the cooked egg and the shell. Here’s the key…gently pull off the shell with the membrane sliding your thumb along the smooth shiny cooked egg, bringing the membrane and shell off together so that it doesn’t bring the cooked egg white off with the shell.
And another…
Once the eggs are cooked, drain the water. Shake the pan violently so the eggs crack into tiny pieces on all sides. Fill the pan with very cold water and let stand for several minutes. At this point the shell should come right off after you get it started.
Hard boiled eggs in the shell can be refrigerated up to one week. Hard boiled eggs out of the shell should be used right away.
The Sunny Fields of Denmark
About an hour north of us is the quaint village of Solvang – an old Danish-American settlement nestled in the Santa Ynez Valley. Once home to settlers, refugees from Midwestern winters and educator’s, the village began its life as a folk school where students learned the basics of Danish craftsmanship and a love of Danish culture.
When the king and queen of Denmark visited, in 1936 and the Saturday Evening Post featured Solvang in an article 10 years later tourists flocked to the 9,000 acre Spanish land grant, attracted by the setting, the customs, and the idyllic life.
As a little girl, Solvang was a favorite weekend day trip for my family. Up the coastline of crashing waves and birds skittering over the water, then cut inland, through valleys where foothills were studded with oak trees and deer munched in the alfalfa fields that bordered the road. Finally we arrived on the outskirts of the village. No cars were allowed in the town limits back then, a rule that has since been repealed, much to the detriment of pedestrians.
To a little girl, this was a magical town. People dressed in traditional Danish costumes, horse drawn carriages slowly made their way down through the streets; the band stand at the center of town was always in full swing with music and dancing and shade trees to which tired children could lie under and rest while enjoying the merriment. There were shops and galleries and restaurants and hotels, each reflecting the area’s Danish architectural heritage. This was the good life where simple pleasures were remembered amidst old world charm and customs.
But, the thing I remember the most is the food. Yep, even then I lead my life with my stomach, a true “foodie” in the making. Pastries and cookies and breads, meats and sausages, even cabbage dishes, I tried them all. One of my favorites was Aebleskiver’s - traditional Danish pancakes made in a special pan called a monk’s pan. Think round pancake and you’ll get the picture. They’re light and fluffy and when filled with jam or chocolate they are wonderful!
To create your own bit of Denmark, try the recipe below
Basic Aebleskiver Recipe
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs, separated
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
4 Tbs. (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Maple syrup or jellies for serving
Directions:
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, granulated sugar and salt.
In a small bowl, lightly whisk together the egg yolks and buttermilk. Whisk the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well combined; the batter will be lumpy.
In another bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat the egg whites on high speed until stiff but not dry peaks form, 2 to 3 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whites into the batter in two additions.
Put 1/2 tsp. butter in each well of a filled-pancake pan. Place over medium heat and heat until the butter begins to bubble. Pour batter into each well ¾ full and cook until the bottoms are golden brown and crispy, 3 to 5 minutes. Using 2 wooden skewers flip the pancakes over and cook until golden and crispy, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Dust the pancakes with confectioners’ sugar and serve warm with maple syrup. Makes about 40.
To make jam filled Aebleskiver’s simply fill each monk’s pan well 1/3 full of batter then add a dollop of preserves, then a dollop more of batter and proceed as directed above. Dust with confectioners’ sugar and serve with extra jam.
For chocolate Aebleskiver’s, add 1/3 cup cocoa powder to the dry ingredients and proceed as directed. Serve with whipped cream.
Today, Solvang is still a charming town with roots firmly planted in its Danish tradition, but it has also evolved into a major tourist mecca, as its many Danish-American residents continue to perpetuate their Danish heritage. I haven’t visited for many years, but the memories of Danish folk dancing, music, parades, displays and, of coarse the food are all firmly fixed in my mind. I’m not lonely for it though because anytime I want to take myself back I just pull out my monk’s pan and make my own little Aebleskiver’s; all the while thinking, thank heaven I don’t have to pronounce it to eat it!
Monk’s pans can be found at Target, Amazon.com or William Sonoma, but you may find them at thrift stores and some local hardware stores as well.
Home Brew without the Kick
Last fall, while attending a livestock show, we had a chance to visit Bass Pro Shop. What a great place! It had everything you could imagine - from camping to hunting, fishing and outdoor cooking. It’s like an outdoorsman’s paradise on steroids; Disneyland for the sportsman really.
While paroozing the cooking section, I came across a novel item – a root beer home brewing kit. I was intrigued. Home brewing has been on my radar for a while now. And, seeing a kit complete with ingredients, equipment and even bottles sparked a hell of an interest in me. But, being the frugal, practical person that I am, and not really seeing that I would have the time to watch the home brew until it was ready really didn’t seem in the cards at the time. So I kept on walking. Months later though, I had this gnawing desire to learn how to make my own home brew, and felt a little disappointed that I hadn’t taken the opportunity when I had it.
After all, this wasn’t like making hard cider or beer or wine. There wouldn’t be the hazards of over yeasted bottles exploding in the kitchen or accidental poisonings because things went wrong. This was root beer for God sake – frothy, foaming soda you pour over ice cream.
Anyway, the root beer project seemed harmless enough. I didn’t need any complicated vats or tubing and the whole process from mixing to carbonating to cold in your hands took only 3 days. Five brainless steps to produce a rich and creamy drink that will taste our taste buds back in time. Pretty straight forward right? Also, trying something non-alcoholic seemed like a safe start.
So last week I broke down and ordered one Mr. Root Beer root beer brewing kit. And tonight Brianne and I are in the kitchen mixing the concoction of water, sugar, root beer extract and yeast with a big wooden spoon.
When I felt confident we had followed the directions correctly, we poured it into the old-fashioned looking 1-liter bottles that came with the kit, and watched the foam rise to the top, which would in theory, carbonate it. In 3-days, if all goes well, it should be ready to drink. I’ll pour the plastic bottle into a nicer serving jug, a brown colonial looking one I found while on vacation in Virginia, and place it in the fridge to chill.
If all goes well we’ll soon be sipping root beer floats made with Ben and Jerry’s Vermont Homestead vanilla ice cream drowning in our own home brew; hopefully in front of a beautiful western sky with a chorus of chirping finches in the background.
Cheers everyone!
Homestead Sausage
When I was a little girl and our town had not yet experienced the rapid building and influx of people of its later years, we had small neighborhood markets. The kind you still see in some larger cities or European countries. Think the Butcher, or the Baker, but no Candlestick Maker. We had small grocery stores and five & dime shops that were breaming with all kinds of curiosities – from hardware to gardening to sewing supplies, all displayed in one shop.
My favorite was the butcher shop; a long narrow store with a meat counter on one side and all kinds of meat accompaniments on the other. Behind the counter were stainless steel tables for slicing and wrapping meat. There was a large band saw for cutting carcasses into quarters or large roasts. Saws and hooks and other tools hung from the “C” shaped track that brought whole carcasses from the cooler to the cutting tables. The walk-in freezer sat at the end of the room, adorned with posters from the Lamb Council, the Pork Producers Association and the American Beef Council. In the fall, the shop owner would put a large poster on the freezer door announcing the time to order special holiday meats like fresh turkeys, hams, ducks, geese and prime rib or tenderloins.
Each week my mom would take us with her as she did her weekly meat shopping. The butcher would talk to her about what was on special, what had come in that day and what would be good choices to feed a family of five on a budget. But, without fail we left with the same thing every week – chicken, ham, homemade sausage, ground beef, stew meat and something dad could grill on the BBQ during the weekend. The butcher would wrap each cut of meat in pink paper and secure it with white butcher tape. There were no plastic bags or carts, just an arm load of meat to feed a hungry family. Before leaving, the butcher would hand us two bones as treats for our dogs, a large one for Sam our Great Dane and a smaller one for Shelly, moms Cocker Spaniel.
Decades have passed and days of neighborhood markets are mostly memories now. The butcher shop of my childhood has been paved over along with many of the stores we shopped at during my childhood. But, I’ve never forgotten the fun I had going to that butcher shop and how polite and helpful and friendly the butcher was. Read the rest of the story »
Bountiful Blueberries
Long before berries were touted for their health benefits and cancer fighting antioxidants I wanted my very own berry patch. Aside from melons, berries are my favorite fruit. Whether it be strawberries on pound cake with vanilla ice cream, blackberries or raspberries in fruit smoothies or blueberries hiding in my Saturday morning pancakes, berries are on my top ten list.
When I moved to my little homestead I vowed that I would have a berry patch, bursting with all of my favorites. It’s taken me awhile, but I finally have, what I think, is the perfect berry patch for a household of two. In the backyard I built two 3’x12’ raised beds. These beds hold the blackberries, Logan berries, red raspberries and golden raspberries. But, it’s the front yard that holds the stars of my lust for berries – BLUEBERRIES!!
After reading an article about edible landscapes I decided that the west facing front planter would be the perfect place for a living, edible hedge. So, two years ago I set out to make it happen. I laid the irrigation line, amended the soil with peat moss and well rotted compost. Blueberries like acidic soil that is rich in matter. When it came time to purchase my berry plants I talked to growers from the farmers market and local farm stands trying to get information about the best varieties for our area.
Then one day, while visiting a friend, I found out that one of my former neighbors had planted a 10-acre test plot with the idea of growing blueberries commercially. I gave Andy a call and picked his brain about growing conditions, fertilizing, watering, production, harvesting and, of course, varieties suitable for our area. It was a mini crash course in berry production and it was great. He was so helpful.
With a little more research on the internet to help me, I decided on two different varieties, three plants each. My new blueberry hedge would consist of O’Neal’s and Sharp Blue. They are both highbush type plants, which means they grow more vertically; perfect for my idea of growing an edible hedge. And, they mature different times of the year, so I would have a relatively consistent flow of berry goodness.
After a few phone calls I was able to find a local nursery that carried both varieties. On a beautiful spring day, under a crystal blue sky we drove the 10 miles to pick up our bushes. I had already told the nursery we were coming and what we wanted, but when we arrived we got the surprise of our lives. When the nursery workers went to the field to get our potted berries they found leftovers from previous seasons and brought them up front in case I might be interested. “Interested” I said, boy was I ever. These were not the ordinary spindly first year plants that home gardeners normally get, but 4-year-old plants that had been forgotten about at the back of the nursery. They were almost 3-feet tall and busting out of their pots.
I took the ones that looked the healthiest, loaded them in the truck and headed home feeling smug that we had gotten so much more than we anticipated. Once home, the planting went fast, and within a few hours the berries were nestled snuggly in their new home.
The harvest that first season was light - the results of transplanting and plant shock, which is normal. But, this season the plants were covered with tiny white flowers, a sign of things to come. The O’Neal’s will be harvested in June followed by the later maturing Sharp Blue. We should have enough berries for fresh eating, with plenty to freeze for winter use or for making into jam. No matter what, we will be in blueberry heaven.
If you see a blueberry patch in your future, check out these useful resources.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1304/
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Growing-Blueberries.aspx
http://www.hgtv.com/landscaping/growing-blueberries/index.html
If you’re not ready to plant your own patch, buy fresh berries at the farmers market and enjoy their burst of flavor all season long. Pick up an extra pint and try this luscious recipe, one of our favorites from the Iroquois Hotel on Mackinac Island.
Blueberry-Lemon Muffins
(makes 18 large or 36 small muffins)
INGREDIENTS
2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
2/3 cup cooking oil
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
½ Tbsp lemon zest
GLAZE:
4 Tbsp butter
½ cup sugar
Grease or coat muffin tins. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Into a mixing bowl sift flour and other dry ingredients.
Into a small bowl crack and beat eggs with a wire whisk for 10 seconds. Add the milk and oil to eggs and stir to blend. Make a well in the flour and pour in the egg-milk mixture. Stir as little as possible to moisten the flour. Set the batter aside for a moment.
Combine blueberries with lemon zest, and fold the berry mix into the muffin mix. Again stir gently and as little as possible. Spoon batter into muffin tins to ¾-full.
Place muffin tins into oven and set the timer for 20 minutes. It may take an additional 5 minutes to become golden brown. Check at 15 minutes, and if they are browning too quickly, move to the bottom rack of the oven.
While the muffins are baking, melt butter in a small saucepan. Pour the sugar into a small shallow bowl easy for dipping.
When the muffins are finished, cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the edges of each. Tilt and gently lift each muffin from the tin.
Dip the top of each muffin lightly in the butter and then in the sugar. The muffins can be held overnight and reheated for eating. They can also be frozen, but fresh is always best.
Sunday Baking
Sundays are a day of rest at our farm. It’s a time when we leave most hard core jobs for another day. Whether we consider it the end of a week or just the beginning the pace is slower and more relaxed, with time to stroll in the garden and soak up some sun.
Sunday is also the day I bake my weekly bread. It’s a ritual I enjoy and one that lends itself well to a day of puttering. The weather is chilly and gloomy out there, a sharp contrast to the gardening-inducing sun of previous days. It is warm inside and the quiet melodic tunes coming from the radio seem to keep time with my wooden spoon moving around the bowl. I don’t know the name of the song, I don’t bother to pay attention to such mundane things on days l like this, but it a grand way to pass an afternoon. Grand indeed. Heat up the tea pot, kick off my shoes, cradle a newborn chick in my hands and breathe a little slower. Everyone has their own way of celebrating their faith. This is mine. A time when time itself seems to almost stand still, where songs sink deep into the soul reminding us of life’s more important meanings, where the food is good and a cup of tea puts a life on the mend. Life is good. Have a soulful day, all.
Buttermilk Whole Wheat Bread
(from Bernard Clayton’s New Complete Book of Breads)
(makes one 9″x5″ or two 8.5″x4.5″ loaves)
Ingredients:
2 packages dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (105-115F)
1-1/4 cups buttermilk, room temperature
1-1/2 cups bread flour, approximately
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup shortening, room temperature
2 tablespoons brown sugar or molasses
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
Step 1 - In a large mixing bowl sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and stir briefly to dissolve. Set aside while allowing the buttermilk to reach room temperature, about 15 minutes.
Step 2 - When at room temperature, pour the buttermilk, bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, shortening, brown sugar or molasses, baking powder, and salt into the yeast mixture. Blend with 50 strong strokes of a wooden spoon, or at low speed in a mixer until the flour and the dry ingredients are absorbed. With a wooden spoon or mixer flat beater stir in the remaining whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup at a time, and, when it becomes thick, work with the fingers. Allow 4 to 5 minutes for the whole wheat flour to fully absorb the liquid before adding more flour. The dough will be slightly sticky and soft. You may wish to add more bread flour to help control the stickiness.
Step 3 - Sprinkle flour on the work surface and turn out the soft dough. In the early stages of kneading, a metal spatula or dough blade will help turn and fold the dough. It will also scrape up the film of dough from the work surface. Knead with a strong push-turn-fold action, occasionally lifting the dough above the counter and banging it down hard. Knead for 8 minutes, buy hand or with a dough hook.
Step 4 - There is no “first” rising–the dough is put in the pans and set aside to rise. Divide the 2 pieces, if desired, and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Shape into balls; press the balls into ovals the length of the pans. Fold in half lengthwise, pinch the seam, and place in the pans with the seam under. Push the dough into the corners of the pans. Cover the pans with wax paper and leave at room temperature until the dough has risen 1″ to 2″ above the level of the pan, about 50 minutes. (Rising times will be reduced if using instant yeast.)
Step 5 - Preheat oven to 425F 20 minutes before baking.
Step 6 - Bake the loaf or loaves in the oven until they are golden brown and loose in the pans, about 30-35 minutes. Cover with foil if the crusts are browning too rapidly. The loaves are baked if the sound is hard and hollow when thumped on the bottom crust.
Step 7 - Remove loaves from the oven and place on wire racks to cool.