Baking Today

It's a rainy Saturday and we're out of bread, so I'm making a new sourdough sandwich loaf from a friend who got it from The Kitchn today.  It's kinda cliche, right, to be making sourdough bread right now?  Though, I'm pretty late to the party.  In fairness, I've had a sourdough starter for years but only used it for a biscuit recipe that we made irregularly.  I think a sandwich loaf would be great, especially with us eating more sandwiches and toast these days.  It's kind of a cheater recipe, because it also adds commercial, but so does my biscuit recipe.

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Beginner Sourdough Sandwich Loaf

YIELDMakes 2 loaves

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons yeast
• 2 cups (16 ounces) ripe sourdough starter (or any amount up to 2 cups, add equivalent flour and water by weight)
• 4 to 4 1/2 cups (18 to 20 1/4 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt (or 1 scant tablespoon table salt)

1. Combine the water and the yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large mixing bowl. Give the yeast a few minutes to dissolve completely. Stir in the sourdough starter until the starter is mostly dissolved (a few stringy bits are ok).  

   Add 4 cups of the flour and the salt, and stir to make a shaggy dough. With the dough hook attachment and your mixer on low speed, knead the dough for about 8 minutes. Alternatively, turn the dough out on a lightly floured counter and knead by hand. Add flour 1 tablespoon at a time as needed if the dough becomes sticky like bubble gum, but try to avoid adding too much. The dough is finished kneading when it comes together into a smooth ball that's slightly tacky to the touch and holds a ball-shape in your hand.

   Clean out the mixing bowl, film it with a little oil, and return the dough to the bowl. Turn it a few times to coat with oil, then cover. Let the dough rise at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.Once risen, turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and divide it in two. Shape each half into rough balls and let them rest for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, grease two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 loaf pans.Shape each half into a sandwich loaf.  Transfer the loaves to the loaf pans and cover loosely. Let the loaves rise until they're starting to puff over the rim of the pan, 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Alternatively, put your loaves in the refrigerator and let them rise slowly overnight. When you see the loaves just starting to reach the rim of the loaf pans, begin preheating the oven to 450°F.Slash the top of the loaves a few time with a serrated knife or baking lame, and slide them immediately into the oven. For a crispier crust, spritz the inside of the oven with water using a water spritzer before closing the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400°F. Continue baking for another 25 to 30 minutes, until the tops of the loaves are deep golden brown and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. (Total baking time is 35 to 40 minutes.)Shake the loaves out of the loaf pans and let them cool completely on a cooling rack. 

 

Black Friday Bread

I saw this recipe on FB sometime over the weekend, from the King Arthur Flour people.  With lefteover mashed and sweet potatoes and stuffing AND no plans to go out much less shop over the weekend, I knew I could make this bread.    However, the instructions say not to use a dressing cooked inside a bird or even moistened with meat stock, so my chicken-broth-based cornbread stuffing was out.  So I made a sweet-mashed combo.  With all purpose instead of bread flour, cutting the milk as they suggested.  And I put it in my bread machine instead of making it by hand.

All of which is to say, it didn't come out quite as it should, due to my adaptations, but it shows real promise.  The flavor was good and there was definitely enough moisture, but it was kinda heavy and didn't cook all the way through on the regular cycle (I forgot to run the whole wheat cycle, which would've been better.) Next time, I'll probably run it on the dough cycle and then bake it off on my own, maybe even in my cast iron skillet, making a flatter loaf.  But there is a slight sweetness and a great color.  And it toasts up nicely.

I wonder if using maple syrup for the sweetener would've gone well with the sweet potatoes?  Who knows, I have more leftovers.  I just might try again.


Black Friday Bread

1 cup (4 ounces) King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour
2 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour
2 tablespoons soft butter
1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons salt, to taste
1 tablespoon sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
2/3 cup lukewarm milk
1 cup prepared stuffing*
1 cup mashed potatoes, white or sweet

*For safety’s sake, use stuffing that neither baked in the turkey, nor used meat broth as its moistener.

Can you substitute unbleached all-purpose flour for the bread flour, and/or the whole wheat flour? Sure; reduce the amount of milk to 1/2 cup, adding additional milk or water if the dough seems dry and stiff. Your loaf may not rise as high.

As mentioned above, feel free to substitute the mashed ingredients of your choice for the stuffing and potatoes. Mashed root vegetables (turnip, sweet potatoes, squash, parsnips) are good; as is applesauce.

Oh, and one more thing: taste the bread dough once it’s mixed, but before kneading; you may need to adjust the salt, depending on whether or not the add-ins you chose were salty.

See all instructions at KAF

Drop Everything

Sometimes, the kids kinda have to be bribed, indirectly, to eat leftovers.  Especially if they didn't like the meal in the first place.  I find warm bread usually helps.  Fresh cornbread, a warm loaf of beer bread, and, last night, hot drop biscuits to make the leftover broccoli cheddar soup more palatable.

And, as usual, it worked.  The leftovers are gone . . . as were all of the extra biscuits by morning!

Drop Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk

Preheat to 450F.

Combine dry ingredients.  But in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Add milk and stir just until dough clings together.  Drop by tablespoon onto baking sheet.  Bake until golden, approximately 10-12 minutes.

Makes 10-12 biscuits.

Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

The Bread Bond

Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile will recall my bread pledge a few years back (2010, actually) when, as part of Earth Day celebrations, I pledged to make all of our family's bread products for 40 days. It was a transformative experience. I gave a talk about it at church and also posted most of my recipes (search my blog for "bread pledge" or "rise up.")  I then posted a wrap-up.  Two interesting things happened during the pledge:  it brought my church community together as they rallied to teach me how to bake and shared their recipes with me.  And I was given a highly coincidental, perhaps miraculous, compilation of bread recipes--BREAD of all things, not just a cookbook--which was, unbeknownst to the person who gave it to me, compiled by the person who lived in this house in the 1950s!!

Well, the bread story continues.  Because yesterday, as the attic cleaners were carting junk out of the attic, I spotted a dirty only plank, with this sign screwed on it:

It had to be bread!

I Googled it and found that this dirty, grimy sign, when cleaned (and that's not rust but dirt!) sells for almost $500 on eBay!  It's porcelain on steel, dating to the around the 1930s, or about a decade after our house was built.  Bond Bread, founded in 1911 by the General Baking Company, was made by a conglomeration of bakeries in, at its height, 26 states, and was famous for its baked goods, such as streusel-topped cinnamon swirl bread and "bridge cookies" (they even held a contest to find the best homemade recipe!).  It was very popular, supporting radio programs and eventually Hopalong Cassidy's show (did you know I used to live on Cassidy Place and had a cat named Hopalong!  The coincidences multiply!).    Something like Pepperidge Farms, I think.  Anyway, the bakeries were dominant until grocery stores added their own bakeries; I think the company shuttered in 1972.

I can only guess that it's screwed onto what was once a portion of fence that was later used as flooring in our attic, where the sign stayed protected for half a century or so until I saw the attic cleaners carting it away to the junk pile of 50+ bags of insulation and garbage.  It didn't take a split second for me to know that I wanted to keep that sign, which is now safe in the garage until we can figure out how to get it off the planks.

We won't be selling it, even at that price.  I think it's some kind of lucky bread talisman so it will be going into our kitchen as soon as possible.  Sis and Bud were intrigued, though they don't recall the Bread Pledge (they were only 4 1/2 years old), and they've asked me to take up the homemade bread pledge again.

See, it's magic is working already.

Whimsical

"When it's time to eat, you eat!" Sis declared, gobbling first the legs and tail and then the body of her bunny-shaped bread.

We'd spent the afternoon at the Brownie troop's mother-daughter baking extravaganza.  The girls had decorated paper chef's hats with cupcake-liner flowers and then made similar corsages for their moms.  After taking portraits of each pair, we started shaping our dough, which one of my co-leaders had made.  Sis made a lovely detailed bunny and I shaped my bit into a pretzel.  (You might recall that Sis likes to make Whimsy Bread Bunnies.) We both powdered them with cinnamon sugar.

While they baked, we all went outside for a relay, with the girls racing to don chef's hat, apron, and mitt and to carry hard-boiled eggs across the yard on a wooden spoon.  After some freeplay, we all went inside to enjoy our bread with jam, honey, and/or butter.

Because "when it's time to eat, you eat," which is why this is not a great picture:

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recipe to follow soon

Wish Me the Luck 'o the Irish

I'm entering a baking contest today--an Irish soda bread baking contest in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  I figure, it being my first year knowing I have a wee drop of Irish in me AND the recipe coming from my Chinese father-in-law, I can't lose, right?  It's great bread; other people think so, too.  Even if I did add the caraway seeds, which I don't like.  

Thankfully, I'm not too vested in winning.  I just thought it would be fun.  I thought it would be more fun if the kids made their own versions (Sis just bread no add-ins, Bud just raisins), but they thought playing outside was more fun.  

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Irish Soda Bread

We baked four different mini-loaves placed apart on a silpat-lined cookie sheet for about 40 minutes.

4 cups flour
½ cup sugar
3 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2-3 handfuls caraway seeds
1 cup raisins
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon melted butter

Generously grease a large iron skillet (or use a pizza stone). turn on oven to 350°F. Mix together dry ingredients. Add milk and butter. Bake 1 hour.
Note: You might need to add extra milk.

a friend of my MIL

Bread Fail

It was a teachable moment on Monday:  I carefully popped the steaming loaf of fragrant banana bread out of its pan and flipped it upright when the entire center gave way--the insides were raw!  I had baked it, 15 minutes more than suggested, and even tested it for doneness twice, clean bamboo skewer!  I still don't know what happened--I guess a pocket of it didn't bake.

With Sis keening her lost banana bread, I popped what I could back in the pan, baked it another 30 minutes, and called it banana bread pudding.  All's well that ends well--we finished it off this morning!

My Leap

Trying to embrace today as something unique, I tried to go about my day as a mini-retreat, combining healthy activities, relaxation and rejuvenation, and pleasure.  Sure, I'm home everyday, but that doesn't mean everyday is like a spa day here.  But I tried to make today one.  I ate delicious, nourishing whole foods (all vegan so far), including museli and coffee with cardamom, a portabello/kale/potato saute, celery sticks with dip, an apple with sunflower butter, and some nuts, seeds, and dried fruit, with lots of water, tea, and a homemade elderflower soda.  I walked on my treadmill for 45 minutes while listening to my current audiobook, Tracey Chevalier's tale of Regency lady-fossil hunters in Lyme Regis, Remarkable Creatures.  I did my PT exercises, including a "mandala" of lunges in different directions, some wall push-ups, and other strengthening movements.  I followed along to my lovingkindness meditation CD.  I read a chapter from Ellen Galinsky's wordy but enlightening discussion of life skills for children, Mind in the Making, for my school book club.  The book talked about studies that showed it was never too late to learn a language, so I started up my neglected Italian lessons again. I baked a lovely and fragrant gingerbread bread (aka Hodge-Podge Yeasted Gingerbread from King Arthur Flour's Baking Sheet.  Alas, not vegan.)  I crocheted a tiny bit, for the first time in a long while, inspired by the prayer shawls at church on Sunday, and wrote a letter.  I did a refreshing mid-afternoon teeth-brushing, face-washing, hair-combing perk-me-up routine.

And now I'm ready for the second part of my day, when the kiddos come home on the bus in about 20 minutes.  I don't know what our leap day will look like together--it's rainy outside which prohibits yesterday's activities of fairy-house building and pretend-mixing-"chocolate"-mud-on-a-metate-grindstone-like-the-colonists-did.  But I hope it's as wonderful as the first part of my day was.

Thanksgiving Live: The Cooking Has Begun

I made my first Thanksgiving recipe this morning.  


Right, not yesterday with the kids as planned.  Time and energy were in short supply, as was motivation; they were making their own Wizard of Oz novels (more on that soon).


So this morning.  I started with the rolls, a new recipe, Big-Batch Quick Dinner Rolls (no worries, I trust King Arthur Flour)--simple ingredients, big batch, enough for everyone.  It wasn't technically a bread machine recipe, but I adapted.  And it seemed to turn out just fine.  There are three pans of eight, sealed and safe in the freezer, where they'll stay until bedtime when I'll pull them out to defrost (it doesn't say, but I'll probably defrost in the fridge).  Two pans for us, one for Mama Teacher.  I hope it works.  And I'll let you know.


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Big-Batch Quick Dinner Rolls

• 1/2 cup lukewarm water
• 2 cups warm milk ( 100 - 110°F)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons yeast, instant preferred
• 6 to 7 cups KA all-purpose flour

I put everything in my bread machine (using 5 cups of flour and then adding 1 1/2 more as needed).  I let it knead and then rise about 30+ minutes (i.e. not the whole cycle).  And then removed the dough, made a 12 x 8" rectangle, divided it into 4 rows with 6 rolls each, rolled them into balls, and placed them into greased aluminum pie tins.  Then I covered them tightly and put them in the freezer.  I'll defrost overnight.  In the morning, I'll preheat to 350F and bake 20-25 minutes until golden.  Yum!

King Arthur Flour

Warm Air Rises

I've made No-Knead Harvest Bread twice:  once it was fabulous but once it was awful.  The difference:  the overnight rise.  The first time I made it, the dough didn't rise at all, almost seemed to dry and toughen somewhat.  I realized it was probably too cold in our mid-fall kitchen, not near the mid 70s it ideally should be to rise.  So, Mama did some research and we had a plan:  put the dough in a warm oven overnight.  So, combining suggestions online, we turned the oven on to 400F for 2 minutes (not preheated and then waited two minutes!), turned off the heat, turned on the light, and place the covered dough (in an oven-proof dish) near the light, along with a pot of boiling water from the stove.  And it worked!  The dough rose and the oven was still warm and moist.  And the finished bread was delicious--not too sweet but hearty and flavorful.  


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No-Knead Harvest Bread

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (King Arthur, of course!)
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (ditto!  You can also use white whole wheat)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
• 1 3/4 cups cool water (we actually used warm, as per other no-knead recipes)
• 3/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (we used chopped apricots instead)
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts (we had walnuts, but fairly finely chopped)

1) Mix the flours, salt, yeast, and water in a large bowl. Stir, then use your hands to mix and form a sticky dough.

2) Work the dough just enough to incorporate all the flour, then work in the fruit and nuts.

3) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature overnight, or for at least 8 hours; it'll become bubbly and rise quite a bit, so use a large bowl.

4) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and form it into a log or round loaf to fit your 14" to 15" long lidded stoneware baker; 9" x 12" oval deep casserole dish with cover; or 9" to 10" round lidded baking crock. (We just put it in two regular loaf pans--could have probably have made a big loaf in one pan)

5) Place the dough in the lightly greased pan, smooth side up.

6) Cover and let rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, until it's become puffy. It should rise noticeably, but it's not a real high-riser.

7) Place the lid on the pan, and put the bread in the cold oven. Set the oven temperature to 450°F.

8) Bake the bread for 45 to 50 minutes, then remove the lid and continue to bake for another 5 to 15 minutes, until it's deep brown in color, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center registers about 205°F. Remove the bread from the oven, turn out onto a rack, and cool before slicing. King Arthur Flour

Whimsical Weekend

A week ago, Sis and I spent the afternoon with flour up to our elbows. We were making Whimsy Bread at a Girl Scout event. What is Whimsy Bread? Whatever you want it to be! Sis formed her ball of dough into a bunny. I made mine into a teddy bear. We handed them over to the Scouts in the kitchen, who gave the dough an egg wash and a dusting of kosher salt before baking.

Meanwhile, we sang a few songs ("Baby Shark" and "I Said a Boom Chicka Boom" anyone?) and then made a SWAP (described as "Something With A Pin," a craft which you sometime trade at SWAP meets)--a braided rope looped as a pretzel, covered in glitter "salt," and, you guessed it, stuck with a pin.

By then, the dough was bread and we had a snack with lemonade. Sis was suspicious of the salt and probably would've preferred hers salt-free. But she seemed happy, even if the bunny shape, well, merged (morphed?) somewhat in the oven.

But they didn't give us the recipe, saying it was a Girl Scout secret!!!! Harumphf. It was vaguely pretzel-like, given the salt. The allergen list merely said salt, yeast, flour, water, and egg. No oil or milk or butter or sugar. And so, starting from there, I researched shaped breads online. Frog bread. Teddy Bear bread. Turtle bread. Great shapes, but most of the recipes had milk in them. Until I found . . .

The Alligator.

The site says it's a straightforward Italian bread. And I'm guessing you could use any Italian bread recipe. I don't really have one of those yet, so I'll be trying The Alligator.

(Note to family: All I can hear is "alligator gets the baby!")

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UPDATE:  A secret source tells me this is the recipe:

Whimsy Bread Recipe

4 c. flour

1.5 c. water

1 TBS yeast

1 TBS sugar

10 minutes - not sure the temp. I think 400

Eating in the Box

Perhaps inspired by one of our new favorite books, The Boxcar Children, who begin the series by living in a boxcar and eating, as Bud notes, "a lot of bread" (which life they enjoyed so much that their rich grandfather later moved their boxcar to his garden! Yes, this is a book from 1924, so much so that whole things like how the kids' parents both died suddenly and the kids ended up on the run have yet to be answered or even addressed.), we had a simple, delightful lunch today: warm bread, honey, apples, grapes, cheese. It's one of our new favorite lunches, much better than leftovers. And recently we've enjoyed it with two new breads, Cornmeal Honey and Coconut Milk (vegan, with the most amazing scent and subtle flavor of coconut, but not sweet).

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Cornmeal Honey Bread

1 1/8 cups water

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces

3 tablespoons honey

2 2/3 cups bread flour

1/3 cup yellow cornmeal

1/3 cup dry buttermilk powder

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon gluten

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Combine all ingredients in the pan according to manufacturer's instruction. Set crust on medium and program for Basic.

When the baking is done, immediately remove bread from pan and place on rack to cool completely.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

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Coconut Milk White Bread

1 1/8 caned coconut milk

3 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon gluten

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Combine all ingredients in the pan according to manufacturer's instruction. Set crust on medium and program for Basic.

When the baking is done, immediately remove bread from pan and place on rack to cool completely.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

It's Not Just For Crackers Anymore

I received a bag of King Arthur Flour graham flour (aka whole wheat pastry flour) for Christmas, about which I was very excited. And so I've been experimenting with graham breads in my favorite bread machine cookbook, Beth Hensperger's Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. The first we tried, Graham Bread, was soft and nutty, but not too wheat-y that the kids objected; in fact, Sis asked for another loaf. Though, it didn't take like graham crackers at all, my only previous experience with the flour. Today, I'm making Graham Indian Bread, similar to the previous recipe but with cornmeal added. We'll see how we like it. And then maybe we'll make crackers!

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Graham Bread

1 1/8 cups water

1 large egg

2 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces

2 1/4 cup bread flour

3/4 cup graham flour

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 teaspoons gluten

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in pan. Set crust on medium and program for BASIC or WHOLE WHEAT cycle; press Start.

When baking ends, remove bread from pan and cool on rack before slicing.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

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Graham Indian Bread

1 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup water

2 tablespoons butter, unsalted, cut into pieces

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 cup graham flour

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon gluten

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons bread machine yeast

Place all ingredients in pan. Set crust on medium and program for WHOLE WHEAT cycle; press Start.

When baking ends, remove bread from pan and cool on rack before slicing.

Beth Hensperger, The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook

Teacher Gifts

Following Mama Teacher's suggestions and coming up with some of my own ideas, I have finally decided what to do about gifts for the myriad of teachers, aides, specialists (2 music, art, Spanish, PE, library), administrators, and staff who assist in the education of Sis and Bud: we're bringing a platter of breakfast breads--pumpkin, banana, strawberry, and chocolate--this week, on a day when they're all in the building, to put in the staff lounge. Because they so enrich the school experience and because the kids will have them all for years to come, I thought it was important to remember them. Also, Mama Teacher tells me they rarely get a thing. And while I'd considered some kind of homemade gift like hot chocolate packets in a mug (realizing each person would then get two, so I'd have to differentiate for Sis and Bud) or individually wrapped little loaves per teacher or a large donation to Heifer International in honor of all of them, this is what we decided on (no worries, we're donating to Heifer as a family). Additionally, next week, the kids will take tins of something (right now, it will probably be specialty chocolates from Teuscher's in the city) for their classroom teachers (I'll save the book gift cards for summer. Which seems so far off at this point). Wish us happy baking before then, we're doing all the bread tonight.

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Pumpkin Bread

Makes 2 loaves

3 cups sugar

3 ½ cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons each nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon

4 eggs

2 cups fresh or canned cooked pumpkin

1 cup oil

½ cup water plus ½ cup apricot or peach brandy (or another ½ cup water)

1 cup each chopped pecans and raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°F. Combine sugar, flour, soda, salt, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cinnamon in large electric mixer bowl. Mix eggs pumpkin, oil, water (or brandy) and combine with dry ingredients; beat until well mixed. Fold in pecans and raisins. Bake in large greased Bundt pan until cake tests done, about 1 hours and 30-45 minutes.

Gommie Hungry
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Banana Bread

Beat:

1 ½ cups sugar

½ cup butter

½ cup shortening

Add:

2 eggs

4 tablespoons milk

Sift and add:

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

Add:

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups mashed bananas (appx. 6 bananas)

1 cup nuts

Grease and flour pan. Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes. For miniature muffins, bake at 350°F for 15 minutes.

Makes 2 loaves

Gommie Hungry

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Strawberry Bread

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 cups sugar

4 eggs, well beaten

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup chopped pecans

1 ½ pints strawberries, washed and stemmed (Note: 2-10 oz. packages frozen

strawberries, thawed, may be substituted for fresh.)

Preheat oven to 350°F. In a bowl, combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and sugar; mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix eggs and oil; add to dry ingredients. Stir in pecans. Fold in strawberries until moistened. Pour into 2 greased 9 x 5 x 3 in. loaf pans. Bake at 350°F for 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

Gommie Hungry

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Church Cake Lady Chocolate Cake

Devils Food Cake mix

8oz sour cream

4 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1/2 cup water

1/4 cup coffee or liquor

2 tablespoons grated orange peel

1 teaspoon cinnamon

12 oz chocolate chips

Mix all that together and pour in a greased and floured pan. I usually flour it with unsweetened cocoa powder, that way the flour doesn't leave a white mess on the fininshed cake. Bake at 350 for around an hour.

If you are so inclined, when the cake comes out of the oven, pour on the following.

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup orange juice or orange liquor

1/4 cup water.

Heat this together until the sugar melts and pour in over the cake while it is still in the baking pan.

Happy baking! J.W.

Rise Up: Gluten-Free, In a Way

Okay, to be fair, this is not a GF bread--it has flour. But I am out of the vital wheat gluten which my favorite bread machine cookbook by Beth Hensperger usually calls for. And so I had to look elsewhere for recipes today, since we are woefully out of bread. This brings me to King Arthur Flour and a recipe from the president's breadbaking dad, Walter Sands's Favorite Bread. I'm hoping, with 4 cups of flour, it doesn't overload my machine, but I can always stop and put it in the oven. But with a high of 90F expected, I don't really want to turn the oven on.

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Walter Sands's Favorite Bread

1 1/4 to 1 1/3 cups (10 to 10 5/8 ounces) water, depending on the time of year (more in the winter, less in the summer)
1 heaping tablespoon (1 1/8 ounces) honey or sugar (1/2 ounce)
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1/3 cup (1 1/4 ounces) Baker's Special Dry Milk or 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk granules
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) butter
1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons salt (best the lesser amount, but Dad preferred the greater)
4 cups (17 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour

Place the ingredients in your bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer, and program the machine for white or basic bread, or for the dough cycle. Press Start.

If you're using the dough cycle, after the cycle is complete, allow the dough to continue to rise in the machine until it has really doubled in bulk. Remove the dough, shape it into a loaf, and place it in an 9" x 5" loaf pan. Let it rise until almost doubled. Bake the bread in a preheated 350°F oven for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool and offer to a friend.

King Arthur Flour website