Last week I went to a friends house to be her assistant bread chef.  She has amazing recipes but they are all in German so she translates and I do what she says. Read more

O.k..so..yeah.

It’s just bread with cranberries and walnuts. But, I love naming things so humor me.  I do not go as far as one of my favorite characters, Anne Shirley,naming trees and woods but I like to give my recipes cool names.  Especially for bake sales. Read more

Making a bread braid is not hard.  It is just like braiding hair, only doughier.

You will cut the dough lengthwise into three narrow pieces, and then squish together at the top firmly.  Now just braid until you get to the bottom.  Turn the ends under and place in your greased pan…perfect!

This is a lightly sweet white bread with a sprinkle of sesame seeds. The heavy amount of dairy in here gives it it’s light, delicate texture and tender crumb, almost cake-like.   This recipe makes 3 loaves. Read more

Whole wheat flour is admittedly hard to work with if you have never used it before. I always suggest to people that want to begin bread baking that they start with white flour and master that, then move to a white /whole wheat blend, and finally whole wheat.

100% Whole wheat flour is moister and stickier than white flour and the gluten in it develops at a slower rate. You will need to hand knead most whole wheat breads for a minimum of 15-20 minutes. If you use the wheat from white wheat berries the protein is higher and it will respond more like white flour. Still takes a lot of kneading though…and it will never not be sticky. Read more

When I saw this challenge I swore that I was not going to wait until the very last minute to do it. Guess what? Yeah. I did.  I waited until friday, knowing that I had to chill this overnight in the fridge…Friday at 3:00, to be exact.

Was it worth the fuss and bother?

Oh YEAH!

Danish pastry, like croissant pastry is made with a block of butter rolled into a yeast dough. In principle it is quite simple; in practice not so much. The problem is that in Texas in summer butter melts. Quick. It oozes from the dough as you roll. Read more

Of all of the types of bread that I have made over the years there are a few that are classic. A few that i make over and over and over just because they are perfect. This is one of them.

Oatmeal bread makes a hearty and filling bread that is full of good things like fiber and B vitamins. It just tastes like a country morning. When toasted it is crisper than other toast, I think, and the nutty oatmeal flavor is more pronounced. We like it a lot as a sandwich bread, and it handles ham especially well. Read more

I have something to tell you. There is one thing I cannot resist. One way to get me to tell anyone anything. I have a weakness akin to Superman’s kryptonite or Garfield’s lasagne. Read more

For some reason I had never made this recipe before. Probably just too many cookbooks and not enough time..

I was paging through my Farm Journal bread cookbook and looking for something a little different for Sunday breakfast. We are eating alot of eggs now, our chickens are laying close to two dozen a day…That sounds like alot until you figure that my 15 year old eats 4 for breakfast, my husband eats 3 or 4 for breakfast and then everyone else eats 1-2…This morning my son in law ate SIX. Adding that to the baking that is done means that those lovely, organic, FREE free range eggs go very, very fast.

Anyway…I was paging through the cookbook and thinking that there must be something I hadn’t tried and I saw this recipe for Finnish Coffee Braid. I have, over the past year or so, developed an infatuation with cardamom as a spice and so I decided to try it.

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 My aunt was an amazing woman. She was one of that rare breed of women that you don’t see to often anymore…An American Farmer’s Wife.

  Going to her house every summer was not just a vacation it was an EVENT. Her house was old, classic white with a green roof and wavy glass and barns and even a stone milk house. Best of all she had acres and acres of woods, fields and trees for me to explore and a raspberry patch with both the biggest raspberries and biggest mosquitoes that God ever created.  She kept a pot of coffee on the back of the stove on warm and left the kitchen door unlocked even when she ran errands in case the postman or the delivery man needed a pit stop and a hot cup of coffee.  And she was an amazing cook by anyone’s standard.

  This is a recipe she narrated to me one summer…written just as she narrated it. My memories of it are warm, toasted, with butter melting over it, and a spoon of homemade raspberry jam right in the center. It is wonderful stuff and you don’t have to go to the trouble of shaping the muffins.

5 3/4 c flour, give or take

2 pkgs dry yeast

1 tbs sugar, prit-near overflowing

2 tsp salt, maybe some less

1/4 tsp soda

2 c room temp milk

1/2 c water-bath temperature

Cornmeal

Mix 3 c flour and the rest of the dry ingredients. Add the milk and water and beat for a bit..maybe 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter. Spoon into 2 loaf pans that are greased and dusted with cornmeal. Sprinkle cornmeal on the top. Let rise 45 minutes

Bake at 400 for 25 minutes and cool. 2 loaves english muffin bread

This bread is good made in a loaf shape and sliced for sandwiches (try a chicken salad, or peanut butter) or made in a cloche or oval.  It makes great french toast, too!

You can use any grain combination that you like but if you don’t use at least 1/2 white flour then use at least 1 cup of wheat gluten to give the dough elasticity.  I used white flour, whole wheat and (dry) oatmeal in this one..but have used soy, rye, bran, cracked wheat and other combinations in the past.

1 3/4 cups warm (105 F. to 115 degrees F.) water
1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups (about) whole wheat flour or combination of whole wheat and other flours

1 cup shelled roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds

1 c raisins, currants, dried apricots, dried apples or a mixture of dried fruit
1/4 c melted unsalted butter
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 egg, beaten to blend

Place warm water in a large bowl.

Sprinkle yeast and then honey over and stir to dissolve. 

Gradually mix in 2 cups unbleached flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour ( or 1 cup of your mixed flours).

Stir.

Cover yeast mixture with tea towel and  let stand 30 minutes.

Stir shelled sunflower seeds, fruit, butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt into yeast mixture.

 Gradually stir in enough remaining whole wheat flour to form soft dough.

Knead dough on floured surface until smooth and elastic, adding more whole wheat flour if dough is sticky, about 10-15 minutes.
Grease clean large bowl. Place dough in bowl, turning to coat completely.

Cover with tea towel.

Let rise in warm draft-free area until doubled and dough does not spring back when 2 fingers are pressed into side, 2 hours.

Punch dough down.

Let stand 10 minutes.

 Grease pans.  Shape dough into desired shapes and place in pans.

 Cover with tea towel.

Let loaf rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

 Brush top of loaf with egg or dust with flour or cornmeal. Bake until golden brown, about 1 hour 5 minutes.

Cool bread slightly.

Serve bread warm or at room temperature.  Makes 1 or 2 loaves, depending on shape.