Homemade Bread

1 package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees F)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1 egg white mixed with 1 tablespoon water

In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cut shortening into flour, sugar, and salt until consistency of fine crumbs. Add the yeast mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 20 minutes.

Divide dough into 12 portions. Flatten each portion into a 4×3 inch rectangle. Roll each up from the long side, pinching edges to seal. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place rolls about 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Brush lightly with egg white.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack. Split each roll lengthwise, top with Butter (as in “not margarine!”) and serve. You’ll achieve hero status immediately.

These are absolutely amazing - if you aren’t in the habit of baking your own bread, you don’t know what you’re missing. The experience, itself, is a blast. It gives you such a great sense of accomplishment when you serve bread you made with your own two hands. And the flavor? You can’t beat it anywhere. Give this recipe a try, you’ll amaze yourself - and that’s always fun!

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine dry ingredients. Add milk and peanut butter. Pour into a greased 8 by 4 by 3-inch loaf pan. Bake for approximately 50 minutes. Serve with your favorite jam.

The recipe, above, is one of the ones that’ll be featured on one of the Cooking With Paula Deen episodes today (see the scroller at the left to see if it’s the earliest episode or the latest - I honestly don’t remember!).

I’d make it right now - since I’m now craving it like mad! - But the only peanut butter we have on hand is crunchy. But after a quick run to the store this morning, I’ll be set! After I’ve baked one (or two!), I’ll post the pics and tell you how great they are. It’s a Paula Deen recipe, it can’t miss.

If you don’t see a pic at the top, it means I’m either in the store or the loaves are in the oven!

Click the link below for the rest of the recipes from the Goin’ Nutz Episode:

Paula Deen Recipes

1/2 cup oats
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
1 10-ounce can pineapple slices
3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons pineapple juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar mixed with 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Cooking Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Coat 12 muffin cups with cooking spray.

2. To prepare topping: Sprinkle 1/2 teaspoon brown sugar into each muffin cup. Sprinkle nuts, if using, over the sugar. Stack pineapple slices and cut into 6 wedges. Place 2 wedges in each muffin cup.

3. To prepare muffins: Whisk whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl.

4. Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a medium bowl until smooth. Whisk in oil, juice and vanilla. Stir in crushed pineapple. Make a well in the dry ingredients; add the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Stir in carrot, oats, raisins and nuts, if using. Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin cups (they’ll be quite full).

5. Bake the muffins until the tops are golden brown and firm to the touch, 15 to 25 minutes. Immediately loosen edges and turn muffins out onto a baking sheet. Restore any stray pineapple pieces and nuts. Let cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve upside-down, either warm or at room temperature.

Delicious!!!

Recipe Credit: Eating Well

One of my favorite magazines (believe me, this is an honor for a magazine…I buy so many it’d depress me to count them all), Tea Time, ran the following recipe in their Fall 2005 issue. It’s a winner and you’ll absoulutely love it.

BLUEBERRY COFFEECAKE

4 tablespoons butter, softened (don’t even think about using margarine)
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk
1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

TOPPING

1/3 cup flour
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9 inch Springform Pan.

Cream butter and sugar until thoroughly blended. Add and and vanilla and mix well.

Stir flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add dry ingredients to butter-sugar mixture; add milk. Using a hand mixer, beat until batter is smooth.

Spread batter into prepared pan and sprinkle blueberries over the top.

For the topping, combine flour, butter, sugar, and nutmeg using your fingers or a Pastry Blender until mixture is crumbly. Spread over the blueberries.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes.

Run a table knife around the edges of the pan and remove the springform edge from the bottom. Serve warm.

Enjoy!

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AMISH POPPYSEED BREAD

3 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. oil
2 1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 tsp. almond flavor
1 1/2 tsp. butter flavor
1 1/2 tbsp. poppy seeds

GLAZE:
1/4 c. orange juice
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. almond flavor
1/2 tsp. butter flavor
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift together first 3 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients (of the top group - not the Glaze ingredients). Mix together well and place in 2 greased and floured bread pans.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until toothpick test comes out clean.

For the Glaze: Stir all ingredients together. After baking, prick bread loaves with a fork and pour glaze over while hot.

Delicious!

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RECIPE FOR AMISH YEAST ROLLS

DRY:
7 c. flour (save 1 c. to knead)
2 pkgs. quick yeast
1/2 - 3/4 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

WET:
2 sticks butter
1 c. sour cream
1/2 to 1 c. milk

Place in microwave. Heat until butter melts. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and knead 10-
15 minutes.

Put in warm place and let rise about 20 minutes. Put dough on floured board and punch down. Shape in desired shapes.

Let rise again, 20 minutes or until doubled. Brush tops with melted butter. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

Makes 2 dozen or more.

This recipe takes a lot of kneading, and you’ll want to go all the way with it. Don’t stop after 5 minutes, thinking “That’s more than enough!” - for the best results, you honestly have to knead the heck out of this dough! It’s more than worth it, though. This is about as good as it gets.

I was adding lots of Bread pans, bread machines, biscuit cutters, etc to Buttermilk Press today when I came across something that caught my eye. The Bread Box with Pastry Storage Compartment
, above, is exactly what we need for storing goodies in. Made of natural wood, it’s more than just a bread box, it’s also a pastry holder.

On bottom is a roomy compartment for holding one full size loaf or a gourmet loaf of bread. Lift the top and store cookies, muffins and pastries in the top portion. More things off of the counter and safely, neatly tucked away….

Handsome and functional - gotta love it!

By the way, I’m in the middle of completely revamping Buttermilk Press - check it out when you get a chance. Not all of the pages have been redone yet, so everything looks pretty nice on the A and B pages (appetizers, beverages, and bread…) but C through V haven’t gotten their makeovers, yet. So….you’ll have to excuse them for another week!

Joi

3-1/2 cups bread flour
3 cups sugar
4 eggs, well-beaten
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1 (16 oz.) can pumpkin
1 cup oil
2/3 cup water

Mix dry ingredients, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Bake in an oiled loaf pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

A little whipped cream cheese convinces this bread that its a dessert. I don’t have the heart to tell it otherwise.

Joi

If I had only 30 minutes with a new cook and could drill only 10 things into his or her head, these are the ten I’d choose: (after #1, they’re in no particular order!)

1. Use Buttermilk as often as possible. Coat your chicken in Buttermilk for at least an hour (in the refrigerator) before coating it to fry or bake. Use Buttermilk in your cornbread, muffins, biscuits, pancakes, and waffles. If you’re ever confronted with two versions of a recipe - one with Buttermilk and one without….take the one with every single time. Simply put, it makes everything better.

2. Don’t buy off brands. There are a couple of exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb - you do get what you pay for. If you doubt this, try a dish that you regularly make - only this time use name brands where you’d normally use a store brand (or even worse, an off brand). Unless you’re fortunate enough to have an uncommonly good off brand - you should taste the difference. I will say this, Kroger has some very good store brand products - in fact, some are every bit as good as the name brands. But it’s the exception, not the rule.

3. Don’t use instant potatoes, and if you do, please don’t tell me about it! Making real potatoes is far too easy and rewarding to even glance at the instant spuds. It takes a little longer, but it’s worth it. If you aren’t sure about how to make Mashed potatoes, e-mail me (or leave a comment) and I’ll type out a fully-detailed post on the subject. Every cook should know how to make certain dishes and mashed potatoes is one of them. You’ll use it more than you can even imagine - you may as well do a bang up job!

4. Buy butter rather than margarine when possible. Whether you’re frying eggs, making grilled cheese sandwiches, or mashed potatoes (from scratch, right?) - the taste will be 75 percent better if you use butter rather than margarine. I’m not sure if you’ve tasted the difference lately - but I’ve noticed that most margarines taste odd anymore. They don’t taste even remotely like butter. They at least used to try to taste like their role model - now they seem hell bent on tasting like anything BUT butter. Frankly, the taste is getting in the way of the food. And the change has been kind of subtle, so if you aren’t as dialed into food as some of us are, you might not have noticed. (Either that, or you’ve been blaming your recipes, cooking, or other foods.) Test this one out for yourself, too.

5. Seasoning is a good thing! I taste alot of people’s cooking and wonder where they developed their fear of seasoning. Some seem to think that seasoning will get in the way of the food - but it actually draws the flavor out. Especially salt - it’s a flavor enhancer, after all. Try out different combinations and taste as you go along. All good cooks experiment with flavors…sometimes they fail, of course, and head either to the dog or trash can, but more times than not - the cook proudly serves them to the hungry masses.

6. You can always add more seasoning, but you can never add less. Now having said all that I did in #5, keep in mind there is such thing as going overboard. Your dish shouldn’t taste like a block of salt, unless you’re serving Bambi. No herb or seasoning should overpower the food, so don’t go nuts -just add a little at a time.

7. Have at least one signature dish. Have at least one dish or meal that your family associates with you. Is this a necessity? No, not exactly- but it’s pretty cool. I asked my girls what food they associated with me and each said different things! A few of the foods they each mentioned, though, were my Spinach-Artichoke Dip, homemade Doughnuts, peanut butter candy, potato casserole, mashed potatoes, and Navy Beans. I was really surprised to hear the beans mentioned. Peanut butter candy, sure…but beans?!

8. Grind your own coffee beans. A pot of coffee with freshly ground beans is a pot of coffee worth getting out of bed for. Sure, pre-ground coffee’s worth getting up for, but it isn’t worth getting in a hurry over. And as for instant coffee - you might as well stay in bed. For what it’s worth, I think the best beans you can get are Millstone, Joe Muggs, Starbucks, or Boca Java. If you prefer getting your coffee at the store -you can’t ever go wrong with Millstone. In fact, their Foglifter coffee is one of my top 3 favorites - I buy it again and again. And again.

9. Learn to make homemade bread - without a bread machine. Not only is homemade bread give multiple Slices of Heaven, the aroma that fills your kitchen is intoxicating! - Especially if it’s Sourdough…. I’m getting weak just thinking about it. Just like I said in the Mashed Potatoes sermon, if you aren’t sure about this one - email me or leave a comment, I’ll devote some posts to the subject….just in time for the holidays! And remember, when you make your bread - put butter on it, not margarine!

10. Watch the Food Network for priceless advice, tips, and ideas. Not only are they amazingly entertaining, they’re a goldmine of information and inspiration. For new cooks, I’d suggest Rachael Ray, Paula Deen, and Emeril. (Of course, I’d suggest them for veteran cooks, too!)

BONUS: When you’re cooking - give it your undivided attention….especially if it’s a new dish or something you aren’t familiar with. Don’t try to do laundry while making spaghetti or watch Oprah while grilling chicken. It’s only courting disaster. Record Oprah and tell the laundry to take a number!

==========================

Most importantly….
Be Safe!

• If there are small children around, be sure they know the kitchen isn’t a playground. Keep pot handles always turned away from the edge of the stove - so little hands won’t reach up and pull the pans down on them.
• Be extra cautious when cooking with poultry. Never re-use a rag, dish, cutting board, or utensil that has come in contact with raw poultry. Wash your hands frequently when cooking - especially when meat is involved.
• Use meat thermometers when cooking meat. As with everything - better safe than sorry.
• Don’t even think about eating raw eggs. Even your dog wouldn’t do that.
• Speaking of pets, did you know that both chocolate and onions can be fatal for animals? Cut them out of their diet right away, and make sure everyone who comes in contact with your furry family members knows these are off limits.
• Chicken bones should never be given to dogs. When I was 10, my german shepherd, Lucky, helped herself to a leftover chicken leg. I heard her choking in the next room - luckily, my hand was small enough to reach down into her mouth and throat and remove the bone that was wedged in sideways. My mom walked in as my hand was in there….must have been quite a sight! Lucky, living up to her name, was fine afterwards and I began a lifelong habit of disposing chicken bones immediately and thoroughly.

Most importantly, have fun and believe in yourself!
Joi

2 cups peeled and shredded zucchini
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup raisins
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup walnuts or pecans - chopped

Beat all ingredients (except for the nuts and raisins) together. Gradually add the nuts and the raisins. Pour into 2 large greased and floured loaf pans.

Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

If you absolutely must leave the raisins out (I understand, you won’t hurt my feelings…) - you could simply add 1/2 cup more of the nuts, or substitute a little coconut.

Trust me, though, the raisins aren’t an unwelcome guest - you really don’t even notice them. They just look good.

Joi