Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
2/3 cup white sugar
1-1/2 T. dry yeast
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
6 cups flour

Directions:
In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Stir in yeast and let sit for 5 minutes.

Mix salt and oil/butter into the yeast. Add flour, one cup at a time. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface til smooth. Place in a well oiled bowl, turn dough to coat. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise til doubled .. about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Knead for a few minutes and divide in half. Shape into two loaves and placed in two well oiled 9″ x 5″ loaf pans. Allow to rise for 30 minutes or til dough has risen 1″ above sides of pan.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

A few tips for those who have not made bread or need help.

• Make sure your water isn’t too hot to kill the yeast or too cool to activate it. Get yourself an instant read thermometer or any good kitchen thermometer will do. The water should be between 105º and 112º when adding directly to the yeast.
• It’s best to use salt that does NOT contain iodine.
• When making bread, after a bit of experience, you will know how bread dough needs to feel. Adding too much flour may result in a loaf that is too dry and the bread will be hard and crumbly. Adding too little flour will result in a loaf that will not hold it’s shape and will tear easily when sliced.
• There’s a big difference in the flour available. Bread flour is available in pretty much every store and it’s fine. In my opinion, King Arthur is better than regular bread flour but it can be tricky to find. My favorite all purpose four is Wheat Montana Prairie Gold and short of mail order, it’s probably difficult to find.
• Treat your recipe as a “guide”. It doesn’t have to be followed exactly! Once you have a recipe that has worked for someone you trust, keep working with that one recipe. Don’t jump from recipe to recipe. The first time you make your bread, it may not be the best but pay close attention to everything you do. Next time you make it, if you want different results, try changing one thing. If you change several things at once, you won’t know what worked or what didn’t so maybe try adding less or more flour, or kneading longer or less time.
• Depending on the size pan, the size of your oven, and whether or not your thermostat is exactly correct, you may need to adjust your baking time. What takes 30 minutes for me might take 25 or 35 for you.
• Bread making isn’t something that will work for one and not for another. If you want homemade bread, you can have it but like everything else, it may take a little practice and a bit of patience.

2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt (heaping)
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 T. shortening
3/4 – 1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425°.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar.  Mix in shortening.  (I use my fingers to “crumble” it all together).  Do not overmix.

Stir in enough buttermilk to get the desired consistency.  Pat out on a floured surface.  No need to knead but I usually fold it over a couple of times.  Roll out to 1/2″ thick.  Place biscuits on ungreased baking sheet with sides touching.

Bake 12 – 15 minutes til golden brown.

Sweet Potato Bread:

2 packages active dry yeast (regular, not rapid rise – 5 teaspoons if you’re using bulk yeast)
2 cups warm water
1-1/4 cup cooked and mashed sweet potatoes (with no butter or seasonings added — just 100% mashed sweet potatoes). This was 1 large potato or 2 smaller potatoes
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey 0r molasses
1 egg
2 teaspoons salt
3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
3-1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose flour

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add the sweet potatoes, butter, honey or molasses, egg, salt and whole wheat flour. Stir until completely smooth. Stir and work in enough all-purpose flour to form a soft dough.  You may even need to add a bit more all purpose flour to keep the dough from being too wet but don’t let it get too dry!

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 – 10 minutes. With the whole wheat flour, it make take more kneading than bread made from 100% white flour. Place in a greased bowl and turn once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Divide dough into either two or three pieces. The dough will weigh about 4-1/2 pounds which is enough for 3 average loaves or 2 very large loaves. Work out any air bubbles and shape into loaves. Place in loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.

Jailhouse Rolls

1 c. mashed potatoes
2 sticks butter or margarine
3 whole eggs
7 c. flour (maybe a little more)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. lukewarm water
1 pkg. dry yeast

I make mashed potatoes and use the potato water for the liquid.  Make sure the liquid is cooled down to about 110 – 115° before adding the yeast.  If the water is too hot, it will kill the yeast and dead yeast is not good!    I usually use about 1 cup of the potato water and add enough cold water to get it to 115°.  Make the potatoes as usual.  I use butter and cream.

Mix yeast in the warm water and let sit for 5 – 10 minutes.

Melt the 2 sticks of butter in a large bowl.  Add the sugar, eggs and salt.  Depending on whether you added salt to the potatoes as they were cooking (I do), you may want to add less salt than suggested.

Stir in potatoes.

Stir in flour.  Near the end, it may be easier to dump it all onto a floured countertop and knead it til smooth.

To make the rolls, shape into rolls or roll out and cut.  Place in a buttered baking dish.

Place the leftover dough in a zipper type bag and keep in the fridge til needed.

Let the rolls rise for several hours.

Butter the tops.  Bake at 450° for about 10 minutes.

This is one of the white bread recipes I’ve used for years:

Amish White Bread

2-1/2 cups warm water
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1-1/2 T. granulated yeast
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1/4 c. oil
6 – 7 cups white flour

Stir granulated sugar into warm water til dissolved. Add yeast. Let sit 5 minutes. Add salt and oil. Stir in 3 cups of flour. Continue adding flour 1 cup and then 1/2 cup at a time til dough is no longer too sticky to work with. Turn onto floured surface and knead until smooth, adding more flour as needed. You want the dough to be just a tad sticky but don’t let it get too dry (by adding too much flour).

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled.

Turn dough onto floured surface, knead a couple of minutes. Shape into 2 loaves. Place in greased loaf pans. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let rise about 30 minutes or til the dough is about 1″ above the sides of the pan.

Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes.

Try adding some herbs, cheeses, sun dried tomatoes, etc. before the final kneading.   Yummy!

For those of us who could live by bread alone, these definitely need to be added to the menu!  Instead of using frozen bread dough, I used homemade dough.  I don’t think it would have made much difference in the end result but I didn’t have frozen bread dough and it’s so easy to make it myself.

At first I was worried that all the cheese was going to fall out but it didn’t at all.

Ingredients:

1 loaf frozen bread dough, thawed
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. each dried basil and oregano
3/4 c. shredded mozzarella cheese
1 egg
1 T. water
4 T. grated Parmesan cheese

Directions:

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into a 12″ square.  Combine butter and seasonings.  Spread over dough.  Sprinkle with mozzarella.  Fold dough into thirds.  Cut crosswise into 24 strips, about 1/2″ wide each.  Twist each strip twice.  Pinch ends to seal.  Place 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, about 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, beat egg and water.  Brush over the twists.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 375° for 10 – 12 minutes or until light golden bread.

Ingredients

1 cup yellow corn meal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt (if using for cornbread dressing,  you may want to put only 1/2 teaspoon salt – the broth you use may be salty)
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup, plus 2 tablespoons shortening

Directions

Preheat oven to 450°.  Heat 2 tablespoons shortening in an iron skillet.

Combine corn meal, flour and salt in a mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, milk and egg.

Add egg mixture to flour mixture.  Stir just til combined.  Add baking powder and baking soda.  Stir in 1/4 cup melted shortening.

Mix well but do not overmix.

Pour into hot pan.

Bake at 450° for 20 – 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.

When I walked into the house with two loaves of salt rising bread last weekend, I thought Vince and Chad were going to knock each other down getting to the kitchen. Thursday I began the process of making a batch. It was just ready to come out of the oven when Chad walked into the house on Friday afternoon. Yep, I do believe a way to a man’s heart is through his tummy!

If you’ve never had salt rising bread, I’ll warn you . . it stinks! Vince, who will eat anything, said “It’s so good once you get past the smell!” It smells like stinky Italian cheese or . . toe jam! But, it makes the very best toast and even better than best (is that possible?) grilled cheese sandwiches.

It isn’t hard to make but it takes a while.

1. Peel and slice 2 medium or 3 small potatoes. There’s no real specific amount because the potatoes get dumped in the end.

2. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the potatoes.

3. Stir in 1/4 c. non-degerminated cornmeal, 2 T. sugar and 1 tsp. salt. Read the labels to find a non-degerminated cornmeal. Whole grain or stone ground cornmeal should be non-degerminated but you really need that germ.

The cornmeal isn’t going to dissolve or anything . . it will still be there.

4. Place the potato bowl inside another bowl and pour boiling water in the larger bowl.

5. Place the bowls somewhere so they’ll stay as warm as possible. I put mine in my electric oven and leave the light on.

6. Leave the mixture brewing for 24 hours. Replace the hot water in the outer bowl 3 or 4 times during that 24 hours.

After a while, foam starts to appear. The magic is working!

Leave it alone for a little while longer and more foam forms and now it smells like stinky cheese or . . toe jam!

7. Fish the potatoes out, making sure to leave as much of the cornmeal in the liquid as possible. This is you starter. Flush the potatoes down the garbage disposal. They stink!

8. Scald 1-1/2 cups milk. Pour the milk, the starter, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda and 4 cups flour into a large bowl.

9. Stir all the lumps out. I sometimes use a whisk.

10. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place this bowl back in the warm place and leave it til it looks like thick clotted cream. It will definitely have the stinky cheese (toe jam) smell! Don’t let it sit too long. It can take anywhere from 1-1/2 hours to 3 hours, depending on how warm your area is.

11. This is how it will look. My bowl might have been just a tad small.

12. See how creamy that looks? This is your sponge.

OK . . at this point I forgot to take pictures. I know . . you’re glad! There should be a limit to how many pictures can be in one blog post.

Here’s the rest of the steps:

13. You may need a bigger bowl. I can use my Bosch mixer but my Kitchen Aid isn’t large enough for this. Into 4 cups of flour, stir in 7 T. shortening, 2-1/2 tsp. salt. Use a fork or your fingers, like you would if you were making a pie crust.

14. Stir the sponge into the flour mixture. Continue stirring and adding flour as necessary. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and add more flour as needed. I use a total of about 6 cups of flour in this step. This is a very heavy dough.

15. Divide dough into three balls. I will freeze one or two at this point. I wrap the dough that’s going into the freezer in greased plastic wrap, then seal in a bag using the Food Saver.

Whichever ones you’re going to bake, shape into loaves. Place in greased pans. Cover lightly with greased plastic wrap and return to the warm place. I put mine in the oven with a pan of hot water.

16. When rising is done, remove plastic wrap and bake at 350 for about 40 – 50 minutes.

Try to wait til the loaves cool off a bit before slicing. Sometimes I feel the urge to test the bread . . you know . . just to be sure it’s good before allowing my family to eat it.

This is a recipe I’ve been making for 20+ years.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taken this as a  covered dish to a potluck and it’s always a hit.

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp. dillweed
1/2 tsp. Tabasco
1/2 c. butter
2 medium onions (use Vidalia or sweet onions if you have them), chopped
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sour cream
1 – 14.75 oz. can cream style corn (I used a package of corn I froze during the summer)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 c. milk
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 – 8.5 oz. package cornbread or corn muffin mix

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°

Melt butter. Saute onions in butter til clear.

In a small bowl, combine dill weed, sour cream, milk and salt. Stir in onions and 1 cup cheese. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine egg, cornbread mix, corn and Tabasco.

Pour into a greased 12″ x 9″ baking dish.

Spoon onion mixture over top.

Bake uncovered at 350°  for 25 minutes.

Sprinkle remaining cheese on top and continue baking an additional 25 minutes or until top is set and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before cutting.

Pita bread is easy to make!  And it’s like magic the way that pocket is formed in there.  How does that work?  Beats me!  You can stuff all kinds of yummy things in those pockets and your friends and family will think you’re a gourmet cook!

Pita Bread

2 packages yeast (that’s about 4-1/2 teaspoons)
1/2 c. warm water
2 tsp. salt
2 cups water
6 – 8 cups flour
2 T. honey

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 c. warm water and let sit about 5 minutes.

Combine honey, salt and 2 cups water.  Add yeast mixture.  Stir (or use mixer) in 4 cups flour.  Continue adding flour until dough is smooth and satiny.  I usually remove from mixer while the dough is a bit sticky and hand knead in the remaining flour needed.

Shape dough in a ball and place in a greased bowl.  Turn to grease the whole ball of dough.  Cover with greased plastic wrap and let sit til about doubled.  Punch dough down, pull off small pieces and roll into circle about 1/4″ thick.

Place on a cookie sheet, cover and let rise about 30 minutes.  Bake at 450 til the tops begin to slightly brown.  You do not want the bread to get crusty!  It shouldn’t take more than 10 – 12 minutes to bake.

This recipe makes about 12 good sized pieces.  I divide the dough into thirds.

Yes, I get real anal about getting the pieces even.

With a little help from the kitchen scale, and calculator, all three balls of dough weigh in at exactly 16.2 ounces.

I’ll divide one ball into four approximately four ounce pieces and those will be the pieces I use now.

The other balls are wrapped in greased plastic wrap and then sealed in FoodSaver bags, frozen for later use.

Anything going into the freezer needs to be labeled . . what’s in the bag and the date, and then added to your list of what’s in the freezer.