Tag Archives: Bread

Onion, Cheese & Poppy Seed Bread

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Veronica

Poppy seeds go with lemon, amiright? Maybe orange if you want to get a little adventurous. But cheese and onion? I wasn’t sure. I love to try new things but I admit, I wouldn’t have made this bread if I hadn’t gotten the recipe from my Foodie Mama, and if she hadn’t told me that it was an undefeated blue ribbon winner for 25 years in California and she finally retired it to give someone else a chance. Ha! Well, knowing it had to be good, even if it was a sweet quick bread with onions and cheese in it and poppy seeds, I made it while staying with my in-laws last week. The loaf was devoured in less than a day. (I may have had more than my fair share.)

Marina recommended spreading cream cheese on the slices and I have to tell you, that was incredible! The tangy cream cheese really was the perfect compliment to the sweet & savory bread. She also said if you toast the slices first, it makes an outrageous grilled ham and cheese sandwich. Unfortunately this loaf was eaten too fast for us to try it, but I’m going to next time!

P.S. Marina still has copies of her cookbook available for purchase for $10 + $3.50 S&H. Let me know if you’d like to purchase one! I have yet to be disappointed in any recipes I’ve tried from it.

Onion, Cheese & Poppy Seed Bread

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/4 oz) vegetable shortening
3 large eggs
2 cups (8 1/2 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder*
1 teaspoon dry mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 1/4 cups shredded cheddar, Monterrey Jack or a combination
1/2 cup finely diced sweet onions
Sweet paprika

Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a 9″x5″ loaf pan or coat with Miracle Pan Release; set aside.

Cream sugar and shortening until fluffy, a few minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately to creamed mixture with milk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Stir in cheese, onions, and poppy seeds. Pour into prepared loaf pan and sprinkle the top with paprika. Bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle of loaf comes out dry. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Remove loaf carefully and cool completely on wire rack. Loaf is best the next day, or at least several hours after baking so that the flavors can deepen and meld.

*I always recommend using an aluminum-free baking powder, such as Rumford, in any recipe calling for more than a teaspoon. The regular kind with aluminum tends to leave a chemical aftertaste in baked goods, especially if a larger amount is used.

Recipe source: Marina C.

11 Comments

Posted in Bread and tagged blue ribbon, Bread, cheese, onion, poppy seed, quick bread, sweet & savory. Bookmark the permalink.

Chocolatey Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Veronica

Back when I made the super-fantastic Double Chocolate Banana Bread, I also made a loaf of chocolate zucchini bread, hoping it would turn out as good as the banana bread. It was a huge, miserable disappointment. Dry, and hardly any chocolate flavor. I didn’t mention this on that post, but out of the blue, reader Caren K. mentioned she had a chocolate zucchini bread recipe that was to die for. Of course I had to ask her for it, and she thankfully obliged.

This bread totally met my expectations! As you can see in the pictures, I barely had half a loaf to photograph the next day because we couldn’t help but dig in, and dig in some more, while it was cooling the night before. It is so incredibly moist, to the point of being fudgy, and I love the hint of cinnamon – it really adds some warmth and mystery to the bread. You don’t taste the instant coffee, and I suspect it is there to enhance the chocolate flavor. If so, I think it does its job well, as this bread is perfectly chocolatey!

Chocolatey Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 cups grated zucchini, measured after draining
1 ¼ cups (5 ¼ oz) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (3/4 oz) unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup (5.25 oz) sugar
1 large egg
6 tablespoons melted butter
¼ heaping teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup semisweet chocolate chips
Mini semisweet chocolate chips for top, if desired

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray the bottom of an 8×4 loaf pan with oil; set aside. (I have an excellent nonstick pan, so you might want to spray the sides too, or use Miracle Pan Release if your baked goods tend to stick to yours.)

Grate zucchini and place in a colander in the sink to drain while you continue with the recipe. After it has drained, squeeze it to get out the extra liquid before measuring. Don’t pack the cups too much or your bread might be a little soggy the second day.

Whisk together the flour, unsweetened cocoa, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk until well combined. In a separate larger bowl, whisk together the sugar and egg until smooth. Add the melted butter, instant coffee granules, and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. Add the shredded zucchini into the sugar mixture, then add the flour mixture in small sections, stirring to combine after each addition.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on a rack. If desired, sprinkle some mini chocolate chips over the top while it cools. The heat from the loaf will make them soften and melt a little and stick well to it.

Recipe source: Caren K.

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

Posted on February 14, 2011 by Veronica

This isn’t my favorite bread, but it does have a great, wholesome & hearty flavor. It is an excellent loaf for slicing and making sandwiches. My favorite use for it is making grilled cheese sandwiches, and I also made some yummy ham and cheese melts (with apricot preserves spread on the insides) that this bread was wonderful with. This makes a very large, tall loaf, so if you prefer you can make two smaller, shorter loaves with the dough as I chose to, which makes the bread go further, although your sandwiches will be smaller. I’m on a mission to lose these last 15 pounds so the smaller sandwiches totally fits in with my plan! I love it when I can eat real food (read: non-“free” stuff. Free is good as long as it’s not associated with fat or sugar!) and stay within my calorie budget.

Be sure to check out the recipe source at the end–this gal has tons of healthy, delicious recipes! I won her low-fat cinnamon rolls in an online bake sale auction and I have to say they are crazy good. I never thought to replace butter in the filling with applesauce–brilliant!

Oatmeal Sandwich Bread

Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture

2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon yeast
3 tablespoon molasses
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 cup rolled oats
4 tablespoon butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tablespoon salt

For optional topping
1 egg, beaten with a teaspoon of water
2 tablespoons rolled oats

Butter a large bowl and a 9″ loaf pan and set aside. In a large mixing bowl or food processor fitted with a dough hook, mix together water, yeast and molasses. Allow the yeast to stand for 5 minutes until it begins to bubble. Add the whole wheat and bread flour, the oats and the melted butter. Stir to combine. Cover with towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Add in salt and then mix until dough pulls away from sides and becomes a ball. You can add a tablespoon or two of flour or water if necessary. Scrape dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 5-10 times. Place into the large, buttered bowl. For the first rise, scrape the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead it a few times. Put the dough into the buttered bowl, cover with a towel, and leave it to rise for about 1 hour or until it doubles in size. Turn dough out onto floured surface after first rise. Shape by folding into a square, folding top down towards center and bottom up towards the center. Pinch the new top and bottom together to seal, roll to shape and place in the loaf pan, seam side down. Allow to rise in a warm place, covered with a towel for one hour or until dough rises an additional half its size. Preheat oven to 400° F. Right before placing in oven, brush egg wash over the top of the loaf and sprinkle on the rolled oats. Bake for 40 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack. The loaf slices best when at room temperature.

Veronica’s notes: I substituted rapid-acting yeast as usual, so I mixed it in with the dry ingredients and then added the wet–no proofing necessary. You don’t technically have to do two rises when you use rapid-acting/instant yeast, so you can just shape it into a loaf and let it rise once before baking, but I usually go ahead and do two rises anyway to develop a more yeasty flavor.

I calculated the nutritional information based on making two loaves and dividing each into 14 slices. Per slice: 111 calories; 2.7 g fat; 21 g carbohydrate; 2.2 g fiber; 3.4 g protein

Recipe source: From Apples to Zucchini

8 Comments

Posted in Bread, Lighter Fare and tagged Bread, diet, healthy, homemade, low calorie, nutritious, oatmeal, oatmeal sandwich bread recipe, wholesome, yeast. Bookmark the permalink.

Buttery Beer Bread

Posted on November 17, 2009 by Veronica

I first posted a similar recipe in January, but am reposting this slightly revised version since I’ve made is so many times that I’ve had ample opportunity to improve it. I think I’ve got it to the point of perfection now.

I find this savory quick bread it to be just as good, if not better, than homemade yeast bread. It is a very simple recipe with just a few ingredients but I find it absolutely delicious. The beer gives it a yeasty flavor and the sugar lends a hint of sweetness and you just can’t go wrong with an entire stick of butter soaking in from all sides during the baking process. It creates a thick, buttery, and crunchy crust and the inside is soft and flavorful. It is divine.

For a fun and unique gift, package up the dry ingredients after sifting them together, attach baking instructions and include a can of beer if you wish.

BUTTERY BEER BREAD
Printable recipe
Printable recipe with picture
I usually use self-rising flour and omit the baking powder and salt because it seems to taste better this way and is even easier to prepare!

3 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 (12-oz) can beer
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 9×5* loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside. Sift the dry ingredients together into a large bowl and stir briefly with a whisk to combine everything. Pour beer over the flour mixture and stir in the beer with a spoon. The mixture will be thick but much more like batter than regular bread dough. Dump into the prepared pan and spread out as evenly as possible. Pour the melted butter or margarine over the top and bake for 1 hour. (The butter will run down the sides and underneath as it bakes.) Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack for fifteen minutes, or as long as you can stand it, before serving. Best served fresh from the oven.

*Please do not use a smaller loaf pan, or the butter will overflow and make a huge smokey mess. If you don’t have a larger pan, then place a baking sheet below the pan to catch any butter overflow.

Recipe source: Recipe Rhapsody

18 Comments

Posted in Bread, My Favorites and tagged beer, Bread, buttery. Bookmark the permalink.

Brown Butter Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Swirls

Posted on November 4, 2009 by Veronica

I tried making brown butter pound cake a couple weeks ago and ruined it by overbaking it. Despite the the need to drink an entire glass of milk with each bite, Dennis and I couldn’t resist having several slices because of the wonderful brown butter flavor. (If you’ve ever had browned butter in a dessert, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t–then you haven’t fully lived!)

While the remainder of the pound cake lies in the freezer, awaiting it’s transformation into a creative bread pudding, I found the link to a similar recipe waiting for me in my inbox yesterday, compliments of my good friend, Krista. The recipe is, in fact, based upon that brown butter pound cake, but with the addition of pumpkin and dulce de leche.

Krista knows me too well. Cake, brown butter, pumpkin and caramel? Oh yeah, I’m there, baby!

After baking it and diving in (I only had a tiny slice…times five), I discovered that the texture isn’t dense like pound cake, but lighter like regular cake and very moist. But since it doesn’t look like cake, I’m calling it bread. Which kind of makes the name sound a little more wholesome, even with the mention of brown butter and caramel and the fact that the only wholesome thing in there makes up a very small part of the cake bread.

Whatever you want to call it, this stuff is awesome–bake a loaf and see for yourself!

Brown Butter Pumpkin Bread with Caramel Swirls

Slightly adapted from “Pumpkin Pound Cake with Dulce de Leche Swirls” at browniesfordinner.com, which was adapted from the Brown Butter Pound Cake in Gourmet, October 2009

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp rum (optional)
about 1/2 – 3/4 cup dulce de leche (recipe here)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter and lightly flour an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch (or 9 by 5-inch) loaf pan.

Heat the butter in a 10-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until the milk solids on the bottom are a dark chocolate brown. Transfer to a pie plate or shallow bowl and put it in the freezer just until it congealed, about 15 minutes.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in a medium bowl. Cream the brown butter with the sugars with mixer until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin, vanilla & rum. On a low speed, mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Transfer about half of the batter to the loaf pan and smooth it around so that it covers the bottom of the pan and forms an even layer. Place small grape-sized dollops of dulce de leche on the surface. Swirl by running the tip of a knife through one or two times to create a swirly pattern. Cover with the rest of the batter, smooth the surface. Use the rest of the dulce de leche on top, also in small grape-sized dollops and swirled with the tip of a knife.

Bake 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours (75 to 90 minutes). Cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then invert onto a rack (right side up) to cool completely, about one hour.

Veronica’s Notes: If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, use a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves & ginger. I used 1/4 t cinnamon, 1/8 t nutmeg, a couple sprinkles of cloves and the rest ginger.

3 Comments

Posted in Bread, Cake & Frosting and tagged Bread, brown butter, caramel, pumpkin, swirls. Bookmark the permalink.

Honey-Whole Wheat Bread

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Veronica

Somehow with my car breaking down along with the microwave and Dennis finding out he needed to have oral surgery to remove a cyst, I completely forgot to blog this recipe, despite the fact that it was one of the small things that got me through the week. Bake up a couple loaves yourself and see what kind of magic good, fresh bread can work on your life.

https://i0.wp.com/a4.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/32/b87b822dfd73470aba8f9e23bca3cb99/l.jpg

This. Bread. Is. Very. Good.

Honey-Whole Wheat Bread
from the back of a Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour bag

2 packages regular active dry yeast
1/4 c warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1/2 c honey
1/4 c butter or margarine
3 t salt
2 1/2 c very warm water (120-130 degrees F)
4 1/2 c Gold Medal whole wheat flour
2 3/4 to 3 3/4 c Gold Medal all-purpose flour

In small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water; set aside. in large bowl, mix honey, butter, salt and very warm water; cool 5 minutes.

To cooled honey mixture, beat in 3 c of the whole wheat flour with electric mixer on low speed, scraping bowl frequently, until moistened. Beat on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl frequently. Beat in remaining 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour and dissolved yeast. With spoon, stir in 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 c of the all-purpose flour until dough pulls cleanly away from side of bowl.

Place dough on floured work surface. knead in remaining 1/2 to 1 c all-purpose flour; continue kneading 5-10 minutes until dough is smooth and springy. Grease large bowl with shortening or cooking spray; place dough in bowl, turning dough to grease all sides. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and cloth towel. let rise in warm place (80-85 degrees F) 30-45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Generously grease 2 (9×5) loaf pans with shortening or cooking spray. Gently push fist into dough to deflate; divide in half. On lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough with rolling pin into 18×8 inch rectangle. Starting with one 8-inch side, roll up dough tightly, pressing with thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge of dough into roll to seal; pinch each end to seal. Fold ends under loaf; place seam side down in pan. Cover; let rise in warm place 30-45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F. uncover dough; bake 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350; bake 10-15 minutes longer or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Makes 2 loaves (16 slices each)

Veronica’s Notes: You can use whatever brand of flour you happen to have. Just don’t tell Gold Medal I told you that. :)

I used my usual quick method, as follows: substitute rapid acting yeast & omit the first 1/4 c water. Mix the yeast with the whole wheat flour. Combine the honey, butter, salt & water in a saucepan and heat until butter is melted. Cool until warm to the touch, then add to the flour & yeast mixture and mix according to directions. Skip the first rise and as soon as you’re done kneading, shape into loaves and place in pans to rise for 1 hour. Bake according to the recipe.

P.S. We got my car working and now just need a new microwave. Den has his surgery on Thursday and we now have the money for it.

3 Comments

Posted in Bread and tagged Bread, honey, whole wheat. Bookmark the permalink.

Praline Sweet Potato Bread

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Veronica

Quick breads that incorporate ingredients like sweet potato and pumpkin are one of the ultimate fall comforts for me. This recipe comes from my friend Marina, and like her other recipes, does not disappoint. The texture is lovely, much lighter than what I usually make, and I love the hint of rum. Without the topping, this bread is fantastic. With it, it is perfection.

PRALINE SWEET POTATO BREAD
Adapted from Marina C.

4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
½ tsp. allspice
½ tsp. cloves
¼ tsp. ginger
1 lb. cooked & peeled sweet potatoes (I used canned & drained them, then weighed)
4 eggs
1 c. vegetable oil
¼ c rum + enough cold water to equal 2/3 cup total liquid*
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 cups light brown sugar
1 c. chopped pecans

*The original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon rum extract and 2/3 cups cold water, should you wish to use that instead. The measurement of rum that I used gives just a hint of rum flavor and a wonderful smell.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9” loaf pans with shortening, then dust with granulated sugar (pour some in and move the pan around until it coats the bottom and all sides). Set aside.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt & spices in a large bowl. Set aside.

Beat the sweat potatoes in a medium bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the oil, rum mixture & sugars and beat until well combined. Pour into the dry mixture and mix well. Stir in pecans.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake one hour at 350 degrees. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes. Pour praline topping over loaves. Cool completely and wrap in plastic wrap.

Praline Topping
2 tbsp. dark brown sugar
2 tbsp. dark corn syrup
1 tbsp. sweet butter
¼ tsp. vanilla
1/3 c. chopped pecans

Combine sugar, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla in medium saucepan. Cook and stir on medium heat until butter is melted and mixture is blended. Add chopped pecans and pour over loaves. (I doubled the topping ingredients.)

*To make 3 (5”) loaves, bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
*To make a bundt loaf, I recommend greasing and flouring the pan instead of using sugar (like I did) b/c it doesn’t make a very pretty top for presentation. Fill the pan ¾ full of batter & bake for 1 hour, 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. You will have extra batter & can use it to make mini loaves (bake 30 minutes), one small loaf (as above) or muffins (haven’t tried this but I’d start checking after 15 minutes for doneness).
*Loaves may be frozen.

4 Comments

Posted in Bread and tagged Bread, praline, sweet potato. Bookmark the permalink.

Easy Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Veronica

It started with Red’s white bread and now I can’t stop. Once I realized just how easy making bread with my own hands can be, I haven’t been able to keep them out of the dough! I haven’t had to buy bread at the store for a month now and I really don’t ever want to again. This loaf is my latest bread victory.

Easy Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread
Adapted from http://www.thecookingphotographer.com

Ingredients
1 cup oats (I used old-fashioned rolled oats)
3 cups flour, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons rapid acting/instant dry yeast
1 1/3 cups warm buttermilk
2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon butter or margarine, melted

Instructions
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oats, 2 cups of the flour, salt and yeast.

Measure the wet ingredients over the dry and stir until well incorporated. Slowly stir in the remaining flour until the dough is too thick to stir, then commence kneading in the flour. You can turn it out of the bowl, but I always leave it in the bowl and knead it that way so as not to dirty another surface. Knead for five minutes.

Shape the dough into a loaf, place in a greased bread pan, and spray the top with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After the dough has doubled in size, remove the plastic wrap and bake for 30 minutes until browned.

After baking, remove the bread from the pan onto a cooling rack. Brush the top with melted butter and cool completely.

Honey Oatmeal Bread

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Veronica

**Note: This post is an eyesore but I don’t want to change the content because I’m keepin’ it real. This is how the original post looked and read, and I want to be able to read it again ten years from now and cringe as much as I’m cringing now. :) (Although I am adding a new photo of this in rolls-form, and plan to add more next time I make this into bread again.)

I will let you in on the people I’m identifying here. This was back in my MySpace days, where I originally posted this, when I was friends with a couple gals who went by Red (Kim) and Kitchen Bitch (Krista). Red’s white bread was the first yeast bread that required kneading that I’d ever made. This was the second one and it is still my favorite after three years of baking with yeast. It has the best, softest, texture and an incredible taste. I hope you overlook the bad photos and delirious writing and make it!**

Well I’ve made Red’s bread which got me over my fear of making it, so I decided to tackle the Bitch’s bread…Kitchen Bitch, that is! :) Kim can have “Red’s Bread” and Krista can have “Bitchin’ Bread”–am I a great marketing schemer or what? If you guys ever do open bread shops, I want 10% of your profits. Ha!

(It’s after 1 AM and I’m sleep-deprived. In case you didn’t notice.)

OK, so Krista sent me this recipe quite a while back, but since the directions called for a stand mixer with dough hooks (which I don’t have) and I was scared to make bread in the first place, let alone try to modify a recipe to suit my lack of kitchen apparatus, I saved it for a later date.

The date came today. Emboldened by my most recent success with the white bread, I decided I was going to go for the Honey Oatmeal Bread, despite my lack of dough hooks and despite the fact that it was nearly 11 PM. It was a huge success and totally worth staying up for–even better than my first bread attempt! The taste is unbelievable and the texture is crazy soft. I’m in love. I wish I had a good camera to show off the beauty of these loaves, but you can get a general idea from the back-up camera that I’m using.

Honey Oatmeal Bread
from KitchenAid

1 1/2 c water
1/2 c honey
1/3 c butter or margarine
5 1/2 to 6 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1 c quick cooking oats (Krista says rolled oats work fine too)
2 t salt
2 pkgs active dry yeast or 4 1/2 tsp jarred yeast
2 eggs
1 egg white
1 T water
Additional oatmeal for decoration (optional)

Place water, honey, and butter in small saucepan. Heat over low heat until mixture is very warm. (120-130 F)

First place oats, then 5 c flour, salt, and yeast in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and dough hook to mixer. Turn to Speed 2 and mix about 15 seconds.

Continuing on Speed 2, gradually add warm mixture to flour mixture and mix about 1 minute. Add whole eggs and mix about 1 minute longer.

Continuing on Speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 c at a time, and mix about 2 minutes or until dough starts to clean the sides of bowl. Knead on Speed 2 about 2 minutes longer.

Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover (I use plastic wrap) and let rise in a warm, non-drafty place (I use my oven with the light on) about 1 hour or until doubled in bulk. Sometimes this takes longer than 1 hour. Let it go until it has doubled.

Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each half into a loaf and place in greased bread baking pans. Cover (I use a clean dish cloth for this) and let rise again in a warm, draft free place (oven again) until doubled in bulk…usually an hour, sometimes a bit more.

Beat the egg white and water and brush the tops of loaves GENTLY. Sprinkle with oatmeal if desired. Bake at 375 F (preheat the oven so it is up to temp) for 30-40 minutes. Remove from pans immediately and cool on wire racks.

Krista recommends brushing the crust with butter or margarine after removing from pans and so do I.

Yields 32 servings (16 slices per loaf). Nutritional info per slice: 134 cal, 4 g pro, 24 g carb, 3 g fat, 13 mg chol, 162 mg sod

Veronica’s Notes: To make this by hand, mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat the eggs in a small bowl. Pour in warm liquid and mix with a spoon until blended, then dump in the beaten eggs and fold the dough over and over until all the egg is incorporated and you’ve got a ridiculously sticky mass attached to your hand. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, kneading it in. I just knead my bread dough in the bowl to keep from dirtying another surface. Once you have kneaded in all the flour and continued to knead for a few minutes, follow the instructions on the recipe. I used instant yeast so I was able to skip the first rising and go straight to shaping the halves into loaves and sticking them in the pans. Krista wouldn’t recommend this and she’s probably right that using regular yeast and allowing the bread to rise longer develops a fuller flavor, but I seriously can’t imagine bread getting any better than this. If it’s better her way, the taste would probably give me a heart attack so it’s partly in the interest of my own health that I’m sticking to my own method.

10 Comments

Posted in Bread, My Favorites and tagged Bread, fresh, homemade, honey, oatmeal, recipe, yeast. Bookmark the permalink.

1963 Good Housekeeping White Bread

Posted on September 5, 2009 by Veronica

My friend Kim, aka Red, shred this recipe with me. I keep calling this “Red’s Bread,” because even though it’s an old recipe, she’s the one that introduced it to me! (Besides, I love the way it rolls off my tongue–I think Kim should have her own bread company and name it “Red’s Bread”, don’t you? ) I love trying old recipes, and this one was not only easy, but delicious. I never thought I could turn out a decent loaf of bread that I actually kneaded myself, but I did it! Woo-hoo! My husband is in heaven right now (he’s already eaten half a loaf!) and keeps staring at me with these gushy lovey eyes like I’m some sort of goddess. I wonder if fresh bread does this to all men or if it’s just a quirk of his? In any case, I think I’ll be making this bread a LOT! :)

White Bread
From 1963 Good Housekeeping Cookbook

1/2 cup milk

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons margarine or butter

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 pkg. (2 1/4 t) active dry yeast

About 6 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour

Scald milk; stir in sugar, salt and margarine. Cool to lukewarm. Measure warm water into large bowl; sprinkle in yeast; stir until dissolved. Add lukewarm milk mixture and 3 cups flour; beat until smooth. Add enough additional flour to make ta soft dough. Turn out onto lightly floured board. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 8-10 min. Form into smooth ball. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hr.

Punch down dough. Let rest 15 min. Then divide dough in half and shape each half into a loaf. Place each loaf in a greased 9x5x3 bread pan. Cover; let rise in warm place, free from draft, until doubled in bulk, about 1 hr.

Bake at 400 degrees F, about 30 min, or until done. Makes 2 loaves.

*Veronica’s Notes:

Many older recipes instruct you to scald milk. That is, to bring it nearly to a boil (185°F, 85°C, or more), preferably in a thick-bottomed pan, and stirring actively, to keep a protein skin from forming on the surface and keep the proteins and sugar from sticking to the bottom. Scalding served two purposes, to kill potentially harmful bacteria in the milk, and to destroy enzymes that keep the milk from thickening in recipes. Pasteurization, however, accomplishes both of those goals, and since almost all store-bought milk in Western countries is pasteurized these days, scalding is essentially an unnecessary step. Therefore, I merely heated the milk with the butter, sugar & salt until the butter was melted and then I cooled it until it was just warm but not hot.

Also, I used rapid rise/instant yeast. If you are also using instant yeast, here is my method for this bread that you can follow–it cuts down on the prep time by a full hour.

Mix 3 cups flour with the yeast in a large bowl, then pour in the warm water and cooled milk mixture until blended. Follow the rest of the directions up until the point when you have kneaded the bread for 8-10 minutes. You will skip the first rising since instant yeast makes this step unnecessary. Divide the dough in half, form into loaves, and put it into the greased loaf pans. Follow the second rising and baking directions. I turned my loaves out of the pan as soon as they were done and brushed them with melted butter. Divine!