From a useful breadmaking class.

• Acidity: Yeast loves acid. It grows well in acidic environments, and it actually creates acidic environments through its fermentation process. But once the environment becomes too acidic, the yeast dies and your bread dies. That is why you don't let it rise for too long. Also, if you add in acidic ingredients like onions or fruit juice, this will cause for problems with the bread going flat from the yeast dying.

• Kneading: The baker told us to treat the dough like it's a living organism. So we must treat it gently. When stirring the ingredients, don't cut through it with your spoon. Instead scoop the ingredients together and they will form dough on their own. When kneading, don't push and pull so hard that the dough tears. Be gentle with it. That's the best way to get soft dough with big bubbles. After gently kneading for a few minutes (adding in flour as necessary), the dough will start to resist, no longer absorbing flour, and physically fighting back against your hands. It will also take on a sort of luster or sheen, and that's when you know it's time to let it rest and rise.

• Sugar: Putting sugar in your dough is what causes the bread to come out browner. More sugar = browner, and sweeter sugar = browner. So ½ cup of honey will make a browner bread than ½ cup of cane sugar, because honey is much sweeter than cane sugar. The baker said that he only usually only uses a small amount of sugar to get the yeast going.

• Salt and Sugar: Sugar and salt in the recipe need to be inversely proportionate. If you use more sugar, you need to use less salt. If you use less sugar, you need to use more salt.

• Salt: Salt retards the ability of the yeast to ferment, so it's important to control how much salt you use, and/or when you add it to the dough.

• Rising: You know it's risen enough if you poke it and the hole from your finger stays in the dough.

• Fat: Fat is put in the bread for the sake of texture, not so much for flavor.

• Interesting Historical Fact: In the middle ages, white flour was made by sifting and grinding the wheat over and over again. This means that it still retained most of its nutrients, and was basically just as nutritious as the darker flours. That's different from the white flour of today, which is chemically bleached, which destroys the natural nutrients in the wheat, so that vitamins and such are artificially added back into the flour.

• Bread flour and all-purpose flour contain a good amount of gluten for making bread. Pastry flour and flour made from different grains, have less or no gluten, so they don't have the strength to stretch and hold the air, so they are not good for making yeast bread. They can be treated as add-ins for flavor, not used to create the structure of the bread.

• The sponge method of making bread:

This is a method, not a recipe, so go find a recipe and use this method for it.

Start the yeast in a bit of water with a bit of sugar or flour. Mix together the water, sugar, half the flour, and the yeast mixture after it's become all foamy.

Let this rest for a long time. Overnight in a cold environment or a few hours in a warm environment. It needs to become rather large and blobby and sticky and bubbly.

After it's rested, add in the salt, oil/butter, and more flour. Stir it gently, not cutting through the dough, but bringing the flour down the sides and underneath with your spoon, like scooping it together. When it's mostly together, turn out to a floured board and knead more flour in until it's ready.

Let rise twice, once as a blob (oiled, in an oiled and covered bowl), and once in loaf form. These loaves don't take as long to bake because they're more airy, more like ½ hour.

Any desired additional ingredients, like fruit, vegetables, herbs, seeds, whole grains, cheese, etc, can be added. They can be added either at the beginning, when making the sponge, or later when you add the rest of the ingredients. Any acidic ingredients should be added at the later point, and any dried/dehydrated ingredients should be soaked in water before going into the dough, so they don't mess up the dough's hydration level.

#bread #honey #note #salt #sugar #wheatflour #yeast

2 cups of apples, pears, stone fruits, and/or berries—fresh, canned, or frozen ¼ cup honey 1 ¼ cup water, fruit juice, or a combination 2 Tbsp flour

2 eggs ½ cup applesauce 1 ¾ cup flour 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt ¾ cup milk or nut milk ½ cup honey

Preheat oven to 350° F.

If using canned fruit, drain the liquid. Use the liquid to partially replace the water, if desired. Place fruit in a buttered 9×13” pan.

Place water in a small saucepan. Add ¼ cup honey to taste and stir in the 2 Tbsp flour. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 minute. Pour over the fruit and set in the oven.

Beat together eggs, applesauce, and ½ cup honey.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add in 3 alterations with the milk to the egg mixture. Pour over the fruit and bake for 35-45 minutes.

#apple #applesauce #apricot #bakingpowder #blackberry #cake #cherry #cobbler #cranberry #dairyfree #dessert #egg #flour #fruit #fruitjuice #honey #milk #nutmilk #peach #pear #plum #raspberry #salt #strawberry #vegetarian

From Legend of Luke, these scones are meant to resemble the bricks from which the abbey is built.

1 cup flour 1 cup oats 1/8 tsp salt ¼ cup butter 2 Tbsp crystallized honey ½ cup chopped nuts ½ cup preserved cherries with juice, or fresh cherries, pitted and mashed, or cherry jam, or cherry pie filling allspice

Optional colorants: 1 Tbsp beet juice, or beet powder, or mashed red berries (strawberries, raspberries, cranberries), or berry juice

Preheat oven to 425 ° F.

Stir flour, oats, and salt into a bowl. Cut in butter and honey until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add nuts, cherries, and optional ingredients. Add a few tablespoons more juice if necessary to make a dough, but not too sticky.

Turn onto a floured surface and knead a little until it's cohesive. Place the dough on a baking sheet that is either greased or lined with parchment, and roll or press it into a rectangular shape. Cut it into smaller rectangles. Sprinkle allspice on top.

Bake for 10 minutes.

#allspice #beet #butter #cherry #cranberry #fairyfeast #fruitjuice #honey #jam #nuts #oats #raspberry #salt #scones #snack #strawberry #vegetarian #wheatflour

For 3 loaves of bread: 1 ½ cups lukewarm water 1 ½ cups lukewarm milk or evaporated milk 1 ½ Tbsp yeast 1 Tbsp + 1 tsp salt ½ cup honey 5 Tbsp oil 6 2/3 cup whole wheat flour

For 1 loaf of bread: ½ cup lukewarm water ½ cup milk or evaporated milk ½ Tbsp yeast ½ Tbsp salt 3 Tbsp honey 1 ½ Tbsp oil 2 ¼ cup whole wheat flour

In a very large bowl with a lid, or some other lidded container, mix together the water, milk, yeast, salt, honey and oil.

Stir in the flour (without kneading it).

Cover it (not airtight) and let it sit for 2-3 hours, until the dough has risen and fallen.

Either use it now, or refrigerate it (with the lid on, but not airtight) to make several loaves of dough throughout the week. It's easier to handle when it's cold.

When you want to bake it, scoop out about 1.5 lbs of dough (the size of a cantaloupe, or about 1/3 of the dough). Have your hands be wet with water to prevent the dough from sticking. Form the dough into a ball. Place the ball of dough into a greased loaf pan (it should fill the pan just over halfway). Let the dough rest/rise for 1 hour 40 minutes-2 hours.

Coat the top of the dough with flour and cut slashes into it. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Place the loaf into the middle of the oven, with another pan on the side with some hot water in it. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until very brown and firm.

Let cool completely before slicing, to prevent crumbling.

#bread #evaporatedmilk #honey #milk #oil #salt #vegetarian #wheatflour #yeast

2 ¾ cup flour 4 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 3 Tbsp Olive oil 3 Tbsp Coconut oil or butter 1 ½ cup milk

Preheat oven to 450° F.

Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together. Cut in the butter, or grate it & stir it in. Stir in the milk. For whole wheat flour, you might need 1 or 2 more Tbsp of milk. It should be a very soft, sticky dough. Drop by large spoonfuls onto a greased or lined baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Makes 12.

Variations:

Reduce the salt to ½ tsp. Add a bit of honey or sugar, and other things like nuts, oats, and dried fruit to make scones.

Use olive oil instead of butter. Add 1 tsp rosemary and 1 tsp black pepper and roll out into thin pizza crusts (recipe is enough for 2 medium-large pizzas). It makes a nice crackery crust.

Make vegan by using coconut oil instead of butter and water instead of milk. The biscuits still turn out soft and fluffy.

Add ¾ cup of grated cheese.

#bakingpowder #biscuit #butter #cheese #coconutoil #driedfruit #honey #milk #nuts #oats #oliveoil #pepper #rosemary #salt #scone #side #sugar #vegan #vegetarian #wheatflour

8 cups filtered water 1 cucumber, about 8” long

Run the cucumber through a juicing machine. You should get about 1 cup of juice. Discard the pulp. Combine juice with the water. Served chilled.

For a brighter flavor, add ¼ cup lemon juice or lime juice, and ¼ cup sugar or honey.

#cucumber #dairyfree #drink #glutenfree #honey #lemonjuice #limejuice #sugar #vegan

2 eggs 1 cup flour 1 cup water or milk 1 ½ Tbsp baking powder 2 Tbsp butter 2 Tbsp honey or sugar ½ tsp ground nutmeg (optional)

In a small bowl, beat the eggs until smooth. In a medium bowl, combine flour, butter, baking powder, and nutmeg. Cut the butter in with a pastry cutter until it is small chunks. Add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients, stirring until there is no dry flour.

Use ¼ cup of batter per pancake. Cook on a lightly greased skillet over medium heat.

#bakingpowder #breakfast #butter #egg #honey #milk #nutmeg #pancake #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

2 cups flour ½ cup oats 4 tsp baking powder ½ cup honey ¼ cup apple sauce 1 ¼ cup milk ¾ cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 400° F. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add the wet ingredients, excluding the peanut butter, and stir until just mixed. Let the batter sit for a minute or so, so the baking powder can start working it, then stir in the peanut butter. Spoon into greased muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes. Makes 12.

The peanut flavor is not overpowering, nor is it grossly sweet. The texture is light and fluffy, and perfectly moist. They kept the moisture for a number of days after baking them (store in an airtight container).

Variations:

Add 2 Tbsp cocoa powder. Use any kind of nut butter you want. Use flavored apple sauce. Use a fruit butter instead of applesauce.

#applesauce #bakingpowder #breakfast #honey #milk #muffin #nutbutter #oats #peanutbutter #vegetarian #wheatflour

+ Pear & Rosemary

2 cups flour ½ tsp salt ¼ cup butter ¾ cup apple, grated or finely chopped 3 Tbsp honey 1 cup sour cream 1 egg 1 tsp baking powder cinnamon and sugar

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Stir together flour, salt, and baking powder. Cut in butter until crumbly and there's no more dry powder. Stir in apple, honey, sour cream and egg until combined.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease the sheet. Use a dough scoop to make round, small scones. Gently press down the tops of each scone to make them flat. Sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar.

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes until the bottoms of the scones are light brown.

Remove from oven, cool slightly on the sheet pan and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Variation:

Use pears instead of apples, add ¼ tsp dried rosemary to dough, and exclude the cinnamon sugar.

#apple #bakingpowder #biscuit #butter #cinnamon #egg #honey #pear #rosemary #salt #scone #snack #sourcream #sugar #vegetarian #wheatflour

2 cups warm herbal tea ¼ cup honey 2 Tbsp yeast 4 cups white wheat flour 1 tsp salt 1-2 Tbsp edible flowers, dried or fresh

Dissolve the honey in the tea and sprinkle the yeast in. When the yeast is foamy, add it to 2 cups flour. Let rise until about doubled.

Add the rest of the flour, the salt, and the flowers. Knead for about 10 minutes, with more flour as necessary.

Coat the bowl and dough with a thin layer of oil and let rise, covered, in a warm place until about doubled again, but not for too long.

Form into a loaf. Spray the inside of your oven or put in a pan of water.

Put loaf in oven while it's preheating to 350° F, and bake for about 1 hour.

Some flowers, like lavender, are available as a culinary herb. Fresh edible flowers can sometimes be found at grocery stores in the refrigerated section with the fresh herbs. Also look for herbal teas that are made with flowers. Small, aromatic seeds such as fennel seeds are a good addition, or seeds from flowers like poppy seeds.

You can also harvest flowers and blossoms from your garden. Not all of them are sweet. I like chive flowers and squash flowers. Be sure you look up your flowers online to see if they are edible.

#bread #dairyfree #fairyfeast #flowers #honey #salt #tea #vegetarian #wheatflour #yeast