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

4 Tbsp butter ½ cup – 1 cup diced onions 4 lbs tomatoes, diced ¼ tsp thyme ½ tsp basil ¼ tsp black pepper 3 Tbsp flour 2 cups vegetable stock or chicken broth ¼ tsp baking soda 3 Tbsp sugar 1 ½ cups evaporated milk (12 oz can) ½ tsp salt 6-10 slices of bacon

In a large saucepan, saute the onions in the butter until tender, about 10 minutes (do not brown). Add the tomatoes, thyme, basil and pepper. Simmer 10 minutes. Whisk the broth and flour together and add to the soup mixture. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes, then remove from heat.

Fry the bacon until crispy and let cool, then crumble. Puree the soup in a blender, then return to the stove. Stir in the baking soda, sugar, milk, salt, and bacon. Heat, stirring, to a bare simmer, just to get it hot again.

Serves 3-4 people.

#bacon #bakingsoda #basil #butter #evaporatedmilk #main #onion #pepper #salt #soup #soupstock #sugar #thyme #tomato #wheatflour

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

I have no idea if they are actually Canadian; that's just what they're called.

1 cup dark molasses ¼ cup packed brown sugar 1 tsp vinegar 2 1/3 cups flour 2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger root 2 tsp baking soda 1 egg ½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease cookie sheets.

In a large bowl, stir together the molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and egg.

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, ginger and salt, then add to molasses mixture. Mix until well blended.

The dough is very sticky, so keep your hands wet with water to roll the dough into little balls.

Place balls on cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. They spread a lot while baking. Bake until edges are golden, about 8-11 minutes. They should be kind of gooey still but noticeably cooked. Let cool on pans for 5 minutes before removing, they use this time to set/finish cooking.

#bakingsoda #brownsugar #cookie #dairyfree #dessert #egg #ginger #molasses #salt #vegetarian #vinegar #wheatflour

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

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

1 cup milk 2 Tbsp butter ½ tsp salt ½ cup sugar 1 egg, beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 Tbsp yeast 1 tsp sugar ¼ cup lukewarm water (110 degrees) 4 to 4½ cups flour 3 Tbsp melted butter 1 Tbsp orange zest

Sauce: 1 cup orange juice ¼ cup sugar 1 Tbsp cornstarch

Heat milk with butter, salt and ¼ cup of the sugar. Heat until butter melts, but do not boil. Let cool to lukewarm. Whisk in egg and vanilla.

Dissolve yeast in water with 1 tsp sugar. Combine 3½ cups of flour with yeast mixture and milk mixture, stirring to form dough. Turn dough onto lightly floured board. Spread a thin layer of butter inside the bowl.

Knead dough about 8 minutes until smooth and resistant, adding flour if necessary.

Return to bowl. Cover and place in warm place to rise until double in size, 1 to 2 hours.

Punch down dough. Roll out on lightly floured board to a large rectangle about ½” thick. Brush with melted butter. Mix ¼ cup sugar with orange zest and sprinkle on.

Roll dough like jelly roll. Use a sharp knife to cut thick slices to make the rolls. Place in a greased cake pan.

Mix together the sauce ingredients and pour over the rolls. Cover and let rise in warm place until nearly doubled in size.

Heat oven to 325° F. Bake rolls 45 minutes, until light golden brown.

#butter #cornstarch #dessert #egg #milk #orangejuice #orangezest #roll #salt #sugar #vanilla #vegetarian #wheatflour #yeast

½ cup sugar ½ cup maple syrup or corn syrup ½ cup butter ½ Tbsp vinegar 1 egg 1 tsp ground black pepper ½ tsp ground allspice ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp ground nutmeg ½ tsp baking soda 2 ½ cups flour

Cook the sugar, maple/corn syrup, butter and vinegar in a pot over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted and it boils. Pour into a bowl and chill down to room temperature. Beat in all the other ingredients. It will make a smooth paste.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze for 20 minutes or chill longer. It rolls out much easier when it is hard/cold.

Preheat oven to 350° F, and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

On a floured surface, roll the dough to about ¼” thick, then cut out shapes. Place them in the baking sheet with about 1” in between, because they do expand a little.

Bake for 7 minutes. (If they are thicker, or the pan is too crowded, they will require a few more minutes.) They should be slightly golden brown around the edges and look puffed up. Let them repose on the baking sheet until they are relaxed and more cool, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. They should be thin and hard enough to snap, but slightly chewy when eating.

Makes about 36 cookies.

#allspice #bakingsoda #butter #cinnamon #cookies #cornsyrup #dessert #egg #maplesyrup #nutmeg #pepper #sugar #vegetarian #vinegar #wheatflour

4 eggs ½ cup flour ½ cup milk or orange juice 2 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 425° F. Put the butter in a cake pan (8”×8” for a thick pancake, bigger for a thinner one) and put in the oven to melt.

Beat eggs until light. Add flour and milk and mix until smooth.

Pour the batter into the cake pan with the melted butter, and bake for 20-25 min. until brown.

Serve immediately. Top with what you prefer, such as maple syrup, powdered sugar, jelly/jam, warm applesauce with cinnamon, any kind of fruit topping, whipped cream, etc.

#breakfast #butter #egg #milk #orangejuice #pancake #vegetarian #wheatflour