Conference turris::cooks

    amounts for					bake at 375 deg F
    12    | 2 loaves				35 - 40 min
-------------------------
    42-45 | 7 - 7 1/2 cups flour
    12    | 2         packages yeast (1 pk = 1 Tbsp)
    12    | 2         cups milk
    3     | 1/2       cup sugar
    3     | 1/2       cup shortening
    4 Tbsp| 2 tsp     salt
    12    | 2         eggs
-------------------------
    filling
    3     | 1/2       cup sugar
    4 Tbsp| 2 tsp     cinnamon
-------------------------
    icing
    6     | 1         cup sifted confectioners sugar
    1 1/2 | 1/4       tsp vanilla
    9     | 1 1/2     Tbsp milk
-------------------------
    
      Combine half the flour and all the yeast in a large mixer bowl.
    Heat the milk, sugar, salt and shortening in a saucepan until
    the shortening is melted.  Add this to the dry mixture.  Add
    the eggs.  Beat to mix on low; beat 3 min on high.  By hand, stir
    in flour to make a soft dough.  Knead 5-8 min or until smooth and
    elastic.  (poke your finger in.  If it springs back it's done.)
      Let this rise in a greased bowl for about 1 hour.  (Rising:  Oil
    a bowl generously.  Shape your dough into a big blob about the same
    circumference as the bowl.  Dump it in the bowl.  Turn it over -
    top is now oiled.  Cover it with a cloth that's been dampened with
    hot water and wrung out.  Put it somewhere warm - top of fridge
    is good.)
      Punch down (sink your fist into the middle - air will whoosh out)
    Divide into loaves - shape into little blobs.  Cover and let rest
    about 10 min.  Make up the filling - blend sugar and cinnamon.
      Roll each loaf out into a rectangle about the same width as the
    length of your loaf pan and about half again as long.  Sprinkle
    with a little water (helps the sugar to stick).  Sprinkle with
    filling and roll up (start at one of the short sides and roll until
    you get to the other short side).  Put the loaf in your pan, putting
    the seam down so the top is smooth.  Let this rise about 35 - 45
    min.  Bake.  Bread is done when you tap on the top and it sounds
    hollow.  It should be nice and brown.  Cool bread and remove from
    pans.
      Make up icing and drizzle on top.
    
    OPTIONS:  (all amounts are for 2 loaves)
    1) Bread:	- add 1/4 cup dry milk (for protein - no taste diff)
    		- use half whole wheat and half white flour (all whole
   		  wheat flour makes it too heavy)
    2) Filling:	- Use different spices.  Ex: 1/4 tsp cloves, 1 t allspice
    		  etc
    		- add chopped apple, or raisins or other dried fruits,
   		  or nuts or seeds or WELL drained (between paper towels)
    		  pineapple.
    3) Topping	- Use 1 Tbsp orange (or other) juice instead of the milk.
    		- use other flavoring instead of the vanilla
    		- dissolve some instant coffee in the milk (dissolve
   		  it VERY well!)

    This recipe is from *A World of Breads* by Delores Casella.
    I'd recommend this book highly.  I've used James Beard's book
    also, and prefer Casella's.
    
    This bread is moist and dark with lots of flavor.  It's similar
    to the German "soldiers bread" - it's very solid!  The recipe
    doubles (or more) very easily and you can add 1/2 cup brown sugar
    and 1 cup each of raisins and walnuts for a sweeter more festive
    bread.  The recipe makes one HUGE round loaf.
    
    2 Cups Rye flour		2 teaspoons salt
    1/4 cup cocoa		2 tablespoons caraway seed (I omit this)
    2 cakes yeast		2 tablespoons butter, at room temp
    1 1/2 cups warm water	2 1/2 cups white or whole wheat flour
    1/2 cup light molasses	cornmeal
    
    Combine the rye flour and cocoa.  Do not sift.  Dissolve yeast in
    1/2 cup warm water. (a cake of yeast = a package of yeast = 1
    tablespoon of yeast)  Combine the molasses, the remaining 1 cup
    warm water, the salt and caraway seed in a large bowl.  Add the
    rye flour and cocoa, the yeast mixture, the butter and 1 cup white
    or whole-wheat flour.  Beat until dough is smooth.  Spread the
    remaining flour on a breadboard.  Dump dough onto it, and knead
    it into the dough.  Add more flour if necessary to make a firm dough
    that is smooth and elastic.  Place in an oiled bowl, turn, cover,
    and let rise.  It will double in about 2 hours.  Punch dough down,
    shape into a round loaf, and place on a buttrered cookie sheet that's
    been sprinkled with cornmeal.  Let rise  about 50 min.  Bake in
    a 375 deg F oven 35 - 40 min, or until done.
	Note:  If you forget to soften the butter, stick it into the 1 cup
    water before you start combining the other ingredients.

    This is a more complicated rye type bread.  It's close grained and
    heavy with a crunchy crust.  The variations came about when my coop
    ran out of potatoes - once I got started modifying the recipe, I
    figured I'd keep on going.  I liked the variations better than the
    original.  This bread is good with lentil soup as a winter meal.
      This is heavy dough, sticky, and it'll kill all but Hobart mixers.
    Mix it by hand unless you've got a Kitchenaid.  Kneading it requires
    MUSCLES.  Eating it requires solid teeth.
    
    3 round or loaf-pan loaves
    
    1 1/2 cup cold water		
    3/4 cup cornmeal, white or yellow
    1/2 cup boiling water
    1 tablespoon salt
    2 tablespoons sugar (var: 3/4 cup dark molasses)
    2 tablespoons shortening
    1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa (optional)
    1 tablespoon caraway seeds
    2 tablespoons dry yeast
    2 cups mashed potatoes OR 1/2 cup dry potatoes plus 1 1/2 cups water
       (var: 1 cup oats cooked in 1 3/4 cups water)
    (var: 1/2 cup dry skim milk)
    (var: 1/2 cup wheat germ)
    4 cups rye flour
    4 cups whole wheat flour
    
    Preparation:  In a saucepan, stir cold water into cornmeal.  Add
    hot water.  Cook, stirring, until thick and smooth.  Add salt, sugar
    or molasses, shortening, cocoa, and seeds.  Let stand until warm,
    not hot (105-115 deg F)
      Sprinkle yeast into warm mixture and blend in.  Mix in potato
    or oatmeal.  Stir rye flour in, then wheat flour - until dough is
    thick and pulls away from sides of bowl.

    Knead: 10 min BY HAND - do not try to use a dough hook.

    Raise: In large bowl, oiled top and bottom and covered and in a
    warm spot - 1 hour.
    
    Shape:  Into loaves in greased loaf pans or into rounds on greased
    and cornmealed cookie sheets.
    
    Raise: In warm place - 45 min.
    
    Bake: Preheat oven to 375 deg F.  Bake about 1 hour or until the
    bottom, when tapped, sounds hollow and is hard. ( you can turn a
    loaf out of a pan to test it - put it back if it's not done, no
    harm done.)  If you want a harder chewier crust, remove the loaves
    from the pans after 50 min, brush with salt water, and finish baking
    them on the oven racks, out of the pans.

    Remove: and cool.  This bread keeps a good 2 weeks or several months
    in the freezer.  Slice it thinly with a serrated knife, especially
    if you've made the hard-crust version.

    
Since it's nearly Thanksgiving, I thought I'd share this recipe for
Pumpkin bread.  It's an interesting recipe because it's not the
traditional quick/batter type bread but a yeast bread with a mild
flavor of pumpkin.  


10 cups flour
2 1/4-oz. packages active dry yeast *or* 2 3/5-oz. cakes fresh yeast
1-3/4 lbs. pumpkin, halved, seeded, scraped, peeled, and cut into chunks
   *or* 1-2 cans pureed pumpkin (I used one can)
1 Tablespoon salt
                           ..
2 Tablespoons butter        :  Optional --- not in 
2 Tablespoons molasses      :  original recipe but
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger  :  I added these.
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves .:

1. Simmer pumpkin 25 minutes in salted water (until soft).  Drain,
   reserving liquid.  Cool to tepid, and press through a fine meshed
   sieve to puree.  Add optional ingredients if using.

   *or* (for we lazy people)

   Heat canned pumpkin until warm.  Add optional ingredients, if
   using.

2. Stir yeast into 1/3 c. of the cooking liquid (or warm water) and
   let stand in a warm place for about 10 minutes or until frothy.
 
3. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.  Add warm pumpkin and
   yeast.  Stir in enough of the cooking liquid (or warm water) to 
   make a fairly firm dough.  Knead 15 minutes, then let rise in
   a warm place until doubled. 1-2 hours.

4. Punch dough down and knead lightly.  Shape dough into two round
   loaves.  Place on a buttered baking sheet.  Let rise in a warm
   place until doubled.  1/2-1 hour.   With a razor blade make a
   circular incision around the top of the bread.

5. Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 50 minutes or until
   the bread is brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

    I'm still new at baking bread.  I just got hooked on it after
    Christmas, when my husband suggested trying to make sour dough
    bread.  He had given me a new cook book - The Culinary Art Institute
    book and it had a few different recipies in it.  It turned out 
    quite well, so I tried their 100% whole wheat recipe.  Yum!  I thought
    it would be grainier and heavier than it was.  Well, I am very happy
    with the way things have gone so far, and we now have more bread
    than we know what to do with.  Anyway, to get to the point, I would
    like to try more recipies like rye breads and cracked wheat, but
    I can't find any flour in the stores around me.  I can't believe
    they don't even have rye flour!  Does anyone know where I can get
    it?  I live in the Worcester area (Grafton).
    
    Thanks,
    Robin
    

	Try a health food store.  Sometimes they have special grinds 
	that are specially suited for bread.

						     
							- JP

    Gee, even the crummy grocery stores I live near (near HLO) usually
    have rye flour!  Ask for it in your usual store, and they may start
    carrying it.  You often can find "unusual" flours (try barley flour
    - really nice flavor!) at "health food" places, but they often want
    a premium price for them.  It is also possible to mail order flour
    (also expensive).

    Another hint, once you have your flour.  I use rye flour fairly
    slowly.  To keep it fresher and to keep the bugs out (there's
    nothing worse than not knowing they have moved in....) I store
    them in closed containers.  Since I needed a lot of jars, I got
    gallon glass jars from the caf., washed them well, sterilized them
    in the dishwasher, and use them to store various flours, noodles,
    and beans and, of course, the dry catfood (the kitties can't
    get into it, but they CAN get into a bag of it left on the counter).
    The caf here was happy to save them - there were a few kinds that
    went back to the company they came from, but several just got
    thrown out.
    
    --L

    Another way to keep  the flour fresh is to put it in the freezer.
    I bake bread in spurts, so sometimes I see a good buy on the flour
    when I'm not in the mood, I just buy it and freeze it.  You really
    don't have to thaw it out to use it.

Comments on baking bread:

If you warm the flour in a 200 degree oven, in the ceramic bowl you are
planning on using to mix the bread, just until warm to touch the bread
will rise much faster.

I've been baking bread for 20 years and have approx. 25 cook books.
The best I've found to introduce someone to baking bread or to
teach old pros new breads to bake is the TASSAJARA BREAD BOOK.  If
your bookstore doesn't have it, ask for it.  The most perfect bread
I've even seen comes from the basic recipe in this book.  This
book also gives the basic rules for mixing different flours and still
getting something worth eating so you can invent your own breads.

There are no failures in bread baking...less than perfect loaves become
stuffing for fowl, bread puddings, or bread crumbs for meat loaf, etc.

If you like baking your own, consider buying the whole grains to store
in air tight containers.  Then simply grind the grains into flour when
you use them...a strong food processor can do the job very easily and
believe me, you CAN taste the difference in fresh ground, whole grain
flour.  Health food stores will be able to help you find sources for
the whole grain.  Grain stores indefinitely, flour loses flavor fast.

    re .11:
    
    I would second the Tassajara Bread Book.  It's good reading as well
    as good baking.  It reminds one that bread is an art and a pleasure
    and not to be approached in an adversarial attitude.
    
    Annie

    My absolute favorite bread cookbook is put out by Red Star Yeast.
    Besides having a large variety of recipies, the book also goes into
    why you put what you do into bread.  By having this information,
    we've been able to customize our bread to our own taste and have
    yet to be disappointed.  This is a great book for beginners as well
    as those who've been baking for years.
    
    Lynne (who just finished up her homemade cinnamon roll for breakfast!)
    

    Here's my favorite recipe (and that of all my friends!) They even
    bribe me to make them - really easy! The lady who showed my has
    gotten it down to where she only uses one pan and two cookie sheets
    - no bowls, no fuss!
    
                              Potato Rolls
    
    Peel, quarter & cook one medium potato.  While potato is cooking,
    measure into a small bowl 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 cup warm (not hot)
    water and one and a half cubes of fresh yeast.  (Refers to the
    approximately one inch square size, there are larger 3 oz small
    blocks, too - use half of one of these).  
    
    Also while potato is cooking, in large bowl: half cup Crisco, half
    cup sugar, one tablespoon salt.
    
    When potato is done (yeast should be foamy by now), drain off water
    and reserve.  Mash potato and add to large bowl.  Add enough water
    to the potato water to make one and a half cups and add to large
    bowl. 
    
    Precaution here for those unfamiliar w/yeast: Pay attention to how
    much water you have cooked potato in, and the temperature of water
    you are adding to it. You don't want to add a cup and a half of
    hot potato water-it will kill the yeast; conversely, if you end
    up with a quarter cup of potato water, you don't want to add a cup
    and a quarter of cold - yeast won't be excited about it!
    
    Anyway, the potato water will help disolve the Crisco and sugar.
    Add the contents of the small bowl.
    
    Stir in 6 to 7 cups of flour, turn out and knead about 10 minutes,
    or "until smooth and elastic".  Turn into greased bowl, cover and
    let rise until double in bulk.  Then, pinching off small globs,
    knead in your hand and form into rolls, place on ungreased baking
    sheet, cover and let rise till almost double (or until you can't
    stand it anymore). Bake at 360 F degrees 20 minutes.

    Be sure to have plenty of real butter (it helps to melt some for
    your hands when actually shaping the rolls). And enjoy!

    Can anyone give me some helpful hints about using a mixer
    to knead bread?  I have an Oster Kitchen Center and just 
    last weekend got brave enough to make my sourdough bread with it
    instead of by hand.  It tastes okay and the texture is pretty
    close, but it got a lot more air bubbles.  The dough also decided
    to climb up the dough hooks.  I felt like I was wrestling with a
    wild animal - yelling "BACK, BACK - GET DOWN THERE!"  Also, with
    the second batch I made I ended up using all the flour, which
    has never happened before, and it was still kind of sticky.  I
    ended up kneading by hand a little to get it right.  This may have
    had nothing at all to do with the mixer though.
    
    Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions for using these things?
    With a two year old who helps and another one on the way, it is
    easier to let the mixer do the messy, muscle stuff.
    
    Robin
    

    I also have the Oster Kitchen Center and have encountered this same
    problem.  I have found with smaller amounts of dough (i.e. pizza)
    this problem is less acute.  In all cases, I have the rubber spatula
    handy.  My bread cookbook also makes note of this problem and
    recommends the rubber spatula approach.
    
    I have also found that it takes the mixer longer to mix in all the
    flour than it takes me to do it by hand.  For the most part, I just
    do the mixing/kneading by hand.
    
    If anyone has any advice on successfully using this mixer for bread,
    I would certainly welcome it.
    
    					- Terry  

    I always use my oster kitchen center with the dough hooks to knead
    bread. I only do two loaves worth at a time, which with whole wheat
    four is about 6 cups flour to about 2 1/2 cups liquid. I put the
    flour and dry ingredients (salt, spices,etc), then add the water-
    yeast mixture and the rest of the liquid. I mix it with the hooks
    and a wooden spoon until it starts to look like dough, and then
    I let the hooks knead it for 10-14 minutes, using the spoon
    occasionally or my hands to move the dough around. I always use
    the machine on high and the bowl spins counter-clockwise, which
    i think is backwards of the way it spins when I use the beaters.
    Be careful not to over-knead when kneading by machine- that is why
    I usually time it and push it around with my hands, because I can
    feel when its "done".
    
    Eryn Utz 

    I have been using an Oster Kitchen for many years [too many to mention]
    and love it for EVERYTHING.  It is supposed to keep the dough off the
    hooks if you oil them but it never worked for me.  They [the Oster
    Co.] have a new dough hook that was made especially so that would
    not happen.  I don't know tho' because I have not gotten one yet.
    Here, in Colo.Spgs. I would go to a appliance repair shop that carries
    all kind of parts and pieces for all kinds of small appliances to
    get them.  Hope this helps you. 
    '