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Contents
Farmhouse Style White Bread
- 3 cups of all purpose or bread flour
- ½ cup of whole wheat flour
- 1 package yeast
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (the old farmers didn’t use olive oil but this works well and is healthy)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 ½ cups of warm water
Makes 1 or 2 loaves
- Add sugar and yeast to warm water and let proof for 5 minutes.
- In large bowl and mixing machine add the flour, salt.
- After 5 minutes add the water with yeast
- Add the olive oil
- Mix well for 5 minutes. If the dough is a little dry add 1 tablespoon of water. If the dough is a little wet add ¼ flour.
- Turn out onto floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Set in a large bowl and coat with olive oil
- Cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap and set in warm spot for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours turn out onto floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Divide into 2 long, French style loaves, or leave as one large Italian style loaf.
- Place on baking sheet and cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap.
- Set in warm place for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- After the 1 hour second rise place loaves slice shallow slanted cuts every 2 inches or so in the top of the loaves.
- Place in the hot over and bake for 30 minutes if two loaves or 35 if one large loaf.
You can determine the crustiness of this bread by choosing different baking temperatures and by controlling the moisture in the oven: the hotter the oven, and the more moisture in the oven, the crustier the bread. You can add moisture by placing a pan of boiling water on the floor of the oven while baking. Raising the baking temperature up to as high as 425 also gives a heartier crust but shorten the baking time by 5 minutes for every 25 degrees above 375.
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Sour Dough Bread
This is a variation on the White Bread given above
- Day 1 - Mix the yeast and 1 cup of the water and 1 cup of the flour.
- Cover and place in cool place, but not refrigerated, and let sit.
- This will be your sour dough starter.
- Day 2 - Add the whole wheat, and salt to the starter and mix well
- Cover and place in cool place, but not refrigerated, and let sit.
- Day 3 - Add remaining ingredients, Mix well for 5 minutes. If the dough is a little dry add 1 tablespoon of water. If the dough is a little wet add ¼ cup flour.
- Turn out onto floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap and set in warm spot for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours turn out onto floured work surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Divide into 2 long, French style loaves, or leave as one large Italian style loaf.
- Place on baking sheet and cover with damp cloth or plastic wrap.
- Set in warm place for 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- After the 1 hour second rise place loaves slice shallow slanted cuts every 2 inches or so in the top of the loaves.
- Place in the hot over and bake for 30 minutes if two loaves or 35 if one large loaf.
If you start this bread in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes and then reduce temperature to 350 for the remaining time you will get a real crusty bread.
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French Toast
I use the Farmhouse Style bread for this but any crusty home made or good commercial bread will work.
Per Person
- 3-4 slices bread about 1 inch thick
- 2 large or jumbo eggs
- 1 tsp Brown Sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp salt
- pepper as desired
- Crack the eggs into a flat bottom pan just large enough for 2 or 4 slices of your bread to lay in side by side
- With a wisk beat the eggs until well mixed
- Add the other ingredients
- Wisk until smooth and well mixed
- Add the bread and coat both sides well with the egg mixture
- Heat your griddle to medium heat
- Let bread sit in the mixture for three minutes
- Rotate the upper bread pieces with the lower ones and turn all pieces over
- Let bread sit in the mixture for three minutes
- Repeat the last two steps twice until nearly all of the egg mixture has been absorbed by the bread.
- Lower the heat to just below medium.
- Cook each piece on your griddle for four minutes per side or until golden brown.
Since the bread has absorbed the egg mixture deep inside, you must cook it slow enough to insure that the interior egg has cooked. So test the first piece to be sure. Cooking for a little longer time will not hurt the toast.
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White Mountain Pancakes
This is my version of the pancakes served at the logging camps in the 19th century. In those old camps beer was often used as the leavening agent.
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3 tablespoon melted butter
serves 2-3
- Mix all dry ingredients
- Add eggs and milk and stir
- Add butter and stir until smooth
- Let rest 5 minutes
- Onto a well heated and oiled griddle pour 1/3 to ½ cup of batter for each pancake
- Cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes.
- Flip and repeat
If you want blueberry or pecan pancakes add ½ cup of either to batter just before cooking and carefully fold in.
Corn Cakes and Oat Cakes
We use this for left over corn grits or oatmeal
- ½ to 1 cup of cold cooked grits or oatmeal
- To the White Mountain Pancake recipe above add ½ to 1 cup of cold cooked corn grits or oatmeal after you add the butter.
- Mix until smooth.
- Cook the same as above.
- These cakes will be amazing light and fluffy.
Note on Stirring Pancakes for Fluffiness
There are two factors that promote fluffiness in pancake batter, underdeveloped gluten and dissolved baking soda. Gluten is a mix of very long proteins that are disorganized in structure. Once gluten is dissolved in water, these proteins can more easily rearrange their structure. Kneading or mixing gluten elongates the proteins and somewhat organizes them, an action similar to combing the strands of your hair. As the proteins start to lie more or less parallel to each other, the dough becomes elastic and less tender. By reducing the mixing time of your batter, you give the gluten less opportunity to organize.
Baking soda creates the bubbles that make pancakes rise. When baking soda encounters an acid, carbon dioxide is formed to produce the bubbles in the batter. The stirring of the pancake batter speeds bubble formation by moving the baking soda and acid together. Unfortunately, stirring also causes the release of carbon dioxide gas by bringing formed bubbles to the surface of the mixture. Just a little too much stirring and the bubble-forming capacity of the baking soda will be quickly exhausted. To make the fluffiest pancakes possible, then, you should stir the batter until the ingredients are just incorporated - and not one stir more!
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Oatmeal Orange-Sweet Potato Bread
- 1 ½ cups cooked oatmeal
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 small sweet potato mashed
- 2 tablespoon orange oil
- 1 tbsp orange blossom honey
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ¼ cups warm water
- 3 cups unbleached flour
- yeast
- Add yeast to the water, let stand 5 minutes.
- In mixer combine flour and salt.
- Add water-yeast mix to the flour-salt mix.
- Mix at low speed.
- While mixer is running add all remaining ingredients.
- Mix for 5 minutes.
- Place mixture in greased bread loaf pan.
- Let rise until double in bulk.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes.
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