Blueberry Orange Bread

I look at this little plaque every day. It hangs in my kitchen above my stand mixer and it reminds me of my Grandma, Edna Smith Browne. She had it hanging in her kitchen for many, many years. I miss her on a daily basis because of who she was, all she taught me, and my memories of things we did together. She is still an inspiration to me to be a better woman. So, I've been looking at this plaque and realized I've never tried the recipe on it. So I did!

It calls for: 3 cups all purpose flour (I used two c. ap and one cup wheat)
3/4 c. sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 butter or margarine, melted
1 teaspoon salt (I did a scant teaspoon!)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 c milk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon grated orange peel (I just zested one orange because that is all I had)
2/3 cup orange juice (again just squeezed one orange)
1 cup fresh, frozen, or drained canned blueberries
1/2 chopped walnuts (I omitted since I don't like nuts in my baked goods)

I started by creaming the butter and sugar. Then I added the milk and eggs. Then I mixed the dry ingredients separately and added them in to the mix. Then I added the orange zest and juice and finally folded in the blueberries by hand. I started to put it all in one bread pan but I didn't know if the batter would rise too much since it had a whole tablespoon of baking powder plus some baking soda. So I put most of the batter in the bread pan and then made six "muffins" out of the rest. It would have been fine all in one bread pan-but my daughter loved it as a muffin. So I may skip the bread pan all together next time! Then I baked the bread at 350 degrees for an hour or so.

It was so yummy! We really enjoyed the bright taste of the orange. And it was a nice change from the typical banana bread I normally make. As I mixed the bread I thought, "Oh Grandma, you are probably laughing at me right now for trying a recipe on a wall-hanging!" But as it turns out, it is a delicious recipe! I like to think she tried it on a whim one day and fed it to her children too. Yummy!

Cornbread (two ways)

Sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. . .self-rising cornmeal, that is.  The first recipe is the original recipe that is the first step to "Cornbread Dressing", the second one is my new favorite.  You can choose which one you want to use.


Cornbread recipe #1 (Jane Vaughn's recipe):


2 cups of self-rising cornmeal
1 egg
1-1/2 c. milk
1/8 c. oil
1 TB cornmeal


Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix first 3 ingredients together well.  Add oil to an iron skillet on medium heat.  Sprinkle tablespoon of cornmeal over oil and brown slightly.  Add cornmeal mixture and bake for 30-45 minutes or until golden brown.




Cornbread recipe #2 (Pioneer Woman's recipe- yep, I straight up copied and pasted it onto this blog):

• 1/4 cup Plus 2 Tablespoons Shortening
• 1 cup Yellow Corn Meal
• 1/2 cup All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 1 cup Buttermilk
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 whole Egg
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 
  
• CORNBREAD: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Heat shortening in an iron skillet, muffin pan, or other baking pan. Combine corn meal, flour, and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine buttermilk, milk, and egg. Add baking powder and baking soda. Stir. Add ¼ cup melted shortening, stirring constantly. Pour into hot pan, smoothing surface with spatula. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top.
• 
  

Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls

A great mall is one with a Cinnabon store.  Your mouth should start watering as soon as you catch a waft of that yummy goodness, especially after a long day of shopping (I also feel this way about a good airport).  This is a recipe that has the same effect.  I don't remember how I came upon it, but I didn't make it up.  I just use it. It tastes best warm and dripping with cream cheese frosting.  We usually have these at night after I make them and then leftovers for breakfast.

Dough:

1 pkg active dry yeast

1/2 c. warm water (105-115^)

1/3 c. +1/2 tsp sugar, divided

1/2 c. warmed milk

1/3 c. butter

1 tsp. salt

1 egg, slightly beaten

3 1/2-4 c. all-purpose flour, or more if needed

Filling:

1/2 c. melted butter, divided

3/4 c. sugar, divided

1 1/2 TB ground cinnamon

3/4 c. chopped walnuts, optional

Glaze:

Cream Cheese Frosting

To prepare dough:

In a small bowl, mix together warm water, yeast and sugar.  Set aside.  In a large bowl, mix milk, remaining sugar, melted butter, salt and eggs.  Stir well and add yeast mixture.  Add half the flour and beat until smooth.  Stir in enough of the remaining flour until dough is slightly stiff (dough will be sticky).

Turn out onto a well-floured board; knead 5-10 minutes.  Place in a well-buttered glass or plastic bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place, free from drafts, until doubled in bulk (~1-1.5 hours).

When doubled, punch down dough and let rest 5 min.  Roll out on floured surface into a 15 x 20" rectangle.

To prepare filling:

Spread dough with 1/4 c. melted butter.  Mix together half of the 3/4 c. sugar and 1 1/2 TB cinnamon, sprinkle over buttered dough.  Sprinkle with walnuts or pecans or raisins, if desired.

Roll up jelly-roll fashion and pinch edge together to seal.  Cut into 9-12 slices.  Coat bottom of 8" or 9" square baking pan with remaining 1/4 c. melted butter.  Place slices close together in the pan.  Let rise in warm place until dough is doubled in bulk , ~45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 25-30 min. or until rolls are nicely browned.  Cool rolls slightly.  Spread icing on rolls while warm.

Christy's Homemade Rolls

As a newly married wife, I was desperate to cook well for my husband.  My best friend, Christy, gave me this recipe.  It's very versatile and can be used for pizza dough, bread, cinnamon rolls.  Super easy, too.  Now that I've got other favorites for those specific items, I don't use this one as much, but I still think it's a great go-to recipe.


Mix in order listed:
2 cups very hot water
1/2 stick butter
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 packets yeast
4-6 cups all-purpose flour


Add last flour in increments of 2 cups-blend until smooth.  Knead.  When well mixed, coat dough with non-stick cooking spray.  Let rise in warm area.  Punch down dough with fist to release air bubbles while dough is rising.  After dough has risen ~45 minutes.  Pinch off in small balls and push through circle formed by fingers and thumb.  Place in bread pans coated with non-stick spray.  Each bread pan should hold 8 rolls.  Allow to rise approx. 30-45 minutes.  Cook @ 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Crusty Skillet Corn Bread and Cracker Barrel Corn Muffins

I'm not a fan of sweet cornbread, but I don't mind putting butter and honey on a piping hot piece of yummy cornbread.  These recipes do the job.




Crusty Skillet Corn Bread
2 cups yellow corn meal
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 TB sugar
2 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1-1/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 stick butter


Mix all dry ingredients together.  Stir in eggs into buttermilk and add to dry mixture.  Melt butter inside heavy iron skillet.  Coat skillet with butter on all sides.  Pour remaining butter from skillet into cornbread batter and mix thoroughly.  Pour the cornbread batter into hot skillet and bake in a 375 degree oven.  Cook bread until it has a golden brown crust (approximately 25-30 minutes).


Cracker Barrel Corn Muffins
4 TB sugar
4 TB butter
4 TB liquid nondairy creamer
4 TB yellow cornmeal
3/4 cup self-rising flour


Add ingredients to bowl in order listed and beat well until it looks like a smooth cake batter.  Divide batter between 8 greased cupcake wells and fill the other 4 in a 12-well tin with water.  Bake at 400 degrees F, 16-18 minutes or until tester inserted into centers comes out clean.  Let cool few minutes in pan and remove with 2 forks so not to disturb water.

Angel Biscuits

These are one of Carolyn's yummy biscuit recipes.  They can be made ahead of time and this recipe can be halved.


5 cups flour
1 tsp salt
4 TB sugar (or 2 TB honey)
2 TB dry yeast
2 cups buttermilk
1 tsp soda
4 TB baking powder
1 cup shortening
1/2 cup warm water


Dissolve yeast in water.  Sift dry ingredients.  Cut in shortening.  Add yeast and buttermilk to dry ingredients.  Mix.  Knead lightly and quickly 20-30 times.  Roll and cut on floured board.  Lay on greased cookie sheet.  Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Let biscuits rise 10 minutes.  Bake 10-15 minutes.  If you want to bake only part of these, store the rest (covered in Saran wrap in the fridge a few days, then allow them to rise 20 minutes at room temperature before baking).  Also they may be frozen ready-to-bake.  Put in oven and turn it on to 400 degrees.

Carolyn's White/Wheat Bread

**can half this recipe

4 cups whole-wheat flour
8-10 cups white four, divided
1-1/2 cups of instant potato flakes
5-2/3 cups hot water
2 TB salt
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup vegetable or olive oil (I use combo of both)
1/3 cup honey
2 TB instant yeast

Place the hot water in a very large mixing bowl.  Stir in the potato flakes.  Add the whole-wheat flour and 3 cups of white flour.  Mix well. Add the salt, sugar and oil.  Add to bowl and thoroughly mix.

In the dry measuring cup, mix the yeast into one cup flour.  Add enough additional flour to make a moderately stiff dough.  Place on a floured board or counter and begin kneading dough adding small amounts of flour.  After 5-10 minutes of kneading, the dough should become smooth and elastic and "post-it-note" sticky (just barely not sticky).

Place in greased bowl and cover with a clean dish towel.  Let rise until double in size.

Punch down with fist.  Let rise for 35 minutes.

Punch down with fist.  Let rise for 20 minutes.  Punch down.  Divide into 4-6 balls.

Form each ball into a loaf or rolls by rolling each ball into a rectangle 18" x 9" (make sure you rollout all air bubbles).  Tightly roll dough up toward you, beginning at the 9" side.  Pinch eadges to seal dough into roll to seal.  Place seam side down into greased pan.  Let rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Basic Pizza Dough

Easy and you can use a food processor to mix it up.  It makes 1 large 16" and some left over.

1 pkg (2 1/2 tsp) dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm water
1/8 cup EVOO
1 tsp salt
3 c. all-purpose flour

Put yeast and sugar in a large mixing bowl, pour warm water on top. Let rest for 5-10 minutes to activate (it gets foamy).  Add olive oil and salt to the yeast mixture.

Slowly, add the flour.

Mix and knead for 10 minutes.  The dough hook on the Kitchen Aid mixer really helps this process.  Loosely cover and let rise for 45 minutes.

Divide the dough as you please.  Typically 3/4 of the dough makes a 16" pizza.  The other 1/4 makes great garlic knots.

Bake @ 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

**I have partially baked them and then prepped it with toppings and cooked it later.

Aunt Lorraine's Rolls (not anyone in our family)

This roll recipe comes from a church friend, Lori Pierce, so this is really her family's recipe.  She shared it with us at a RS activity one night and I loved them.  She also taught us that they are great sliced in half, slathered with butter, toasted in the oven and then dipped in Ovaltine hot chocolate.  I was skeptical at first, but after I tasted them, I was hooked!

1 cup powdered milk prepared (or scalded milk)

1 egg

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp salt

¼ cup butter or margarine  - melted

1 Tbsp yeast (or one package)

¼ cup water

2 ½ to 3 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water. Mix together with all other ingredients. May need more flour – should be just a little bit sticky, but able to knead. Knead for 5-10 minutes. Let rise to double – 1 to 1 ½ hours. Form into rolls and let rise another 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Bake at 350o F for approximately 20 minutes – until as brown as you like.

Submitted by Angela Reed

Basic White Bread (not meant for wheat-no gluten)

This recipe  was developed and demonstrated to me during a Relief Society Sister's Conference by Shale Rulewicz of Tupelo ward.  It's an easy bread to assemble.  You don't need a rolling pin, you just use your fingers.  It's slightly sweet, so you can adjust the sweetness to your liking.  We like to use this dough for a "chocolate roll" with Nutella as the spread.  Instead of folding it accordion-style, you can spread the Nutella on the flattened dough and roll it up like you would a jelly roll, pinch all the edges closed and bake it for about 30 minutes.

6 1/2 cups Bread Flour

2/3 cups sugar

2 tsp salt

1 pkg yeast (1 TB)

2 1/2 cups warm water

Spray 2 loaf pans with non-stick spray.

Mix yeast and warm water and small amount of sugar to let yeast proof.

Mix bread flour, sugar and salt together in food processor with dough blade.  While processor is running, pour yeast/water mixture and pulse 10 times.  Place dough in greased bowl and allow to rise until double (I always use the quick rise method in the stove with the bowling water so it rises in about 45 minutes), usually 2 hours.  

Then punch down and divide into 2 loaves worth.  Rub butter on counter and using hands, spread dough into large square (about 10x10).  Rub melted butter on top of dough and using a pizza cutter, divide the dough into three 3 1/2" strips (width of the loaf pan you will use).  Using fan folding method, pick up each strip and place in bread pan (sitting the fan up, not stacking).  Repeat with other dough.  Let rise another hour.  

Bake in preheated 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes (until browned on top and a hollow sounding tap on bottoms.

Submitted by Angela Reed