Bread and Biscuits

[bee_pipes]

We are trying to eliminate buying outside the home for baked goods - staples, at least. These are bread and biscuit recipes I have been working with the last half year or so, and have gotten pretty uniform results. I don't take credit for creating any of these - came across them in cookbook.

Angel Biscuits

½ cup warm water
2 pkg dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
5½ cups flour
1 teaspoon backing soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoon sugar
1 cup shortening
2 cups thick sour milk or buttermilk

Combine water, yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside. Sift together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Make a well in dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and yeast mixture. Blend thoroughly. Turn out on floured surface and knead several times. Roll out to ½ inch thick and cut. Place on greased baking sheet and let rise till double, about 1 hour. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes. Yield: 32 biscuits.

That’s the original recipe. We don’t keep buttermilk because we couldn’t use it fast enough. We have found a product called SaCo Cultured Buttermilk Blend for cooking and baking. It is a powder that you add water to. For 2 cups of buttermilk you add 2 cups water and 8 tablespoons of the powder. We also use honey, rather than sugar.

So we have modified the recipe as follows:
Mix 2½ cups warm water, yeast and 3 tablespoons honey, set aside. We put that in the mixer’s bowl. The rest of the dry ingredients and shortening are combined in a separate bowl. You can use a fork to cut in the shortening, but we have this mechravance that makes the job simpler. Don’t know what it’s called, but it’s a series of wires in a horseshoe shape with a wooden handle.

At any rate, once the dry ingredients are combined, they are slowly added to the yeast with the dough hook running in the mixer. We use a short water glass to cut the biscuits from the dough. It usually takes longer than an hour to rise. It takes as long as it takes, because the rising is what makes the biscuits light. I get about 35 or so biscuits. They freeze nicely.

For most of the biscuits, they are made into sausage biscuits. I fry up about 2 lbs of sausage into patties, stuff the biscuits, and freeze. It takes about 45 seconds to nuke one. I guess these are more like rolls, because of the yeast. These aren't your basic baking soda biscuits.

The rest of the biscuits (empty) sit in the freezer and are pulled as needed for sides with meals or snacks with honey.

Quick and Delicious Bread

¾ cups granulated sugar
3 cups lukewarm water
2 packages yeast
1/3 cup cooking oil
1 egg, beaten
3 teaspoons salt
8 cups flour

Combine sugar, warm water, and yeast into large mixing bowl; let stand 10 minutes. Combine cooking oil and egg and add to yeast mixture. Stir in salt and 3 cups flour; mix well. Stir in additional 3 cups of flour; mix well. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Cover bowl and allow dough to rise until double in bulk; punch down, turn dough over in bowl and allow to rise, covered, until double in bulk again – about 45 minutes. Shape dough into three loaves and put in greased loaf pans; cover and allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes, or until loaves are lightly browned. Brush crusts with melted butter to soften.

This has turned out well for us. Rise times are not the same – maybe our kitchen is cool. I find it takes much longer for rise times. Also, we set the oven at 350 and watch the loaves for browning. Karen showed me a trick where you sprinkle water in the oven to make steam, resulting in a crunchier crust. Honey is substituted for sugar. We also get 4 loaves.

We have all but stopped buying bread from the grocery store. This bread makes nice sandwiches, freezes well, and keeps well in the refrigerator. We use freezer paper to wrap the loaves so that the moisture won’t collect and make the loaves soggy when thawing. Before refrigerating or freezing, allow the bread to cool completely before wrapping – this helps to prevent condensation inside the wrapper.

Regards,
Pat

[MadTripper]

I'm trying to get in the habit of making two loaves per week so this is good timing. The recipe I found is called Amish White Bread and it makes two loaves. I'm anxious to try your recipe and see the difference.

As far as biscuits go, I don't use any yeast in mine. I'll see if I can dig the recipe up. I guess I typically need the biscuits pretty quick like and whip them up on the spot.

Here is a link for the biscuit recipe:

http://southernfood.about.com/od/biscuitrecipes/r/bl60127b.htm

Here is a link for the bread:

http://www.madtripper.com/test/e107_plugins/recipe_menu/recipes.php?0.view.56.2.0


Tripper

[Shamrock1121]

Good for you! :D Your next step will be to purchase grain and mill your own flour. I mill the flour and make all our breads and baked goods so that I can control the ingredients. I can't believe the price of a loaf of bread :o! I can make a loaf of bread for anywhere between 25 and 50 cents (depending on additional ingredients).

I have a recipe for Angel Biscuits using whole wheat flour that is similar to yours. When I make them I cut them with a pizza cutter into squares, instead of rounds. It takes less time and you avoid second-cuts (the leftover dough that is rolled out and cut again) which tend to be tough. Then I quick freeze these on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, package in a zip-lock bag after they are frozen, and use as needed. Especially good if you don't need a bunch at once and can bake a few at a time in your toaster oven.

If you would like to make your SACO buttermilk powder into a nice tangy, thick, cultured buttermilk product, you can use this method.... (source: Natural Meals In Minutes by Rita Bingham. SACO is rather insipid when reconstituted.

To make 1 quart: use 1 quart of reconstituted instant nonfat dried milk powder OR regular milk. Innoculate it with 1/2 c. buttermilk (made up from SACO or commercial buttermilk).

Stir together in a quart jar and cover the jar (I use one of those plastic caps that fit canning jars).

Let stand in a warm place (at least 80°F) until clabbered, about 12-18 hours. I place mine in my oven with the light on - as far from the light as possible (you can check your oven temperature with a thermometer to see where 80°F - or thereabouts - is in your oven).

When the homemade buttermilk has clabbered, give it a stir to break up the curds and refrigerate.

You can take some of the homemade buttermilk to make additional buttermilk following the recipe above. A new batch should be made every two weeks with homemade buttermilk. Older buttermilk may not work as well as a culture the older it gets.

I used to use this method all the time. Now I make kefir (a cultured/fermented dairy product similar to yogurt) from real kefir grains (which you use over and over). I use kefir as a substitute for buttermilk, sour cream, cream cheese, and plain yogurt.

These are the unusual ingredients I add to homemade bread so that it stays fresh for a week: chia seed goop (chia seeds mixed with water), coconut oil (I get LouAna brand at Wal-Mart - along side the Crisco), and agave nectar (a natural, honey-like sweetener that doesn't raise the blood sugar). I also add flaxmeal (I grind it in a coffee/spice mill) to everything I bake to increase the nutrition and fiber. It's great stuff!

Homemade tortillas are another fun and easy "bread" to make.

-Karen

[MadTripper]

I'm a bit jealous! I'd love to make our own flour however I have to hold off on that. I've even wondered how difficult it would be to grow a few acres of grains.


I'm sure I'll be dropping questions in a year or so.

Tripper

[bookwormom]

for biscuits I make a mix ,the recipe of which I found in a cookbook that goes by the title of dining on a dime. You can make five pounds of it at a time and then you take 2 and a fourth cup of the mix and add buttermilk. I 'll look it up. It is quite handy since it is from scratch, good biscuits and still pretty fast. the same mix doubles for pancakes, also good.

I try to avoid store bought bread like the plague. stuff that does not get stale gives me the jeebies. Must be some awful stuff in there to keep it "fresh".
I learned to like turkish flat bread, and I bake buns a lot.
to make it simple and fast nothing beats a big tupperware bowl with a tightsealing lid.
I fill the bowl half full of flour, add salt, two envelopes of yeast, a couple of gluggs of olive oil or some other fat and enough very warm water to make a dough of the right consistency. I do not knead it, but rather have a big wooden spoon. I put the bowl in the sink, take the spoon in both hands and sort of whip the dough until it throws blisters. then I put the lid on the bowl, fill the sink with hot water and let it rise. when the dough is ready the lid will pop off, making a popping sound. If I am in a hurry I donot bother with beating the dough and it does fine. I then turn it out on my doughboard and for flat bread I spray cookie sheets with pam, put a lump of dough on it and roll it out, spray with pam or not, depending if you want a soft crust. let rise for about an hr, then bake. for buns I use the same dough and roll it into egg size balls, place on baking sheets far enough apart so they will not touch. sprinkle with sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, pretzel salt or nothing at all. the same dough makes wonderful breadsticks, these I make often because they are good and fast .
the same dough with a couple of spoons of sugar and some vanilla, anis or whatever you are in the mood for makes wonderful sticky buns, Kolaches and coffee cake. roll the dough into eggsize balls, put on a baking sheet, flatten by pressing down on them, you can use a full can that has been dipped in flour. In the middle I put a spoon full of cheesecake filling, then one canned plum, with the seed out, some streusels, a spoon of jam, a sprinkle of nuts, whatever. after they are baked to a golden brown drizzle some sugar icing over them. I make my baked goods with half whole spelt and half high gluten flour. Plain buns can be flattened too and when they are done cut a pocket in them and put your sandwich filling in there. My breadbowl is pretty big, so I make a big amount at a time and freeze it all.

[bee_pipes]

... next step will be to purchase grain and mill your own flour...


Been looking at mills. Readings on the web lead me to believe there is a lot of difference between fresh flour and flour that is a day old. Grain would be bulkier to store, but looks like it ages better than flour.

Mill has to produce fine flour - don't care if it has to run through two or three times, and has to be manual operated or capable of manual operation.

Thinking the Country Living Grain Mill. Same idea as MT, maybe need to grow our own grain someday...

Thanks for the ideas on buttermilk too - now that I'm getting consistently good results, will start experimenting. Last batch we substituted half the flour called for with whole wheat - turned out well.

Thanx for biscuit recipe too, MT.

Regards,
Pat

[Shamrock1121]

Been looking at mills. Readings on the web lead me to believe there is a lot of difference between fresh flour and flour that is a day old. Grain would be bulkier to store, but looks like it ages better than flour.

Mill has to produce fine flour - don't care if it has to run through two or three times, and has to be manual operated or capable of manual operation.

Thinking the Country Living Grain Mill. Same idea as MT, maybe need to grow our own grain someday...



I just added 25# of Prairie Gold White Wheat, yesterday, to my already weighty stash (375# - not to mention spelt, rye, corn, amaranth, kamut, etc....). But I've been able to get it for $5-25#. On my tight grocery budget, that's a bargain. If I order it from Wheat Montana, it's $11 PLUS shipping. I think Prairie Gold White Wheat is the best wheat for making bread, and I've used any number of varieties of wheat.

Wheat keeps forever, practically. I just used up a forgotten bag of wheat that was locally grown and was 3 years old.

I can get wheat free from cousins and friends, but it's usually hard red winter wheat and they all use chemicals on all their fields. That's not the case with Wheat Montana Prairie Gold, it's grown chemcial-free and white wheat is much milder tasting than red wheat varieties.

The difference between freshly-milled and day old flour... The difference is the degrading of the nutrition, which is why I go to the trouble to mill our own flour. Be sure to keep any milled flour in the freezer and use it within 1 week. It's perfectly fine to use much longer after that, but even in the freezer the nutrients degrade quickly and freezing delays the oil going rancid, but it won't prevent it completely. You probably wouldn't detect any taste differences if you kept it for short periods of time in the freezer. I have the "one week" rule for myself. I mill flour and bake bread on Monday and try to have enough extra flour left to make a sourdough pizza crust on Sunday.

ALL commercial whole wheat flour is DOA when it comes to nutrition. All you're getting is some false satisfaction you're doing the "right" thing by using it. Much of the commercial whole wheat flour is white flour (germ and bran removed) and some of the bran raked back into it to make it "brown" (King Arthur and Hodgson Mills are the exception, to my knowledge, and they are milled using the whole grain).

If I couldn't mill my own flour, I wouldn't use commercial whole wheat flour - it tastes awful - stale and old compared to freshly-milled. I'd use unbleached flour and add fiber and nutrition by adding flaxmeal, chia seeds and freshly-milled multi-grain cereal (something else I mill myself in my flaker mill).

Lessons I've learned about mills:
1. no one mill does it all

2. hand cranked isn't superior to electric - or vice versa (I have and use both) Mills are like tools, would you rather drive nails all day with a hammer, or would you use a nail gun if one was available (think shingling a roof). But you wouldn't grab the nail gun if all you needed was a single nail to hold a picture on the wall.

3. in order to make a good quality cake using 100% wholegrain flour (chiffon, angel food, etc.) you MUST have a mill that mills a very fine flour (I use a 3:1 ration of soft white wheat and oat groats for "cake" flour)

4. know your grains

-Karen

[YounGrey]

Mayonnaise Biscuits -
http://homesteadingrecipes.blogspot.com/2008/01/mayonnaise-biscuits.html

[mamaK]

I am new here and wondering if anyone can help me locate grain and raw honey to buy in the Nashville area. I have been wanting to make all of our baked goods for a while now. I've had my mill for 6 1/2 years and just started using it last year. I just got a Bosch mixer so all I lack is the grain and raw honey. I only have a small amount of wheat left and we just moved back to the area we are in now. I would like to be in a Wheat Montana co-op if anyone has any info on that. Sorry for all the rambling! :)

[Jimmy7114]

So, how much "flour" does 25 pounds of wheat produce??? I just found a hand mill on line for around $60 - holy crap if i can make bread that is actually good for us at that cost..............WOW!!! Now I've got to figure out where i can purchase wheat in the Spokane, Washington area..............

[Shamrock1121]

I am new here and wondering if anyone can help me locate grain and raw honey to buy in the Nashville area. I have been wanting to make all of our baked goods for a while now. I've had my mill for 6 1/2 years and just started using it last year. I just got a Bosch mixer so all I lack is the grain and raw honey. I only have a small amount of wheat left and we just moved back to the area we are in now. I would like to be in a Wheat Montana co-op if anyone has any info on that. Sorry for all the rambling! :)

Welcome, and good luck getting started with wholegrain cooking and baking.

You could start checking with a local health food store or Whole Foods Coop. If they don't carry bulk grains, they will usually order it for you - just ask. They may also carry a local and/or raw honey. You're sure to have someone selling honey at a Farmer's Market in the area.

You could also Google - raw honey, Nashville, TN - and will more than likely get some hits.

For sources in your area for Wheat Montana Wheat, I checked their web site:

http://www.wheatmontana.com/index.php

Click on DEALER LOCATOR on the left side - here's what I saw that included Tennessee, but check for yourself and see if there is something else that might be closer to you.

Country Life Natural Foods
800-456-7694
Covering: AR, IA, IL, IN, KY, MN, MI, MO, NC, OH, OK, TN, WI

Dutch Valley Foods
800-733-4191
Covering: AK, CT, DE, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NE, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, SC, TN, VA, VT, WI, WV

Something Better Natural Foods
269-965-1199
Covering: OH, IN, KY, TN, NC, WV, IL, AL, GA, and parts of SC, MI, PA

Wal-Mart
Please check your local Wal-Mart for Retail Flour Products
Covering: AR, CO, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MS, MT, NC, NE, NM, NV, OR, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WY,

-Karen

[Shamrock1121]

So, how much "flour" does 25 pounds of wheat produce??? *I just found a hand mill on line for around $60 - holy crap if i can make bread that is actually good for us at that cost..............WOW!!! *Now I've got to figure out where i can purchase wheat in the Spokane, Washington area..............

* A pound of wheat = a pound of whole wheat flour.

* A bushel of wheat weighs about 60-pounds and will yield approximately 60-pounds of flour.

* If you wonder what you are paying for when you purchase a box of cereal.... ???

"A bushel of wheat makes about forty-five 24-ounce boxes of wheat flake cereal."

Even if wheat were $20 a bushel, you're paying out the wazoo for the 17 cents (according to one report I read recently) worth of grain in a box of cereal. :o

* A pound of wheat yields approximately 4 cups ground flour. A standard 1.5-pound loaf (fits in an 8-1/2x4-1/2-inch loaf pan), takes approximately 3 cups of flour for a 1.5-pound loaf of bread.

* Approximately 80 standard 1.5-pound loaves of bread from a bushel of wheat.

* I purchased Wheat Montana Wheat (Prairie Gold Spring White Wheat - an excellent wheat for making bread) from Wal-Mart 25#/$5. That means it cost me 15 CENTS for the flour for each 1.5# loaf of bread. And that's some of the best, and more expensive wheat I purchase. It's normally priced at $11 for 25-pounds.

Adding other ingredients I use, I can easily make a loaf of bread for 25 to 50 cents.

-Karen

[theresehirko]

Bob (husband) can't have anything with high fructose corn syrup, and almost all breads have it these days so I have been making bread now for years. I make two loaves a week now that the children are grown and once you get into the habit, it will just be a part of your normal routine. I also make our own biscuits and cornbread and for the biscuits, I make square biscuits also. It's just easier and faster. when I'm kneading the dough, I don't like how the dough residue dries out my hands so I wear my dishwashing gloves to knead. They get clean when I'm washing the dishes.