fry bread - gluten free or not if you please (biscuit too)

I was reading A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow on Sunday morning and there was this description of fry bread and coffee that made my mouth water.

Now you must realize, the above picture is how my kitchen normally looks on a Saturday or Sunday morning.  Every burner of the stove is being used, something is in the crockpot, there might be something in my thermal pot (in this case yogurt), and I am trying out something new.  My Beloved just chuckles.  And reaps the rewards.  So in the middle of this, I look up some fry bread recipes and go about putting a gluten free one together so we can have it for breakfast.

fry bread (gluten free or not)

1/4 cup potato flour  (if you would like to make this without gluten free flours, just use 1 cup flour)

1/4 cup millet flour

1/4 cup amaranth

1/4 cup corn 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/4 cup milk powder (I used non-instant)

1/4 teaspoon salt

warm water

In a skillet, heat a half of inch of oil.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.  I actually whisk them to make sure there are no lumps.

Mix in enough warm water to make a stiff dough.  I started with a quarter cup and ended up closer to a half cup.  But do not add too much water because you need to roll out the dough.

Divide the dough into four.  Roll out each piece into a circle.  Put into the hot oil.  

They were done when they were golden and floated to the surface.

We ate them with beans, eggs, and honey.  VERY yummy!  Made our bellies haaapppyyy!!!

I did a little bit of experimenting with this dough.  I took a golf ball size bit and baked it just like a biscuit, 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about ten minutes.  This dough made a fabulous baked biscuit.  More ideas!  I am getting around to figuring out my scone recipe in a gluten free from.  I really need to buy more flours though.  Going to the grocery store has not been on the list recently.

Try the fry bread with honey and a cup of sweet tea or a cup of coffee with cream and brown sugar.  Happy belly!

bread and company

If you could not tell, the last couple weeks at work have been crazy.  We had friends over to dinner last night, twelve in all.

It was a simple meal of lasagna and bread, salad and cookies.  There was homemade soda and wine for any one who wished it.  Friends brought the salad, cookies, and wine and I made the rest.  I can feed twelve for close to $20 range.  A lot of it is about patience.  And the healing laughter as well.

Some of the teasing was that I used the small pan.  No one every believes the size of the large pan until they see it!  But there was not teasing about the bread.  Three loaves disappeared.  It was a simple Italian that I found in the cookbook My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino.  I tweaked it a bit.  I did not use their starter but used my sourdough starter and I changed the baking a bit.  And the raising temperatures and times.  My Beloved would call this I changed it a lot.  Fairly normal.  Recipes are just blueprints.....

Italian bread

Sourdough starter (starter, 1 cup flour, 1 cup water.  Let sit 8 hours.  Take out two to four tablespoons for next time)

3 pounds flour

8 teaspoons sea salt

3 3/4 cup water

In a very large bowl, refresh  your starter.  Make sure to take out some for next time before you get started with the rest of this.

Measure in the water, flour, and salt and start stirring.  This dough becomes very thick so you will need to put your hands it and start kneading.  You do not wish to add anymore flour or water.  This will be very soft, or what is know as wet.

You wish to knead this until all the flour is mixed in and the dough is very smooth.  I never take it out my bowl which tells you how big the bowl needs to be and how wet the dough is!

Now, I let this next stage take about eight to ten hours in about 55 to 65 degrees temperature.  I covered the dough and let it have a nice cold slow rise.  The recipe called for a warmer faster rise of 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  This gives you an idea of the leeway you have with bread dough.  Just ask my Beloved.  He is always so surprised.

When the dough has doubled (slooowwwwlllyyy!!! please!), shape into three loaves.  I put them on floured baking stones at this point and covered them again.  I let them rise slowly one more time for another cold slow rise.  Just six hours this time.  A little faster.

Preheat the oven at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes.  Put the bread in.  Lower the temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Lower the temperature on more time to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.  Bake for 35 minutes.  This gives the artisanal crust.

But if you are like my family and like a softer crust, put the loaves in a 350 degree oven and bake for 1 hour.  You want a golden crust but the crust is softer.

If you can, wait twenty minutes before cutting.  The bread will be just that much better.  But do please notice, I said if you can!  Twelve people, with other yumminess in front of them, went through three loaves with maybe three slices leftover.

Patience is the key!

The pictures are actually from two different batches.  The bread with the candles is what got eaten.  I think people thought they went to heaven!

last of the christmas baking - scones

I bake scones for my Mother and Grandmother as part of their Christmas box.  They love these and I am quite fond of them as well.  When we go to the beach, scones have a tendency to be our breakfast of choice.

Scones

1 cup heavy whipping cream soured with 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup melted butter

sugar for dredging

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a large bowl put the soured cream, egg, and sugar.  Mix well.  Add the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.   Mix.  

The dough will not have come together yet.  Add the melted butter and mix everything together.  The dough should have the feel of a biscuit dough but look more like cellulite.  

Pat the dough out to a 1/2 to 3/4 inch thickness.  You can roll it out if you wish but I find patting is enough.

Cut the scones out with a circle cutter or glass.  Roll all sides in sugar.

Put on a baking sheet covered with a silspat or parchment paper.

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and done (check the sides)

I particularly like these with homemade butter and jam.  After a few days, I toast them.  My Grandmother freezes hers to make them last longer.  Yummy in the tummy!

sourdough oatmeal bread

I obviously bake a lot.  I have been making our daily bread for years.  I found the Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown a great learning tool.  I get teased by how many copies I have of it. But there are reasons for that many copies:  it is falling apart, I give it away, I take it every where with us traveling, I take notes in it....

Lately, I have wanted to make oatmeal bread because a bowl of oatmeal has not really settled.  I experimented a bit and this is what I came up with.

Sourdough Oatmeal Bread

sourdough starter

3/4 cup water

1 cup flour

1/2 cup steel cut oats

1 1/2 cup water

1 cup water

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

2 teaspoons salt

4 - 6 cups flour

The night before, you are going to replenish your starter by mixing the starter, 3/4 cup water, and 1 cup flour together in a large bowl.  The bowl needs to be big enough for all the bread dough.

Also, put the oatmeal in a thermos and cover with the 1 1/2 cup water (you can also do this in a bowl wrapped with a towel).

The next morning, take out a couple of tablespoons of the sourdough starter for next time.  Put 1 cup of water in with the starter and the oatmeal.  Mix well.  Add the brown sugar, olive oil, and 3 cups flour.  It should be the consistency of pancake batter.  Let sit about one and half hours.

Add the salt and another two cups of flour.  You should be at the point where it is hard to stir.  Get your hands in there and start kneading.  I then turn the bread out on to the counter and knead some more.  The bread should be fairly smooth when you are done.  Sometimes I knead for ten minutes to release stress but you do not have to.

Cover and let rise for a couple of hours.

Punch down and let rise for one more hour or until double (my house is cold so sometimes that takes many hours)

Grease two loaf pans with butter.

Divide the dough in half.  Shape each half into a loaf and place in a pan.  Cover and let rise one last time for a bout 45 minutes (or in my cold house, until double)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread for 1 hour and 15 minutes.  The oatmeal makes it very moist and without this length of baking it will not bake all the way through.

This bead really tastes of oats.  I like it toasted with butter and jam.  I have not tried it as a grilled cheese sandwich because there is no cheese or cheese like substances currently in the house.  I bet it would be fabulous!

Bread really is that easy.  Some patience but easy.  ASK questions and I will help.