White Bread Plus

As a wedding gift, I got a copy of "The Joy of Cooking" many years ago. This recipe has served well for decades in this house.

To the side here is a photo of the original recipe from the old book which is for 3 loaves:

My version (without a big mixer to use) for 1 loaf

Combine in a measuring cup

• 1 pkg yeast, 
• 1/2 c. Warm water
• Large pinch flour 
• 1 T. sugar 

and allow to proof, which means sit in a warmish place. (Until foamy, approx. 20 minutes.)

In a large bowl combine and stir

• 3/4 cups warm water
• ¼ cup melted lard or shortening (or butter but, if salted, reduce salt to 1/2 tsp)
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 each large egg, beaten
• Yeast/water mixture

Stir in by batches 

• 3 cups flour

Stir in flour until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and can be handled.

Turn out on a floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and pliable, about 5-10 minutes .

Shape into a ball and place into a mixing bowl. Spray with canned canola oil. Turn dough over and spray other side, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.
(Approx. 1-1 1/2 hours for rapid rise yeast, 2 hours or so for standard yeast.) Punch dough down, turn it over in the bowl, and optionally allow to rise again until almost doubled in size. Single rising is ok. Double rising is for the obsessive among us. 

Punch down and form a loaf. Place in a well-greased bread pan. Cover with saran wrap. Let rise until doubled in size, about 45 minutes. 

Start in a cold oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. 

Remove bread from pan and thump bottom with finger. You should get a hollow sound indicating it is done. Or check the internal temperature, it should be 200 degrees. 

Cool slightly before cutting. 

Store in foil or plastic bag (if there is any left).

With a Big Mixer

Ingredients don't change. Just the instructions of what you do. And its easier.

1. Prepare the yeast mixture as above.
2. Melt the lard/shortening/butter in a small glass bowl in the microwave
3. Put it into the mixer's bowl
4. Use a regular mixing paddle at this point
5. Add the other ingredients in the 2nd list above and turn on the mixer, lowest speed, until everything is thoroughly mixed.
6. Add half the flour a cup at a time 
7. Change to the dough hook and run at the lowest speed some more
8. Add the rest of the flour a cup at a time.
9. When the dough is mixed to the point that there is no flour left, run the mixer for 3 minutes more in place of kneading.
10. Stop the mixer. Leave the hook embedded in the dough.
11. Spray oil over the top surface. No need to turn the dough over.
12. Let the dough do its first rise in the mixer bowl. It will double in size.
13. Turn the mixer back on low. This will push down the dough and knead it some more.
14. At this point, remove the dough and form a loaf.
15. The rest is the same as above.

Note: Updated 22 Mar 2020 to fix typo in amount of flour and reword some errors that said it makes more than 1 loaf of break.

Yeast Waffles

I got this recipe decades ago, when I was in college, My aunt gave me a recipe book of collected recipes of the women of Lubbock Christian College. Since the name has changed to Lubbock Christian University, you can guess how long ago that had to be.

These are the best waffles I have ever had. Point blank. No more needs to be said.

Stir together these dry ingredients. I do it in a large pitcher.

• 3 cups flour (any kind except self-rising)
• 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 pkg yeast (about 1 Tbsp) - use more if you are in a hurry
• 2/3 c powdered milk (note that you can leave this off if you substitute half of the water with milk)

Add the liquid ingredients:

• 3 c warm water
• 1/2 c salad oil (any liquid oil similar to corn oil, peanut oil, olive oil, though each may add a bit of different taste)
• 2 eggs beaten

Mix together by hand. I stir it up with a wooden spoon. No need to get all the lumps out. In fact, its better not to. The waffles will be somewhat lighter if you stir less.

Thin to desired consistency at this point, or you can wait until just before you pour the batter into the waffle iron.

Let it rise

1. In the refrigerator, covered overnight.
2. Or on the countertop, covered, for an hour or more (depends on the air temperature)

Cook as any waffle.

One Loaf of Bread

I like "The Joy of Cooking" so much, I have three copies. One from the 1940's. One from the 1970's. and one from the 2000's. This recipe is adapted from a recipe there (the 70's edition) for plain white bread. My wife used to make it a lot and perfected the process. Most changes are just reducing the quantities and ordering the mixing to reduce the number of dishes to wash.

In 1 c. measuring cup stir and set aside. This needs to set long enough to form a bit of foam from the yeast coming alive.

• ¾ c. warm water
• 1 TB sugar
• Large pinch of flour.
• 1 TB yeast

Add in to a glass mixing bowl:

• ½ tsp salt
• 4 TB sugar
• 3 TB lard (or shortening but lard tastes better)

Microwave just long enough to melt the lard. Add in:

• 3 c. flour
• 1 egg (beaten)
•  The contents of the 1 cup measure (yeast, sugar and water)

Stir togethr. Knead and add 1 c. flour at a time until gluten is formed and dough gets that stretchy, rubbery feeling. (It also gets harder to knead.)

Form a single ball, cover with some oil or shortening or maybe just a warm wet towel and let set for 1 ½ hours. It should double in size. Notice that letting the dough rise in a warm place will take a shorter time than a colder one. Somewhere between 70 and 85 F is a good temperature. Cooler will just take longer.

 

For rolls:

After the dough doubles in size, punch down and knead some more. Then form into rolls--which means they should be balls around the size of a golf ball--about 1.5 inches (3 cm). The rolls go on a heavily greased cookie sheet just close enough to barely touch. (Helpful hint: If you stretch the surface of the ball smooth on top and poke the edge of the smooth part into the bottom of the roll, they will be prettier and you will avoid overdone sharp edges.)

Let rise 1 ½ hrs more.

You can serve from the cookie sheet or let it set about 3 minutes before removing the rolls to a cloth covered serving pan or basket.

Bake at 350* for 5-10 min.

Reduce to 325* for 15-25 min. until done.

For a loaf:

After the dough doubles in size, punch down and knead some more. Then form into one loaf. Put it in a heavily greased bread pan. (Helpful hint: If you stretch the dough around one side and poke the edges in on the bottom, it will look prettier.)

Let rise 1 ½ hrs more.

Bake at 375* for 10-15 min.

Reduce to 350* for 15-25 min. until done.

(The loaf will sound hollow if you tap it on the bottom when it is done. Test this way quickly in case you have to put it back. You don't want it cooling in that case.)

Remove from the pan immediately. Let the loaf set on a raised rack for about 5 minutes before slicing.

One or two Bisquits

Perfect at breakfast for two.

I tried for many years to find a good biscuit recipe and failed. This is based on a recipe from Huntley Dent's "The Feast of Santa Fe." I'm not sure why a cookbook of New Mexican cooking has a biscuit recipe. We did fiddle with the recipe for several years before it got to here.

Part of the trick to good biscuits is to treat the dough as it it's breakable. Touch it gently. Coddle it a bit. Pat. Don't knead. (Also expect your biscuits to get better as you practice.)



Set oven to 425 degrees F and stir the following together in a mixing bowl. (Total elapsed time, start to eating, about 15 minutes.)

• 1/2 c flour (Note: later you will put another 1/2 cup on the countertop)
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt (= 1 pinch)
• 1/8 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp sugar

Add

• 1 Tbsp butter - Pinch into flour mixture to incorporate it fully. 

Pour in slowly, stirring gently but continuously.

• 1/4 c buttermilk (or so)

Try not to mash it down but use a folding motion to keep it light.


If you haven't already, pile another 1/2 c of flour on the countertop. Pour out the dough on top. Pat down gently. Maybe fold over semi kneading without mashing to incorporate a bit of flour if it's too wet. Then lit it sit for 2 minutes.


Pat flat to about 1" to 1 1/2" thick and either pat into one round biscuit or cut into two biscuits with a table knife. If they are sort of round, the corners don't overcook. Put on thin greased cookie sheet or just a piece of foil greased.


Cook for about 8-11  minutes until slightly brown at 425 degrees.


This recipe works in multiples up to four.Just double, triple or 4X the quantities and follow the same procedure.

• You can use milk with a little lemon juice if you have no buttermilk.
• You can use plain milk if you leave out the baking soda but it's not as tasty.
• Don't use cream in place of buttermilk. They are too crumbly.

Option -- The following ingredient list makes 28 biscuits. This is just enough to fill my large cookie sheet completely. It's a lot of work to pinch in the butter so I use a food processor. You have to do it in two halves as most food processors won't hold 6 cups. Put half of the ingredients in at a time. Mix the dry ingredients. Pulse the food processor to mix. Add the butter. Pulse the food processor a few times to mix it all in. Transfer to a big, old bowl. Repeat and add the buttermilk.

• 6 c flour
• 2 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 c butter (or shortening) - 1 1/2 sticks butter
• 2 c buttermilk (+ 1 1/2 cup as needed to get consistency right)

You need about 2 cups of flour on the cabinet top for this number of biscuits. Pour out the dough and fold one or two times but DO NOT KNEAD. Pat gently to 1 1/2 thickness and use a table knife to cut into squares between 1 and 2 inches on a side. Gently round the corners as you transfer them to a cookie sheet. for cooking. Usually you will need the edges to touch to fit them on one sheet. That works pretty well.

Cook 12 to 15 minutes for this quantity.