Archive for the ‘Baked Goods’ Category

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Christmas Gift Baskets


2010
12.19

    Posted in Baked Goods, Cookies, Recipes | No Comments »

    With Christmas coming up this year, we got a mail-order catalog for food baskets. We, of course, thought: “What a great idea!” But rather than order baskets, we, of course decided to make them ourselves!

    Even as I am writing this, we are in full cookie production mode. At the current rate, we’re producing approximately a dozen fresh cookies every 4 minutes. Kat made the dough, and rolled it into sugar-coated balls. My job is to manage the rotation of three cookie sheets: every four minutes, one comes out of the oven to cool, the bottom shelf sheet rotates 180 degrees and moves to the top shelf in the oven, and a fresh sheet of uncooked dough-balls goes in.

    We made Molasses Spice Cookies, Snickerdoodle, and Delicious Pumpkin Bread. Also a few lucky folks got Chocolate-Dipped Jalapenos!

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    Pumpkin Bread


    2010
    02.10

    • Freezes Well?: Yes
    • Thawing Instructions: Leave out on counter in Ziploc overnight. Should thaw in approx 12 hours.
    • Leftover Rating: 5 stars
    • Shelf Life: 1-2 weeks unrefrigerated
    • Yields: 1 loaf
    • Variations: substitute vegetable oil for comparable amount of butter (untried!) add ground cloves (untried!) substitute brown sugar for white sugar (untried!)

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    Posted in Baked Goods, Breakfast, Dessert Breads, Recipes | No Comments »

    Ingredients:

    • Dry:
    • 3 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
    • 2 tsp baking soda
    • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
    • 1 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1 tsp cinnamon
    • Wet:
    • 2 cups solid-pack pumpkin puree
    • 3 cups white sugar
    • 1 cup vegetable oil
    • 2/3 cup water
    • 4 eggs

    Directions:

    Combine wet ingredients
    Combine dry ingredients
    Combine both
    Bake at 350 until cake tester comes out clean, usually 1 – 1 1/2 hours.

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    White Potato Bread


    2010
    02.10

    • Leftover Rating: 5 stars
    • Recipe From:: Page 60 of Bread book given to me by Aunt Bea Ratte
    • Yields: 3 loaves
    • Shelf Life: approx 10 days in Ziploc unrefrigerated
    • Freezes Well?: Yes
    • Thawing Instrucitons: Leave out on counter in Ziploc bag overnight. Will thaw in less than 12 hours.

    Posted in Baked Goods, Bread, Recipes | No Comments »

    Great for sandwiches, Texas toast, garlic bread, bread & cheese, etc. The bread is a little bit chewy, full-flavored, with a very flaky crusty crunchy, yet delicate crust.

    Ingredients:

    • 3 cups potato water
    • 1/4 cup brown sugar (packed)
    • 2 Tbs. yeast
    • 9-10 cups bread flour (not sifted)
    • 1/4 cup vegetable oil (optional)
    • 5 tsp. salt

    Directions:

    Warm potato water to approx 90 degrees (not hot, but more than luke warm)
    Combine potato water, brown sugar and yeast. Let sit until it foams, approx 4-6 minutes.
    Add 4 cups flour, beat thoroughly with wooden spoon.
    Add 5 more cups flour and salt.
    Mix with dough hook in Kitchen Aid
    Add remaining cup of flour as necessary to manage stickiness of dough as it pulls together
    Add vegetable oil and let it mix in (approx 1-2 minutes)
    Cover with a warm damp cloth. Let rise in a warm area free of drafts (turning the oven on BRIEFLY to warm slightly, then letting rise in the oven is quite effective)
    Let rise for 45-60 minutes until clearly doubled.
    Punch down dough and separate into thirds.
    Form thirds into loafs
    Place loafs in loaf pans
    Recover with warm damp cloth.
    Set timer for 45 minutes. Turn on oven to preheat to 400. You will have to carefully remove the bread from the oven (if that is where it is rising) taking care not to let it fall.
    Let rise again for 1 hour until loafs are full-size.
    Bake for 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown and knocking on the bottom of the loaf makes a hollow sound
    Set on cooling racks until cool enough to cut.