Finally Great Biscuits!

Yours truly, a bread baker, has finally done it! In the eyes of my family, my homemade biscuits have gone from "not as good as those from the freezer or a can", to "the best biscuits we have had anywhere"! Then they whipped up sausage and sawmill gravy to go with, and pulled out the homemade jam. Southern biscuits through and through, only as sweet as what you put on them!

Cooking on 500° preheated cast iron makes some of the butter melt out of the bottom and sizzle, while the biscuits rise and bake in 8 minutes flat! The bottoms are golden and lightly crunchy. Steam rises out of the soft, fluffy insides when you rip one in half. Worthy to be eaten with butter alone.

This is a combination of recipes from White Lily and

Brezeln (Pretzels)

If you like soft pretzels, you MUST try this recipe! I found this recipe for German Brezeln, which calls for the traditional lye bath that creates a pretzel's distinct flavor. However, like most home cooks, I don't want to mess with lye. Researching the best alternative to a lye bath resulted in this experiment, indicating that a cold bath in sodium monocarbonate gives the best result. The pretzels are then rinsed in water before baking. I tried not rinsing before baking on the lower right pretzel in the photo below. It baked darker and somewhat more crisp, but had an unpleasantly harsh taste. Rinsing is worth the effort. We couldn't believe how delicious they were!

Cheesy Rolls

 I had almost abandoned my search for a bread to go with chili, when a co-worker brought in a loaf of her favorite cheese bread from the deli to share. Ureka! That had not occurred to me! A little searching, and I found one blog article describing an amazing cheese bread recipe, which turns out they got from King Arthur Flour's blog! Obviously, their cheese bread was the one to try.

Success! KAF's cheese bread is great; but I must confess I altered it...

I was in a hurry, so skipped the overnight starter step in favor of adding all the ingredients at once, like a regular bread.  I did not have the pizza dough seasoning, but I did have three of the main ingredients, so I added them: malt, cheese powder, and buttermilk powder. I also used all cheddar cheese. So, not exactly their recipe, but great anyway.

Something Unusual

I've been trying to think of a "bread" that would go well with chili. I usually use Fritos, which I think are great in chili, but it seemed some sort of bread should work. But what? Crackers? Bread sticks? It would be best if it was quick to make, so you don't have to plan ahead too much.

The other evening in the shower, an idea just emerged from nowhere, simply appearing in my head. Scoop out some sourdough starter from the fridge, mix in self-rising cornmeal mix and water, and cook it kinda like a pancake.

Sourdough Bread

Based on King Arthur Flour's Extra-Tangy Sourdough Bread

Latest revision, on my website: 

Sourdough Bread Recipe

A work friend hinted and nudged me until I broke down and made a sourdough loaf, which I had not done in a long time. My old bit of dried starter failed to revive, so I bought a start from King Arthur Flour. It is a very nice, lively starter that made some delicious bread. I have had sourdough that is super dense, and so sour it will knock you over. This one has a nice "medium" density, is a bit chewy, and the sour sneaks up on you with a nicely assertive but not extreme kick. 

Navy Bread

I created this unusual bread to satisfy our desire for bread with a reduced carb load, for those days when we feel compelled to be extra healthy. The result is a rather pleasant bread with an unusual purplish color, served here with Navy Bean Soup. The kids really liked it too. A really rare win-win for food!

Pharaoh Bread

aka Lynn's Seed Bread; web post

Origin:

This recipe evolved over time. It is my go-to, just good bread. We were in Canada, years ago, in Banff, and several shops were serving a white bread with flax seeds in it. That struck me as odd, putting "healthy" ingredients into an "unhealthy" plain white bread, and got me thinking. I was also experimenting with all the varieties of whole grains that I could find, since I had a grain mill. I found the only whole grain flour that I really like is Kamut. This bread is based on a good white bread recipe, with Kamut substituted for some of the flour.  Then, all the "seed" type things that I also like are thrown in for texture and taste. It has as much Kamut as I could put in, while keeping the light texture that my family and I prefer. We aren't really fans of dense, whole-wheat breads.

The fun trivia about Kamut is, the founder claims that he was given a handful of this grain by a person who got it from an Egyptian tomb!