Craving fluffy focaccia bread, ready to eat in under an hour? So many recipes for focaccia take 8 hours in the refrigerator, then 4 hours to rise. Far too much time. When all you want is a piece of light, airy bread quickly! No mental prep, and thinking ahead is needed.

This recipe came to fruition due to a grocery store experience. The boys and I were shopping at the store. They saw a display of focaccia bread that while smelling great, was baked off-site and was who knows how many days old. I picked it up and it was so dry under all the packaging that the bread weighed almost nothing. Add in that it was packed on a styrofoam tray and plastic wrap, which was very wasteful, especially for a “green” grocery store. I told them, “We can make it home so much better.” So, we did.

This recipe is why I keep both kinds of yeast on hand. Regular active dry yeast is for bread-making, and rapid-rise yeast is for quick breads. Keep them in the refrigerator for freshness, tightly sealed.

Bread recipes like this focaccia drive home why cast iron pans are such winners in the kitchen. It was so off-putting to me the other week when we went to Florida on vacation. Where we stayed had a well-equipped kitchen but like most American kitchens, it was nothing but slick Chinese-made non-stick pots and pans. I am so not used to them now (we only cook on US-made cast iron and stainless steel now) that I felt like the food was not getting cooked properly. And I was freaked out about the potential of fumes (and more so that while it was a high-end brand, the stove was electric…ack).

After a quick rise, I spread the very heavenly-scented oil over the dough.

Then dimpled the dough and popped it in to bake.

The aroma alone could snag a woman a husband. Just saying. Or have obedient children for a hot minute who really want it.

The Recipe for Effortless One-Hour Focaccia Bread

Ingredients:

¾ cup warm water (90 to 120°)
½ tsp granulated sugar
2 tsp rapid-rise yeast (about 1 packet)
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
4 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 Tbsp parmesan cheese (any kind will work)
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp dried rosemary, finely crumbled (1 Tbsp fresh, finely chopped)

Directions:

In a small bowl add 2 Tablespoons olive oil, parmesan cheese, garlic, and rosemary. Stir well and set aside.

Preheat oven to 200°. Add 1 Tablespoon of olive oil to a cast iron skillet, 8″ size.

In a stand mixer bowl add the water, sugar, and yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes to start foaming.

Add in the flour, salt, and 1 Tablespoon of olive oil.

Beat with a dough hook in, till the dough pulls away from the bowl. If needed, add a small amount of extra flour if too wet to ball up.

Dust your fingers with flour and remove the dough. Add to the cast iron skillet and gently pat out to fill the pan.

Turn off the oven. Place the pan in the oven for 20 minutes for the bread to rise.

Take it out of the oven. Turn oven back on to 400°.

Meanwhile, spread the oil on the dough gently, covering it all. Then press your fingers in to make dimples.

Bake bread for 20 minutes. Take out and let sit for 5 minutes, run a thin metal spatula under it, and transfer it to a cooling rack.

Makes one loaf, or 8 wedges.

~Sarah

Recipes

Zojirushi Bread Machine: Raisin Bread

October 30, 2023November 11, 2024 Sarah

When I am shopping and I see raisin bread on the shelf, I have this moment of wish fullness every time. I want a loaf of raisin bread that tastes amazing. That isn’t dry. Or a dessert in disguise. But the bread never tastes how I wish it did. It’s often so very dry and the loaf is so tiny. It’s a disappointment that costs $5 to 7 now.

Kirk had found a great buy on raisins so my pantry was stocked to use them this fall. So I got to thinking and pulled out my bread machine.

Raisin Bread

Ingredients:

1½ cups water*
2 Tbsp avocado or similar oil
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
520 grams of all-purpose or bread flour
2 Tbsp dry milk
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup raisins
1 Tbsp all-purpose flour

Directions:

Add to a Zojirushi bread machine in the order listed, starting with water and ending with the flour. Sprinkle the yeast on top.

Add 1 Tablespoon flour to the raisins in a bowl and gently stir until fully coated.

Place the raisins on the top and edges, as in the photo above. Keep them off of the yeast.

Set a loaf for standard white bread with a medium crust and, if needed, a 2-pound size.

Check during the first kneading cycle to make sure everything is mixing. The dough should be slightly tacky to the touch.

Remove after baking, and let cool on a rack.

Once fully cooled, store in a sealed bread bag and use within 2 days for best results.

Makes 1 loaf.

Notes:

Zojirushi bread machines warm the ingredients for you, where other brands of bread machines use warm water instead, at the temperature called for, usually around 110*, and stack the ingredients as called for in the manual. Follow your machine’s manual. Items with * should be warmed up if using a standard machine.

As you might note, I put the raisins in with everything else instead of adding them when the machine beeps for “additions.” There are a couple of reasons for this. I don’t stick around once the first kneading cycle is done, so I won’t remember to add them in. The other is that if you toss the raisins in flour and make sure they are separated, they will mix in well in the first kneading cycle and shouldn’t sink to the bottom. Work smarter, not harder, right?

~Sarah

Recipes

Cast Iron Mini Loaves of Bread

October 27, 2023 Sarah

The boys and I made these mini loaves of bread quickly the other day, and the bread disappeared just as quickly. We made 2 loaves so they could each have one. My oven can fit 2 cast iron pans that I have across one shelf.

It’s a simple recipe, with not a lot of hands on time. It’s got a great chewy crust and a soft interior.

Cast Iron Mini Loaves of Bread

Ingredients:

½ cup warm water (110 -120)
¾ tsp dry active yeast
142 grams all-purpose flour
½ tsp fine sea salt
Pinch of granulated sugar

Directions:

In a medium mixing bowl add the water and the yeast.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour, salt and sugar in a small bowl

Add the dry to the water, stir well for about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle a bit of extra flour on a work surface, knock the dough out. Knead it till the dough is smooth.

Lightly oil a bowl, place dough ball in it, flip over to coat. Cover with plastic wrap, let sit for 1 to 2 hours, to rise double.

In colder homes, use a heating pad set on medium.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Sprinkle flour on your workspace again, knock the dough out. Fold the dough over a few times, like you are making an envelope. Shape the dough into a ball. Place onto the parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 40 minutes.

While it rises again, preheat oven to 425°. During the last 15 minutes, place a cast iron pan, that has a lid, in the oven to preheat. Be warned, it will be very hot and potentially smoking. Have your fan on.

Pull out the pan, place the bread with the parchment paper in it.

If you wish, cut a slit across the top with a razor blade, and exacto knife or a sharp knife.

Cover with the lid, bake for 25 minutes.

Take off the lid, bake for another 10 minutes. The bread should be nicely browned and smell good.

Remove from the oven, transfer bread to a cooling rack.

~Sarah

Recipes

Vintage Ham and Cheese Supper Bread

October 9, 2023November 2, 2023 Sarah

I grew up on recipes like this, that my Mom would cut out of ladies magazines. Usually she’d be given a box of years of the magazines by another lady, usually from our church, who was hitting retirement and wanted to clean her house. Often having nothing else to do, I’d lay on the rug and read away. Sometimes the magazines were really old, like from the 1940’s and 50’s. Or semi-old from the late 60’s to early 70’s. Outside of a lot of cringy weight loss suggestions and how to wear makeup, there was always the cooking and how to keep your man happy.

The recipes were always the the most special, that food companies pushed. Kraft, General Mills and so many brands over the decades showing the homemaker how she could make new foods. In the pre internet world where this was their only chance to upsell to a target audience.

Not always horrid, but many times highly questionable.

This one though was pretty straight across, from the mid 1960’s. It of course did not forget the essential pimento stuffed green olive added as edible decor. That’s how you knew it was fancy! Reading all those magazines I believed if I was going to be a good housewife, I sure better keep those and jarred pimento strips on hand (not that Mom ever bought either, that was rich people food).

Having lots of diced ham around (I buy it precut at the restaurant supply store), I decided to try it out, though I made it in an 8″x8″ pan instead, as noted in the above recipe. I also left the sesame seeds off. Just a personal preference. And sorry, no olive. Haha. I found years later when I could afford the fancy stuff that huh, I didn’t really like green olives.

Sure, Bisquick is no health food. You can make your own version if it easily though (just double the recipe). It’s handy to have around, for when you need to make biscuits or a quick bread, to round out a dinner – or suddenly you have an extra guest or two show up. At the base of it all Bisquick is an ultimate prepper pantry staple.

The bread was good. Really tasty in fact when served warm. It’d pair well with soup or chowder.

Ham and Cheese Supper Bread

Ingredients:

2 cups Bisquick or similar biscuit mix such as Jiffy
1 cup diced cooked ham
3 Tbsp dried onion
2/3 cup milk
2 large eggs
3 Tbsp oil (used avocado)
½ tsp yellow mustard or similar
8 ounces cheddar cheese, grated and divided in half
3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly oil an 8″x8″ glass baking dish.

Toss the Bisquick, ham and onion in a mixing bowl, add in half of the cheese.

Whisk the milk, eggs, oil, and mustard together.

Stir into the Bisquick till just combined.

Sxrape into the prepared baking dish and smooth out.

Sprinkle the other half the cheese on top.

Drizzle the melted butter all over the top.

Bake for 35 minutes, check for doneness with a butter knife in the center.

Cool a bit before serving.

Chill if storing, a slice reheats at around 20 seconds in the microwave.

~Sarah

Homesteading · Recipes

Oatmeal Bread

September 30, 2023September 30, 2023 Sarah

This Fall I am back to making bread, but I have also decided I need to use our bread machine less, and work on my handmade bread skills. The bread machine I can always use on the really busy days when we need a loaf of bread, but I am busy. The other days, it’s time to try new recipes out and enjoy all the flavors.

Baked

Sliced

Oatmeal Bread

Ingredients:

360 grams bread flour
89 grams old-fashioned rolled oats
3 Tbsp packed brown sugar
3 Tbsp dry milk
1½ tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp activated dry yeast
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, diced
1¼ cups water

Also:

1 large egg white
1 Tbsp cold water
1-2 Tbsp old fashioned rolled oats

Directions:

In a stand mixer, with a kneading hook, add the bread flour thru water.

Start on low and work up to medium, letting it knead for 7 minutes. It may look sticky, do not add more flour. The oats take on moisture more slowly than the flour.

Lightly oil a mixing bowl, knock the dough into it, then flip over. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean towel.

Let rise for an hour.*

Lightly oil a work surface. Knock out the dough, and gently flatten the dough into a 6″x 8″ rectangle. Fold over a third, then the other third on top (like folding a piece of paper into thirds for a letter). Reshape into the rectangle and repeat again, and it looks like a dough log of about 9 to 10″ long.

Lightly oil a 9″5″ bread pan, place into it. Cover it with plastic wrap misted with oil, let rise for 1 hour 30 minutes*.

Preheat oven to 350º 15 minutes before the dough is ready.

Whisk the egg white and water together in a small bowl. Brush on gently (you won’t need the entire amount), then sprinkle on the remaining oats.

Bake for about 40 minutes until the top is golden.

Loosen and knock out, let cool on a wire rack.

Once cool, store in a bag to keep fresh. Can be sliced and frozen as well.

Makes 1 loaf.

Notes:

*Our kitchen/house is often on the cool side. I put a heating pad on to medium heat and place the dough onto it to keep it properly warmed and rising. I do this method for both rises.

~Sarah

Tag: Bread Making

Focaccia Bread – In Less Than an Hour – A Family Favorite

The Recipe for Effortless One-Hour Focaccia Bread

Zojirushi Bread Machine: Raisin Bread

Cast Iron Mini Loaves of Bread

Vintage Ham and Cheese Supper Bread

Oatmeal Bread