Tag: Bread

Zojirushi Bread Machine: Raisin Bread
Recipes

Zojirushi Bread Machine: Raisin Bread

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

Cast Iron Mini Loaves of Bread
Recipes

Cast Iron Mini Loaves of Bread

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

Vintage Ham and Cheese Supper Bread
Recipes

Vintage Ham and Cheese Supper Bread

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

Oatmeal Bread
Homesteading · Recipes

Oatmeal Bread

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

Reviewing Augason Farms Honey White Bread Mix
Prepping · Reviews

Reviewing Augason Farms Honey White Bread Mix

Sarah

I believe in testing your emergency food supply, to see how it tastes, looks and performs. Better to know ahead of time if you will want to use it!

The other week I reviewed a similar product by Thrive Life, their bread mix. I had been happy with the results, though the price point is very high on it (it is 1 loaf of bread per can, and costs $15.89 retail), I can only treat those cans as a fully 100% emergency item. Not something I would use often, simply due to being so expensive.

I remembered I had bought another brand of bread mix, so I dug into our prepper pantry and found a can of Augason Farms Honey White Bread Mix to review it, and see how it performed. I decided to try the 3 1-p0und bread loaves recipe on the back of the #10 can.  It costs $10.54 currently on Amazon (full retail price is $25.99, but rarely is at that price).

The Thrive Life Pantry can is 18.51 ounces, and the Augason Farms #10 can is 58 ounces. That means each can of Augason Farms is 3 of the Thrive cans. That drives a solid point with economy. Both come in cans designed to keep the flour fresh for a couple of years. Thrive is only 3 years, where Augason Farms is 10 years. That is a huge jump.

Ingredients:
Bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, enzyme [improves yeast baking]), sugar, nonfat dry milk, non-iodized salt, soybean oil, honey powder (cane sugar, honey), eggs (whole eggs, less than 2% sodium silicoaluminate as an anticaking agent), soy lecithin, dough conditioner (enriched wheat flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid], ascorbic acid, wheat gluten, enzymes), yeast (yeast, enzymes, soybean oil). CONTAINS: Soy, milk, eggs, wheat.

The takeaway:

  • Longer shelf life of 10 years versus 3 years for Thrive’s version
  • Makes 6 loaves bread versus 1 loaf per can
  • $10.54 versus $15.89
  • Both come in solid cans designed for long-term storage
  • Both brands have similar ingredient lists
  • It’s actually pretty good overall once baked as bread. While not the best I’ve ever baked, it was very easy to prep and bake and had a nice flavor and crumb. It’s miles above how commercially baked bread tastes for sure.
  • It’s worth having on hand, since it is water tight and lasts a long time on the shelf. Just …. have yeast on hand. We don’t need 2020 panic again, eh? I had 4 pounds of yeast on hand so I baked happily. But many didn’t have any.

You don’t want to have to be buying yeast on the black market again, do you?

Cons:

  • As with the Thrive Life bread mix, you must provide the activated dry yeast
  • Must have a solid can opener to open the large (and heavy) #10 can (no pull top on these cans)
  • Recipes on packaging call for cups, not grams. I figured it out though in the recipe below*. Apocalypse aside, I will always weigh flour versus scooping it.
  • Needed a bit more flour to get the dough where it needed to be, as I wanted to keep the other half of the bread mix to use later, I added in my own bread flour I had on hand.
  • Contains soybean oil…but this isn’t uncommon in commercial mixes (Thrive’s contains soybean oil shortening). It is why the mix has a “bioengineered ingredient” listed on the back. It’s nearly always the soy ingredients added.

Honey White Bread Loaves

Ingredients:

  • 2 Tbsp activated dry yeast
  • 2¼ cups warm water (at least 110°)
  • 1/3 cup oil (used avocado oil)
  • 816 grams honey white bread mix (6 cups worth, half the can)
  • Additional bread or all-purpose flour, as needed
  • Oil for bowl/bread pans

Directions:

Add the yeast and warm water to a stand mixer with the dough hook in place. Let hydrate for a few minutes.

Add the oil and bread mix. Start on low and mix in, then turn up to medium and let knead for 10 minutes. At 5 minutes, start checking to see if more flour needs to be added, slowly adding a bit each time and letting it work in.

It was still sticky, so I knocked it out on a work surface and kneaded in more flour by hand until the dough was slightly tacky.

Lightly oil a mixing bowl, and add the dough, flipping it over. Cover and let sit for 15 minutes.

Lightly oil 3 bread pans (the sizes are not listed on the recipe; I used 2 regular 9×5 and 1 8×4 pan I had on hand).

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and cut into 3 portions—place in prepared pans.

Cover and let sit for 40 minutes to rise double.

In the last 10 minutes, preheat the oven to 400°.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden on top. (I went for a darker loaf at 25 minutes)

Knock out on a cooling rack and let it cool fully before slicing.

Bread can be sliced and frozen.

Makes 3 1-pound loaves.

Dough ready to cut into loaves.

Dough ready for 2nd rise.

Dough ready to be baked.

Notes:

By looking at how many “servings” the can made, I deduced it could make up to 6 loaves of bread. Each serving was listed as ¼ cup of dry mix or 34 grams weight. Each recipe above uses 24 servings, and the can has 48 servings of dry mix.

You may notice I use a heating pad for yeast dough. Our house is often quite chilly in fall and winter, so it is my secret to properly raised doughs. I preheat it to medium while I knead the bread, and it’s ready to go.

It slices nicely after cooling and has a light texture. It’s the perfect sandwich size of a loaf.

~Sarah