French Bread

French bread by ET Charles

2 cups warm water

2 Tablespoons yeast or 2 individual packages dry yeast

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons salt

3 Tablespoons olive oil

5 - 6 cups unsifted white flour

Small amount of butter

Directions: Pour warm water in bowl. Add yeast and sugar. Do not stir. Let sit until yeast is bubbly – proofed. Sprinkle in salt and add olive oil. Stir. Add one cup of flour and stir well with a wooden spoon. Add 2 more cups of flour and stir well. Add 2 more cups of flour for a total of 5 cups of flour. Stir well. If dough is very sticky add additional flour by the quarter cup and stir. Let rise in a warm, draft free, place until double in bulk.

Punch down dough. Knead briefly – 8 kneads. Divide dough into 2 or 4 equal pieces. Using a rolling pin, roll each piece into a rectangle, approximately 12x14 inches for two long baguettes and 6x8 inches for four short baguettes. Then roll each rectangle up into a long log. Place dough logs on baking pan greased with butter. Let rise again in a warm, draft free place until double in size.

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. Let cool. Loaves may be removed to a cutting board to continue cooling and while cooling use a butter wrapper to grease the top of the loaves.

Once you have made the bread a few times, it goes fairly quickly and easily.

Yields: Two long loaves or four shorter loaves or four pizza crusts which fit a 9.5-inch diameter pie pan 

Notes: This is an adaptation of my mother’s recipe for French bread. She did not add olive oil. She did not knead the dough. She rolled out two long loaves, slashed the loaves, sprinkled the loaves with water, placed them on a corn meal covered baking pan and baked at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes. She then sprinkled the loaves with more water and baked at a lower temperature for 30 or 35 minutes. She never greased the tops of the loaves with butter after removing from the oven. The bread was delicious and consumed in two days.

Blueberry Oat Scone

 

Blueberry Oat Scone photo by ET Charles

Rustic Blueberry Oat Scone

1 cup flour

1 cup whole oats

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/16 teaspoon lavender salt or less

1/4 cup unsalted butter (half a stick)

2 ounces cream cheese

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1 cup frozen blueberries

          With a one-to-one-to-one ratio of flour, oats and blueberries this makes a hearty, irregularly shaped scone.

Directions: Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir and mix well. This makes a thick batter that is best mixed by hand. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry mixer. Cut in cream cheese also with a fork. Add the cream and mix well. Wash and dry each egg. Crack each egg separately into a small bowl and examine for flaws. Make a well in the batter; add the eggs. Mix the eggs in the well and then mix the eggs with the rest of the batter with a fork.

          Grease and flour a 10.5-inch pie pan. Place dough in pan. Dough will be thick and lumpy and will not reach all edges of the pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 – 40 minutes. Oven temperatures vary so adjust baking time as necessary. A knife inserted into the baked scone should emerge clean. Let scone cool.

Icing

2 Tablespoon unsalted butter

2 - 3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice or whatever you have

1/3 – 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

          In a small sauce pan melt butter. Add lemon juice. Stir. Remove from heat and sift in powdered sugar. This will make a translucent glaze. Pour glaze on scone and serve warm but not hot.

Serves 6 people.

Thanks to Wanda Dietz for the first gift of lavender salt.

 

Pumpkin Scone with Whole Wheat Flour

 

Heavy wet snow coats and breaks the foliage in late May what better time for Pumpkin Scone.

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats, uncooked

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ cup packed brown sugar

1/16 teaspoon lavender salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon cloves

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 cup cream

15 ounce can of pumpkin – be careful to use pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix

Directions: Stir all the dry ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl. Cut in butter. Crack eggs individually into a separate bowl if both are fine, stir together and add to dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. Add cream to above mixture and stir. Add pumpkin and stir thoroughly. Grease and flour a 9.5-inch diameter, deep-dish pie pan. Pour mixture into pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. Test scone with table knife. If dough is sticky return scone to oven for another 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pumpkin is dense and the baking time is longer than for a white flour and cream scone.

Icing

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

1+ Tablespoon heavy cream

Directions: Melt butter in small sauce pan. Add vanilla. Sift in powdered sugar. Icing should be runny. If it is thick, add 1 Tablespoon cream. Stir. Spoon carefully all over scone; one may poke holes in scone so icing will run inside.

Serve scone while warm.

Serves 6 - 8 people.

Notes: Pumpkin scone with whole wheat flour variation 2

Oatmeal Pear Scone

 

1 cup flour

1 cup oats

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup of butter or 4 Tablespoons butter

4 pears, peeled and sliced

2 eggs

1/3 cup cream

Directions: Mix together all the dry ingredients, stirring to mix. Cut in butter. Cut pears into pieces and add to mixture, including any additional juice. Break eggs into a separate bowl. Add cream to eggs. Mix with a fork. Add the egg and cream mixture to the oatmeal pear mixture. Grease a 9.5-inch pie pan with butter and dust with flour. Pour mixture into the greased and floured pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. Scone will be golden brown; let cool so that juices may be reabsorbed.

Serves 6-8 people.

Notes: This is a nice way to use late summer produce. 

Pumpkin Scone

It has snowed and it is time for Pumpkin Scone.

The dry ingredients may be mixed in advance.

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a slotted spoon. This mixture may be stored for a day or two. However, it is easiest to add the oats, last. That is after the butter, milk, pumpkin and eggs have been mixed with the flour, sugar and spices.

Add the wet ingredients.

1/4 cup sweet (unsalted) butter

1 cup cream or half and half or milk

1 15 ounce can of pumpkin

2 eggs, beaten

Use a fork to blend the butter into the dry ingredients. Then add the cream or milk, stir. Then add the pumpkin and stir. One at a time, crack 2 eggs and mix with a fork in a separate bowl and then add to the mixture.

Grease and flour a deep dish, 10 inch pie pan or a similar sized casserole. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes. Test by inserting a fork or table knife into the scone. If the knife emerges clean, the scone is completely baked or done.

Icing

2 tablespoons sweet (unsalted butter)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Melt butter. Add vanilla. Sift powdered sugar into butter and vanilla. Pour or smooth onto warm scone.

Serves 6-8

Biscuits

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup whole milk

2 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

4 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon cream of tarter

Sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, sugar and cream of tarter. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients. All at once add the whole milk and stir until crumbly. Stir. Turn on to wax paper. Knead 8 to 10 times. Push out with hands until 1/2 inch thick. Do not over knead or add too much flour. Cut with cookie cutter or carefully trimmed, empty, clean tin can. Place on cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 to 12 minutes, until done.

Yields: 2 dozen.

Notes: This recipe is from Grandma S. who made excellent biscuits.