Tropical Pancakes

Does your family have a day on the weekend for making special breakfasts? Maybe you do brunch instead? Well, think about making these delightful pancakes and you'll enjoy the weekend even more.

I took two fairly basic recipes for pancakes from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book, mixed them together, added some yogurt, substituted non-dairy soy creamer and non-dairy margarine for milk and butter, used white whole wheat and Irish Whole Meal flours (King Arthur Flour carries both) for part of the flour, added chopped pecans, finely chopped fresh pineapple, finely chopped banana, and chopped, pitted dates. What I ended up with were some of the best pancakes ever if you like tropical flavors.

It takes a few minutes to chop up the fruit and nuts, a few more to mix together the milk or soy milk and the yogurt, a few more to measure out the dry ingredients, more to melt the margarine or butter and mix it with the eggs and then the milk mixture. Hardly any time is needed to add the dry ingredients to the wet and barely mix them.

Cooking the pancakes probably takes the most time and that may just seem that way since you are standing at the stove with a pancake turner, watching the tiny bubbles form at the edges of the pancake and smelling the warming pineapple and banana fragrances. Then when you turn the pancake over, you see the golden brown sheen of the cooked side and you see the pancake rise and you know this is going to be soooo delicious! And it is!

I topped mine with some applesauce, but you can just as easily slather on some butter and syrup or mix up a syrup of sugar, water and orange juice, letting it bubble and thicken while you cook the pancakes. However you top them, enjoy the flavors of the islands.

Tropical Pancakes
based on Plain Pancakes and Buttermilk Pancakes by Marion Cunningham
in The Breakfast Book

2 eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup milk or soy milk or soy creamer, at room temperature
1/4 cup plain yogurt
4 tablespoons butter, or margarine, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or use regular whole wheat)
1/4 cup Irish Whole Meal Flour (or use regular whole wheat)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, finely chopped
3/4 cup fresh ripe banana, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons finely chopped pitted dates

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are fully blended. Add the plain yogurt to the milk or soy milk and beat until combined. Let sit a few minutes, then beat into the eggs. Add the melted butter or margarine and beat until filly blended.

On a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper or in another bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Immediately gently stir in the pineapple, banana, pecans and dates.

Cook the pancakes on a lightly greased preheated skillet or griddle: scoop 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancake onto the griddle, using the cup to slightly spread the batter if necessary. Let pancook cook over medium heat until bottom is golden brown and the edges have rapidly breaking small bubbles. After flipping the pancake over, let cook until bottom is golden brown. Serve at once with toppings of your choice.

Makes enough pancakes for 4 people (usually).

Breakfast Buns

Bread baking has been on the back burner lately, but I noticed that some mornings I would love to have just a little something to go with the morning cup of coffee and fresh fruit. I decided to put together a breakfast bun that would work, and to put in some healthy ingredients, too. Most of all, it has to be yummy because when you can only have a small amount of bread, it should be delicious bread, right?

For starters I cooked up some oatmeal...1/2 cup rolled oats and twice that amount of water...and set it to cool. I also mixed some yeast, water, a tiny bit of sugar and some flour to make a poolish. It all sat out on the counter while I went to the gym, collecting wild yeast if I was lucky.

Later in the day I mixed the cooked oatmeal, the poolish, some milk, and egg and some more water together. In a bowl I mixed all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, salt, a little more yeast (in case no wild yeast were around that were strong enough), and a touch of cinnamon and added those to the liquid mix to make a nice dough.

After the dough had time to rise, I turned it out onto a flour board and kneaded in dried cranberries, chopped pecans and golden raisins. Those were stretched into a large rectangle, most of the rectangle was given a light coat of butter, a sprinkle with brown sugar, and also with cinnamon. I rolled it up, jelly-roll fashion, and cut it into buns.

The buns went into a 9 x 13 pan and lightly covered. They rose over time and then were baked in a 350 degree F oven until golden brown.

So now I had a dozen breakfast buns. There is about 1/6 of the usual amount of oatmeal one might eat at breakfast, whole grain, cinnamon for antioxidant and flavor value, dried fruits and nuts, milk and egg and only about 1/3 tablespoon of butter per bun, with even less sugar. Fairly healthy as buns go and very tasty. For one of the buns I added a small amount of an icing of confectioners sugar mixed with hot water. That made it a little too sweet, so I think in the future I'll stick with the 'plain' buns. Each bun went into it's own bag, then into the freezer for future enjoyment on those days when they will be the perfect thing to go with coffee and fruit.

You might think that I would want one every day, but today I had coffee, fruit and some plain yogurt and it was just enough breakfast. Normally I'd give you the recipe, but I didn't really measure a lot of the ingredients, so I'll have to see if I can figure it out and post it later.

Have a Heart

This is a super late Valentine's post (due to a trip to Monterey this past weekend), but you could use this idea for St. Patrick's Day by making three braids, coiling each into a circle, placing on the baking pan in a clover shape, and using a bit of dough cut off one end to make a stem for the clover. It would also make a fine triple braid loaf (well actually two triple braid loaves) if you are not into holiday celebration craftiness.

I made the Valentine's heart bread for Grandma L since she invited us for dinner on Valentine's day and she is more of a savory person than someone who likes sweets. She loved it and we ate about half of it with dinner.

I like that it is an easy dough to work with and that it has seeds throughout. There is also the goodness of oatmeal and whole wheat flour plus the happy use of sourdough starter for the leavening. Makes great toast, too. I was making the savory biscotti dough at the same time as this dough, so I put the seeded dough into the fridge for a day and a half which deepened the sourdough flavor and meant that I could bake it up fresh for the dinner party.

Yesterday I made the same dough again, but didn't retard it as long as Grandma's loaf. I also make enough for three loaves, each about a pound and a half. Two became long braids and one a braid coiled to fit a 9" cake pan.

As you can see, this is all about fun with delicious bread as the product.

I'm sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for the weekly Yeastspotting event. This is a wonderful weekly roundup of great yeast based recipes, and a few things made using bread. Do jump over there and check it out.

Sourdough Oatmeal and Whole Wheat Bread with Seeds

Poolish
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water
1 1/2 cups sourdough starter

Second
1/3 cup oats
1/3 cup water
1 cup bread flour
1/3 cup water
all of the Poolish

Third
2 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mixed seeds (I used King Arthur Ancient Grains which also includes some rolled grains) like sunflower, flax, poppy, sesame, pumpkin
all of the Second mixture
1/2 cup milk (I used 2% but any milk will do, even canned evaporated)
1/2 cup water

about 1/4 cup additional bread flour

Olive oil to oil rising container and plastic wrap

Glaze:
1 egg
1 teaspoon water

Poolish:
In a large bowl combine the all-purpose flour and the whole wheat flour. Stir in the water until it is combined and fairly smooth. Stir in the sourdough starter and combine well. Let sit at room temperature about two hours. Tiny bubbles will form in the mixture.

Second:
In a microwave safe bowl combine the rolled oats and 1/3 cup water. Microwave on high one minute. Stir. Return to microwave and cook and additional two minutes. Set aside to cool.
When oatmeal is cool, break it up with a spoon. Take the Poolish mixture and stir in the flour, water and cooled oatmeal. Let sit on the counter 2 hours.

Third:

In a large bowl or measuring cup combine the bread flour, whole wheat flour, salt and seeds.
Place the Second mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the milk and water and beat on low speed with the paddle attachment to combine.

Switch to the bread hook and add the flour/seed mixture, about a 1/2 cup at a time, letting the dough form and climb the hook. As the dough becomes supple it will mostly clean the sides of the bowl. Use the additional flour, if needed, adding it about 1 tablespoon at a time, to keep the dough from slumping off the hook and into the bottom of the bowl. Knead 6 - 8 minutes or until dough is soft and supple.

Use olive oil to prepare a large bowl or container for letting the dough rise. Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a clean shower cap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Punch down the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured board. Divide into two or three equal portions.

Each portion can be shaped as you wish, put in a pan if desired or put onto a baking sheet lined with parchment or Silpat mat. Cover with oiled plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Glaze the loaves with a wash made of one egg beaten with 1 teaspoon of water.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-35 minutes (depending on shape) until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the back. Let cool a bit before slicing into bread.

101 Sourdough

Although it might look like this is going to be a tutorial (especially to the hardy souls who attend or attended college) the actual reason for the 101 is the weight of the flour.

Before we get into weighing flour, I'm happy to announce the winners of the My Southern Food book by Thomas Nelson Publishers. The first out of the hat was Richelle, who doesn't seem to have a blog but did send her e-mail address along. The second drawn was Kelly-Jane of Cooking the Books with Kelly-Jane. She has a great blog and it will be fun to see if she posts anything from the book. The last name drawn was Lynnette of Desserts Divine, a new blog for me to visit and a nice one. Congratulations to each of you. An e-mail has been sent to you asking for a mailing address. The publisher mails the books directly to you.

Back to baking! One of the things that can happen if you bake a lot of similar breads is that you get familiar with the ratios for a good loaf. This time I wanted to use my sourdough starter, three kinds of flour and some water and salt.

For one loaf (shown above) I also went seedy by using some recently received King Arthur Flour's Harvest Grains Blend. Whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes and wheat flakes enhance texture. Flax, poppy, sesame, and sunflower seeds add crunch and great, nutty flavor. I used 6 tablespoons of the mixture for one loaf and it adds just the right amount of textural and seedy interest. The point of mentioning this isn't to hawk King Arthur's blend, but to suggest that when you are making two loaves that you don't have to make them the same. Have some fun! Work in some chopped nuts or just one kind of seed like sesame or sunflower if you don't have a blend...or create your own blend. One of the reasons that making bread continues to appeal to me is that I see it as a creative vehicle and a way to add joy to my life...and the bread is great to eat, too.

Back to the flours: I weighed out the remainder in a bag of bread flour and it came to 101 grams. I decided to build my flour mixture from that measurement, so I did two additional 101s of bread flour, 101 grams of whole wheat flour twice and 101 grams of King Arthur Flour's Ancient Grains blend for a bit more complexity of flavor. As it turned out I ended up needing a bit more bread flour at the end, so the weights didn't work out quite so neatly, but the proportions are still good ones for flavor. The same flour can need variations depending on the weather. I would have thought that our rainy weather would mean less flour but it seems that it meant more added. Of course it could be that my starter was wetter than I thought it was. There are lots of variable in making the dough, so relax and go with what yours wants you to do. You are looking for a supple, soft dough that has body but isn't stiff.

This made a tight grained, slightly chewy bread with good wheat flavor plus that small bit of complex 'I wonder what else is in this bread' taste that was so delicious. I shaped the 'plain' loaf into a long thin loaf, slightly curved to fit in the pan, and made the seedy loaf into a torpedo shape.

For those of you who wonder how I can keep making bread so often and not be as big as a house...I am not as big as a house, but I am overweight and...ta da!...I'm now doing slow weight lifting to help burn some of the calories and to be heart happy. I also eat a lot of soups and salads which I love as much as bread.

This recipe is going over to Susan at Wild Yeast. Her weekly Yeastspotting event is a wonderland of bread ideas for those of us addicted to bread baking. Check it out HERE.

101 Sourdough

582 grams sourdough starter
300 grams water, lukewarm
353 grams bread flour
202 grams whole wheat flour
101 grams ancient grain blend
15 grams sea salt

In the bowl of a stand mixer place the sourdough starter and the water; whisk to blend.

in another large bowl whisk together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, ancient grain blend (or additional bread or whole wheat instead, if you prefer), and the salt.

Whisk 1 cup of the flour mixture into the sourdough mixture, then attach the bowl to the mixer. With the dough hook attached and the mixer on low to medium-low, add the about 1 cup of the flour at a time, letting at least half of it incorporate into the dough before adding the next 1 cup. For the last cup of flour, add the flour mixture by tablespoonfuls, one at a time, until the dough is soft and climbs the dough hook and doesn't completely slump into the bottom of the bowl when you stop adding flour. You may need to add an additional small amount of flour if the dough is very soft. Let the mixer knead the dough for 10 minutes.

Turn the dough out into an oiled rising container or bowl. Cover with oiled plastic wrap or a clean shower cap and let rise until double in bulk, about 2 hours.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times to remove gas bubbles. Cut dough in half and return one piece of dough to the rising container or bowl. Flatten the remaining piece of dough on the lightly floured surface into a rough rectangle, then shape and either put into a bread pan or let rise on a parchment or silicone mat lined baking sheet until double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

Take the second piece of dough and repeat the process you used for the first piece of dough, or you can do as I did and knead in 1/2 cup mixed seeds and grain flakes (I used King Arthur's grain blend), then shape and let rise as with the first loaf.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. If suing a baking stone, let it preheat at the same time in the oven. Slash the loaves when the oven is hot. Paint with egg wash if desired (1 egg whisked with 1 tablespoon of water). Bake in the center of the oven (on a baking stone if possible) for 45 minutes to an hour, or until loaf sounds hollow when the back is tapped. Let cool before serving.

Makes 2 loaves.

Edge of Winter Bread

I still read the daily newspaper. That does, indeed, make me something of a dinosaur, but I enjoy reading the paper during breakfast and I have difficulty mixing food and drink and computer use...guess it's because I'm prone to spilling things and I would hate to have scrambled eggs all over my keyboard or coffee splashes on my screen.

One of the things that has been really brought to the front time and again this past week or so are all of the extremes of weather around the globe, from flooding followed by a cyclone in Australia to cold so extreme in Taos where my sister and brother-in-law live that the natural gas from Texas is unavailable...most likely it turned to a liquid and is just sitting in the pipes.

Snow continues to confound New York city with it's persistence and depth, snow sliding off the Superbowl stadium slid onto an unlucky bypasser, and we are having a long dry warm spell. Now this might sound like boasting, but they tell us that we should worry because February is supposed to be wet...we don't usually get much rain during the summer and early fall, so we need it now.

Being an optimistic sort of person I'm not going to worry about the lack of rain. Instead I made bread and since it IS still winter I added lemon zest and some Meyer Lemon flavored olive oil, plus dried fruit. I even used the last of my Michigan dried cherries! Maybe I'll get some for Christmas.

This bread is fine grained and moist, just slightly sweet, and makes excellent toast. I divided the dough in half and used one half to make 6 mini-breads, baked in custard cups and ramekins. The other half was shaped into a ball and baked in a pie pan. That loaf will work for sandwiches or some great French Toast.You can shape your as you like. This dough is easy to work with.

If you want to use it as a sweet bread for breakfast, you could add another 1/3 cup brown sugar when you mix the liquid ingredients. Shape one piece of dough in a braid...and you could even top it with the second piece, braided. When baked and cooled a milk and powdered sugar icing drizzled on top and a scattering of sliced almonds will make it quite impressive.

This bread is going to Susan at Wild Yeast for the Yeastspotting weekly event, one of the most inspiring and fun weekly collections of bread you've ever seen.

Lemon Winter Sourdough Mini-Breads and Round Loaf
Recipe created by me

Pre-Ferment
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup flour
1 cup water

Dough
1/2 cup water at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 cup milk at room temperature
all of Pre-Ferment
1 egg
5 tablespoons Meyer Lemon or regular olive oil
grated zest of 1 medium lemon
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 1/2 - 3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt

Fruit Mix
1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Pre-Ferment
Whisk the flour and water together in a medium bowl, then whisk in the sourdough starter until well combined. Let sit uncovered on the counter 2 hours. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator for at least 1 day or up to 1 week.

Dough
Add the instant yeast to the water and let proof. In the bowl of an electric mixer with dough hook, or in a large mixing bowl, combine the water-yeast mixture, milk and pre-ferment. Add the egg, olive oil, and brown sugar, lemon zest and combine well.

In another bowl combine the all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, 1 cup of the bread flour and the salt with a whisk until well mixed. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour about a cup at a time, for the first 2/3 of the flour mixture. The dough should come together and start climbing the dough hook. Add the remaining 1 cup flour mixture in 1/3 cup increments then continue to add the rest of the bread flour in small amounts until the dough fully climbs the dough hook and cleans the side of the bowl. Let dough knead for 3 - 5 minutes, or until soft and supple.

Turn dough into an oiled bowl or container for rising, cover loosely with an oiled piece of plastic wrap, then a tea towel and let rise until doubled, about 2 hours.

While dough rises, combine the Fruit Mix ingredients in a small bowl. Set aside.

Turn risen dough out onto lightly floured surface and press down to release gases. Divide into 2 pieces of dough. Set one aside.

Knead 1/2 of fruit mix into one piece of dough. Knead the other 1/2 of the fruit mix into the other piece of dough. Shape dough as desired. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise until nearly doubled in bulk, about 2 hours for a loaf or 1 hour for rolls.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when bottom is tapped.

Let cool completely. Makes great toast!

Too many Bananas

These started out as Raisin Bran Muffins, but I had no bran, nor old-fashioned oats and I did have ripe bananas and walnuts and coconut…and raisins. Being playful, I changed quite a few things around and made some lovely muffins that have full banana fragrance and flavor and are joined sweetly by playmates walnuts, coconut and raisins.

Since I played around so much with the recipe, it ended up making more than 12 muffins. You could probably get 18 muffins from this recipe, but I chose to put the additional batter in a mini-loaf pan instead.

Playful Banana Muffins
Based loosely on Raisin Bran muffins in The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion

3 ripe bananas
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 stick of butter, melted (1/2 cup) and cooled a bit
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons molasses
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup rolled oats (oats for oatmeal)
¼ cup dried coconut
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin and a mini-loaf pan by spraying with baking spray or by greasing and flouring them. Set aside.

Peel and mash the bananas in a bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the buttermilk, butter, eggs, brown sugar and molasses. Add the bananas and mix to combine.

In another bowl mix together the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda, oats, coconut, raisins and nuts.

Quickly, with as few strokes as possible, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, just until combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups with the mixture, filling each cup almost to the top. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared mini loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 14 to 18 minutes for the muffins, or until they spring back when pressed lightly in the middle and about 25 minutes for the mini loaf pan banana bread, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Removed when ready from the oven and cool on a wire rack 5 minutes, then turn out of the pans and let cool until ready to serve.

Merry Cranberry Bread

Hope you had a good weekend! I did lots of baking this weekend so I'm a happy camper. Sweetie didn't mind, either, since one goodie was freshly baked barley wheat bread, this time baked in a loaf pan and toasted...well, except for the first couple of slices that were gobbled up still warm from the oven and needed nothing more than a touch of fresh butter.

Another baked good that was an unexpected hit was cranberry bread. For Thanksgiving dinner I had purchased two cans of cranberry sauce. One was jellied and one had whole berries. Due to the ravages of time my brain burped and the cranberry sauce never made it to the table on Thanksgiving. Some of the jellied sauce made it to the table with the leftover turkey, but I still had a lot of cranberry sauce sitting around.

Then I remembered a recipe that I had seen a number of times as I paged through the Fannie Farmer Baking Book by Marion Cunningham. Each time I thought that it would make a great sweet quick bread, but found that I was out of whole cranberry sauce. This time I was ready!

This moist, slightly sweet bread goes together pretty quickly if you have that whole cranberry sauce. I used a cup of whole wheat flour in place of one of the cups of all-purpose flour. It added a nuttiness that went well with the berries and walnuts. A key is to avoid over mixing, something that is true of most quick breads. I suspect that mine sank in the middle because I didn't mix it properly when I added the dry ingredients. I'd also recommend that you put a baking sheet near the bottom of the oven to catch any batter that spills over the sides of the bread pans. Very glad I did!

This recipe makes two loaves. The first one disappeared pretty quickly. The second is slated to be sliced for the Saturday baby shower, then the slices will be sandwiched with a cream cheese orange filling and cut into fingers. It should make a nice addition to the tea tray offerings. I hope to put up some photos on Sunday showing all the pretty tea things in use.

My, My... Pumpkin Pie

Never did make an apple pie when the Gravensteins were ready. The days just swirl by like the bright leaves falling from the trees. Right now I'm getting ready for big doings...fun with family this week plus getting ready for clinic at work. It is unlikely that I'll find time to make a pie before Thanksgiving, and a dear friend is doing dessert, so no pie baking for me then, either. Instead, I made a pie today and rewarded Sweetie and Straight Shooter for replacing the tarp on the pump house roof, plus myself for all of the chores associated with becoming a temporary B&B.

Sparkle Plenty gifted me with a couple of lovely sugar pies, so pumpkin pie was the obvious choice, especially since I cooked the pumpkin flesh in the oven Friday.

A spin in the food processor turned it into a lovely golden puree. Mom's recipe for pie crust was tweaked just a bit by the substitution of whole wheat pastry flour for some of the regular flour. I used 2% evaporated milk and eggs, brown sugar and spices for the filling, along with that glorious fresh pumpkin.

The results were a delight. The filling was lighter in texture than it is when I use canned pumpkin and the pumpkin flavor was actually more subtle, so the spices were more forward. We all liked it better than the standard filling and the crust was just great!

If you are going to make this, the only tip I have is to allow enough time and to handle all of the crust ingredients lightly. It also helps to have the crust ingredients no warmer than room temp and colder is actually better. I keep my whole wheat flour in the fridge, so that cooled down the mixture nicely.

Hope you are enjoying the fall and looking forward to some fun, too, this week.

Fresh Sugar Pumpkin Pie with Whole Wheaten Crust

1 sugar pumpkin
2 large eggs
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
10 oz. evaporated milk or light cream
1 unbaked 9 inch pie shell (recipe below)

Pierce pumpkin with a sharp knife in a couple of places, then place on a baking sheet and bake in a 375 degree F. oven for about ½ hour to 45 minutes, or until the flesh is tender when pierced, although the shell of the pumpkin will be hard. Remove from oven and set aside to cool until cool enough to handle.

Using a sharp chef’s knife or cleaver, cut the pumpkin open and scoop away the seeds and stringy parts.

Discard seeds or use for another purpose. Discard stringy parts. Scoop the pumpkin flesh out of the shell and set aside to cool to room temperature. This can be done a day or two in advance of baking the pie. Put the pumpkin flesh in a cover container and refrigerate. Return to room temperature.

Prepare the pie shell as described below, or use a pre-made pie shell if desired.

In a mixing bowl beat the eggs slightly, then add the brown sugar and beat to combine. Add the salt and spices and combine well.

Take the pumpkin flesh and put into the bowl of a food processor. Process with the steel blade until a smooth puree develops. Measure out two cups. Reserve the rest for another use.

Add the prepared pumpkin puree to the egg mixture and combine then slowly add the evaporated milk or light cream. When blended, pour the filling into the unbaked pie shell (which has been placed on a baking sheet), making sure to leave at least ¼ inch of the sides unfilled to allow for expansion during baking. If you have remaining filling, you can bake it in a buttered ramekin or custard cup as a treat for the cook!

Place the cookie sheet with pie in a preheated 425 degree F. oven fore 15 minutes. Then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and continue baking for another 40-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a rack at least 45 minutes, up to 2 hours. Serve at once or refrigerate. Not a good idea to freeze this pie.

Whole Wheaten Pie Crust
based on Mom’s pie crust in Family Food
makes a 2 crust pie or two single crust pies…you only need one crust for the pie above

1 ¼ cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup shortening
about 1 cup ice water, measured by tablespoons

Sift the flours and salt into a bowl. (If the wheat flour particles from the whole wheat flour won’t go through the sifter, dump them on top of the sifted flours and whisk the mixture with a wire whisk to combine all.)With a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut shortening into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle the water, a tablespoon at a time, over the mixture, stirring gently with a fork until all flour is moistened (6-8 tablespoons usually). Press dough gently into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill before rolling out. (I cut the dough in half and wrapped into two discs to chill.)

If chilled as one ball, divide dough into two pieces. Roll out each piece until it is slightly larger than the pie tin. Fit into the pie tin and flute the edges for a pie shell. Makes one 2-crust pie or 2 9” pie shells.

Everything Thats the Kitchen Sink

When you've lived in the same house for going on 25 years, things get old. Sometimes that's nice. Watching the oak tree get taller and taller, seeing the rose bushes go from tiny to magnificent, even seeing the nicks in the wood trim by the fireplace that signifies many warming fires and the kindling that went into them...these are all great reminders of a life built in this old house.

Other things are not so nice. The finish on the stairs in the sun space has grown flaky from constant exposure to the southern light. The carpet in the upstairs part of the sun space has grown very faded. The sink and faucet (well, actually this is faucet number two or three) in the kitchen have grown worn and are showing their age.

The whole kitchen could stand a renovation, but this is not the time for that. The sink, however, has been replaced with a beautiful, simple, white Koehler cast iron one and the faucet set is new, too, with a lovely goose neck curve that makes filling tall pots easy. It even has a spray attachment...something I've wanted for years. The old sink didn't have enough holes for one, but this sink had four holes so I'm a happy camper. The old sink also had a curved piece cut out of the main sink so that a garbage disposal could be installed. The new one is a full rectangle and that makes washing big half-sheet baking pans a breeze. Much of this renovation is a Christmas gift from my Mom....THANKS MOTHER! We pitched in some more for the sprayer and for new shut off valves below the sink. The old ones were truly past their expire date.

If you have been looking at the Daring Baker posts and all of that bread making I've been doing the past few months, you might have imagined the huge numbers of bowls, whisks, pots and pans that needed washing up to work the baking magic. Now I have a sink that will make that so much easier. I might have to bake bread every day!

Speaking of bread, I baked a loaf on Sunday that took all day...ALLLL day...to rise. I finally took it out of the oven about 9 pm. That was the day the sink was being installed. I took the starter out of the fridge first thing in the morning and made the bread about 10 am, then set it to rise in the sun space. At the time it was sunny and warming up a bit. Unfortunately the weather changes, it got colder and I was busy helping, so didn't notice. I tried a barely warm oven and that helped, but not much. I tried the stove top with a cloth over the bowl of dough. Again, it helped, but not much. Since the sink installation was still going on, the poor dough was ignored. Right before dinner it had risen enough to form into loaves. After dinner we turned on a heater, pointed it to the doors of the closed pantry and set the bread pans with the formed loaves on top of the microwave near by. About an hour and a half later they went into a preheated oven and baked for a long time...about an hour I think. It was worth the wait!

This was my first try at making Anadama bread. Maybe it always takes that long for Anadama bread to rise. Sweetie's sister from SF had been visiting earlier in the week and I asked her what bread she had liked to make when she baked bread a while ago. She said, "Anadama Bread", so I had to try making some. It is a New England bread, made with corn meal and molasses.

The version I tried is my variation of a recipe from the New York Times newspaper. I divided the cornmeal in half and used polenta for half and regular cornmeal for half. I also used both whole wheat and all-purpose flour. The cup of whole wheat flour was added at the end of the cooking of the cornmeal so that it could hydrate while the mixture cooled to tepid. Next time I may reduce the molasses amount a bit because it overpowers the corn flavor a little. Mostly I really like this bread. It makes wonderful, full flavored toast. The crumb is tight, moist, and there is a little bit of grit texture from the polenta...only a tiny bit, but enough to notice. The crust is just thick enough and it is a good sandwich bread, too, for full flavored sandwich fillings.

In a warm house it might take the total 4 hours time called for in the recipe, but my house was chilly on Sunday and I didn't enhance my starter with extra yeast as I sometimes do. The bread was worth the wait.

Anadama Bread

makes two loaves

1/4 cup polenta style corn meal

1/4 cup regular corn meal

2 cups water, divided

1/2 cup molasses (I would use less...maybe 1/3 cup next time)

6 tablespoons butter, softened,

1 1/4 oz package active dry yeast (or 1 cup sourdough starter...which is what I used)

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 1/2 cups (about) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1 teaspoon salt

oil for greasing

In a bowl, whisk together the polenta and the cornmeal and 1 cup of the cold water. In a saucepan over medium-high heat, bring another cup of water to a boil. Add cornmeal mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is very thick, about 8 - 10 minutes. Stir in the molasses and the butter.

Add the whole wheat flour and stir until all is combined. Transfer mixture to bowl of an electric stand mixer and cool to tepid. (Or transfer to a mixing bowl large enough to mix the dough by hand and then knead in the rest of the flour.)

In a small bowl, stir together the yeast and 1/2 cup water until yeast has dissolved. (Or add the 1 cup sourdough starter to the mixing bowl with the tepid cornmeal mixture.) Add to cornmeal and mix on low speed with dough-hook attachment for several seconds. Add flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing for several seconds after each addition. Sprinkle in the nutmeg and salt, and continue mixing until dough completely comes away from sides of bowl, about 7 minutes.

Lightly oil a bowl. Form dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Oil a sheet of plastic wrap and loosely cover dough. Allow dough to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

Lightly grease two 9 x 4 inch loaf pans. Press down dough and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Shape each piece loosely into a loaf and place each in a pan. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30 minutes, or until loaves have doubled.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Bake loaves for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until bread is dark golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.

Allow bread to cool in pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto wire cooling rack. Serve warm if possible.

I'm going to send this one over to Susan of Wild Yeast at Yeastspotting. Go on over and check out the delicious ways that fellow bakers are using yeast.