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Just another photo

9/23/2013

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Honey Wheat Oatmeal mini-loaves I made for supper tonight.
I should know better than to post a photo without a recipe, but I couldn't tell you the proportions of this recipe if I tried, unless you're satisfied with "half of the oatmeal leftover from Saturday breakfast, the rest of the 5 pound bag of wheat flour I opened last week, about a cup (??) of the caramelized honey, etc."  But here's a honey wheat recipe I love, sent in years ago by a viewer of Breaking Bread.  Sometime after the airing of our first season, a woman named Anna Druelinger sent me several recipes, including one for multigrain bread that she developed back in 1976, and very kindly anticipated that I might make use of it by adding at the bottom of the page: “You have my approval to use these recipes as you desire.”  I have adapted her original version somewhat, and scaled it down to produce two loaves instead of four.


Anna’s Honey Wheat Bread 
 1½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup quick cooking oats
¼ cup rye flour
¼ cup wheat germ
¼ cup wheat bran
2 teaspoons salt
2 packages active dry yeast
2 cups milk
½ cup light honey
¼ cup vegetable oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 to 3 ½ cups bread flour


In a large mixing bowl, combine whole wheat flour, oats, rye flour, wheat germ, wheat bran, salt and yeast; mix well.  In a saucepan, heat milk, honey and oil to 130 degrees F.  Stir into dry mixture and beat for 2 minutes, then add egg and beat for 1 minute more.  Let the batter rest for 5 minutes as the various grains absorb moisture.

Add 3 cups of bread flour, one cup at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.  Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes, adding small amounts of the remaining flour to keep the dough manageable.  Cover the dough with a clean dry dish towel and allow to rest for 5 minutes, again as the flours absorb the moisture.  After the resting period, knead the dough for another 5 to 7 minutes.  The resulting dough should be sticky but not gooey, firm but not stiff.  Lightly oil the surface of the dough and place it in the rinsed mixing bowl.  Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 60 to 90 minutes, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch down dough and knead briefly to work out the larger air bubbles.  Divide dough in half and form into loaves.  Place loaves in lightly greased 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½-inch loaf pans.  Cover with a towel and let rise for 30 to 45 minutes or until nearly doubled in bulk.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until loaves are dark brown and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove from pans and let cool on wire racks.

Note: If you don’t have any wheat germ or bran, you can substitute crushed bran cereal.  The oats, rye flour and honey are combine to make an unusually sticky dough, so resist the temptation to add more flour than is absolutely necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands.  Don’t push downward too hard as you knead and you’ll have an easier time of it. 




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Customize your cookies!

9/23/2013

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My mom is the Cookie Queen.  She makes cookies as easily as other people make toast.  She owns over 5,000 cookie cutters (no exaggeration) and several hundred cookie cookbooks.  Growing up we had more homemade cookies than any others kids in school, and we still get cookies mailed to us in the months of our respective birthdays.  However, my mom has had some health issues recently and was unable to make cookies for my brother Marty for his September B-day, so I offered to fill in.  "Bread Monk" I may be, but I am my mother's son when it comes to cookies!  Four dozen chocolate chip cookies got mailed to Texas on Saturday, carefully wrapped just like my mom taught me: you could drop that package out of a plane onto a moving cargo ship and not break a single cookie. 

Over the years I have gradually developed a "foundation" cookie recipe, one that you can customize with your own add-ins like chocolate chips, raisins, oatmeal, spices, etc.   Here's what I use:

1 cup butter-flavored shortening*
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
*butter-flavored shortening turns out loftier cookies that don't spread out as much. 


Cream together shortening and sugars until fluffy (in a stand mixer, start out on low until mixed and then beat on high for a full minute).   Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt--add to the mixing bowl and blend until smooth.

From this point, it's all up to you.  You can add up to 3 cups of other ingredients: 

--1 or 2 cups of chocolate chips
--2 cups of oatmeal and a cup of raisins (1 or 2 tsp. of cinnamon would not be amiss either!)
--a cup of shredded coconut and a cup of chopped toasted pecans 
--a cup of butterscotch chips and a cup of chopped walnuts
--2 cups of M&M minis
--1 cup chocolate chips, 1 cup of peanut butter chips, and a 1/2 cup hand broken pretzel pieces
(I got this last idea from the food blog www.makebetterfood.com, which is also where I got the photo featured at the top.  Their recipe is HERE.) 


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Baking is ruining my teaching career

9/17/2013

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Bread baking, I am beginning to suspect, is keeping me from winning that "Teacher of the Year" award any time soon.  I have been trying get a set of test papers graded for the past week, and although I managed to get the matching and true/false corrected (the easy part), the remainder of the tests are still unexamined.  

First the problem was sweet potatoes.  We had them for supper and there were leftovers, and I think they were out of a can anyway, so who would want them reheated, seriously?  I just happened to have a recipe for a sweet potato batter bread with pumpkin pie spices and toasted pecans (from season 2 of Breaking Bread with Father Dominic, recipe HERE), so there went my evening.  I did a little grading while the bread was cooling, but not enough to really count as a serious effort, which proves that as a teacher I am lazy and selfish.  All know this.

Then it was mashed potatoes.  We had them for supper, and of course there were leftovers, which of course meant I had to make potato bread, since the kitchen staff evidently need a lesson in making fried mashed potatoes for breakfast and/or potato soup for lunch.  Nothing extensive--four loaves, enough for a couple of breakfasts.  But did I grade papers while they cooled?  No---I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies because my sister Anj happened to mention them when I spoke to her on the phone.  Fasting blood sugar the next morning: 176.  Hope my doctor is too busy to read food blogs.

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Tonight it was mashed potatoes again (not at supper, we just still had some leftover) plus I had a five pound bag of whole wheat flour set to expire October 13, so I had to make a big batch (1o loaves).  Didn't really want to do dishes alone, so I invited some Stage Rats out to help me.  But the kitchen was cool and the dough was rising slowly so to pass the time we made Froot Poop (a cereal jumble candy, photo to the right) and more cookies.  I had one of the kids pack the candy away before I could eat any, and I only had one cookie.  Will probably still need to go on the exercise bike tomorrow, except that I'll probably too busy editing recipes for my next cookbook, or testing a meatball recipe, or trying out the stoneware pizza pan I got at Goodwill for two bucks.  In any case, the tests will still be in my filing cabinet, and that "Excellence in Education" trophy will remain elusive.  

But great toast awaits for breakfast, so that's something.

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A bread for 9/11

9/11/2013

2 Comments

 
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Scroll through Facebook and Twitter today and you'll see a lot of posts saying "Never forget," referring to the tragedy of the lives lost at the Towers and the Pentagon and Flight 93. You see pictures of the towers, flags, the statue of Liberty, and eagles, firefighters and police officers, and other patriotic images.  Occasionally one sees a post which seems rather aggressive or even racist, or promotes a current political agenda that has little to do with remembering the victims.  Other posts are more religious and urge people to pray for the nation, to pray for peace.  It's good to the see the United States reflecting as a nation and as individuals, and at least considering the spiritual meaning of the events of this day twelve years ago. 
     The risk is that we will remember in a nostalgic, relatively passive way, instead of reflecting on the meaning of the day and what we can actually do to honor our dead heroes.  It's nice to post an inspiring picture with a memorial caption, but what's the point if that's all we do?  In a similar way I'm sometimes distressed when I see people posting memes about how much they love their spouse or children or parents, because I can't help but wonder why they're telling me how much they love their mom---call your mom and tell her!  
     So if we want to honor those who lost their lives in 9/11, here are some suggestions:
          ----Visit a local veteran's home or hospital---it won't matter if you know the people you visit,            just tell them you are grateful for their service;  make sure you listen as much as you talk.
          ----make a donation to a memorial fund for your local firefighters, or to the National Law
           Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (Click HERE for more info).          
          ----Talk to children about what religious tolerance means and how to promote it in our lives.
          ----Think of someone you know who had a death in family several months ago.  By now, the
                     expressions of sympathy have stopped but the pain is still there.  Send a note, make a call,
                ask them out for lunch.

     And bake some bread.  HERE is a recipe for Herbal Encouragement Bread, which uses ingredients that symbolize pain and struggle and the courage to overcome them.  It's a recipe you can use anytime someone you know is in need of emotional support, even if that person is you.

P.S. In case you're wondering what I did, today in class we prayed for all students who are still looking for where they fit in, still discovering their gifts and wondering how to use them, and asking God to send us his Spirit so we can create a school and a world where that can happen.  Tonight at Stage Crew, we'll help our crop of freshman Stage Rats begin to do just that.   "Give success to the work of our hands, O Lord."  Feel free to leave a comment here or on my Facebook Page to share what you did this week to make the world a better place.

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Cornbread with whole corn

9/9/2013

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The Saint Bede community likes cornbread for breakfast, and in the fall and winter I bake a lot of it.  My preference is for sweet cornbread, with sweet milk and a little extra sugar, but Abbot Philip has always loved cornbread with whole corn mixed it.  I'm not a fan, but when we have corn leftover at supper as we did tonight, I'll mix up a batch.  The new crop of honey has been brought in, too.  Warm cornbread, butter and honey . . . .mmmmm. . . . (insert Homer Simpson eating sound effects here).  


Cornbread takes no time at all to make: the recipe is HERE.

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Simple Pleasures

9/6/2013

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Last night we had mashed potatoes at supper, so naturally I used the leftovers to make potato bread, as well as a spiral coffee cake with a strawberry/prune filling.  The coffee cake split on the sides a bit---there was a  bit too much filling, I think---but the loaf breads turned out beautifully.  I left them on the counter to cool and then went over to a fundraiser for the Academy in the front park.  There was plenty of food and drink, although I limited myself to a diet soda, and a local band was playing.  One of the musicians is a former student and they invited me up to sing the Jimmy Buffet classic "Come Monday."  I changed the lyrics of the last verse to "I spent four lonely months in a house full of monks and I just want you back by my side"!

There were about a dozen students helping at the event, running errands back to the kitchen, hauling ice, assisting with clean up.  At some point they seemed to be at loose ends so I invited them back to the kitchen for some warm bread and homemade apple butter.  I don't think I knew but two of them by name, but they all trooped after me through the dark school hallway and student refectory, and before long we were all gathered around the counter in the kitchen.  I cut a loaf into thick slices and passed them all around, and they politely took turns with the butter knife.  There were some initial oohs and aahs, and then periods of silence punctuated by the occasional "Mmmmm"---the sound that every chef loves to hear, when people would rather enjoy your food than talk.  A few students took seconds, three more straggled in late and finished off the loaf, and after some discussion of when they might return for Fr. Dom's legendary pizza, they went back out to finish their service at the event.

I often hear people complain about teenagers, how they are disrespectful or delinquent, how they have no manners and don't appreciate what they have.  I beg to differ.  These adolescents were respectful of me and each other, appreciative of what was offered them, and peppered their conversation with a lot of please and thank you.  Nobody pushed to the front of the line, no-one got out a cell phone to send a text, not one of them said anything you couldn't quote in church.  Do we have special kids at Saint Bede?  Probably.  I certainly don't have the kind of behavioral issues in the classroom that we hear rumors about in other local schools.  But I've had similar experiences in public schools and big city youth groups and even in a maximum security prison for teens.  Create a space where teens can feel valued and have a sense of belonging, and they usually respond.

I think we created that kind of space last night in the abbey kitchen: teens breaking bread together as companions on the journey toward maturity, forging friendships, making memories.  "Bread is love made visible," says Kahlil Gibrain's prophet.  What a blessing for me to be able to share God's love for his children in the form of a slice of warm bread!  I hope that they tell their friends about our simple pleasures together, so we can widen that circle of love and bring everybody to the table of acceptance and fellowship.
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September 5: National Cheese Pizza Day

9/5/2013

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Eddie and Courtney are getting married in October and I'm the presider, so as I often do with marriage prep couples, I invited them out to make pizza with me.  Little did I know (until I check my Twitter feed) that today was National Cheese Pizza Day!  Here they are with the sausage and pepperoni masterpiece that Ed made (rolled AND tossed the dough), but we also made one of my favorite pizzas of all time, the Four Cheese Tomato Top.

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Our Fr. Ron grows a bountiful crop of heirloom tomatoes every year, with astonishingly diverse colors, shapes and flavors.  I used some of the smaller ones to make my Bruschetta Topping Pizza (recipe HERE) and the rest were used on the Four Cheese Tomato Top Pizza pictured below.

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This photo hardly does it justice, but I didn't have time to set up a tripod and lighting, with a dozen hungry monks waiting at haustus upstairs!  We pizzaolos did reserve a couple of pieces for ourselves and the flavor of these heirloom tomatoes really makes the dish special.  I don't even attempt this pizza after the garden tomatoes are spent.

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Here's a slightly better photo from  last year.  But I'm sure you are wondering what the cheese combo is.  It's my variation on the classic quattro formaggi pizza:


6 oz. shredded mozzarella
4 oz. ricotta
2 oz. shredded provolone
2 oz. grated Romano
1 egg
½ tsp. nutmeg
¼ cup fresh snipped chives, garlic chives, or other Italian herbs

Mix thoroughly and spread evenly over a 12" to 14" thick crust, then top with tomatoes.  I always bake mine on a preheated pizza stone at 500 degrees F.  Don't wait until September 5th of next year---bake a Four Cheese Tomato Top Pizza this weekend!

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It's called "Deer Poop"?!

9/3/2013

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The Stage Rats have a number of recipes they especially like---funnel cakes, donut holes made with refrigerator biscuits, caramel corn---but lately they've been bugging me about "deer poop".  We always served this as a treat at theatre camp along with its counterpart "Fruit Poop" and the kids have been craving it, evidently.
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I actually posted this recipe and photo last year after my nephew's "redneck" wedding (see August 2012).  The bride had a camo dress (which she rocked)  and a camo cake, so deer poop in a camo bowl seemed like a nice contribution to the reception.  Here's the recipe, in case you have a hunter in your family whose birthday is coming up.


 2 Pkg. (24 oz.) Wilton's Dark Cocoa Candy Melts 
1/4 cup peanut butter
4 cups Cheerios (Dulce de Leche or Honey Nut)
1-1/2 cups of honey roasted peanuts
1-1/2 cups mini-marshmallows



In a large sauce pan, melt candy melts and peanut butter over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth.  Remove from heat.  Using a wide rubber spatula, gently fold in Cheerios and peanuts until well coated.  Allow mixture to cool slightly (5 to 10 minutes) before folding in marshmallows (they should remain whole rather than melting) until everything is evenly coated in chocolate.  Drop by tablespoons onto parchment or wax paper.  Allow to harden for two hours before storing in an airtight container.

Since last year, we've also made Deer Poop candy with Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal, which is round and looks even MORE like deer poop!  I like the flavor of the Dulce de Leche Cheerios the best, but make it and decide for yourself.


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Dinner Rolls and how to roll them

8/31/2013

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Straight out of the oven. If these were any fresher, they would still be dough.
Do you ever wonder how bakeries get those perfectly round, uniformly sized buns and dinner rolls?  When I was in college at Illinois Wesleyan University I worked in the kitchen and found out that when making rolls many institutional or commercial bakeries use a "rounder."  It's a machine with two horizontal disks--each with twelve round "divots"--that rotate in opposite directions.  The pre-measured dough is placed between the two disks, the machine is switched on, and you get a dozen perfectly round, uniformly sized balls of dough.  There are machines that cut 24 pounds of dough into 1 pound pieces in seconds, no weighing needed, and machines that shape those pieces of dough into round or oval loaves, or baguettes, or flatten them into pizza rounds.

Cheaters.

I shouldn't say that, I suppose.  The profit margin at bakeries is fairly narrow, and given how expensive those machines are, it takes a lot of dough to pay for them, as it were.  There's no way you can do the kind of volume many bakeries must produce without some kind of mechanical assistance.  And there are plenty of smaller bakeries around that still do a great deal of hand shaping.   You have to respect anybody who gets up as early as bakers do, and works in a kitchen with five or six ovens and no AC in the Midwest summers. 

I guess the real problem I have is that we often tend to compare our baking against such mechanized perfection.  I hear a lot of people complain that their rolls taste good but they never come out the same size.  "Good!" I tell them; "Your family will know they were made by a human being---that your hands, your loving heart made those rolls."  Let's not be so hard on ourselves, people; it's not like your baking for the county fair every week.

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Dinner rolls cooling by the window of the abbey kitchen.
Take a good look at the rolls I just made this afternoon for monk supper.  (We're having beef tips in gravy over buttered noodles, and I like to have something to sop up the gravy!)  A close look will see that they are not all exactly the same size.  Given that 98 pound Fr. Claude will want a smaller roll and our big auto mechanic Fr. Ambrose will want something a bit more substantial, that's going to work out just fine.   They're not going to stay side by side in the basket for comparison very long anyway.  The important thing is that they know I made them to show my love for the community.

I will admit, when I have made rolls for a cookbook or magazine photo shoot, I have actually used a scale and weighed the dough: 2 1/2 ounces for a medium sized roll, 3 ounces for a large bun.  But I think it's more important that rolls have a uniformly smooth surface than be all the same size. There's a bit of a trick to that, but fortunately for you, dear Breadheads, I have a video.

This technique works with any rolls dough recipe, but click HERE for one that's monk-tested.  I'd love to see photos of your successes (or stories of your failures, so I can help you improve!) so e-mail me at [email protected].

God bless and happy baking!
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Experimenting with Donuts

8/29/2013

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I have a great recipe for batter donuts, but I'm still playing around with a yeasted donut recipe.  The best homemade donuts I've ever made came from brioche dough, but I'm much too lazy to go through all that extra work with the butter just to get a breakfast quick bread.  This picture represents a further attempt, adapting a recipe for  "Spudnuts", a dough recipe using mashed potatoes to help develop a soft texture and tender crumb.  I'm still not satisfied---I think the starch in the potatoes may be making the crust a little chewy.  I can report, however, that when a group of seniors over in the school gym heard about this operation, a dozen or so donuts disappeared rapidly!  More updates as the experimentation continues.

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