Category:

"Creamed Corn" Cornbread

7/17/2017

Yesterday (July 16) was National Corn Fritter Day, and I posted a link on Facebook to a previous post on The Cornbread Book by Jeremy Jackson. I didn't make corn fritters yesterday, mainly because my blood sugar was trending a bit high. But we had corn (off the cob, frozen) for supper last night, and I thought someone out to do something about the leftovers, so I decided to make cornbread, adapting a recipe in the aforementioned book (which you really should buy---it's a gem!) His original recipe uses creamed corn, something we rarely serve here at the abbey, so I adapted it by simply sending the whole kernels through the food processor and then adding them to the liquids. The resulting bread has a more intense corn flavor and doesn't suffer from the "Dry Crumblies" as some cornbread does. Here's my version:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole corn kernels, finely chopped in food processor
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F., and grease an 8" x 8" baking pan with cooking spray. Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl and stir until well-combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together corn, milk, egg, and oil.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir until just combined. Don't overbeat, but be sure to use a rubber spatula to make sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients along the sides or bottom of the bowl. Pour batter into pan and spread it evenly. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top begins turn golden brown and the bread pulls away from the sides of the pan slightly. The top of the loaf should spring back when pressed with a fingertip.

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Memories of Mama: Pecan Pie Bars

11/26/2016

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Although my mother made just about everything else from scratch, she was not above using cake mixes. Among the cookbooks in her collection, I found one titled: Cake Mix Cookies by Camilla V. Saulsbury. I might not have noticed it among the hundreds of titles had it not been for a small Post-It note bookmarking a particular page, where I found a recipe for Pecan Pie Bars.

A moment of silent reverence, please.

Mom made these for some occasion---birthday, potluck, Christmas---or maybe just because she liked the look of the recipe and she loved pecans. But I must have come home for a visit at just the right time, because I remember eating one at my customary spot at the dining room table with a cup of Irish Afternoon tea and relishing every crumb. If you like pecan pie but don't like messing with a pie crust, this is the recipe for you. The crust is made with cake mix, butter and an egg---simple!---and the filling mixes up in a jiffy.

I made a batch, along with some Cowboy Cookies, to take with me to Peoria Notre Dame High School's Production of The Man Who Came to Dinner. I was doing a review/talk back with the cast after the show and decided I should bring post-show treats. The show's director was Kathy Svoboda, a dear friend with whom I have a long standing joke about caramel pecan rolls. But I didn't have enough time to make a yeasted dough, so these pecan pie bars were the perfect recipe for the situation. The students were surprised and delighted when I brought out the treats and both the cookies and the pecan pie bars were devoured in short order. I might add that their show was selected for performance at the Illinois Hig School Theatre Festival in January.

It was satisfying to see my efforts so greatly appreciated, but something else occurred to me on the drive home. I had honored my mother's memory by baking two of her favorite recipes, but even more so by sharing them unexpectedly, by bringing treats when I didn't have to, by doing what she so often did: making other people happy by a random act of kindness in the form of a plastic container full of home-baked goodies. I hope the students were paying attention, and will come to do the same.

I'm sharing the recipe for these bars (slightly adapted) in the hopes that it will entice you to buy the book---it's a keeper!

Pecan Pie Bars
adapted from Cake Mix Cookies
by Camilla V. Saulsbury

1 (18.25-ounce) package yellow cake mix
5 Tbs. butter, softened
4 large eggs
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
1½ cups dark corn syrup
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
1¼ cups chopped pecans, divided

Preheat oven to 350° F. (or 325° for dark-coated metal pans). Position oven rack in middle of oven. Spray a 9 x 13-inch metal baking pan with non-stick cooking spray (you can also line the pan with foil or parchment).
Set aside ⅔ cup of the dry cake mix. Combine the remaining cake mix, butter and 1 of the eggs with an electric mixture at medium speed until blended and crumbly. Press mixture in the bottom of the prepared pan and bake 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl combine reserved ⅔ cup cake mix, brown sugar, corn syrup, vanilla extract, and remaining three eggs and mix until well blended. Stir in ¾ cup of chopped pecans. Pour mixture over hot crust. Sprinkle on remaining pecans.
Bake an additional 30-35 minutes or until filling is set. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely. Cut into bars.

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Meet Me in St. Louis II: Resale Shop Finds and Breadhead Bookshelf

7/29/2015

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Regular readers of my bread blog and Facebook page know that I browse through flea markets and resale shops every chance I get, and this vacation is no exception. St. Louis has a large Goodwill store on Manchester Road, and I scored a pair of small appliances: two waffle irons, $6 apiece, both in excellent condition. Breadhead Breakfasts will have two or three waffle recipes in it, but I don't want them all to come from the same style of waffler. The waffles pictured above are from my current iron, which is designed to facilitate creating waffle sticks for kids to dip in their maple syrup. (My fellow monks are not given to such frivolity at the breakfast table, but the waffle iron was on sale.) One model I bought yesterday creates a pair of square Belgian waffles, the other a thinner, heart-shaped ones much like the Dutch stroopwafel. Stay tuned for photos when I get home to my kitchen.

At the "Savers"store on Watson Road I found a gently-used pizza stone for $5. New ones can cost as much as $30, so I'll be happy to give it to someone at my "Pizzas from the Garden" class at the Missouri Botanical Gardens this Saturday. I consider a pizza stone to be as essential as cookie sheets and oven mitts in my kitchen, and it's pretty tough to make a decent thin crust pizza without one. So when I see them at flea markets and garage sales I always snatch them up to give away to potential pizziaolos. One of the pizzas we'll be making this weekend is the "Four Cheese Tomato Top" from my book Thursday Night Pizza.

The other treasure I discovered was a copy of Mel London's Bread Winners (Rodale Press, 1979). Not a professional baker, London began baking bread to give as Christmas gifts and gradually developed a cadre of home bakers who traded recipes with him. He collected them into this book, which includes profiles of the bakers and over 200 recipes. Because none of the bakers are professionals, one has the sense in paging through the book that you, too, could manage Garden Cracked-Grain Bread, Cheese and Pepper Loaf, and Orange Oatmeal Muffins. There are a wide variety of recipes, with topics as diverse as sourdough, breads made with triticale, Minnesota State Fair winners, breads for camping trips and backpacking, and a fair share of ethnic breads from Indian fry bread to Panettone to fastnachts.

Bread Winners is one of my mom's favorite bread books, and I think she got me my copy at a parish used book sale. So I'm happy to get what appears to be an unused copy---the credit card receipt from 1982 was still in the book---to pass on to another Breadhead. That's what all this reporting on flea market finds is all about. Believe me, I'm not bragging on my shopping abilities---if you think I can find a bargain, you should go garage sale-ing with my sisters! But I do encourage you to keep your eyes open for unexpected treasures in ordinary places. Train your eye long enough, and you get good at finding valuable things not only in shops, but in every day life, in the people around you, and inside yourself.

God bless and happy baking---and shopping!

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Sourdough Biscuits

5/14/2015

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A few weeks ago I gave a brief lecture on sourdough starters and how to capture wild yeast from the air. I haven't done much sourdough baking in the last year, but the lecture inspired to renew all my starters and get out some favorite recipes. Among them is a recipe for sourdough biscuits, also known as "Pinch-Offs". They are surprisingly easy to make and the recipe is reliable.

I got this recipe from Sourdough Jack's Cookery and Other Things, a comb-bound booklet that did much to renew the interest in sourdough baking back in the 1970's. "Sourdough" Jack Mabee was an Alaskan chuck wagon cook with decades of experience with sourdough and a wealth of sourdough lore which he shares freely in this book. It's out of print now but copies show up regularly on eBay. If you are interested in sourdough from a more historical and scientific perspective, be sure to get Ed Woods' Classic Sourdoughs: A Home Baker's Handbook (Ten Speed Press, 2001, ISBN 1580083447). This book is an updated version of World Sourdoughs from Antiquity (1996, ISBN 0898158435 ) by the same author. Either book is an excellent resource for sourdough baking, especially for those who want more than recipes. Wood mixes hard science with a profound respect for baking traditions, so you get baking, history, biology, chemistry, and cultural anthropology all mixed in one entertaining and informative volume. Between Ed Wood and Sourdough Jack Mabee, you’d have all the info you need to become proficient at sourdough.But before you can make sourdough biscuits, you need some sourdough starter. If you don't have any and don't know anything about how to get some, stop reading this blog and go to my lecture notes from a sourdough class I gave at Missouri Botanical Gardens a few years ago. Read and/or download them HERE.

* * * * *
If you DO have starter, here's the recipe I used to make the biscuits pictured above. I actually doubled the recipe and made a batch in a 12" cast iron skillet, then used the leftover dough to fill the 8" skillet in the photos.

Sourdough Biscuits

("Pinch-Offs")

½ cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk
2 ½ cups unsifted flour
1 Tbs. sugar
¾ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. soda
Bacon fat or melted butter

Mix starter, milk and 1 cup of the flour in a large bowl (the night before if biscuits are for breakfast; if for dinner, then in the morning). Cover the bowl and keep at room temperature to rise.

Turn this very soft dough out onto 1 cup of flour on a bread board. Combine sugar, salt, baking powder and soda with remaining ½ cup flour and sift over the top. With your hands, mix dry ingredients into the soft dough, kneading lightly to get the correct consistency. Roll out to a 1/2 –inch thickness. Cut out biscuits with a cutter, and dip each in either warm bacon fat or melted butter.

Place close together in a 9-inch square pan and set in a warm place to let rise for about ½ hour. Bake in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees) for 30 to 35 minutes. Makes about 14 biscuits (2 ½ inch).

Alternate method (and the one I prefer): pinch off balls of dough about the size of an unshelled walnut. Dip in melted butter and place close together in a 10” to 12” cast iron frying pan. Allow to rise and bake as directed.

Notes
---I have taken this recipe directly from Sourdough Jack’s Cookery and Other Things because it’s just about the best sourdough biscuit recipe around, and appears to be most authentic. The book is now out of print but available on eBay.
---The recipe can be easily doubled for a larger pan (which is what I do when I have a whole community of hungry monks to feed!
---For an herbal variation, add 1 to 3 tsp. dried herbs to the dry ingredients. 1 tsp. sage, 1 tsp. thyme, ½ tsp. savory and ¼ tsp. of ground pepper makes a nice combination. A quarter to a half cup of grated cheese added to the recipe makes a savory biscuit to accompany soup or stew.

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Breadhead Bookshelf: Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno

12/27/2014

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On my last Breadhead Bookshelf blog, I reviewed Bernard Clayton’s The New Complete Book of Bread, a classic baking book without any photos and few illustrations but literally hundreds of recipes. In this blog, we’ll take a look at its polar opposite, another one of my favorites titled Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno. This treasure has about only 100 recipes, but the photos by Ian O’Leary are luminous and inspiring.

Ultimate Bread is published by the Britain's Dorling Kindersley (DK Publishing, 1998) and so the recipes are in both metric and American Standard measurements. Normally that makes me a little nervous, because I’ve picked up a few cookbooks from the Barnes &Noble bargain shelf that were originally published in Great Britain and the recipes were evidently converted without being tested, based on the disastrous results I got from following them. But that is not the case here, and both the authors are experienced recipe writers who offer accurate measurements and clear (if not always extensive) instructions. The introductory chapters include the standard information on equipment, ingredients, and methods – nothing special here other than a European spin on technique– although the information and photos on the various toppings for bread were something of a revelation for me.

There are a little over 100 recipes here, with a great deal of emphasis on European and ethnic breads. There were a number of flatbreads I hadn’t even heard of—Schiacciata, Carta di Musica, Torta al Testa, ekmek, barbari, etc. Ultimate Bread also introduced me to fougasse, a traditional French bread formed into a variety of symbolic shapes, and Scottish Baps, both of which have become monastery favorites.

As good as the recipes are, the real reason to obtain a copy of this book for your Breadhead Bookshelf is the inspiration provided by the photos. I don’t have an easy way share any of these photos with you since I am working one handed after my surgery, but I recommend that you go to the Google books web site (click HERE) so you can scroll through the pages of “The Gallery of Breads” at the beginning of the book. The photos of Ciabatta, Parker House rolls, and Bolo-Rei made me want to try the recipes immediately!

If you are a baker who likes visual inspiration more than detailed instruction, this book is definitely for you. It is easily available online, and is not terribly expensive when purchased used. I recommend buying it in the hardback edition, because you will use this book so much you will want to have a copy that can take a beating in the kitchen.

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Breadhead Bookshelf: The New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr.

12/23/2014

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On December 22 I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist. Evidently all those years of kneading have taken their toll! I don’t much care for the idea of an extended period of forced inactivity, so I decided that I would spend some time training the speech recognition function on my computer, so I can still post some new bread blogs. People often ask me about which bread cookbooks I have in my library, and ask for suggestions about what they might purchase. So I’m spending my convalescence adding to the posts labeled “Breadhead Bookshelf.”

Obviously there are thousands of bread cookbooks out there, and more and more of them are being published every year. I’ll try to concentrate on those books which I think are especially useful to the average Baker rather than concentrating on specialty cookbooks. Some of them will be relatively new, others were will be classics that should be a part of every Breadhead ‘s library.

Some of my favorite cookbooks are out of print, but if you’re reading this blog post, you’re probably tech savvy enough to be able to find them online. Abe’s Books is one of the best online book search services, but there are others out there, including Amazon of course. I also recommend making a habit of frequenting used bookstores. I’ve had good luck finding obscure volumes of all subjects in the kind of independent bookstores you find in the town squares of small Midwestern towns along Route 66.

It was not in a used bookstore but at a rummage sale that my friend Mary Ellen found me a copy of Bernard Clayton’s The Complete Book of Breads. This classic, first published in 1973, is one of the treasures on my Breadhead reference shelf, in part because of the dedication my friend wrote on the inside front cover: “I’ll take a half dozen of each!”

Bernard Clayton Jr. was a journalist who discovered the delights of artisan breads while on a trip across Europe with his wife Marjorie in 1965. He began baking bread as a hobby but it soon became an obsession and he traveled all over the United States and Europe to find new recipes. The Complete Book of Breads was a bestseller and can be credited (along with James Beard’s Beard on Bread) with inspiring the home baking renaissance of the late 1970s. Clayton died in 2011 at age 94. His New York Times obituary can be found HERE.

The Complete Book of Breads wasn’t quite as popular as Beard on Bread, in part because James Beard was a flamboyant character and more adept at self-promotion. It is also more expensive—the most recent edition retails for $30.00. But I find myself using Clayton’s book far more often, primarily because it is, well---complete (I don't know of any other modern source for the recipe for pioneer salt-rising bread, for example). I made extensive use of this encyclopedic collection when I was researching recipes for all three seasons of Breaking Bread with Father Dominic.

Although the book is organized into the usual chapters—white, whole wheat, rye, etc.—there are more than a few surprises among the recipes. For example, under “White Breads” we find such intriguing titles as: Thirty Minute, Cuban, Egg Harbor, Scottish Buttermilk, Old Order Amish, Turnipseed Sisters’ and Weissbrot mit Kümmel. Obviously, many of these recipes have an interesting story to go along with them, making Clayton’s masterpiece a cookbook which is part travelogue. Breadheads who have enjoyed the “Bread Breaks” in my cookbooks will undoubtedly enjoy hearing about the people Clayton encounters in his explorations in search of good bread.

Regarding the recipes themselves. I especially appreciate Clayton’s painstaking attention to detail in giving directions, right down to the amount of time each step takes. This level of instruction makes it possible to successfully bake everything from French baguettes to bagels to brioche. I also appreciate that he makes suggestions for ingredients substitutions, since I often begin baking without checking the pantry to see if I have all the groceries I need!

Apart from the cover art, you won’t find gorgeous food photography nor stylish page designs—this is a book that is meant to be used, not perused on the coffee table. Beginner bakers may find the lack of illustrations distressing, but if you know your way around a kneading board, you shouldn’t have any trouble. Between Clayton’s Complete Book of Breads and that perennial favorite The Joy of Cooking, you’re set for a lifetime of culinary adventures.

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Breadhead Bookshelf: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

12/28/2013

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This is the new edition which just came out in October 2013.

There has been a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoë François, Thomas Dunne Books) on my Breadhead bookshelf since it was first published in 2007, because my mom doesn't waste any time when a new bread book comes out! I, however, have been a complete reprobate, a paragon of procrastination with regard to actually reading and using the book, and JUST THIS WEEK decided to see what all this "no-knead" method was all about. Let me say in my defense that I love kneading dough and was loathe to embrace any technique that minimized one's hands coming into contact with such a sensual substance.

But it's Christmas break, and without lesson plans to prepare and papers to grade I have a bit more free time, PLUS there's very little going on in the kitchen since we 're feeding only the monastic community instead of 300+ students, faculty and staff. This constitutes an ideal situation for me to play around. The foundational idea of the book is that one mixes a rather large batch of a wet, slack dough with no kneading, and the dough will store in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You pull out a pound of dough at a time, and make a loaf of fresh bread easily and more often. The bread is very crusty, with a tender crumb on the inside (they refer to it a a "custard" crumb) and the large interior holes characteristic of artisan loaves.

Let me admit that I have not gone very deeply into this book. I've tried the master recipe three times, with slight variations each time with regard to the shape of the loaves. Let me also admit I AM HOOKED! While I'm not ready to give up my "baking-like-my-grandma" methods, this technique does produce wonderfully crusty, chewy loaves with exquisitely complex flavors and soft interiors. If you've ever wanted to make that kind of bread but don't have the patience or persistence to learn how to knead, this book is for you.

There are lots of other recipes in the book as well, and I may get around to them eventually. Right now I'm content that I can get a loaf of Italian bread with a chewy crust and this kind of interior . . .

. . . to go with homemade sausage and meatballs which I made for my family Christmas.

You don't have to buy the book to try the Master Recipe--they have a website with a great tutorial right HERE. But if the rest of the recipes come out as splendidly as what I've tried so far, you'll want Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day on your Breadhead Bookshelf as well.

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Breadhead Bookself: Cookwise

8/15/2012

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A quote from Shirley Corriher's Cookwise, my go-to book when I need to know anything about food science:
            Just milled flour, which has a yellowed look like old lace, makes gummy doughs
            and poor-quality bread. As flour stands exposed to the air, however, oxygen
            combines with the yellow carotenoid pigments and converts them to a colorless
            form, thus naturally bleaching the flour. Oxygen also reacts with the thiol groups
            in dough . . . and prevents their interfering with elasticity. Thus oxygen improves
            baking qualities in several ways.   (p. 56)

            She goes on to say that it takes 8 to 12 weeks for the process of oxygenation to have the desired effects. This revelation explains why the breads I've made in the past from freshly milled wheat flour never seem to rise very well. So the flour I milled a few weeks ago is now in Tupperware containers in the pantry, and every day or so I give them a shake to exposed more of the flour to oxygen. We'll see how well things go in October when it's supposed to be ready to use!
            A little more about Cookwise (William Morrow, 1997). This fascinating book, subtitled “The Hows & Whys of Successful Cooking”, also has a very clear section on how gluten is formed in kneading and explains the matter with charts and illustrations in great detail. But bread is just the beginning. You’ll also find out why cakes fail, how to make fluffy scrambled eggs, what makes smooth gravy possible, and what brining does for a roast chicken. A James Beard Cookbook Award Winner that is every bit as entertaining as a novel.

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Breadhead Bookshelf: The Cornbread Book

5/31/2012

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This post is the first of a series called "Breadhead Bookshelf" in which I review bread books in my collection that I think belong in your collection, too.

I decided to reward myself after grading all my history finals AND putting in the herb garden with a treat I haven't had in years: corn fritters. I first encountered them at the Heart of Illinois Fair in Peoria, Illinois. There was a church group that had a stand selling corn fritters, made fresh before your eyes, and they were exquisite. If you don't know what corn fritters are, they are fried bits of batter (very similar to an eggy waffle batter) with corn kernals mixed in. They are usually rolled in granulated or powdered sugar and served warm.

     I had never made corn fritters before, so I decided to go old school and look in my cookbooks before resorting to the Internet. The Joy of Cooking had a recipe for corn fritters with a very small amount of batter mixed with corn and fried in a pan---probably very traditional somewhere in the U.S., but not what I was looking for. I found the right recipe in a book by Jeremy Jackson titled The Cornbread Book: a love story with recipes (William Morrow, 2003.)
     Jeremy is my kind of cookbook writer: witty, casual, slightly irreverent without being sarcastic, and passionate about his subject. Plus, he's really done his homework: his first chapter is titled "A Pithy and Perfunctory History of Cornbread in these United States," and he starts with "7,000 years ago, some mopey bloke was slumping by his fire somewhere in the highlands of Mexico" and takes you all the way through Columbus, the failed Roanoke Colony, Huck Finn, Thoreau, American cookbooks of the 1700's and 1800's, cornbread during the two world wars and the Jiffy box. Whew!
     The book has brief but useful sections on ingredients and equipment, but it's the recipes that will dazzle and eventually entice you to fire up the oven and get out a cast iron skillet: Sweet Cornbread, Ozark Cornbread, Gem and Pearl Breakfast Muffins, Gold Nugget Popovers, Velvet Spoonbread (!), Popcorn Focaccia (!!), Choco-Corno-Espresso-Almondo Biscotti (!!!) Uncluttered pages and clear, detailed instructions make this a book worth buying and using regularly.

I don't have permision to share his corn fritter recipe (although I'll work on that) but I thought you might like to see them being fried . . .

...and the finished product, which were enjoyed by my fellow monks at haustus tonight, but even more by me!

Mmmmmmm . . .

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A book about commercial white bread

3/4/2012

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Interesting program on NPR today about a new book from Beacon Press titled White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf, written by Aaron Bobrow-Strain, professor of food politics at Whitman College. I haven't read the book yet, but the interview certainly makes me want to. You can hear the program by clicking on the link found on NPR's website: click here to find the webpage with the link.

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"Creamed Corn" Cornbread

Memories of Mama: Pecan Pie Bars

Meet Me in St. Louis II: Resale Shop Finds and Breadhead Bookshelf

Sourdough Biscuits

Breadhead Bookshelf: Ultimate Bread by Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno

Breadhead Bookshelf: The New Complete Book of Breads by Bernard Clayton, Jr.

Breadhead Bookshelf: Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Breadhead Bookself: Cookwise

Breadhead Bookshelf: The Cornbread Book

A book about commercial white bread

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