Category Archives: Breads

Corn Bread

Corn Bread 

1 cup Flour
1 1/4 cup Cornmeal
1/4 cup Sugar
1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/4 Butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup Milk
1 large Egg

Heat oven to 400F.
Prepare baking pan(s) by spraying lightly with vegetable oil spray.
9″round pan, 8″ square pan, individual loaf pans

Melt Butter and remove from heat the cool slightly.

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl; set aside.

In small mixing bowl combine milk, egg and cooled melted butter.

Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just until combined.

Scoop into prepared pan(s) and bake in 400F. oven for 20 to 25 minutes. The individual loaves will require less baking time, check at 18 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before turning out and  cooling completely on wire

 

Super Easy Blender Hollandaise

Bring the extraordinary to your weekday breakfasts with this super easy Hollandaise Sauce!

Hollandaise Sauce

4 ounces butter, room temperature
1 large Egg Yolk
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed,  juice will do in a pinch.
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Cayenne

Melt butter then allow to cool slightly.
Blend together yolk, lemon juice and salt in the blender; pulse to combine.
With blender running, slowly stream in half the warm melted butter.
Start slowly, a few drops, allowing egg yolk to warm up then add in a steady stream.
Once half the butter has been blended in, stop blender and check the sauce.
If it looks like it broke (grainy, lumpy) then add a teaspoon of hot water and blitz for a few seconds.
Add remaining melted butter in a slow steady stream.
Taste and adjust seasonings.
Pour hollandaise over freshly poached eggs.

This is just enough for 2 serves of Eggs Benny

No Knead Brioche Buns

Brioche Bun, No-Knead

This recipe came through my feed the other day and since I was experiencing some back pain I thought I would give it a go! Not having to knead the dough was a back-saver. Now, I will tell you that I melted my butter…DO NOT… do it! Use softened butter as directed and you will get better results! I was rushing against the clock, trying to get the prep dishes washed up before we lost sunlight on the solar panels!  Next time? I would just let the dough rest overnight, I reckon and do them up properly!

For all the fancy photos, but no video, hop on over to Jo’s page! <a href=”https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/brioche-buns/?fbclid=IwAR0a1yj0ZbHDMiWSSFLduTxyU9zl6tMA7BVdnW4rQwDxp2zunngoi9GnvTk#wprm-recipe-container-32295/” target=_blank”> Jo’s</a>

Brioche Buns

1 cup water, lukewarm
2 Tbsp Sugar, divided
1 Tbsp Active Dry Yeast
1 cup Milk, lukewarm
1/2 cup Butter, melted
2 large Eggs, room temperature, separated
1 tsp Salt
4-6 cups Flour
6 Tbsp Butter, softened

Sesame Seeds, Poppy Seeds, Everything Bagel Seasoning, optional

Instructions

To large mixing bowl add your lukewarm water along with one Tablespoon of the sugar and the active dry yeast. Give it a stir and let rest for about 10 minutes, until frothy.

Next, sprinkle 2 cups of flour over the liquid.
Then add the remaining sugar, milk, melted butter, salt, egg whites and roughly stir everything together.
Add more flour, a cup at a time, until the dough comes together but is still a bit sticky and soft. I ended up using about 4 cups of flour as it is super dry out where I live.  You are looking for a sticky, elastic dough that will spring back when poked.
Use hand to roughly form a ball, gathering up any loose flour, then turn out onto work surface for a brief moment while you oil your mixing bowl well. Return dough to the oiled bowl, cover (I use an oiled pizza pan) and let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled in size, about 1 to 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F.
Line two baking trays with parchment paper and set aside.

Punch down dough to release air and turn out onto lightly floured work surface. Spread the dough with your hands or roll out (I prefer using a rolling pin) dough into a rectangle, approximately 20x16inches.
Spread about half the softened butter over the entire surface of the dough. Fold in thirds, then roll the dough out a bit, maintaining a rectangular shape. Spread about 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter over the new rectangle, and fold it in thirds again, just like folding a letter. Roll the dough out a bit again then spread remaining butter over the top. Fold in thirds one last time. Roll dough so it is about 12x8inches.  All this folding creates layers like in croissants.
Using sharp knife cut the dough into 8 long strips, each strip about 1 1/2 inches wide. Fold each rope in two and twist it, then bring the ends together and pinch them to connect the rope. If your hands stick to the dough, just rub a little bit of oil on your hands..
Place the formed buns on the prepared baking trays, four to each tray.
Whisk egg yolks with about a tablespoon of water and brush each bun, generously. Sprinkle with topping of your choice; I highly recommend Everything Bagel Seasoning.
Bake in preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes, rotating trays after 10 minutes. Allow buns to cool on baking trays for 10 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Enjoy the same day you baked them! You may store leftovers for up to three days in an airtight container.
They may also be frozen for up to three months.

Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

Sometimes you find yourself without eggs, and milk, and vanilla, and vinegar, and well, a whole lot of ingredients but you need to pull together a breakfast!
I have found myself in this exact position not once but twice in the past two weeks. Seriously, NOTE TO SELF: BRING VANILLA, VINEGARS, EMERGENCY POWDERED EGGS, POWDERED MILK

In the meantime, I pulled these Vegan Pancakes off and they were actually really good! I would suggest letting the batter sit for about 15 minutes before cooking. I used my electric griddle which made them turn out beautifully! I just can’t seem to get the hang of cooking pancakes in a cast iron frying pan…nor a cast iron griddle! All good, the sun was shining when I wanted to make these for breakfast AND the wind was ripping through here so the wind turbine was generating extra power too!

Without further ado….

Fluffy Vegan Pancakes

2 cups Flour
4 Tbsp Coconut Sugar
2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
2 cups Almond Milk
1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
2 tsp Vanilla

Maple Syrup, to serve
Whipped Cream, to serve

In medium mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
In small mixing bowl, combine almond milk, apple cider vinegar and vanilla, stirring well.
Pour liquid ingredients into dry ingredients and whisk just until combined. Do not over mix to avoid rubbery pancakes.
Let batter rest for about 15 minutes.
Preheat your electric griddle or non-stick pan, or cast iron pan on stovetop; pour about 1/3 cup of batter for each pancake –  my griddle accommodates cooking six at a time.
When the top begins to bubble, flip the pancake and cook second side until lovely and golden.
Serve warm with Maple Syrup, Fresh Fruit and Whipped Cream.

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days: reheat in the toaster or enjoy cold with a nut butter and jam, jelly or honey.

No eggs? No worries! Delicious egg free, dairy free pancakes. 

Hybrid Sourdough Bread

sourdough bread
Sourdough Bread

We have been out here, in the middle of no where for … A G E S … Okay,  maybe not as long as it feels but well, let’s see, we are coming into our fourth Winter out here. And we can, quite definitively say, Winter is our FAVE season out here! Spring is a mucky mess, Summer is a buggy mess with always the threat of forest fires lurking in the background;  we have also learned that Fall can be mucky and windy and grey and dreary and….well, you get the picture! By the way, even though Winter is our FAVE, it can tend to drag on and on and on and on and on….Luke usually goes stir crazy by the end of it all; I tend to do a lil better but that is only because I just get up and leave!  Think Luke regrets purchasing a second vehicle….

Ummmm, I digress. Where was I going with that? Oh! I know! So our first Winter out here I started making Sourdough Bread! It is the quintessential Bush Craft, is it not? Our Brittany Blue has survived a forest fire, being evacuated, has traveled to the Fraser Valley, traveled to Kamloops, survived the hot and the cold; when I leave the Earthship for any amount of time, I take Brittany Blue with me because she can be quite demanding. I mean one time when I left I allowed Luke to babysit her and I am pleased to say that he DID manage to keep her alive; he took his babysitting duties very seriously!

Mine and Brittany Blue’s last trip out to civi the oven was not working at my temporary home with Michael and Hayley so I kinda, sorta didn’t make any Sourdough Bread! What!? Which means that when I went to make bread today I mighta had a bit of trouble remembering the recipe. Oooops.  I did my best to pull it all together but this ol’ brain of mine doesn’t remember stuff quite as well as it used to….

I will write up what I did today and make changes where changes need to be made as I dig into the deep dark recesses of my brain trying to recall the recipe. Or you know, go dig through my treasure trove of recipes…

Sourdough Bread

1 cup Starter
2 1/2 cups Warm Water
1 – 2 teaspoons Instant Yeast *
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Tablespoon Salt
5 – 7 cups Flour

Combine starter, warm water and yeast in a large mixing bowl; set aside in a warm, draft free place to allow yeast to bloom.
Meanwhile lightly spray two 9×5 loaf pans with vegetable oil spray and sprinkle with a bit of cornmeal; set aside.
After allowing yeast to bloom for about 10 minutes, measure 2 cups of flour into yeast mixture; sprinkle sugar and salt on top of the flour then stir in.
Continue stirring for about 2 minutes before gradually adding in remaining flour. You may have to use your hands to fully incorporate the last cup of flour.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead for about 7-10 minutes, forming a smooth dough.
Allow dough to rise in a lightly greased bowl; cover with a clean tea towel and let proof for about 90 minutes until dough has doubled in size.
Punch down dough, turn out onto lightly floured surface and gently divide dough in half.
Shape each half of dough into oval loaves and place in prepared loaf pans; cover with tea towel and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
About 45 minutes after the dough starts proofing, turn oven on to 425F.
Uncover loaves, make a slash in each, using a very sharp knife.
Bake the bread in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until lovely and golden.
Remove from oven and immediately remove from pans to cool completely on a wire rack.