A Family Treasure

While I was visiting my boyfriend's family over the holiday his mom was nice enough to share with me a copy of his Great Aunt Opal's cookbook, "The State Fair Blue Ribbon Cookbook". It's filled with recipes she submitted to the Illinois State Fair over a 45 year period - during that time she won over 2,000 Blue Ribbons, 42 trophies, and 16 Purple Rosette Sweepstakes Ribbons. In 1955, 115 of the 130 entries she submitted won Blue Ribbons - obviously, she knew what she was doing! Needless to say, I am thrilled to have a copy of this family treasure. The recipes range from breads to cookies and from cakes to jams. I've been eyeing several of the bread recipes and decided to start with the Great Aunt Opal's Cheese Bread - no surprise, it's as scrumptious as it sounds!

Cheese Bread

1 pkg dry yeast

1/4 C warm water

1 3/4 C scalded milk

3 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp butter

1 1/2 C grated cheese

5 1/4 C sifted flour

Soak yeast in 1/4 C warm water. Add cheese and shortening to hot milk. Let cool. Add yeast mixture. Add 1 C flour, sugar, and salt and beat until smooth. Add remaining flour, stir until smooth, put on floured board and knead about 5 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Put in a greased bowl, cover and keep warm 80-85 degrees, until doubled in bulk.

Divide dough in half, using the rolled dough method* mold into two loaves. Place in well greased pans, 9x5x3 inches. Let rise until doubled. Bake at 375 for 40-45 minutes.

Butter top of loaves while hot. Cool on rack.

Rolled dough

 *I wasn't sure what the rolled dough method was and couldn't find any info online or in my other cookbooks, so I did what I thought Opal meant - I divided the dough in two and rolled out each ball of dough, then I rolled each like a jelly roll and placed them in the pans. If I did it again, I would sprinkle a little shredded cheese on the dough before rolling it.

Focaccia alle Erbe

I've been craving focaccia lately and decided I had better make it before my herb garden dies off for the winter. After doing some searching I decided on the Focaccia alle Erbe from the Williams-Sonoma Savoring Italy cookbook. The recipe was easy and the house smelled amazing while the bread was cooking. Served with some good olive oil and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano - nom, nom delicious!


Ingredients:
2 1/2 tsp (or 1 package) active dry yeast
1/2 C warm water
1 1/2 C milk
6 Tbsp olive oil
5 C unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1/4 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh sage or 1/4 tsp dried sage
coarse salt to taste

In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast over the warm water and let stand until creamy, about 5 minutes. Stir until dissolved. Add the milk and 4 Tbsp of the olive oil and stir to combine.

In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, stir together the flour, salt, thyme, rosemary, and sage. Add the yeast mixture and stir until soft dough forms, about 2 minutes. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Shape into a ball.

Oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl, and turn it once to coat the top. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Oil a 15-by-10-by-1 inch jelly roll pan. Punch down the dough, transfer to the prepared pan, and flatten it out with your hands to cover the bottom completely. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise again in a warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Using your fingertips, press down firmly into the dough to make dimples about 1 inch apart and 1 inch deep. Drizzle the entire surface with the remaining 2 Tbsp oil and sprinkle with coarse salt.

Best French Bread, Ever!

We had a nice break in the hot temps here this weekend so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a bike ride to the farmers market. Although the closest market is small it offers a great selection of fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses, and baked goods. They even have treats for dogs, which Coleman has benefitted from on a few occasions. So after our visit yesterday, we rode home with a bag full of corn, lima beans, andouille sausage, and gouda. Although I was excited about the loot, I wasn't much in the mood for making a big meal yesterday. Instead I decided to bake some bread to go with the gouda. Now, you might say, "I thought you weren't up for spending a lot of time in the kitchen" - which was true, but since I used the bread machine for kneading the dough I didn't really have to do much. Sure, I had to be home to punch down the dough a few times, but it was raining so I wasn't missing out of anything by sticking around the house. In the end, I was extremely pleased with how well this bread turned out - I couldn't stop eating it!

 Ingredients
1 1/4 C warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 C bread flour
2 tsp active dry yeast

Pour water into bread machine pan, then add salt and flour. Make a small well in the center of the flour, be careful not to reach the water level, and put the yeast in the well. Select the dough setting and press start. When the dough setting ends, set a timer and allow the dough to rise for another hour in the bread machine (do not set the bread machine on any cycle). After one hour, punch the bread down, and let it rise in the bread machine for another hour.

Turn dough out of the pan onto a lightly floured surface. Form into a smooth round ball and flatten it with your hands. Place the dough ball into a large bowl that is lined with a clean kitchen towel that has been dusted with flour. Place bowl in a warm dry place and let dough rise, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 450°. Turn dough out of bowl onto a lightly oiled baking pan. Slash the top of the dough in a # pattern. Place a small pan with 2 cups of boiling water on the bottom rack of the oven. Place the bread on the top rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Let bread sit for one hour before slicing.

Mom's Beer Bread

My mom used to make beer bread to serve with stew on cold winter nights. It's a hearty bread that has hints of bitter and sweet flavors. Since it only takes an hour to make it's the perfect accompaniment to your favorite soup or stew.

Ingredients:
3 C self-rising flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1 (12 oz) can or bottle light beer
1 Tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 375. Combine all ingredients until fully incorporated. Turn into a nonstick bread pan, and bake for 50 minutes. Melt butter and brush over the top of the bread. Turn the oven off and return bread to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Blueberries

When I was a kid Blueberries for Sal was one of my favorite books; to this day, I can't eat a blueberry without feeling nostalgic. Perhaps that's because I have so many other fond memories tied to blueberries - fresh pints sold at the old hotel near our family summer cottage, going picking with my cousins, being taught the most amazing cobbler recipe as an adolescent and the Saturdays of my childhood when my bestfriend's mother served us blueberry muffins right out of the oven. Since the blueberry season is approaching, I've been pulling out some old, and new, recipes to make the best use of this amazingly healthy fruit. Below are two of my favorites:

Blueberry Muffins
3 C of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 C sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 C vanilla yogurt
1 tsp grated lemon peel
2 C blueberries

Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven. Preheat oven to 375°F.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together, beating until fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated after each one. Beat in the grated lemon peel.

Beat in one half of the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Beat in one third of the yogurt. Beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients. Beat in a second third of the yogurt. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients and then the remaining yogurt. Again be careful to beat until just incorporated. Do not over beat. Fold in the berries. If you are using store bought frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour. If you are using fresh berries you froze yourself, do not defrost them, add them to the mixture while they are still frozen.

Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. Coat each muffin cup lightly with butter or cooking spray. Distribute the batter equally among the cups. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are done. Set on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Remove muffins from the tin and serve while still warm.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes

Blueberry Cobbler

Fruit Mixture:
3 C blueberries
1/2 C sugar
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp butter

Cobbler Dough:
1 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp cold butter
1/3 C heavy cream

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine berries with sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla. Place fruit mixture in a 1 quart baking dish. Cut the butter into several pieces and scatter over the fruit.

Measure the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into the workbowl of a food processory and pulse twice to sift. Cut the butter into pieces and place on top of the flour; pulse 8-10 times. With the motor running, pour cream through the feed tube. Stop the motor when the dough clumps together.

Turn the dough onto lightly floured surfice and roll to shape the dimensions of the baking dish. Place dough over the fruit mixture. Cut several deep slashes in the dough.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

This recipe was taught to me by a woman for whom I babysat when I was about 14-15 years old. I don't know where she got it, but I cannot claim credit for it. You can also substitute fresh peaches for the blueberries - equally as delicious!