Mom's Fruit Pizza

I don't know if my mother made this one up on her own, but I've never seen or heard of it elsewhere. Like most home-grown recipes, there's no quantities because you can vary them to suit yourself.

Mom usually did this with apples or peaches; if you use apples, use tart baking apples. Have fun and experiment with other fruit: pears, for instance, would also work well.

1 biscuit recipe (Mom made hers from Bisquick, but homemade works well too.)
Peeled, cored and sliced fruit
Granulated sugar

Roll out the biscuit dough to fill a lightly-greased baking sheet, about 1/4 inch thick. Lay out the fruit in a single layer, covering the entire dough. Sprinkle the top with sugar; if you're using apples, also sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake at 450 degrees until the dough is a light golden brown, about 15 minutes.

It's wonderful served warm, with ice cream!

Pumpernickel Bread

If you prefer a lighter pumpernickel, just replace the cocoa with an additional 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and use a light instead of a dark molasses.

3 packages active dry yeast
1 and 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup dark molasses
3 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons caraway seed (optional)
2 and 3/4 cups rye flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 and 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour
Cornmeal

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water; stir in the molasses, salt, caraway, rye flour and cocoa, and beat until smooth. Stir in enough all-purpose flour to make the dough easy to handle.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly-floured surface, cover and let rest 15 minutes. Knead until smooth. Place in greased bowl, and turn greased side up (so all the exterior surface gets greased). Cover and let rise until doubled, about one hour.

Punch down dough, round up and return to bowl. Let rise until double, about 45 minutes.

Lightly sprinkle cornmeal on a greased baking sheet (no greasing needed if it's a non-stick sheet, but still sprinkle it with the cornmeal). Punch down the dough, and divide it in half. Shape each half into a round, slightly flat loaf, and put these on the baking sheed. Let rise one hour.

Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes; loaves are ready if they sound hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.

French Bread

Just for informations' sake: I really don't recommend ever using self-rising flour, for any bread recipe. And flour amounts will vary, depending on your location's humidity, temperature and even altitude. For most breads --- and particularly for ones like this French bread, where you really want a crunchy crust! --- you should remove the loaves from the pans or baking sheets right away, and cool them on wire racks: letting bread cool in the pan usually results in a loaf sweating, making a much softer, if not downright soggy, crust.

If you'd like to, you can divide this into four submarine loaves, instead of a single loaf of french bread.

1 package active dry yeast
1 and 1/4 cups 105-115 degree warm water
1 and 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter
3 and 1/2 to 4 cups flour
1 tablespoon cornmeal
Cold water
1 egg white

Dissolve yeast in the warm water. Stir in salt, butter and 1 and 1/2 cups of flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough additional flour to make dough easy to handle.
Turn dough out onto a lightly-floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about five minutes. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up so all sides are greased. Cover and let rise until double, 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours; dought is ready when and indentation remains when touched.
Punch down dough; round up and let rise one hour. Punch down again, cover and let rest 15 minutes.
Sprinkle cornmeal onto a lightly-greased baking sheet. (If you're using a non-stick sheet you can omit the greasing.) Roll the dough out into a 15x10 inch rectangle, then roll it up tightly beginning at one of the long sides. Pinch edges to seal, and place the loaf on the baking sheet sealed-edge down.
Make 1/4 inch slashes diagonally every two inches across the loaf, or one lenghtwise slash. Brush the top with cold water and let rise uncovered 1 and 1/2 hours. Brush the top again with cold water.
Bake 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Beat the egg white with two tablespoons cold water, and brush this over the loaf. Bake an additional 25 minutes.
Remove from baking sheet and cool on a wire rack.

Quick Dinner Rolls

This is a batter recipe: no need for kneading or shaping, and they only take about an hour and a half from start to finish.

I package active dry yeast
1 cup warm water, 105-115 degrees
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 tablespoons butter
2 and 1/4 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in water; add sugar, salt, butter and 1 cup of the flour. Beat until smooth. Add remaining flour, beat until smooth.
Cover and let rise until double, about 30 minutes.
Stir down batter, then spoon it into 12 greased muffin cups. Let rise until batter reaches the top of the cups, about 20-30 minutes.
Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Corn Bread

There's absolutely no reason to get the pre-packaged corn bread mixes, when doing it from scratch is just as easy and tastes MUCH better! If you'd rather have muffins, fill 12 greased muffin cups 2/3 full, and bake for 20 minutes.

1 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
1 beaten egg

Combine cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut in the butter. Mix egg and milk together; add to the dry ingredients. Stir until its just mixed. Pour into a greased 9x9 inch pan.
Bake at 425 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Boston Brown Bread

The cooking time for this is long, but it's a great rich and moist bread for winter. Slice and serve warm with butter.

If you don't have two 1-pound coffee cans available, you can use three 1-pound vegetable cans, but the recipe will only fill 2-1/2 of those. The coffee cans might take up to 5 hours to cook; the smaller vegetable cans 4 hours. (Cooking time can vary greatly!) If a loaf is fully cooked but soggy around the edges, you can dry it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes, purely to get a prettier effect. The rasins are optional; if you'd rather, you can also use nuts, coconut, or any chopped dry fruit --- but don't use fresh fruit, because that will just dissolve with the steam. If you don't have buttermilk, substitute 2 cups whole milk plus two tablespoons cider vinegar.

You can also cook this in a deep-enough crockpot; set the temperature to 'high', but be sure to watch that the steambath doesn't run dry.

1 cup corn meal
1 cup rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark molasses
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup raisins

Mix together all dry ingredients. Mix together buttermilk and molasses; add to dry ingredients. Stir until just blended. Add raisins.
Spoon the batter into two greased 1-pound coffee cans; cover the cans snugly with tinfoil.
Place the cans into a deep pot. Pour water into the pot until it comes halfway up the outside of the cans, cover and simmer on top of the stove.
After at least three hours, test the bread by removing the foil and inserting a knife all the way through the middle. When the knife comes out clean, the bread is done. (It's better to err on the side of extra time rather than short, and a few extra minutes can't hurt it.)
Let rest 10 minutes after removal from the steam bath. Unmold by running a knife around the the inside of the can, then turn the can upside down. If the bread still won't move, use a can opener to open the other end and use the lid to push it out.

Breadsticks

These breadsticks are good, but if you make them half-size and leave off the extra salt that's sprinkled on top, they can also be nice for a teething baby to chew on.

You can replace the Kosher salt on top with any other coarse salt of your choice, or use toasted sesame seeds.

1 package dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup salad oil or olive oil
2 cups flour
1 egg white
1 tablespoon water
Kosher salt

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Mix in sugar, 1 tablespoon salt, the oil and 1 cup of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough additional flour to make the dough easy to handle.
Turn dough onto a lightly-floured surface and knead until smooth, about five minutes.
Cut dough into 32 equal parts, and roll each part into a thin rope about 8-10 inches long. Place one inch apart on greased baking sheets. Brush lightly with additional oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place.
Beat egg white and water slightly, brush over sticks. Sprinkle with Kosher salt.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

English Muffins

I used to make these sometimes for my english-muffin-loving mother; they're really not much more complicated than the English Muffin Loaf I've already listed. Both are good with butter and marmalade.

When a bread recipe says to 'let rise in a warm place', an oven that's not turned on or pre-heating is good --- the pilot light on most gas ovens gives a yeast dough just the right warm-but-not-hot environment.

1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water (not hot: only about 105-115 degrees)
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 cups flour
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water; add salt, sugar, butter and flour. Stir until smooth. Roll dough 1/4 inch thick on a floured surface; cut into 3-1/2 inch circles.
Sprinkle ungreased baking sheet with half the cornmeal; place dough circles on the sheet and sprinkle the rest of the cornmeal on top of them. Cover, let rise in a warm place about 1 hour.
Heat an ungreased skillet over medium heat. Place circles in skillet, cook seven minutes per side. Cool.
Makes 10-12 muffins.

English Muffin Loaf

This is a popular, easy-to-make bread; I used to give everybody loaves of it as Christmas presents every year. You can toast thick slices as a replacement for English muffins.

6 cups flour
1 package dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
cornmeal

Combine 3 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and soda. Heat liquids until very warm, about 120-130 degrees, and add to dry mixture. Beat well. Add in enough additional flour to make a stiff batter.
Spoon into two 8-1/2 by 4-1/2 inch loaf pans that have been greased and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and let rise in a warm place for one hour. Sprinkle the tops with cornmeal.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Remove from pans immediatly and cool on a wire rack.

Scripture Cake and Burnt Sugar Syrup

I first came across references to Scripture Cake in a mystery novel, of all places; it intrigued me enough to hunt down a recipe. The cake appears to come from the hills of Appalachia. There are several variations of it; this is, to me, the best of the three that I've personally tried. This is also the only one I've seen that adds any kind of icing, or gives a specific oven temperature.

Traditionally a Scripture Cake recipe would only list a Bible verse and a quantity for each ingredient; you were supposed to look up each verse to figure out what that ingredient might be. But to make your life easier, I'll be nice and give that information too!

Scripture Cake

1 cup Judges 5:25 (butter)
1 and 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
3 Isiah 10:14 (eggs, yolks & whites separated)
2 cups 1-Kings 4:22 (flour)
2 teaspoons Luke 13:21 (baking powder)
3 teaspoons 1-Kings 10:10 (one each of cinnamon, mace and cloves)
1/2 teaspoon Leviticus 2:13 (salt)
1/2 cup Judges 4:19 or Genesis 43:24 (milk or water)
1 tablespoon Proverbs 24:13 (honey)
2 cups 1-Samuel 30:11 (one each of raisins and finely chopped figs)
1/2 cup Genesis 43:11 (almonds)

Dredge figs, raisins and almonds in 1 tablespoon flour, set aside. Mix together all other dry ingredients.
Cream together butter, sugar and honey; add egg yolks one at a time. Alternately add in dry intredients and milk, beginning and ending with dry. Stir in fruit; batter should be stiff.
Beat egg whites to peaks; stir into batter one cup at a time. Spoon into greased 8x11 baking dish.
Bake at 375 degrees one hour. Cool on a wire rack for at least ten minutes before removing from baking dish.

Burnt Sugar Syrup for Scripture Cake

1 and 1/2 cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
1/2 cup Genesis 24:45 (water)
1/4 cup Genesis 18:8 (butter)

Melt sugar in saucepan over low heat; stir occasionally, until deep golden brown. Add water, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from heat. Add butter and stir until it melts. Allow to cool; drizzle over cooled Scripture Cake and garnish with whole almonds.

Stollen

This was originally from a recipe of my Grandmother F.'s, but the copy I found is in my mother's handwriting: I honestly don't know if this is Grandmom's original dry-as-dust version or one improved, possibly by my sister L. The fact that it has a whole cup of shortening points towards it being an improved version: Grandmom was greatly affected by her and my grandfather's poverty during the Great Depression years, and her cooking always showed it --- she'd have found it hard to 'waste' this much shortening, whether butter, margarine or even lard, on one cake. Make this recipe at your own risk!

The recipe doesn't specify quantities, but I'd go with at least a teaspoon of lemon rind and a cup of raisins or dried currents.

2 packages dry yeast
4 cups flour
2 beaten eggs
lemon rind
raisins
1 cup softened shortening
5 tablespoons sugar

Mix together all ingredients. Let rise in warm place for one hour, punch down and let rise for another hour. Roll out on a floured surface, fold in half. Brush the top with another beaten egg. Bake on a cookie sheet for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Not sure where I found this one, but I've had it for quite a while. It's pretty easy; just don't overwork the dough.

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 to 1 cup milk (or half milk & half water)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together, work in butter with fingertips or pastry mixer. Add liquid gradually, mixing to make a soft dough. (The total amount of liquid needed will vary, depending on weather, altitude etc.) Knead on floured board for a few minutes, then lightly roll out to 3/4 inch thick. Shape with biscuit cutter. Place on greased baking sheet, prick with a fork, and bake 12 to 15 minutes. For a richer biscuit, double the amount of butter. Makes 12 to 15 biscuits.