Naan

This is the best recipe for Naan I've tried.  And it's really easy.  You just need to plan enough time for the two risings.  I found the recipe here.  I do halve the recipe, because it makes a lot of naan, and it's best fresh.

You can either grill this Naan, as the recipe says, or you can cook it in a cast iron frying pan, with just a light coating of oil.  This is called dry frying, and it's how I cook my Naan.  I love my cast iron frying pan, nothing ever sticks to it!

Naan

1 package dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/4 cup white sugar (I do less, just a sprinkle of sugar to help the yeast grow.  1/4 cup makes it too sweet)
3 TBSP milk
1 egg
2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups flour
2 tsp minced garlic (optional)
1/4 cup butter, melter

In a large bowl, dissolve years in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy.  Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough  (I've found it takes less than the 4 cups).  Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth.  Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise.  Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.

Punch dough down, and knead in garlic (if making garlic naan.  If making plain naan, skip this step.)  Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball (you should get about 14).  Roll into balls and place on a tray.  Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.

During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat (or frying pan).

At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle.  Lightly oil grill.  Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and slightly browned.  Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over.  Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes.  Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

Banana Sour Cream Bread

I never liked banana bread as a kid, because I didn't like the texture.  It was rubbery, and it seemed like the edges had to burn to get the middle to cook.  I discovered this recipe one day, years ago, and my banana bread has been perfect ever since!

Banana Sour Cream Bread

3/4 cup butter
3 cups white sugar
3 eggs
6 very rip bananas, mashed
16 ounces sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 4 7x3 inch loaf pans (I used muffin tins, it made 2 dozen, and 1 mini loaf).  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon.  Mix together salt, baking soda and flour, then add to sugar and banana mixture.  Mix well.  Stir in nuts.  Divide into prepared pans.  Bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Blueberry Muffins

This recipe also comes from my Maine's Jubilee Cookbook.  I've been making this recipe for about 16 years, and it's my favorite recipe.  It's a good texture, it's fairly low fat, and it's just good.  I also use this recipe as the base for other muffins.  Instead of blueberries, I have put chopped pears, peaches, and cherries to name a few.

Blueberry Muffins

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 cup milk
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup blueberries

Mix together sugar, oil, eggs and milk.  Add the flour, sifted with baking powder and salt.  Fold in blueberries last.  Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Makes 1 dozen muffins.  I always double it and freeze half of them.  We will polish off an entire dozen in one day.  My kids love these muffins, as does Rusty.

Flat Bread

This recipe comes from this site, which is my favorite recipe site. Besides the fact that she uses way too much cream, her recipes are right up my alley, and they're generally easy and down to earth. I don't have time for fancy ingredients or recipes that take 6 hours to prep, or are super fussy recipes. So this site is where I've gotten a lot of my ideas lately and I love it. I love Greek food, so when she posted about this flat bread, I knew I had to make gyros (pronounced like Euros.) I'll post the flat bread recipe today, and the recipe for the gyros filling tomorrow. This bread was good with the gyros as well as with honey butter (I'm a total copycat!) And I think they would be good as simple, mini pizzas as well, if there were left overs, which there weren't when I made them!

Soft Wrap Bread

From King Arthur Flour

Make about 8-9 breads (I 1 1/2ed the recipe so it made 12 breads. We had company, and there were only 3 left over)

3 to 3 1/4 cups flour

1 1/2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup potato flour OR 1/2 cup potato flakes (I used potato flakes because they're cheaper)

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 TBSP vegetable oil

1 tsp instant yeast

Place 2 cups of the flour into a bowl or the bucket of a bread machine (I used my Bosch). Pour the boiling water over the flour, and stir until smooth. Cover the bowl and set aside for 30 minutes.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the potato flour (or flakes) and 1 cup of the remaining flour with the salt, oil and yeast. Add this to the cooled flour/water mixture, stir, then knead for several minutes (by hand, mixer or bread machine) to form a soft dough.

You can allow the dough to go through the entire kneading cycle in the bread machine, but it's not necessary, about a 5-minute knead in the machine, once it gets up to full kneading speed, is fine. The dough should form a ball, but will remain somewhat sticky (the dough is fairly stiff, so don't be worried, just be careful not to over flour the dough). Add additional flour only is necessary; if kneading by hand, keep your hands and work surface lightly oiled (I didn't add any more flour to mine). Let the dough rise, covered, for 1 hour (I think it needs more like 2 hours to rise).

Divide the dough into 8 pieces (each about the size of a handball), cover, and let rest for 15 to 30 minutes. Roll each piece into a 7-8 inch circle and dry-fry them (fry without oil) on a griddle or frying pan over medium heat for about 1 minute per side (I used my cast iron frying pan, and it worked like a charm), until they're puffed and flecked with brown spots. Adjust the heat if they seem to be cooking to quickly which means they may be raw in the center, while too slowly will dry them out. Transfer cooked breads to a wire rack, stacking them to keep them soft (I put the on a plate and covered them with a towel.) Serve immediately.

This recipe took a lot of time, but not too much work. And it's definitely worth it. I love pita bread/flat bread, but I hate the stale, cardboardy stuff that they sell in the grocery store. This is a nice alternative. I bet you could even freeze them and then use them as needed (I like to keep pita bread in the freezer and take one out for my lunch or when we're having burgers and I have a veggie burger).

Whole Wheat Bread

This is my mom's bread recipe. It actually comes from my Dad's mother, I believe, and my Dad taught my Mom how to make it when they got married. It's my all time favorite wheat bread recipe, and I have finally gotten to where I feel like it's perfect home made bread. It has phenomenal taste, it's soft but somewhat chewy, and it holds together really well so I can slice it really thin and make sandwiches out of it (I always hated sandwiches on homemade bread because the bread was sooooo thick). The trick is to use fresh ground wheat flour. You'll get a much better gluten mixture, and the bread will stick together and be a better texture.



Whole Wheat Bread

5 cups hot water
6 cups whole wheat flour

Beat the hot water and flour together until mixture becomes shiny, sticky and clumpy. I use my electric beaters, because my arm gets really tired, but my Mom always beat it by hand (maybe because she had 6 girls!) This helps to release the gluten in the wheat and will make the bread stick together better.

1/2 cup warm water
1 TBSP sugar
2 1/2 TBSP yeast

Put yeast and sugar in warm water while beating the hot water and flour together. The yeast will dissolve in the water and will become bubbly. Make sure to use a 2-cup measuring cup as the yeast mixture will grow.

2/3 cup honey
2/3 cup oil
2 tsp salt
1 cup flour

Add to the water and flour mixture, and stir well. Then add the yeast mixture and another cup of flour and mix together. At this point, you will have a sticky dough. Continue to add dough until dough is just a little sticky, about 6 more cups. Oil your counter or bread board, and turn dough onto oiled surface. Oil your hands, and start kneading the dough. I knead it for about 5 minutes, my mom would say you should do 10 minutes. Dough should be shiny and satiny feeling. Oiling the surface instead of flouring it keeps your dough from getting too dry, and will help the bread to be moist and not crumbly.

Put dough back in bowl, cover with a towel, and let rise for about 1 hour, until indentation remains in dough when poked.

Divide dough into four equal loaves, shape, and place in greased bread pans. Let rise about 45 minutes, then place in oven at 350 degrees. Bake for about 30 minutes, until loaves are golden brown, sound hollow when tapped, and move in the pan when you shake the pan. Remove loaves from pans a couple minutes after taking out of the oven. If you leave them in the pans, the bottoms will get soggy. Slice and enjoy!