Bread
Bushman Bread or as my kid's call it, 'Chocolate Bread'
14/06/10 11:57
Bushman Bread or as my kid's call it, 'Chocolate Bread'
This recipe is to go along with your favorite 'Australian' style steak. It is very similar to a dark bread that can be found at a certain Australian themed restaurant. I will let you in on a little secret, it has been rumored that some restaurants add food coloring to get the dark brown color of their bread. Well, this recipe forgoes food coloring and forgoes another familiar ingredient, instant coffee. Instead molasses is used as both a sweetener and a coloring agent. This bread might not be as dark in color as its commercial counterpart but it does bring a hearty texture and taste to the table.
This bread is high in sugar and uses whole wheat flour. When you combine those two things, the result is a long rise time. However, it is worth it.
Enjoy.
Click here for the recipe or article...
This recipe is to go along with your favorite 'Australian' style steak. It is very similar to a dark bread that can be found at a certain Australian themed restaurant. I will let you in on a little secret, it has been rumored that some restaurants add food coloring to get the dark brown color of their bread. Well, this recipe forgoes food coloring and forgoes another familiar ingredient, instant coffee. Instead molasses is used as both a sweetener and a coloring agent. This bread might not be as dark in color as its commercial counterpart but it does bring a hearty texture and taste to the table.
This bread is high in sugar and uses whole wheat flour. When you combine those two things, the result is a long rise time. However, it is worth it.
Enjoy.
Click here for the recipe or article...
Brazilian Cheese Bread
19/05/10 15:37
Brazilian Cheese Bread
One of my favorite things about Brazilian BBQ or Churrasco restaurants is Pao de Queijo or Cheese Bread. Brazilian cheese breads are small puffs of bread that are filled with cheese. These little gems are unlike any bread that an American is likely to have eaten before. The key to these marvels is in the flour. Cheese bread uses tapioca flour instead of wheat flour. Tapioca flour is in fact a starch. It traps water inside the bread and when the bread is baked the water converts to steam and the bread puffs up. There are no chemical leavening agents in this bread. This bread is also gluten free.
Serve this Brazilian treat with beef, pork, or chicken and you will have your guests asking for the recipe.
Enjoy
Click here for the recipe or article...
One of my favorite things about Brazilian BBQ or Churrasco restaurants is Pao de Queijo or Cheese Bread. Brazilian cheese breads are small puffs of bread that are filled with cheese. These little gems are unlike any bread that an American is likely to have eaten before. The key to these marvels is in the flour. Cheese bread uses tapioca flour instead of wheat flour. Tapioca flour is in fact a starch. It traps water inside the bread and when the bread is baked the water converts to steam and the bread puffs up. There are no chemical leavening agents in this bread. This bread is also gluten free.
Serve this Brazilian treat with beef, pork, or chicken and you will have your guests asking for the recipe.
Enjoy
Click here for the recipe or article...
Agave Squaw Bread
08/05/10 16:24
Agave Squaw Bread
What is agave squaw bread? For that matter what is squaw bread? In researching this recipe I have come to one conclusion. There is no one thing called squaw bread. The Navajo prepare a bread called Squaw Fry Bread. It is unclear as to whether this is a traditional recipe or if it is something that was made up to sell to tourist. Several bakeries in the west sell a raisin-rye bread in loaves and call it Traditional Squaw Bread. After some extensive research and review of many recipes, my conclusion is that while there may have been some ancient corn-based bread called squaw bread none of the modern incarnations are in the least bit a traditional recipe. Rye is at the heart of almost all squaw bread recipes and as such, the origin of this bread is most likely German. Now, don’t be surprised. Germans are responsible for another decidedly American/Texan/Mexican dish, Chili. (What about the agave? I’m getting to it. Just be patient).
Throughout the 19th century Germans poured into America. They came to America with aspirations of grandeur. They got to America and found the same type of dirty, stinky cities they had left in Europe (remember the car and modern plumbing were yet to be invented). So the Germans followed John B. L. Soule and Horace Greeley’s advice and they went west. But, they did not go empty handed. They took with them seeds to plant and recipes from their homeland. Along the way the Germans met and lived in the same areas as the Native Americans and when traditional German spices and ingredients could not be obtained they looked to the natives for substitute ingredients.
My heritage includes both German and American Indian. So in that same tradition of my ancestors, I have decided to take tradition and the new ingredients around me and develop what I hope will be a memorable recipe even if it is not traditional. That is where the Agave comes into play. In Germany, a rye bread will often include honey as a sweetener. I like to imagine that Germans venturing deep into Mexican territory might have stumbled upon a local sweetener called Agave Nectar. For thousands of years this sweet nectar has been regarded as more valuable than honey and a gift from the gods. Agave is best know as the main ingredient in tequila. In fact the technical name for the blue agave plant is Agave tequilana.
The agave plant is a close cousin to the aloe vera plant. It takes about seven years for the plant to grow to maturity. At that seven year mark the plant is harvested and the central core called thepina is refined into a sweet syrup called agave nectar. It comes in several grades just like maple syrup. This recipe uses amber agave because the lighter colored versions of agave are flavor neutral. The amber and dark varieties are refined at slightly higher temperatures and therefore bring a hint of caramel flavor to the party. Agave is about 40% sweeter than sugar and when it is used in recipes this needs to be taken into consideration. If you decide to make this bread with honey you might need to increase the amount of honey and decrease the amount of water used in the recipe.
Onto the bread.
Enjoy.
Note: This recipe makes three loaves of bread.Click here for the recipe or article...
What is agave squaw bread? For that matter what is squaw bread? In researching this recipe I have come to one conclusion. There is no one thing called squaw bread. The Navajo prepare a bread called Squaw Fry Bread. It is unclear as to whether this is a traditional recipe or if it is something that was made up to sell to tourist. Several bakeries in the west sell a raisin-rye bread in loaves and call it Traditional Squaw Bread. After some extensive research and review of many recipes, my conclusion is that while there may have been some ancient corn-based bread called squaw bread none of the modern incarnations are in the least bit a traditional recipe. Rye is at the heart of almost all squaw bread recipes and as such, the origin of this bread is most likely German. Now, don’t be surprised. Germans are responsible for another decidedly American/Texan/Mexican dish, Chili. (What about the agave? I’m getting to it. Just be patient).
Throughout the 19th century Germans poured into America. They came to America with aspirations of grandeur. They got to America and found the same type of dirty, stinky cities they had left in Europe (remember the car and modern plumbing were yet to be invented). So the Germans followed John B. L. Soule and Horace Greeley’s advice and they went west. But, they did not go empty handed. They took with them seeds to plant and recipes from their homeland. Along the way the Germans met and lived in the same areas as the Native Americans and when traditional German spices and ingredients could not be obtained they looked to the natives for substitute ingredients.
My heritage includes both German and American Indian. So in that same tradition of my ancestors, I have decided to take tradition and the new ingredients around me and develop what I hope will be a memorable recipe even if it is not traditional. That is where the Agave comes into play. In Germany, a rye bread will often include honey as a sweetener. I like to imagine that Germans venturing deep into Mexican territory might have stumbled upon a local sweetener called Agave Nectar. For thousands of years this sweet nectar has been regarded as more valuable than honey and a gift from the gods. Agave is best know as the main ingredient in tequila. In fact the technical name for the blue agave plant is Agave tequilana.
The agave plant is a close cousin to the aloe vera plant. It takes about seven years for the plant to grow to maturity. At that seven year mark the plant is harvested and the central core called thepina is refined into a sweet syrup called agave nectar. It comes in several grades just like maple syrup. This recipe uses amber agave because the lighter colored versions of agave are flavor neutral. The amber and dark varieties are refined at slightly higher temperatures and therefore bring a hint of caramel flavor to the party. Agave is about 40% sweeter than sugar and when it is used in recipes this needs to be taken into consideration. If you decide to make this bread with honey you might need to increase the amount of honey and decrease the amount of water used in the recipe.
Onto the bread.
Enjoy.
Note: This recipe makes three loaves of bread.Click here for the recipe or article...
Yeast Hotcakes
10/04/10 12:42
Yeast Hotcakes
I have been away for the better part of a week and I want to make it up to everyone. So here is a special recipe from my private collection. That is right I have a private stash of recipes that I am saving for special occasions like this.
These hotcakes (don’t call them pancakes) are a throw back recipe that harkens back to the earliest days of hotcake making. If you had a hotcake prior to 1843, this is the way it would have been prepared*. Baking powder was not developed until 1843, and while it has been a boon to quick breads like biscuits it has hurt some foods like hotcakes. Baking powder will make a light and fluffy hotcake but baking powder does not bring anything to the party as far as flavor is concerned (unless you use the cheap stuff).
I think you will be surprised at the wonderful rich flavor of these hotcakes. It is something on the order of a crumpet or an english muffin. You might even find that you don’t even need syrup on these little golden griddle delicacies. You might just top them with a little sweet cream butter and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Don’t worry, fresh maple syrup plays well with the yeasty goodness as well. Fresh strawberries or blueberries are also at home with this cousin to the crumpet.
Enjoy.Click here for the recipe or article...
I have been away for the better part of a week and I want to make it up to everyone. So here is a special recipe from my private collection. That is right I have a private stash of recipes that I am saving for special occasions like this.
These hotcakes (don’t call them pancakes) are a throw back recipe that harkens back to the earliest days of hotcake making. If you had a hotcake prior to 1843, this is the way it would have been prepared*. Baking powder was not developed until 1843, and while it has been a boon to quick breads like biscuits it has hurt some foods like hotcakes. Baking powder will make a light and fluffy hotcake but baking powder does not bring anything to the party as far as flavor is concerned (unless you use the cheap stuff).
I think you will be surprised at the wonderful rich flavor of these hotcakes. It is something on the order of a crumpet or an english muffin. You might even find that you don’t even need syrup on these little golden griddle delicacies. You might just top them with a little sweet cream butter and a light dusting of powdered sugar. Don’t worry, fresh maple syrup plays well with the yeasty goodness as well. Fresh strawberries or blueberries are also at home with this cousin to the crumpet.
Enjoy.Click here for the recipe or article...