Homey Brown Sugar Bread

Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Life is strange, even at its best. Life is also not a spectator sport. You have to muck in.

You will have noticed, dear readers, that it has been an ungodly long time since my last post. March 19, to be exact. No I haven’t died, but my mother-in-law has. We received some extremely bad news at the end of January. The “C” word. It took only two months for her to leave us.

Instantly upon hearing the news, my husband withdrew from college and moved back home to be with, support and care for her. He did an amazing job, and I could not be more proud of him.

I also helped out the best I could at every opportunity. A functioning “office” was set up in her home so I could work as comfortably from there as I did from my other two offices. You do what you must when circumstances are thrust upon you, and there was no way in hell I would not be there for both her and my husband.

Her other son, who lives with his family out west, also did the best he could – coming home twice in close succession. It was hard for us, and must have been equally hard for him being so far away.

But, at the end of her days, she knew she was loved, is loved, and will be missed terribly. In her own quiet way she was an incredible woman, and I feel honoured to have gotten to know her better, even under the circumstances.

Now we have moved beyond the traumatic shock that caring for a dying parent brings, on to the practical matters of closing up house, and setting affairs in order. Life is still, if you will pardon the colloquialism, a shit show.

Out of all of this I have learned a very valuable lesson. Home actually IS where the heart is. It’s not bricks or mortar or a plot of land. Home is wherever you are, where you are surrounded by those you love and who love you. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a short-sighted fool.

What does this have to do with bread? Probably not much, but it seems I always give you a recipe, so why not, eh? I could go on at length about home and homeyness and memories and  such. But you know all that.

So here it is. This is not a sweet bread, but a toast and sandwich bread. With four buns there's plenty of "fluffy bits" for people to fight over. You could just as easily do three, two or even just one. 

Think of this bread as a pale, winter-weary version of Maritime Brown Bread. Anyone experiencing this year's spring in Nova Scotia knows exactly what I mean. (link here)

Brown Sugar Bread
Prep: 20 min  |  Rise: 3 hrs  |  Bake: 30-35 min  |  Yield: 1 big-ass loaf

2 cups water, 110°F
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 tsp salt
5 cups flour

Place the warm water and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add the yeast and allow to proof until bubbly and creamy, about 15 minutes.

Add the egg, butter, salt and flour. Knead for 5 minutes on the counter. The dough should be slightly wet feeling to the touch, but fairly firm and soft.

Wash and butter the bowl you brought the dough together in. Place the dough in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise for 2 hours, or until doubled.

Punch the dough down, knead briefly and divide into four equal balls. Line the balls up in a buttered high-sided 5”x9” baking dish. Let rise until doubled again, about 1 hour.

Just before the dough is finished rising, preheat the oven to 425°F. Place a shallow dish with a cup or so of water in it on the bottom rack. This hydrates the oven and gives the bread an initial “push” as its baking.

Bake on the middle rack for 30-35 minutes, until browned on top and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped with your fingers. Let cool, if you can wait.

Have butter and your favourite jam very close by...

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Cinnamon Sugar Sponge Cake with Milk Sauce

Written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar. – John Ciardi

John Chairdi was a professor, critic and poet known for his sharp wit as well as a internationally respected translation of Danté’s “Inferno.” He was extremely critical of much poetry aimed children, which he defined as ''written by a sponge dipped in warm milk and sprinkled with sugar.''

Those are interesting words, because this recipe is exactly that: a wonderful sponge cake, dusted with sugar and drizzled with milk sauce. So sometimes that’s a good thing. Perhaps not so much in literature, in Mr. Chairdi’s opinion.

I remember milk sauce on cake from when I was very young. Mom used to serve it with blueberry cake. It was a treat and delight.

The origin of this cake started, as most things do, in front of my computer because I didn’t have an ingredient. I had no butter, and was looking for a cake recipe that didn’t use it. You can substitute shortening, but when I searched I stumbled across the unexpected. 

A recipe I found contained no butter, or shortening and no milk in the batter. I did have milk. That wasn’t the issue. But I was intrigued. So intrigued I made it, or at least a version of it.

I won’t get into exactly what I changed It still bears a passing resemblance to the original, but that’s probably about it.

Left to right: the eggs and sugar; with the flour incorporated; ready for the oven.

I have made a fair number of cakes and have never made one that defined the word “sponge” so clearly. This was the lightest cake I had ever made. Think of angel food cake light. But the thing is there’s no separating and beating the eggs.

This came together, and went down, very quickly.

If you’re not that much into milk sauce try it with ice cream. Or anything else you may think will work!

Cinnamon Sugar Sponge Cake with Milk Sauce

Prep: 10 min  |  Bake 25 min  | Yield 8x8 square cake

4 eggs 

This is about 2 minutes after I removed the cake from the oven.
It had barely started to pull away from the sides in the oven.
I also used a toothpick to test. Better safe than sorry.

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch salt
8” square cake pan

Milk sauce:

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup whole milk, or better, coffee cream

2 tbsp white sugar
    

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease the pan with shortening (or butter) and dust liberally with white sugar. Set aside.

Place the eggs in a mixing bowl. Add 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla, salt and baking powder to the eggs and beat for 30 seconds. Then add the remaining sugar in two batches. Continue to beat until very light and foamy. 

This is the cake just sprinkled with icing sugar – no milk sauce.

When beaten enough, the beaters will leave slight trails behind in the batter (much like when halfway through whipping cream). They will disappear immediately.

Using a spatula, fold in 1/4 cup of the flour. Repeat with the remaining flour, in two equal batches. Deflate the batter as little as possible when adding the flour.

Pour into the prepared pan.

Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until the sides start shrinking from the edge of the pan. You can also test the centre with a cake tester or toothpick. When it comes out clean the cake is done.

Let cool in the pan. Once cool you can turn out onto a plate and sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar (optional), or use the sauce for an amazing old-fashioned style dessert.

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Dried Apricot & Cranberry Bread

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one’s self? – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simplicity can be so "elegant," and cheap.

Cheap. That’s me... sometimes. Other times I’ll spend money like a drunken sailor. It’s odd the times my miserly instinct kicks in.

For example, the other day I was at the grocery store. Bread was on my list. But as I scanned the prices I couldn’t bring myself to put a loaf in my basket.

$3.99? For a loaf of bread? It’s patently obvious that man cannot live by bread alone. Man can hardly afford it. So then was the time to call on the wisdom of Emerson. I could make it myself.

Luckily, bread is easy to make at home. And infinitely cheaper. Except for the flour, but rationalize the cost of it. How many loaves of bread can you get out of the bag of flour... 

This is a really bad picture of my starter in the morning...
Obviously my coffee hadn't kicked in.

To make bread, all you really need is four ingredients: flour, water, yeast and salt. That’s it.

I know that many of you “out there” will be saying you can’t make bread. It fails. There’s two important things that can make bread fail. One is your yeast, the other is your temperature.

Thing 1: To always have fresh yeast on hand, buy a cup or even more at a bulk food store, put it in a jar and stick it in your freezer. It won’t kill the yeast. it will start to activate the moment it hits warm water.

Thing 2: The water used to activate your yeast has to be *at most* 115°F. Any higher and you risk killing the yeast – something freezing couldn’t do. Proper temperature water is slightly warmer than the temperature of a baby's bottle. Or better yet, use a thermometer to test it.

If your yeast doesn’t proof (either too old or killed by heat), your bread won’t rise. It’s as simple as that. Normal room temperature will raise bread every time. Cover the bowl to keep it relatively dark, and don’t sit it in a draft.

I went one step further with this and made an overnight starter. It’s not necessary, but does add a bit of a nice rich flavour, sort of like a sourdough.

My bread recipe today is a bit on the “fancy” side for another reason, too – it has dried apricots and cranberries. In truth, I was going to make raisin bread, but I didn’t have any raisins, so I had to raid my mother’s pantry.

Such is life. Sigh...

Left: before first rise; right: after first rise.

Dried Apricot & Cranberry Bread

Time: 24 hours, or a little less  |  Yield: one large loaf

night before, starter:

1 cup water, 110°F

1 cup unbleached flour

1 tbsp yeast

1 tbsp sugar

next day:

3 cup flour

1 cup water, 110°F

2 tbsp honey (or sugar, brown or white)

3/4 cup chopped dried apricots

1/2 cup dried cranberries

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp salt

The night before you want to make your bread, mix together the starter ingredients. Cover with plastic wrap and a towel and let sit until morning. By morning it will be a bubbly mass.

In the morning, add the remaining ingredients and stir well. It will be very wet and sticky. Remove the dough to the counter. Slap and fold the dough until it no longer sticks to your hands. This step will be very messy, but it will actually start to stick to itself as opposed to you.

Shape into a ball. Butter a bowl, place the dough in it and proof until doubled in size.

Left: before second rise; right: after. Easily doubled.
It possibly would have risen even more.

Once doubled, scoop out onto the counter and knead for about 2-3 minutes. Generously butter a 5x9 loaf pan. Shape the dough into a log, place in the pan and let it rise until doubled again. Tent a plastic shopping bag over the dough while it rises.

For a soft crust, rub the top with butter. It's optional.

Just before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 425°F. Make sure the oven rack is in the centre of the oven. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack while the oven heats. 

Bake the loaf for 35 minutes. Remove the water pan after the first 5 minutes. The loaf is done when nicely browned and sound hollow when tapped with your fingers.

Rub the top of the loaf with butter if you want a soft crusted bread.

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Old-Fashioned Hot Cross Buns and an old-fashioned rant

I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go. – Theodore Bikel

A pan of warm hot cross buns.

Yesterday a friend posted a link to a rant about how holidays and celebrations have started to go way over the top, and with it the expectations as to how they are to be celebrated. And I totally agree.

The dough before rising. Raisins will
fall our as you knead. Just tuck
them back in and continue on.

The gist of the “rant” (in the most positive meaning of the word) was that this mother’s kids were expecting the results of a visit from a leprechaun for the morning of St. Patrick’s Day. Of course(?), the expectation from the children was for bags of “gold” (candies) to be stashed around the house, and/or obligatory St. Patrick’s Day parties.

Huh? What has happened to us? Why is it that we feel the need to over-celebrate – or is it over do – every tiny holiday that pops up on the calendar? If you think I’m exaggerating, take a look on Pinterest for a truly guilt-laden experience. The link is here. I particularly like the green pee in the toilet and leprechaun footprints on the toilet seat. Go look.

As a parent did you do the utmost for your children to celebrate this “siginifcant” holiday? Really? Come on... really? When I was young (insert blah, blah, blah here) all we did was wear something green, even if you weren’t Irish. Or if you were a Catholic or Anglican, probably a church service. I have never had a green beer in my life. That’s a good way to ruin it, no?

After first rise.

This got me thinking about the next big holiday, and I don’t mean the Vernal Equinox on March 21, although I imagine there are parents and groups out there plotting how to send that day over the top as I write. I’m talking about Easter. You know, the one where most of us actually have a day off work.

I have read that we are raising a generation that has little empathy for others. The “Me” Generation. It’s due to a lot of factors, but to me prime among them are the lack of consequences to failure and the fulfilling of every need/desire of our little “tyrants.” Because, face it, that’s what many of them have become. It’s far easier in our busy days to just throw something at them to make the problem go away. The Art of Parenting has significantly diminished. In essence, the inmates have taken over the asylum.

I’m not here to denigrate how anyone celebrates holidays, but you do have to give your head a shake if you think that every minor celebration has to be turned into some sort of life-altering event. It’s too stressful, expensive and completely unnecessary.

Of course, Easter does go over the top, too, ranking right up there with Christmas and Halloween. Valentine’s Day is currently racing toward the finish line as well. One must remember that the real reason for Easter is a RELIGIOUS celebration (wether you are religious or not). A discourse on the Easter Bunny, eggs, candies and the like I will save for a later rant...

It’s pure, naked commercialism, folks. “They” want you to feel guilty if you don’t buy buy buy. If you don’t do significant damage to your bank account your heart is empty toward those you purport to love.

Can you remember anything – anything – you ever got for Easter? I thought not. So what does make celebrations memorable? Lets get back to the basics. I bet you can remember who attended your last Easter dinner and how you felt. 

One way to treat the holidays is to carry on real traditions, not ones manufactured by marketing gurus. By “real,” I mean ones you really will remember, ones your parents remember and probably even your grandparents. Consumerism wasn’t quite so rampant back then. We made do, often on very little. But we didn’t think we lacked anything.

Today’s recipe is a real reminder of Easter to me, and doesn’t take much in the way of time or money. And it’s one of those things you remember about the holiday and crave all year long. (Because they only make an appearance on Good Friday!)

Although not exactly the same, this recipe is very similar to one in my Great Aunt Hilda’s hand-written cookbook. That would date this to at the latest around 1960. How much earlier than that her recipe dates would be pure conjecture… 

Hot cross buns are never served as a dinner roll but as a “dessert,” due to the sweet egg dough, currants and (if you’re doing them right) copious amount of icing. The amount of currants and spice can be adjusted to your own liking. I find “store-bought” very frugal on both ingredients.

Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, with the cross standing as a symbol of the Crucifixion. They are believed to pre-date Christianity, although the first recorded use of the term "hot cross bun" was in 1733.

So, if you’re like me, and are “mad as hell and not going to take this any more,” perhaps step back a bit, refocus life, and enjoy a sweet bun, loaded with icing. But wait a while. Easter isn't for another month.

Old-Fashioned Hot Cross Buns

Prep: 20 min  |  Rise: 2-2.5 hours  |  Makes 8-12 buns

3/4 cup water, 110°F

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup powdered milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tbsp active dry yeast 

1 cup dried currants

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp allspice (or nutmeg)

2 lg eggs 

3 cups white flour

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

3 tsp coffee cream

Heat the water, powdered milk, butter and sugar in a small saucepan until the butter is melted and the liquid reaches a temperature of 100°F. Do not exceed that temperature. If you do let the liquid cool down to 110° before adding the yeast (or you’ll kill it).

Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the liquid. Stir gently, cover and let sit for between 10-15 minutes to “proof.” At the end of the time the yeast should be creamy. If not, start again with fresh yeast.

Place the currants in a large bowl. Add the salt, cinnamon, allspice, eggs and proofed yeast liquid. Mix well and then add the flour. Stir until it comes together, then transfer to a board and knead for 5 minutes. The dough will still be “wet” but won’t stick to your hands or the board.

Place the dough back in the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled. This will take about 2 hours. (I didn't have as warm a spot as usual for my bread and my first rise was 2.5 hours...)

At the end of the rise, punch down and divide into 8-12 equal balls. 8 balls make good sized buns, 12 make the number of apostles… Arrange the balls in an 8” x 8” oven-proof dish. Let rise again until doubled, about 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 375°F. Just before baking cut a small cross in the top of each bun. This will hemp the icing stay on top.

Bake for 20-25 minutes (30 min if making 8). Remove from the oven and rub with butter. Let the buns cool for 10 minutes.

Mix together the confectioner’s sugar, vanilla and cream. Place in a plastic bag, snip off the end, and squeeze a cross on the top of each bun.

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Honey Ciabatta Loaf

Never miss an opportunity to show the one you love how you feel. Don't just say it. Live it. 
This isn't a quote, but it is the best advice you can ever be given.

Happy Valentine’s Day 2014! Don’t wash away in the rain.

At least it’s not snowing a blizzard, which is supposed to come on Tuesday - maybe. I suppose, what should we expect in the middle of February? At least today you can make it to the grocery store to buy all the fixings for a wonderful romantic dinner with the one you love.

But don’t buy bread. If you mix this before you go out the door for work, you can deal with it when you get home. You’ll then have a beautiful loaf to serve with your dinner, candles and good bottle of red wine. You are having a good bottle of red wine, yes?

Before first rise; after six hours.

A loaf of homemade bread can elevate even the simplest of meals to something memorable. There really is something about home baked bread that says “I love you.”

This loaf has a crisp crust and moist, airy interior. Hole-y, but not too hole-y, so butter won’t drip down your arm.

I made this a few days ago, and I can vouch for its delicious flavour when still warm, as well as used for toast in the morning. It makes great toast. It would make a great sandwich, too. So if you’re a little afraid a whole loaf won’t get used, put those fears to rest.

It will be gone before you realize it, much like Valentine’s Day. So make the most of it. Show that special someone how very special they are - however that may be.

Honey Ciabatta Loaf

Prep: 5 min  |  Rise 6-8 hrs  |  Bake 35 min

3 cups unbleached flour

2 cups water, 110°F

1/4 cup honey

2-1/2 tsp yeast

2 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Beat with a spoon for about 3 minutes to mix well.

Cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel, place out of direct draughts, and let rise for at least six hours. The dough will more than double in size and be very “wiggly.” It will look like you will never be able to work it. This is normal.

Oil a 9” x 9” x 2” square baking pan. “Pour” the dough out onto a floured surface. Using a dough scraper, fold it over onto itself several times. Use only enough flour to keep it from sticking. It will start to retain a bit of shape.

Plop the dough (yes, plop) into the prepared pan. Using oiled hands, level it out in the pan as best as you can. Let rise again until the dough comes to the top of the pan. This may take 1 to 1.5 hours.

Preheat the oven to 425°F.* Bake the risen loaf in the oven for 35 minutes until it is nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped on top.

Let cool slightly, remove from the pan and place on a rack to finish cooling.

* For some additional loft, place a pan of water in the oven while it is heating. Remove it just before baking.

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If you like this post retweet it using the link at top right, or share using any of the links below. Feel free to comment. I'll always try to respond. If you like this post, feel free to share it. All I ask is that you credit me and share a link back to the original.

Time to make vanilla extract again

If you like vanilla you're not going to like "Breaking Bad." You need to like a specific flavour that is unusual, that is different, that takes risks. – Bryan Cranston 

This is someone else's homemade vanilla extract. I have run out completely.
Photo: di.wineanddine, Flickr ccl

Boring. Plain. Unexciting. Vanilla. They're all words cast around as meaning about the same thing. That's too bad, because there's nothing boring about vanilla. In fact, vanilla is one of the most complex flavourings we use in food. It's also the second most expensive – right after saffron. AND the most popular by far.

This is all you need to make your own vanilla.

This is a recipe that not only saves you money but also is head and shoulders above artificial vanilla extract. Throw that stuff out, please! 

Has anyone recently bought a bottle of real vanilla extract? Bit of a burden on the wallet, especially if you bake a fair bit. So it's good to be able to make it at home.

This recipe is EASY.  It is so easy that it essentially makes itself without any outside intervention. Unfortunately it’s also one of those recipes that you have to wait, and wait, for the results.

So how do you do it? All you need are vanilla beans, vodka, small bottles and a knife. I found small corked bottles at Michael’s arts and crafts for $1.69 each. They are perfect.

In case you don’t already know, vanilla beans (the origin of “real” extract) are the seed pods of the orchid Vanilla planifolia. 

Mesoamerican peoples cultivated the vanilla orchid, but it wasn’t called vanilla until the Spanish arrived. Their word “vainilla” means "little pod." Cortés is credited with introducing Europe to both vanilla and chocolate. At least we owe him for that.

We usually purchase vanilla extract here in Nova Scotia for about $15+ per 4 ounces (110 ml). Since we’re making a whopping 375 ml supply to compare cost multiply that by three to $45 CAN.

Split each half-bean to expose the seeds. That's what you see
as "dirt" on the cutting board. They're very small.

This recipe (375 ml of vanilla extract) costs about $28 for the whole lot, including the bottles. The big variable is in the price of the vanilla beans.  

They’re (relatively) cheap at our local Bulk Barn bulk food stores and every bit as good as more expensive gourmet stores.

My bottom photo shows the extract right after 24 hours. About 5 hours after I made it I could see a little colour coming into the bottles. Last time I made it the extract had coloured quite darkly by about 3 months and was able to be used.

This is right after combining.

Homemade Vanilla Extract*

Time: 1 to 3 or 6 months

4-1/2 vanilla beans

375 ml vodka

3 1/2-cup bottles (118 ml)

Cut each vanilla bean in half. Split the vanilla beans down lengthwise and peel back to expose the seeds.

Add 1 and 1/2 beans to each small bottle. Pour 1/2 cup vodka over the beans, cork and wait.

It will be perfectly clear at first, but at 1 week you will begin to see some colour. After 12 hours I could see some colour in mine.

After 24 hours.

At 1 month your extract will be usable but weak. At 3 months it will be very good. At 6 months it will be amazing. It will continue to darken as it ages.

I have read that you can keep your vanilla going by topping up with more vodka as you use it and exchange the beans as they get exhausted.

If you do it now, you’ll be ready to bake in May. I know it’s a while, but it will be here before we know it. I’m sure.

* Of course you can scale this recipe up or down. The ratio is 1.5 beans to 1/2 cup (118 ml) of vodka.

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Holiday Gingerbread Men

My memories are inside me—they’re not things or a place—I can take them anywhere. – Olivia Newton-John 

Today, post number seven of my 12 Posts of Christmas, is all about sweet memories. Hopefully they will "burn bright" this Friday the 13th. This is the coldest morning we've had since the dead of last winter. It's about -14°C. Brrr.

We may not be able to physically relive our memories, but we can certainly trigger them by our actions. Often that is via food. These cookies remind me of my mother, father and sister, and growing up on the South Shore of Nova Scotia.

We used to go grocery shopping on Fridays in Liverpool. There was a bakery on Market Street called Semone's Bakery. It was "the" bakery in Liverpool.

It was in an old Victorian storefront with wide glass windows and a recessed entry. When you opened the door you were surrounded by glass-faced counters on three sides, filled with all manner of homemade breads, rolls and sweets. 

Three treats that I remember are the fantastic “egg tarts,” sugar cookies and these delicious little men.

The gingerbread men stood out because they had no fancy decoration. The eyes and buttons were nothing more than red food colouring. But in our eyes they were decorated with gold. They were large, too, standing at at about 6" tall.

Slightly firm and slightly spicy, they were a treat for us on the drive home, if we were good while Mom and dad were shopping. We had to have something to occupy us on the half hour drive.

The bakery and its recipes are long gone, but the happy memory remains. Baking these cookies is a way for me to reconnect with happy times gone by.

Successful gifting is all about giving to someone what they would not give themselves, but would appreciate. Think of the joy you can give with a dozen gingerbread men in a small basket or in cellophane bags tied with ribbon? 

Although perfect as a Christmas gift, these gingerbread men will be sure to make wonderful memories any time of the year.

Gingerbread Men

Prep: 10 min  |  Refrig: 1 hr  |  Roll & bake: 30 min  |  Yield 24-28 with a 4" cutter

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup sugar 

1/2 cup fancy molasses 

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ginger 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 

red food colouring

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the molasses and egg and beat again.

Next add the salt, baking powder, baking soda and all the spices. Stir to combine.

Add the flour, one cup at a time, beating it in well after each addition.

Scrape all the dough onto some plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Dust a rolling board with flour. Roll the chilled dough out to about 1/4” thickness and cut out with a cookie cutter. Arrange on a baking sheet, with a little space in between. The cookies will spread slightly.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the tray for 2 minutes, then remove to a rack. Do not stack the cookies while warm or they may stick together.

In a few minutes the cookies will firm up.

Bring any remaining dough together, re-roll and cut until all the dough is used.

To decorate add 3 drops of red food colouring to 1 tablespoon of water. Dot the cookies with a small paint brush for eyes and buttons.

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Molasses Beer Bread

Give a man a beer, waste an hour. Teach a man to brew, and waste a lifetime! – Bill Owen 

Still warm, with butter melting into a slice of this amazing bread...

So what do you do on a Friday night at 9:45pm? Well, if you’re me last night – and I hope most of you aren’t and have more interesting things to do – you mix up bread to bake in the morning.

At bedtime...

There’s not a lot to do on a stormy Friday night in the country. So one may as well make best use of their time. My best use of overnight? Sleeping. So why not, when you can be making bread at the same time. Huh?, you say.

We all have to admit, there’s not a whole lot better than warm, fresh bread in the morning. It has it all: aroma, taste, that feeling of warmth and comfort and of home.

So that’s what I did. I mixed up bread dough. This is one of my no-kneading overnight breads. You could cut the time down to 3 hours plus baking if you proofed the yeast. But I prefer to not be tied down during the day, so for me overnight rising is a blessing.

It only takes a few minutes to throw the ingredients into a bowl. For some reason I thought of using one of the Keith’s IPA that have been cluttering up my basement steps. It’s a better use than drinking it, in my opinion. 

…and in the morning.

Anyone who’s “used the product well” on a Friday or Saturday night knows the aftermath of overindulgence. And the stuff is so easy to drink because it’s banal.

I have had that 12-pack for over a month. I think I’ve used 5. One in this bread and 2-1/2 in another recipe for beef ribs I will post soon. I think I drank one, maybe two.

I’ve been on a craft beer kick lately. It makes for far more pleasant mornings. It’s pretty hard to gulp down 6-8 of those suckers in an evening. They’re filling. Usually 2-3 is the maximum. Mass produced beer, on the other hand, is far closer to flavoured alcoholic water. When I find a frothy beer in front of me I prefer it to have some taste and interesting qualities.

I don’t want to come across as picking on Keith’s, one of the most popular brands in Eastern Canada. It’s just not for me. All mass produced commercial beer tastes about the same. Line them up and there’s only subtle differences. You can taste profit in them, not love of brewing.

But they’re fine for cooking and baking, giving a yeasty boost to whatever you’re making. Of course, if you really want to boost the flavour, slip one of those delicious craft beers you pass by at the liquor store into a recipe.

Porter or stout would be good in this, but I prefer to enjoy those in a glass!

That being said, this bread turned out very nicely, thank you very much. Brown, yeasty and sweet with a crunchy crust. Great warm as a slice with butter, or toasted. You can omit the flax seeds if you wish. I admit they're kind of messy!

Ready for the oven.

Molasses Beer Bread

Prep: 5 min  |  Rise: Overnight + 1 hr*  |  Bake 30-35 min

3 cups unbleached flour

1-1/2 cups beer (your choice)
3 tbsp molasses

1 tbsp yeast

1 tsp salt

2-3 tsp flax seeds

Mix together all the ingredients in a bowl, except for the flax seeds. No need to “proof” the yeast beforehand, unless you want to cut down on the first rise time. Bring together until all the flour is mixed in.

Cover with plastic wrap and then a tea towel. Sit the bowl in a warm place and let the dough rise overnight (8-9 hours).

After the first rise, place the dough on a flour-dusted board or countertop. Knead briefly, using only enough flour so the dough doesn’t stick. Shape into an oblong.

Oil a 4x8 loaf pan. Place the dough in the pan, oil the top and sprinkle the flax seeds on top. Cover loosely with plastic and let rise for one more hour, or until doubled.

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place a pan of water in the bottom while the oven heats up to hydrate the oven interior.

Bake the loaf for 30-35 minutes, removing the water pan after the first 10 minutes. The loaf will be well browned and sound hollow when tapped with your fingers.

* If you do proof the yeast, cut the first rise time down to 2 hours, or until doubled.

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