Cheese and buttermilk loaves

1.5 cups wholemeal SR flour, sifted
1/2 cup grated gruyere
1/2 cup pitted black olives, roughly chopped
1 rosemary sprig, leaves finely chopped
1 Tbsp lemon olive oil (or regular olive oil plus lemon zest)
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 cup buttermilk
extra 1/2 cup grated gruyere

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line 8 mini loaf tins with baking paper. Combine flour, cheese, olives and rosemary in a large bowl.
2. Make a well in the centre of flour mix. Mix oil, mustard and buttermilk in a jug. Add to flour mix and stir with a fork utnil combined. Spoon into prepared tins. Sprinkle with extra cheese.
3. Bake for 12-15 mins or until well risen and golden. Stand on a wire rack for 5 mins before turning out. Serve warm or cold. Can be served with herb or chilli butter.

Sweet flatbread with orange-cinnamon jam

7g sachet of yeast
1 cup warm water
3.5 cups plain flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
extra plain flour for kneading
extra 1 cup caster sugar
extra 1/4 cup ground cinnamon
extra 1/4 cup olive oil
250g fresh ricotta to serve

Orange- cinnamon jam
1 large orange, unpeeled
1 cup of cater sugar
1 cinnamon stick

1. Preheat oven to 200 C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Put yeast and water ina small bowl and whisk to combine. stand for 5 mins or until foam forms. Put flour, sugar and cinnamon in a food processor, add yeast mix and process to combine until a ball forms.
2. Turn out dough onto a lightly flour surface and knead until no longer sticky. Divide into 4 pieces and form each into a ball. Roll each ball into a 2 mm thick oval shaped round. Put 2 round, side by side, onto each prepared tray.
3. Put extra sugar and extra cinnamon in a small bowl and combine. Brush rounds with extra oil and sprinkle with cinnamon mix. Bake for 12-15 mins or until crisp and golden.
4. To make jam, slice orange into 8 pieces. Put in food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Microwave orange, cinnamon and sugar on high for 2 mins, stir and cook for a further 1-2 mins then set aside to cool.
5. Spread flat bread with fresh ricotta and jam to serve.

Banana and walnut bread

125g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed - 1.5 cups
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream
1 cup walnuts, chopped
butter, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Line a 22x12cm medium loaf pan with baking paper. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer on high speed until mix is light and creamy. Beat in eggs. Fold in banana using a large metal spoon.
2. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda into mixture. Add sour cream and nuts, then gently fold in with metal spoon. Set aside for 2 hours so baking soda can lighten the density of the mixture and it darkens slightly.
3. Spoon into prepared tin and bake in centre of oven for 1 hour 10 mins or u ntil cooked when tested with a skewer. Slice and serve with butter.

Vienna bread recipe

Ingredients

---

• 1 1/4 cups water
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 1/2 t. sugar
• 3/4 t. salt
• 3 c. flour (bread flour)
• 3 tablespoons dry milk
• 2 teaspoons yeast

---

• In a bowl place flour, salt, sugar, dry milk.
• Blend together.
• Add water, oil and proofed yeast.
• Stir well with wooden spoon or mix in a
• kitchen mixer. Can be made in a bread machine
• if you have one. Stir dough well until your
• arm is tired then place on floured board
• and knead well. Place in greased bowl and let
• rise until double. Punch down, place in greased
• bread pan, let rise until almost double.
• Bake in 350 or 400 F. oven until done.

Banana Bread

The best recipes come tried and true from friends who begged them from other friends and so on and so on. That's the wonderful thing about sharing recipes - the more good recipes we share, the better we all get to eat! This banana bread comes from my friend Heidi who years ago begged this recipe from a ski friend's mother - Mrs. Hockmeyer (parents of friends are always Mr. and Mrs. no matter how old we get). Mrs. Hockmeyer passed away years ago, but her simple but perfect banana bread lives on for all of us to enjoy.

Banana Bread Recipe

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Yield: Makes one loaf.

Polenta and Rosemary Bread with Fresh Sweet Corn

Ingredients

Serves 8 as a snack

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (evoo)
60g parmesan
¼ cup cream
2 cobs sweet corn
2 cups coarse polenta
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
6 x 3 stalks rosemary
2 cups buttermilk
2 eggs

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C. Measure the oil into a small bowl, then use a pastry brush to lightly grease the base and sides of the baking dish. Line the bottom of the baking dish with paper.

Grate the parmesan and combine with the cream in a bowl.

Put the polenta, salt and bicarbonate of soda in a large bowl and mix well. Cut the kernels of corn from the cob. Add the corn kernels to this mixture.

Strip the needles of rosemary from the stalks and chop finely.
Put the rosemary, buttermilk and eggs into a medium bowl and whisk well.

Make a well in the polenta and tip in the buttermilk/egg mixture. Use a wooden spoon to mix well and form a batter. Tip or spoon the batter into the prepared dish.

Spread the parmesan/cream mixture over the batter.

Bake for 30 minutes. Test by inserting a skewer. The polenta bread will be cooked if the skewer comes out dry and clean.

Remove the bread from oven and allow to cool in the dish for at least 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack. Cut the bread into slices and serve toasted or as is with butter.

Garlic, oregano and chilli focaccia with mozarella crust

320g plain flour
60g semolina
2 tsp salt flakes
260ml warm water
extra virgin olive oil
7g dry yeast
8 large garlic cloves and finely sliced on a mandoline
1 tsp chilli flakes
120g white mozarella ball, cut into long strips
salt and pepper to season
1 tbsp dried oregano

1. Combine flour, semolina and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer with dough hook attached. In a jug, whisk water, 2 tbsp oil and yeast together unitl well combined.
2. Turn mixer on low, add yeast mixture and beat for 1 min. Increase speed to high; beat for 9 mins. Remove bowl from mixer, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to prove for 30 mins.
3. Put garlic and chilli in a small bowl. Add 2 tblsp oil and toss to coat. Set aside. Grease a 45 x 32cm heavy-based oven tray with oil. Stretch dough to cover surface of prepared tray. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place to prove for a further 15 mins, then stretch again.
4. Preheat oven to 250C. Lay strips of mozarella around edges of dough and roll over to form a cheesy crust. Spread reserved garlic mixture over centre of dough. Season well with salt and pepper and scatter over oregano. Put in oven and cook for 22-25 mins or until it's golden brown.

Sweet raisin and orange bread

4 cups plain flour
160g butter, cut into cubes, chilled
1/3 cup caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1 orange
1 cup milk
14g dry yeast
extra 2 tsp caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
extra flour for kneading
olive oil, for greasing
1 cup raisins

Glaze:
shredded rind and juice of 1 orange
1 cup caster sugar

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Sift flour into large mixing bowl, add butter and using your fingertips, rub into flour until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add sugar and orange rind, and stir until well combined. Pour milk into a small heavy-based pan and heat until lukewarm, then pour into a jug. Add yeast and extra caster sugar. Whisk with a fork to combine. Stand for 5-8 mins or until mixture is frothy.
2. Make a well in the centre of flour mixture. Add yeast mixture, egg and orange juice and stir with a wooden spoon to form a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 mins or until smooth. Brush a large mixing bowl with olive oil. Put dogh into greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm place for 45 mins or until dough doubles in size. Remove plastic wrap and punch down dough with your fist.
3. Brush a large baking tray with olive oil or line with baking paper. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat out into a 20cm round. Add raisins and knead them into the dough. Divide dough in half and form each half into an oval loaf shape. Put both loaves on a prepared tray.
4. Stand tray in a warm place for 20 mins or until loaves rise. Using scissors, make cuts about 5 cm apart alng the top of each loaf. Bake 35-40 mins or until loaves are golden brown and cooked through. For the glaze, put shredded orange rind, orange juice and caster sugar in a medium heavy based pan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 2-3 mins or until sauce thckens slightly. Remove from heat and cool. Brush glaze liberally over warm loaves. Serve warm or cold with butter and jam.

white sourdough - My Favorite White Bread Recipe

# From: servio!penneyj@uunet.UU.NET (D. Jason Penney)



My Favorite White Bread Recipe

This is my bread recipe that all of my friends say is the best. I have made
it literally hundreds of times. It is good sandwich bread, and makes
outrageous
toast.

I am going to assume that you are familiar with sourdough techniques. I am
a recently joined member of this mailing list, so I don't know what's already
been distributed, and I don't want to bore you if you already know the basics.
Alternately, I have a discussion of basic sourdough techniques published in a
local cookbook; I could reproduce that here if there is sufficient interest.

Start by making starter (of course!). For this recipe, I use:

"Sourdough Bread Batter"
1 C starter
2 C warm water
2.5 C flour
Allow to proof overnight, 8-15 hours.

yields: 1 C starter to return, 2.5 C starter to bake

The recipe:

2.5 C sourdough bread batter
1.5 C water (or milk, or 1 C yogurt + .5 C water)
-- make sure water is warm, else scald milk in microwave
2 T sugar
2 T melted butter
2 t salt
3-4.5 C flour
yields: 2 loaves

1. Add 1 C flour to starter. Mix in liquid, then sugar, salt, and butter.

2. Add flour until dough turns from sides of bowl.

3. Turn out onto kneading board and knead in .5 - 1 C more C of flour.

4. Let proof until doubled in bulk. For us sourdough users, this can be a LONG
proof, depending on how cold the flour was when we started. Plan on no less
than 2 hours, possible 3.

5. Punch down, let rise again (about 1 hour).

6. Turn out, punch down, shape into loaves.

7. Let rise about halfway (approximately 30 minutes), then bake in a preheated
375 degrees F oven 45-50 minutes.

8. Turn out onto cooling racks, allow to completely cool before wrapping. You
may optionally brush the loaves with water or melted butter while
still warm,
but I don't usually bother.

I had a friend who recently called me in a panic after she made this for the
first time, because the crust was hard :-). As a matter of fact, the crust
softens quite a bit in about a day. Isn't all sourdough bread this way?

I have also added 1.5 C grated sharp cheese before adding the flour. If you
do this, be careful with the cooking time; the bread will brown much easier.