TIME FOR BREAD

Time for Bread

            Isn’t there a rule somewhere about NOT having more than one blizzard a season?  Apparently mother nature makes her own rules and human inconvenience remains for consideration just for humans.

            Exciting wilderness stories about snowstorms in mountains that close of roads for weeks somehow seem to have lost some of their luster this winter, though modern day cabin fever is hardly the stuff  compared to old legends. Somehow, sitting in a warm house, while the storm howls across the meadow outside, is really not much of a hardship. But time does have a way of stretching when you are not a snowshoe aficionado and have relegated even the shoveling to others.

            This is the perfect time to undertake activities that with our normal schedules seem too time consuming. One of these is making bread.  And I don’t mean quick mix muffins or brownies, but real bread where you start with those original miracle makers called yeast. Some anthropologists insist that humans first tamed yeast for fermentation of mood enhancing spirits, but it is the combination of yeast and grains in production of bread that probably allowed human populations to spread across our globe.

            With soups and stews as staples this time of the year, fresh baked bread is a welcome addition to any meal. I like the following recipe, since it allows me to make caraway dinner rolls and a desert from the same batch of dough. Although I make mine for ease in a heavy duty mixer with a dough hook, hand mixing and kneading for 10 minutes will give you the same result.

                                    Multipurpose and roll dough

            Melt 1 stick of butter in a small bowl, add 1 cup milk, 3 Tblsp. sugar 1 tsp. salt,

½ tsp. freshly ground cardamom (optional), heat to lukewarm and transfer to large mixer bowl. In a cup stir in 2 packages dry yeast and a small pinch of sugar in ½ cup lukewarm water, set aside until the yeast mixture rises to top of cup and then add to the mixer bowl. Fork beat 2 eggs and add to liquid in mixer bowl. Beat in 2 cups bread flour in liquid on low speed, then 2 Tblsp. sour cream. Remove beater and substitute bread hook. Add an additional 2 ½ cups bread flour with bread hook set on low speed. When all the flour has been incorporated, turn mixer setting on 2 or 3 depending on your mixer and continue to mix with the bread hook for 5 minutes. At this point, the dough should easily peel off the stopped hook. Sprinkle the dough lightly with flour, cover with a dish towel and set in a warm place to rise (proof) until double in amount. If your oven has a proof setting this should take an hour. Lightly punch down the dough and allow to proof once more.

            Turn dough out on a floured board and divide  with a sharp knife in half. One half will be used for caraway rolls and the other half for a flattened desert cake or a rolled poppy seed cake shown in the picture above.

                                    Caraway dinner rolls

            Stretch pieces of dough in a thick rope and divide the dough with a sharp knife in pieces and roll lightly with floured hands in 1 ½  inch balls. Arrange on a parchment lined cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Cover with a light towel and allow to rise for 20-30 minutes. Brush each roll lightly with a wash made of a beaten egg with 1 Tblsp. water. Push lightly with thumb to make a slight indentation in top center and place a small dab of butter there. Sprinkle tops lightly with some caraway seeds and bake in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Cool and serve warm or cold.

                                    Apple and raisin cake

            Roll the other half of the dough lightly to ½ inch thickness and spread  out in a well greased jelly roll pan with sides. Peel, core and thinly slice 6 large apples, toss slices with lemon juice and arrange in overlapping rows on the dough, tucking in raisins under the slices. Brush with ¼ cup melted butter and sprinkle with 2/3 cups sugar mixed with ½ tsp. cinnamon. Lightly cover and proof in a warm place for at least 45 minutes. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes. Cool on the pan and cut in squares for serving.

            The smell of fresh baked yeast bread and apple cake is at least temporarily guaranteed to chase away the cabin fewer blues.

            (I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

SNOWBOUND IN FEBRUARY

Snowbound in February

            Happily no one is foolish enough trust in practical celebrations of Groundhog Day in Maine. Can’t you just imagine shoveling all those feet of snow we have just accumulated last week to even find the hole, let alone what kind of heat lamp would be required to wake the fellow out of contented hibernation just for an appearance?  I can imagine that he might make some very choice groundhog sounds about the apparent wisdom of human interest in his shadow when his burrow was so comfortable!

            Looking out the front window of our house I am in complete sympathy with this mystical groundhog about not going abroad in the current weather. Some years ago it might have been tempting to get out my cross country skis and explore the woods in their wintertime garb, but even in the best of times my ability to stop when skiing was marked by sitting down on my skis with a scream and a billowing of snow. As pointed out to me by my younger son, I have the software for such activities, but the hardware is sorely lacking.

            However, time and housebound confinement often leads to other activities in the kitchen, which tend to be much more manageable. Now is the opportunity to have a really elegant breakfast with a baked casserole.

                                    Dressed up bacon and eggs

Dressing up an eggs and bacon breakfast is easy and fun with a casserole dish that takes very little time to assemble and doubled  can feed a crowd. The following recipe will feed 4-5 people, but can easily be doubled in quantity for a crowd.  Cook, drain and crumble 6 slices of bacon. Thoroughly butter an 8 inch square casserole dish. Spread about 3 cups cubed old French bread (or lightly toasted other types of bread) on the bottom of the casserole. Sprinkle with 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese. Beat 6 eggs with 1 tsp. salt, ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce, ½ tsp. onion powder, 1 ½  cups milk and a dash or two of Tabasco sauce (optional). Pour the egg mixture over the bread and cheese. Top with ½ cup sliced mushrooms, ½  cup thinly sliced tomatoes, some cut up pitted Niçoise olives (optional) and the crumbled bacon. Press topping down lightly and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes.  Serve hot with garnish of a small clump of grapes and enjoy the complements to the chef.

The relaxed feeling of time is also conducive to slow cooked dinner preparations. This time of the year brings to mind many German recipes and what could be better than a dinner with sauerkraut from Morses. Locally made sauerkraut, some farm sausage and

some scalloped potatoes would be the basis for a simple, but warming meal on any blustery day.

            But then I recalled a conversation with Karin Pratt from Friendship some time ago about the fact that in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was ‘de rigeur’ to cook sauerkraut in beer. In fact, it was the only way!  This was intriguing. I knew of Weinkraut, the German way to cook sauerkraut with wine, but not beer.  Of course it made perfect sense, since Milwaukee is known for its beer and the Wisconsin wine industry is at best still emerging. The following experiment was definitely tasty with a subtly transformed flavor.

                                    Sauerkraut in beer

            Drain about 5 lb. of sauerkraut and rinse for a few seconds to remove excess salt. Brown ½ cup of the drained sauerkraut in 1 Tblsp. vegetable oil or bacon drippings for about 5 minutes. Stir in the rest of the sauerkraut, 1 tsp. sugar, 1 tsp. caraway seed and 1 bottle of lager beer. Bring to boil, cover tightly and cook on low for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a small amount of water, if the beer evaporates at the end.

            But the meal required a desert, preferably with fruit and not too much effort. Fortunately apples from the refrigerator adapted to an apricot upside down cake without too much fuss. Ah, a snowbound day put to delicious use!

(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)