Monday April 8th Project

So, the project for Monday was to get some baking done.  I spent the morning making as many things as possible at once, so I can spend my time more wisely.  I also put things in my mixer in order of least messy to most messy, so I can save time and not need to wash my mixer out or my measuring cups, as well as grind wheat once so it is fresh for multiple things.  This will be a pretty long post--sorry, but I wanted to include recipes as well.

The first thing I made was whole wheat bread.  I had enough dough to make some sandwich buns as well.

 

Deborah's BREAD

6 2/3 cups Warm Water

2/3 cup Sugar

4 Tablespoons Yeast

2/3 cup oil

2 Tablespoons Salt 

1/4 cup Vital Wheat Gluten

1 cup ground Flax Seed

16-20 cups Whole Wheat Flour

Mix water, yeast, salt, sugar, wheat gluten, ground flax seed and oil together in mixer. Wait a few minutes until bubbly.  Add 1/2 of flour and wait 5 minutes.  Then add rest of flour until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Let rise until double. Punch down. Put in pans. Let rise again until desired height in warm oven set to 200°, about 20 minutes. Bake at 335° until nice and brown. Makes 5-9 loaves.

The next thing I made was whole wheat baking mix.  This is great for pancakes.

  

BASIC MULTIPURPOSE MIX (Bisquick)

9 c. Flour

1/3 c. Baking Powder

4 teaspoons Salt

1 ¾ c. Shortening

1 c. + 2 Tablespoons Milk Powder

In large bowl or pan stir, then sift flour, baking powder, milk powder and salt until well mixed. Cut fat into flour mixture until it resembles coarse cornmeal. It may be stored at room temperature for up to six weeks.

Next I made wheat thins.  They are SO yummy when they are fresh like this.  In fact, after you have eaten the fresh ones, the boxed kind from the store taste like cardboard.  I got this recipe from an old booklet that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints used to publish, with the title of "Essentials of Home Production & Storage". 

WHEAT THINS
 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/3 cup oil emulsifies in blender with 3/4 tsp. Salt and 1 cup water

Mix dry ingredients.  Add oil-salt-water mixture.  Knead as little as possible.  Makes a smooth dough.  Roll dough to about 1/16"-1/8" on slightly greased (with cooking spray) piece of tinfoil.  Sprinkle lightly with seasoned salt or other flavorings and roll top lightly with rolling pin to attach flavor firmly to dough.  Score dough with pizza cutter.  Place on Cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees until crisp and brown.  Let cool and break apart.

I followed it with biscuit dough.  

BISCUITS

8 cups Flour

2 cups shortening

4 Tablespoons Baking Powder

4 teaspoons Salt

2 cups Cold Water

Preheat oven to 400°. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Mix in shortening, until pea sized pieces. Add water and mix together. Roll out ½ inch thick and cut. Place on ungreased cookie sheet, with sides of biscuits touching. Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

From this I made biscuits . . .

. . .and Tuna Pinwheels, which I froze and served for dinner on Wednesday.  I used the biscuits for dinner on Monday and breakfast on Tuesday.

TUNA PINWHEELS

2 cans Cream of Mushroom Soup

2 Cans Tuna-drained

1 Tbsp. Minced Onion

1 tsp. Lemon JuiceBiscuit Dough

Combine 1 can of soup, onion and tuna fish. Roll dough out to 10x12 inch rectangle. Spread tuna mixture evenly over dough. Roll up starting from the long edge, jelly-roll fashion. Seal edge. Cut into slices. Place pinwheels on lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 425° for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. While pinwheels bake, heat remaining can of soup to serve over pinwheels. Makes six servings.

Next I broke apart some hamburger patties that I had put in the freezer to flash freeze.  I like using the 85% hamburger for this since they have more flavor.  For everything else I use the 93% lean.

Next up on the list was cookie dough. My sister-in-law Carolyn gave me this recipe and it always turns out for me.
 
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1 cup soft Butter

¼ cup Sugar   

¾ cup Brown Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla     

2 Eggs

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

2 ½ cups Flour           

1 pkg. Instant Vanilla Pudding

Chocolate Chips to taste

Cream butter, sugars together. Add vanilla, eggs, baking soda and pudding mix. Blend well. Add flour and chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls on greased cookie sheets at 375° until edges are golden brown.

I tripled the batch, and then froze 1/2 of it in an ice cream bucket...

. . .and made the rest into cookies, which we had for FHE, snack on Tuesday, and gave a couple of bags away to friends.

Finally, since my bread was done, I reused my bread pans and made banana bread.  I tripled this recipe as well.  This is my Grandma Lena's recipe for Applesauce cake, and I love how she wrote it down.  I don't do the frosting, and it is one of the best banana or any kind of bread recipes.  I also reduced the oil by 1/3.

APPLESAUCE CAKE

From Grandma Lena 

2 c. flour         

1 c. brown sugar or honey

1 teaspoon soda         

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ c. oil

Add:

1 c. applesauce or any kind of fruit mashed or blended, bottled, or fresh, such as bananas

Put ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly.  Pour into angel food cake pan or flat cake pan (do not grease pans). You may wish to spray with Pam. You may wish to add the following: Nuts, raisins, dates, gumdrops, or citron.

If frosting is desired, use the following:

½ sq. butter

2 Tablespoons milk    

2/3 c. brown sugar

Bring to a boil and then add ½ cup chopped nuts and ½ cup coconut. Cover cake with frosting, while frosting is still hot.

It was so nice to pop so many things into my freezer and get my kitchen all cleaned up.  Sorry I didn't post this earlier.  By the time I got everything finished I had to start running around with kids.  Good luck with your project today!

~Deborah