My Maiden Name was Baker...Therefore I Bake

What's in a name? Well, I loved baking breads long before it was in vogue -- back when you had to struggle to find yeast in the grocery stores! In keeping with my adding some of my favorite recipes to my blog, I have added some breads today (although my favorite sweet roll recipe was posted some time ago).

My Very Favorite Danish/Coffee Bread Recipe

1 envelope yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup heavy cream (I have substituted skim evaporated milk with no difference in taste)
1/4 cup evaporated milk
3 egg yolks beaten
3 1/3 cups of flour
1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Mix in the cream and egg yolks, salt and sugar. Mix in the 3 1/3 cups of flour. Add a little more flour if too sticky.
Roll out and spread the 1/2 cup butter over the dough and fold up and over until it fits into a bowl. Let it rise til double in a warmish place (hour - hour and half).

The above is the basic recipe. My favorite use of this dough is for Swedish Tea Ring.

1 cup walnuts finely chopped
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter
egg whites

Roll out the dough to a large rectangle as thin as you can get it. Spread the butter all over and then spread the mix of the walnuts and cinnamon. and roll up and twist around to form a circle. Mix the egg whites with a little water and then spread over the top of the rolled up circle. Make slits about every two inches. Let rise again until double in size (about 1/2 hour).

Bake for 25 minutes at 350 degrees until nice and brown on top!!

Oatmeal Bread

This recipe is from a 1944 version of Betty Crocker and is courtesy of a very old friend's mother. I had this bread in her kitchen and had to have the recipe!

1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups Rolled Oats

1/3 cup Brown Sugar
1 tbsp shortening

1 pkg yeast
1/4 cup warm water

3 - 3 1/4 cups flour


Cook those first three ingredients and then cool. Mix in everything but the flour. Then add the flour until the dough is fairly stiff.

Let dough rise until double (about an hour and a half). Divide into loaves and then let rise again until double. Loaves should fill up about half the size of the pan. I usually put a piece of greased plastic over the pans while the dough is rising. Let rise until when you poke it, it stays down. Cook at 325 for 40-45 minutes depending upon how big a loaf pan you use. I usually use two smaller loaf pans as opposed to a large one.

This bread is really delicious I think. That's why I rarely make it anymore!

I only make the first one for giveaways at group parties as it is much too good to have lying around the house.

Tomorrow I will try to put up my favorite shrimp dish recipes (Creole and Jimbalaya). We have been loving the Gulf shrimp that I purchased at our local market (Palmer's in Rochester for anyone around here). The shrimp are about 1 oz each and are delicious. I am one of those weird people that has seafood allergies and Gulf shrimp are the only shrimp I can eat without consequences! I still try to limit it though so I don't develop an allergy to this one as well.