Honey Gold Bread

So, wow, I'm so excited to have another bread recipe. This is a wheat bread recipe which is also very exciting, as I've only ever made white bread. It's actually another sourdough recipe but very good, go figure. I hope you enjoy as much as I have.

Please refer to previous post (Dollar Pancakes) for the instructions about sourdough.

Honey Gold Bread - Marie Reese

Set your sourdough batter the night before. in the morning stir and put 1 cup of starter back in your pot.

2 cups milk

2 tbls butter

1/4 cup honey

1 package active dry yeast

2 cups wheat flour

1/4 cup wheat germ

2 tbls sugar

2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

4 cups white flour

Scald milk; stir in butter and honey, then allow to cool until lukewarm. Add yeast and stir until dissolved. Add this mix to basic sourdough batter previously prepared. Add 2 cups wheat flour and wheat germ, stirring until well mixed. Blend sugar, salt and soda until smooth; sprinkle over top of dough and stir in gently. Set dough in a warm spot and cover with a cloth and let rise for 30 minutes. Stir down and add remaining flour until dough is too stiff to stir with a spoon. Turn out on floured board and begin to knead with your hands. (NOTE: Flour required may vary from quantity indicated -one must gauge the feel-rather too little than too much). Work in remaining flour, kneading with heels of hands about 100 times until dough is light and satiny to the touch. Do not knead too long or include too much flour, or the sponge will be heavy and dry. Break into sections, flour lightly, fold over and seal. Place in greased bread pans; pans should be half full. Grease top of loaves, set in warm spot and let double in bulk agian. Meanwhile preheat oven to moderately hot (400 degrees F). When loaves have risen, bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce temp to moderately slow (325 degrees F) and continue baking until bread shrinks from side of pans. When baked, loaves will give a hollow sound when thumped on top. Remove from oven, turn out on rack or towel on table and butter tops.

Dollar Pancakes

My wonderful neighbor brought me some sourdough starter. It was started clear back in 1930. I've never made anything with sourdough so I was a little wary but she assured me that I couldn't mess it up. I've never been a huge fan of sour dough either but how could I not try it. She gave me two recipes to go along with her sourdough starter: Dollar Pancakes and Honey Gold Bread. Now that I've tried the pancakes I can't wait to try the bread. The pancakes were so good. They rose a bunch while I cooked them and they were very light and fluffy. The kids inhaled them. Though as I cooked them they whined about how gross the pancakes were going to be. Sometimes cooking with kids isn't as pleasant an experience as I would like. Today they fought and whined the whole time but as soon as they were eating it was as quiet as can be. I can be so thankful for good food at times.

Here's the recipe (it's long because of the starter and I don't know how to make sourdough starter so if you want some just ask me):

Basic Sourdough batter

The basic batter is set the evening before you want pancakes for breakfast or wish to make bread:

Put all of your 1 cup of Sourdough Started in a large mixing bowl (large enough to allow for any expansion of dough or batter that may take place- depending on how warm the kitchen is) preferably a pottery, glass or stainless steel bowl. Add 2 cups of warm water (up to 90 degrees F) and 2 1/2 cups of flour. Mix thoroughly- mixture will be thick and lumpy but it will thin down from fermenting and be lively by breakfast time. Cover bowl and set in a warm spot overnight. (Allow 10-12 hours during the night in a warm spot in your kitchen for complete fermentation). Because our kitchens aren't as warm as our grandmother's were... I set my bowl on a heating pad which I have wrapped a small towel around and set it at it's lowest setting.

IMPORTANT: In the morning, put 1 cup starter in your Sourdough Pot and keep in the refrigerator until next time- this will leave you with about 4 1/2 cups of batter.

Dollar Pancakes -Marie Reese

25-30 dollar size pancakes

In the morning stir the batter and put 1 cup of this starter back into your sourdough starter pot. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use again. To the batter remaining in the bowl add:

1 egg

2 Tbs cooking oil

1/4 cup instant dry milk or evaporated milk.

Beat thoroughly. Then combine:

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

2 Tbs. sugar

Blend until smooth, eliminating any lumps of soda. Sprinkle evenly over top of batter; fold in gently. This will cause a gentle foaming, rising action.

Allow batter to rest a few minutes, then fry on a hit lightly greased griddle. If pancakes do not brown rapidly and sizzle slightly as you drop each spoonful of batter on the griddle it isn't hot enough.

IMPORTANT: Always made dollar size pancakes using a tablespoon full of batter for each pancake. If your batter seems too thick, it wasn't warm enough during the night and didn't ferment sufficiently- a common fault in modern kitchens. It may be thinned with a little milk. The sourdough pancake batter is normally fairly thin but lively. You'll find that sourdough pancakes require a hotter griddle than other pancakes.