Made from Scratch CORNBREAD
Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3.5 tsp. baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup milk
1 egg
Directions: Mix all ingredients together (I use a wooden spoon, but you can use a mixer if you’d like).
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until done.
My Notes: This is a 10-inch cast iron skillet. For this recipe, I make 1.5 batches of this recipe. I also put about one (1) Tbsp. of margarine in the skillet and melt it while the oven heats. It helps brown the cornbread as it bakes. You can, of course, bake this in a regular cake pan. For the vegetable shortening, I have used vegetable oil, melted margarine or melted butter.
CORNMEAL ROLLS – these rolls begin with a cooked mush; then flour, sugar, yeast and eggs are added.
Directions:
Cook: 1 stick margarine; 1/2 cup sugar; 2 tsp. salt; 1/3 cup cornmeal, and 2 cups milk.
Stir continually until it becomes like a cooked mush. Cool to lukewarm.
Beat 2 eggs; add eggs to the mush mixture.
Dissolve 1 Tbsp. yeast in 1/4 cup warm water. Add to the mush mixture. Mix well.
Add 4 cups bread flour, or more if needed:
You want this dough to be loose and a little sticky. At this point, you have two choices:
1) let the dough rise, then roll out and cut into circles. Brush with melted butter.
Let rise and bake at 375 for 15 minutes.
2) put the dough into a greased bowl, cover, and put into refrigerator. When ready to use, roll out onto lightly floured surface, put on greased cookie sheets, brush with melted butter, then let rise (2-3 hours).
Options: Brush the tops with cornmeal before baking. My family likes it better without. You can use white or yellow cornmeal, depending on whether you want your rolls to be more yellow or white.
My suggestions: You can do this recipe in stages. 1) Cook the mush a day or two ahead; when ready to complete the recipe, warm it in the microwave so it won’t be too cold. 2) Mix the dough and put it in the fridge until ready to use; I recommend 1-2 days. 3) Mix the mush and dough, then bake the same day.
French Bread – made from scratch, of course.
2 Tbsp. yeast dissolved with 1/2 tsp. sugar in 1/2 cup warm water
Combine 2 Tbsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp. veg. oil (or Crisco, melted), 2 tsp. salt
and 2 cups warm water
7+ cups bread flourDirections:
- Dissolve yeast in water with sugar.
- Mix 2 cups water with sugar, veg. oil, and salt.
- Cool, then add the two together.
- Add flour, a few cups at a time, until the dough is the right consistency.
- Knead on floured board until the dough is elastic, or use your dough hook on the mixer to knead the dough.
- Put into greased bowl, turning so entire dough is coated. Let rise until double.
- Punch down and let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes.
- Roll out into rectangular shape, then roll up jelly-roll style.
- Put on greased cookie tray. Cut diagonal slices on top of the bread.
- Brush with milk, OR use 1 beaten egg mixed with 2 Tbsp. milk.
- Sprinkle sesame seeds on top
- Let rise until double
- Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. This recipe makes 2 loaves.
Poppyseed Bread
¾ cup oil 3 eggs
1 ½ cups milk 1 ½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. almond flavoring 1 ½ tsp. butter flavoring
1 ½ tsp. b. powder 1 ½ tsp. poppyseed
1 ½ tsp. vanillaDirections:
Beat all 11 ingredients for two minutes.
Pour into greased and floured bread pans.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Cool 10 min. before removing from pans. Makes 2 loaves.
