Ciabattas

Although I am rarely posting on An American Housewife lately, I wanted to take the time to get this one saved as I want to continue to work with this and improve it a little more to my own personal liking of the exact texture I want.  It's so very close!  But I want just a tiny little bit more rise time I think to give it even more air bubbles inside.  However, it's so good even as it is!  

Such a chewy texture... oh I love it.

I did not plan to post so I wasn't taking any photos of the process.  My photos were just a couple I snapped on my cellphone to send to a friend as we were chatting. 

 

This recipe is using a starter.  This is what I did differently this time making ciabatta and I feel like it's made the difference in the chewy outside texture I was going for.  
It was fairly chilly in the kitchen this day and I really should have helped it along but I decided to let it do what it wanted as I was terribly busy and making ciabattas as a side project while my attention was elsewhere.   For the final rise it was late and I wanted to go to bed, so into the fridge it went.  With all these short-cuts and leave-outs it still turned out so good.

 I grind my own wheat to make the flour so it's not as fine as store bought and gives it even more of an artisan feel.

 

 

CIABATTA
From my sourdough starter

1 1/2 c water
2 t salt
1/2 c active sourdough starter
3 1/2 c bread flour

Mix the water and salt in a bowl. Add the starter and stir.  Add the flour, and stir until you have a wet, sticky dough ball. Knead briefly with your hands if necessary to incorporate the flour. Cover and let sit for 30 minutes.

With wet hands, grab one side of the dough, and pull up and to the center. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat.  Do this until you’ve made a full circle. Cover the bowl. Repeat this process three more times at 30-minute intervals for a total of 4 sets of stretches and folds over the course of two hours.

Transfer the dough to a straight-sided container. Cover the vessel with a towel. Let rise at room temperature until the dough nearly doubles in volume.  Cover with a lid to prevent it from drying out. Transfer to fridge for 12-24 hours.

Remove from fridge. Sprinkle top of dough liberally with flour. Turn dough out onto a floured work surface. Pat dough into a rectangle. Sprinkle top with flour. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough into 8 small rectangles.

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. With floured hands, transfer each rectangle to the prepared pan, gently pulling outward. Cover the pan with a towel. Let stand for one hour.

Pre-heat oven to 475ºF. Transfer pan to oven and bake for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 450ºF, rotate pan, and bake for 10 minutes more. Remove pan from oven. Transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes before slicing.

 

Adapted from https://alexandracooks.com/2021/04/25/simple-sourdough-ciabatta-bread/

 

 

 

 

 

Flat Bread or Naan Style Bread

 

 

For many reasons and many things going on in our life right now I've not had Our Daily Bread in the refrigerator for quite some time.  Yesterday morning however, I decided to make up another batch.  I left it on the counter to work its magic for a few hours, then popped it into the refrigerator to use it as some point but was too busy to think about it at the time.

Last night I glanced at the George Foreman grill on the counter and had the idea that my bread dough, made on the George Foreman might make a delicious flat bread or naan style bread!   I grabbed the bucket out of the fridge, formed 4 little mounds of dough on a piece of parchment and let them sit while I did other things.   About an hour later I came back and plopped a piece of dough on the hot griddle and closed it.  Upon opening, I had a perfect hot flat bread.

I sent off photos and an explanation to all three of my young adult kids so they could make them if they wished, as it was just so easy.   And adding it here so they can find it later.

• Use the Bucket Bread recipe.
• Grab a handful of dough about the size of your palm.
• Place it on a piece of greased parchment, foil or plastic.
• Let it warm and/or rise a bit for about an hour.
• Heat the George Foreman grill.  Spray or oil the grill.
• Place the dough on the grill and close the top, not squishing it down, just close it over the dough and leave it.
• When the lights heat up to show it's ready again, open, and remove the flat bread.
• Serve with butter or with garlic butter.

 

 

Daily Bread Dough made into Pizza

 

Yesterday afternoon I took my 'plan' for dinner and tossed it out, and decided to make pizza.  Much easier and faster since I have my 'daily bread' dough in the bucket in the refrigerator every day.

Using the bucket dough (already posted about so many times regular readers are tired of it, I'm sure) I floured my hands, grabbed about a third of the dough and plopped it onto some parchment paper I had sprinkled with a bit of corn meal.

I used my fingers and hands to press it out to a round.  

Precook:  Preheat the oven to about 425 or 450 with a pizza stone in it, and then slid the parchment onto the stone to precook the pizza round for about 7-8 minutes.  Remove and let set (or you could freeze them at this point if you wished to save them for a later meal).   I did two pizza crusts this way and let them hang out on the counter, and turned off the oven until I was ready to come back and make them for dinner.

I made both into simple pepperoni pizza using homemade sauce from pantry tomato products and spice, pepperoni I have in the freezer (will switch to vegetarian pepperoni bites from long term storage when I need to), shredded mozzarella I still have a couple food sealed bags in the deep freezer but will use #10 canned freeze dried mozzarella reconstituted when I need to, and some parmesan - the green can version you can buy at the store, which I have a couple of in the 2-3 year food storage pantry.

Delicious and easy.  Thank you God for our daily bread.... or err, um, pizza dough!   

Breaded Pork Chops

 

 

A quick fly-by post - dinner last night.

Pork chops from the deep freezer
Spices from the pantry
Homemade Bread Crumbs using 'leftover' breads I've tossed into a Ziploc into the freezer whenever we have ends, a couple pieces no one wants to eat, bread getting stale, etc.

Onto a foil lined pan with oil... baked at 400 or so until crispy and golden brown.

 

You can use almost any seasoning you like.
Seriously.
Even just salt and pepper is good.
I used salt, pepper, some woodfired garlic and a little onion powder

 

The leftover bread and ends torn and tossed into a food processor

Food Storage: A 'vintage' style chicken stuffing casserole, topped with my favorite pot pie filling

 

 

Again, I almost didn't take ANY photo of dinner, but at the last second, grabbed my phone and got one picture right before I finished dishing some up to eat.  :)

This is a mixture of two different recipes I've made for years.  I knew I wanted to use up a bunch of bread I had in the freezer (more on that in a second).  I also had some packages of cooked chicken mixed with the vegetarian chicken from the #10 cans I posted about previously.  The first thing that comes to mind when I want to use up our leftover bread is a simple 'comfort' casserole that is a stuffing/chicken casserole.

Bread from the freezer

Ever since my husband and I were very first married, I've taken the ends of the bread, or bread that is starting to get hard or stale, and popped it into a Ziploc in the freezer to use later in recipes. You should never throw our or waste any food - because you can always make something else from it.

 

This time we have all kinds of bread to use. And I decided to make a triple batch.  I tripled the batch and then put 2 of them back into gallon sized Ziploc baggies in the freezer for future meals.

 

This is a spice/herb mixture for the stuffing.
We've never, ever been one to buy the 'Stovetop Stuffing' brand mixes from the store - but that's basically what this is, as the original recipe most people use starts with a box or two of Stove Top.

 

Choices for chicken

Fresh, frozen, freeze-dried and reconstituted, canned, home canned... whatever you have to work with.

 

The original grandma recipe is simple:

Stove Top Stuffing Mix(es)
Chicken breasts - boneless
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
1 empty soup can of water per box of stuffing used

Mix the stuffing mix, spices and the water and soup.  Place in a greased casserole dish.
Lay the chicken breasts on and salt and pepper or even add cheese to top.
Bake until the chicken is done.

Serve.

 

SUBSTITUTIONS I USED TO MAKE IT FROM MY FOOD STORAGE

For the 'stove top' stuffing spice mixture, I threw together a mixture from 3 different 'recipes' of sorts.  It's really just parsley, thyme, poultry seasoning, chicken bouillon, etc.  You can do a quick internet search to find one you like.  I used all dry spices from the cupboard along with some 'chicken base' instead of dry, crushed bouillon cubes or powder.

My bread was of course, from the freezer.  You can also just cut up or tear up your daily homemade bread.  I don't bother drying mine out in the oven, I always use it fresh.

The chicken was reconstituted 'vegetarian' Auguson Farms fake chicken, mixed with some precooked chicken.

I used a lot of bread this time around, but only one can of soup so I decided to make my favorite pot pie filling and top it with that.  That is the creamy filling with some carrots and peas you see in the photo above. 

The filling is from a recipe I've posted many times over the years - my favorite pot pie.   This time I used 1/3 of a can of peas from food storage, along with 1/2 a jar of home canned baby carrots.

 

 

Old Fashioned Turkey Pot Pie

1 10 oz. package mixed carrots and pea's or all veggies
1/4 c butter
5 T flour
1/2 t salt
1/4 t poultry seasoning or sage
1/8 t pepper
2 c chicken or turkey stock (or use 2 cups water and 2-3 boullion cubes)
1 c milk
3 c chicken or turkey
1/3 c chopped onion or 4 green onions, chopped completely and cooked until tender in a bit of water
1 c cooked and diced potatoes (or use canned or dice and cook them with the onions)


Prepare the pea's and carrots (or mixed veggies). I like to cook them in the microwave while I prepare the rest. Melt butter in saucepan. Blend in flour, salt, poultry seasoning or sage, and pepper. Gradually add stock and milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thick and smooth. Add vegetables, turkey and cooked onions and potatoes. Pour into a greased shallow baking dish. Make a biscuit topping and top the vegetable mixture. Bake at 425 degree's for 25 minutes until the top is golden brown. About 6 servings.

Biscuit Topping;

Mix

1 1/3 c flour
1 1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt

Cut in
2 T butter
3 T shortening

Add 1/2 c milk (scant) and stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms. If it's too wet and sticky add one or two more tablespoons of flour. Pat down on a lightly floured surface and roll out to the shape of your baking dish. If you prefer you can cut into wedges or squares and simply top the vegetable mixture that way too. (Up to you!).

 

 

 

 

 

Our Daily Bread

 

 

 

We've had the chili and sloppy Joes (I posted about previously) for the last 2 days for dinner.  I also threw together a side dish pasta one night - tortellini, pesto and black olives.  We had the rest of that yesterday with lunch.  That brings us to today - which we still have chili (it was a really big pot full) so I'll vacuum seal it and put that in the freezer for some time next week again.

Today a quick post about our 'daily bread' I mention a lot.  

 

The mixture is 3 cups flour (whatever you have on hand), about 1/2 - 1 t dry yeast, 1-2 t sugar, 1 t salt and about 1 1/2 cups of hot water.  All amounts are a quick 'throw in' to a food safe bucket and quickly stirred until there is no dry flour and it's all mixed in.  Put a lid on it, and pop it into the refrigerator.  This can be made into any bread/bun/pizza/rolls/foccaccia, etc. as needed - either the next day or let it hang out in the fridge for up to a week.  It gets more like a sour dough the longer it sets (days 4+). 

You don't have to knead it, as it forms it's own gluten by the length of time it hangs out.  Just take it out and make it into whatever you need that day.  I usually do bread, as I make sure we always have fresh bread on hand for sandwiches and toast.   When I use the dough, I immediately throw in some fresh flour, water, salt, sugar and yeast and pop it into the fridge again. 

We always have a loaf on the counter and a bucket of new 'daily bread' in the refrigerator.

I primarily use my pullman loaf pan and when I take the time to let the dough warm and raise, I get a nice, full, squared off loaf.  Honestly, I rarely take the time (or HAVE the time) to let it raise.  I do a 'no work' daily bread.  I take it out of the fridge, pop it into the loaf pan and generally only let it set long enough to pre-heat the oven to 375.  It raises to a daily loaf with a rounded, regular top.  When I have the time to let it sit long enough to raise higher, it will fill the pan like this.....

 

Food Storage - Homemade Garlic Focaccia

 

 

Just a 'side' of bread to go with the chili last night but... it was so good and so easy.  Zero work. 

My 'daily bread' was tossed from the bucket in the fridge into a buttered pan.  I used my fingers to squish it out and into place.

Topped with some home canned butter and lots of garlic, a sprinkle of garlic salt... and then mozzarella cheese. 

I was going to have to go into long term storage to find some freeze dried mozzarella but I got lucky and found I had food vacuum sealed a couple bags of mozzarella and they were in the deep freezer.  Yay!

I popped it into a 375 oven for about 25 minutes and... done!

My 'daily bread' bucket dough from the fridge, finger smooshed into a pan, with canned butter and garlic

 

Topped with mozzarella and going into the oven

Homemade Buns (the 3 ingredient artisan bucket bread with a couple additions and made into buns)

One thing I've mentioned often over the past 2 months is "my daily bread"  as in, "... give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses..." 

As the days and weeks went by I improvised to the original recipe and now I usually make it with flour, sugar, salt and yeast although I still play around with it and sometimes add some egg (powdered) or milk (powdered).   You can find more photos and the original recipe here:   https://www.housewifebarbie.com/2024/01/living-on-food-storage-artisan-bread-no.html

Here is what it looks like when I mix the flour, yeast, a bit of sugar and a bit of salt in the bucket with some hot water.  I simply put the lid on and pop it into the refrigerator.  I take it out the next day (or sometimes a day later - it can live in the fridge for up to a week) to make whatever the bread item is we are having that day/night.

 

This basic dough is usually made into our 'daily bread' for toast, buttered bread, grilled cheese and other sandwiches.  Sometimes it's garlic bread.  Sometimes it's a garlic bread ring, monkey bread or pizza.  Other times it's buns or rolls.

Tonight it is buns to go with the homemade chicken, feta sausage patties on the grill.

My Daily Bread
Bucket Bread

3 cup flour (any kind - this is a mixture of all purpose leftover from Christmas baking, and home-ground white wheat berries (hard white) I ground myself a couple weeks ago).
1 t salt
1-2 t sugar
1/2 - 1 t yeast
1 1/2 - 2 c hot water
I think in today's dough version I had added a tablespoon of whole egg powder and a bit of dry milk powder to it. 

Bucket was in the refrigerator yesterday and last night.  Brought out today, grabbed bits of the gooey dough and formed into balls, using just a light dusting of flour on my hands.  Let set in a warm spot about 30 minutes while I preheated the oven to 375.  Baked for 25 minutes until golden brown.

Removed from oven and after snapping a really fast photo, rubbed them lightly with butter.

 

 

 

 

Here they are literally about 10 seconds out of the oven...........  right before I rubbed butter on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just another photo... of just another loaf of bread.... from my daily bucket I keep in the fridge (3/4 ingredient bread)

 

No kneading or shaping on this guy, he was just a shaggy dough tossed into the bread pan

... and give us this day, our daily bread.

Once I started to make this version, I haven't made any of my 'regular' breads or rolls since. 

And here is the bread I've mentioned...  all you need is 3 ingredients (I like 4 because I add a little sugar to the yeast) and a bucket or container with a lid.

The original version is one I posted back in November, 2019 that would make 4 - 1 lb. loaves. (Linked)
Since then, it's evolved into a smaller, more simple version I just kind of throw together.

When I first made this it was in a bowl and it was the 3 ingredient version without sugar for the yeast.  It evolved into the bucket with a lid version that I do add 2 teaspoons of sugar to.  I'm not sure if it's the bucket or the sugar or the fact that I normally bake it in a bread loaf pan for our daily bread, but it's now a loaf that keeps easily and wonderfully for 2-3 days if it lasts that long - and doesn't lose texture or get crumbly and is still soft and delicious.

 

Simple Artisan Bread
Bucket Version

3 cups flour
1 t yeast
1 t salt
2 t sugar
1 1/2 cups hot water (sometimes up to 2 depending on the day, the flour, the humidity, etc.)

(Usually I toss in a teaspoon or two of sugar, once in a while I add a tablespoon of egg powder to the dry ingredients, other times I've added a couple tablespoons of olive oil - it's a pretty easy and friendly recipe to mess with.)

Pour the dry into a food safe bucket or container with a lid.  

Mix the dry a little bit, then pour in about 1 1/2 cups hot water.  Stir.  

If it's too dry, add more water.  Too wet, add a couple more tablespoons flour.  Just stir it together until it's a shaggy, somewhat gooey, wet dough.  Now you loosely put the lid on top, let it set on the counter for a few hours until you want to use it that day or put the lid on and pop it into the refrigerator for a day or two until you want to use it.  Don't knead it.  The gluten forms from the time it sits.

About an hour or two before you need bread of some type, pull it out.  Dust enough flour to make it into whatever you want (round, rolls, pizza dough, bread, garlic bubble bread, etc.) If you have time, try to let it rise in a warm spot for about 45 minutes and bake it the way best for whatever you are making but usually it will be a preheated oven at 375 for about 35 minutes.

Using the same bucket, just put another 3 cups flour, a teaspoon of salt and about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of yeast back into the bucket, add a cup or two of hot water, stir, and put it back into the refrigerator for the next day.

 

 

 

Split Pea Soup and Homemade Artisan Bread in a Dutch Oven

Today I glanced through the kitchen pantry, brainstorming ideas for dinner.  I spied a bag of split peas. Like most of the country and Canada right now, it's freezing cold, so split pea soup seemed like a delicious idea. I just had to make sure I could make it from our food storage items.

Store Items and Substitutions.....

Split Peas... check.
Water, ok.  Salt and pepper, yes.  Dried Marjoram, yes.
Onion... yes!  I still have a handful in the onion bin - one was starting to sprout, so he gets used for sure.
Ham hocks or meaty bone.  Sigh.  No.  But I do have ham deli meat in the freezer and I know I have Spam in the long term storage! 
Celery, potatoes and carrots?
I have that large #10 can of dehydrated celery (I previously posted about) bought in 2012. 
I don't want to use up my canned potatoes as they are going quickly and I really had no idea we'd be using them in 2024.  I do have mashed potato flakes and dehydrated potato hash browns in storage though!  Mashed flakes will do.
Carrots?  Yes.  Thanks to 10 lbs. fresh carrots that someone couldn't use and gave to one of my young adult daughters, who also couldn't/wouldn't use them, she had brought them to my house last month and I gladly accepted them.  I have fresh carrots! 

 

A basic recipe, repeated in similar versions in almost every church cookbook or organization cookbook you find.  Tiny differences in the water amount (2 quarts or 3 quarts) and the celery, potatoes and carrots could be anywhere from 3/4 cup to 1 1/4 cup.  Other than that, pretty much the same.  And then just add 1 cup of cooked ham or pieces at the end.  I also added 1 T chicken base (bouillon) since I didn't have ham base and I didn't have a ham bone to add a lot of flavor.

One thing I did DIFFERENT this time... made it in my Instant Pot!  I will gladly do this every time from here on out. After rinsing and going through the split peas I did NOT precook or boil them.  I put them in the instant pot with 2.5 qt. water.  Added the rest of the ingredients EXCEPT the ham and the mashed potato flakes.  Sealed it and set it to pressure cook for 30 minutes. Let it set for 5 minutes before releasing the seal.  Added the diced/chopped spam (ham) and stirred enough about 3/4 cup mashed potato flakes to make it thick and creamy, the way we prefer it.

While it cooked I used my 'daily bread' from the fridge to plop into a round on parchment and heated my Dutch Oven inside, while I preheated the oven to 400.  Popped the parchment paper and dough right into the pot, put the lid on and baked for 35 minutes.  Turned the oven off, took the lid off, and left the bread in for another 10 minutes, then removed.

The bread dunked in the soup for dinner tonight was so very comforting, warm and delicious.

 

  

Garlic Bubble Bread

 

GARLIC BUBBLE BREAD

I have posted how I started to keep a container in the refrigerator of a basic Artisan Bread Dough so I can bake daily bread to stretch our food storage meal options. 

One of the posts:  https://www.housewifebarbie.com/2024/01/living-on-food-storage-artisan-bread-no.html

Starting with the flour/salt/yeast bread idea, over the past couple weeks I regularly started to add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar to the mix as well.  Every day I use it to make a bread round, sandwich loaf, hamburger buns, dinner rolls, etc.   Today I was in a rush doing a hundred things but I made sure to grab the bucket and toss it out on a floured surface and cut it into smaller pieces.

To each piece I dipped them into a bowl of butter, garlic cloves and garlic salt.  The butter used was another pint can of home canned butter from my 2-3 year pantry, canned in the fall of 2020.  (Delicious!).  I didn't put any parsley in because I was literally rushing to get this into a bundt pan as fast as I could as I had far too many other things to do that were more important than our daily bread (sad but true).  It rose in the pan while Mr. Husband and I had to run an important errand and get some paperwork.  When we got home I popped it into a hot oven to bake while I went on to the next important task we had to get done.

And here we are... the fruit of my (not very much) labor.  Garlic Bubble Bread.

Bread Dough
Melted Butter
Garlic, minced
Garlic Salt
Parsley

Dip pieces of dough into butter, place in a bundt pan.  Let rise to double.  Bake at 375 about 30 minuets or until golden brown and done.  Turn out and serve warm with dinner or with a dipping sauce.

Artisan Bread (no knead) - 3 ingredients plus water

In 2019 I posted about the easy Artisan Bread recipe that you just mix up in a bucket, turn out and bake.  (https://www.housewifebarbie.com/2019/11/from-my-instagram-today-artisan-bread.html).  This is a smaller, similar version to that.

Typically we are low carb and sugar free so we don't eat much bread.  When life threw us some curve-balls 6 weeks ago, I whipped up a loaf of this bread as a comfort food.   A precedent was set and since then, it's become our daily bread since I haven't been to the grocery store in 6 weeks... and counting.

3 cups flour
1 t yeast
1 t salt
1 1/2 cups hot water (sometimes up to 2 depending on the day, the flour, the humidity, etc.)

(Sometimes I toss in a teaspoon or so of sugar, once in a while I add a tablespoon of egg powder to the dry ingredients, other times I've added a couple tablespoons of olive oil - it's a pretty easy and friendly recipe to mess with.)

Pour the dry into a food safe bucket or container with a lid.  Mix the dry a little bit, then pour in about 1 1/2 cups hot water.  Stir.  If it's too dry, add more water.  Too wet, add a couple more tablespoons flour.  Just stir it together until it's a shaggy, somewhat gooey, wet dough.  Now you loosely put the lid on top, let it set on the counter for a few hours until you want to use it that day or put the lid on and pop it into the refrigerator for a day or two until you want to use it.  Don't knead it.  The gluten forms from the time it sits.

Each day I grab this bucket out of the refrigerator, wet or oil my hands, pull out the dough and shape it into a round on a piece of parchment paper.  Sometimes I dust it and the paper with extra flour if it's really really sticky, other times I just kind of mound the sticky dough into a round and let it be. 

I turn on the oven to 375 degrees with a cast iron round skillet in the oven to get hot as well.  I also have a smaller pan in the oven also getting hot.  The dough sets while the oven preheats. 

Lift the parchment and place the whole thing into the hot cast iron pan.  To the smaller hot pan in the oven, pour in about 1 cup water and shut the oven quickly to trap the steam it creates.

Bake for about 35 minutes until golden brown.  This is a hearty, delicious bread with a crisp, chewy crust and a soft inside.  We use it for everything from simply pulling it apart and eating it as it is, spread with butter, peanut butter, toasted, sliced and made into garlic bread, etc.  

Using the same bucket, without washing, I put another 3 cups flour, a teaspoon of salt and about 1/2 - 1 teaspoon of yeast back into the bucket, add a cup or two of hot water, stir, and put it back into the refrigerator for the next day.

 

 

I have a food safe bucket that I reuse - here is 3 cups flour, a bit of salt, yeast and 1 1/2 - 2 cups hot water.  Stir and forget.  The gluten forms not from kneading, but from the time it sets in the refrigerator.  Usually made into bread the next day, but sometimes it's 2 or even 3 days before it's made. 

 

 

I could triple or even quadruple this recipe in this bucket but since I am making it daily, I just make the 3 cup version.

This is usually made into a daily bread for breakfast, snacking and/or dinner but is also randomly made into pizza dough, pizza bread, buns, garlic bread, pull-apart breads, etc.

Pull Apart Pizza Bread

 

One of the items I have in the refrigerator at all times over the past 6 weeks is a bucket with artisan bread dough.  I've posted the Artisan Bread recipe previously in 2019 (here).  The version I'm doing now is half the size though - I just throw 3 cups of flour in the food-safe bucket along with about 1/2-1 teaspoon yeast, a teaspoon or so of salt and sometimes throw in a teaspoon of sugar.  To this I add 1 1/2 - 2 cups hot water and stir.  I pop the top on and put it in the refrigerator to make a fresh loaf of artisan bread the next day.  (I'll post this soon... but back to the pizza bread...).

Today I pulled out the dough bucket and started to pull it apart into pieces.  To those little rounds of dough, I added 1 stick (1/2 cup) of butter mixed with about 6 cloves garlic, minced. 

I added a cup of homemade pizza sauce from the freezer, a handful of pepperoni (about a cup), a teaspoon of oregano and added about 1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese. 

Stirred to mix, let it raise for a bit while the oven preheated to 375.  I baked it for about 45 minutes, turned off the oven and left it for about 10 minutes before taking it out.  I let it sit for about 10 minutes before I dug into it.  Yum.  

(Note:  Use a bundt pan for easier baking of all pull-part breads, monkey bread, etc. as you don't have to worry about the center getting 'done' that way.  I was too lazy to get the bundt pan out of the tallest cupboard this time...).


Bread Dough - from scratch, pantry items
Pepperoni - freezer
Pizza Sauce - homemade (from freezer)
Oregano - cupboard
Mozzarella Cheese - (freezer)

 

 

Auguson Farms Buttermilk Pancake Mix made into Soda (Biscuit) Bread

 

I had a mason jar with powdered whole eggs in it in the kitchen pantry we've been using for about 1 1/2 weeks, but this morning, completely out of eggs, it was time to dive into our "long" term storage and find a #10 can of eggs.  

 

While looking for the eggs, I saw a few other items to bring to the kitchen... and I spied a box that I recognized as some of the FIRST products I ever bought for long term storage!  Knowing I made my first purchases in February of 2012, and it's now January of 2024, I decided it would be a great time to open them and start to use them - oldest first!

One of the items I bought in 2012 was a can of Buttermilk Pancake Mix from Auguson Farms.  I noted when looking at the can that it was bulging a little bit.  Now, if it were a can of meat or Spam, the bulging would be a concern.  In this mix however, I knew it was because this mix of dry ingredients has baking soda in it.  Being 12 years old, I was not at all surprised.  Or concerned.

 

I did flip the can over to see what the packed date was, and if it had an 'expiration' date of any type but as you can see, it's so old that the ink has mostly disappeared. 

 

I wanted to test the mix to see if it would still raise and taste good, so I decided to use one of the recipes from Auguson Farms - their 'buttermilk bread' recipe using the mix.  Super simple - just the mix, water and a little oil.

The stock photo on their site looks like a yeast bread, which is fine.  But being that this mix uses buttermilk and baking soda, I knew it would be more of a 'soda' bread - or a biscuity bread.  And it was.

This a good 'breakfast' bread since it tastes and crumbles similar to a biscuit.  Great with eggs, bacon, sausage gravy, etc.  Not good for slicing or toasting through.  Too crumbly!