Breads & Rolls
Recipes for breads & rolls
Grandma and my mother baked breads & rolls every week. The smell of fresh-baked bread greeted us as we stormed the house after our long bus ride home from school.
Grandma’s original bread recipe
- 3 heaping spoonsful of sugar
- 2 heaping spoonsful of yeast
- 1 heaping spoonful of salt
- Solid Lard about the size of an egg
Mix the yeast in about a cup of warm water with the sugar.
Scold the big pan full of milk. If possible, use butter milk.
Put scolded milk in the bread bowl. Dissolve the lard in the milk. Let the milk cool before adding the yeast. Add the yeast, and then enough flour to make dough stiff enough to knead. Knead until it is smooth. Rest 5 minutes. Knead again. Rise once until double in size and knead down. Rise again and then mold into loaves. Makes 8 loaves of bread or more. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Are you ready to make it like Grandma did?
Grandma's White Bread
3 heaping tbsps. of sugar
2 tbsps. of yeast (or 2 yeast packets)
1 heaping tbsp. of salt
2 quarts milk (if you use raw milk, scald the milk and cool it before adding the yeast)
Solid Lard about the size of an egg… (Mom left this one alone. I use Lard if I have it or shortening.)
Dissolve the yeast in about a cup of warm water with the sugar. Add 2 quarts of milk in the bread bowl, if possible, use butter milk. Dissolve the lard in a pan and add to the milk. Add the yeast, and slowly add enough flour to make dough stiff enough to knead. Knead until it is smooth. Rest 5 minutes. Knead again. Rise once until double in size and knead down. Rise again and then mold into loaves. Makes 8 loaves of bread or more. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.
Easy Brown Bread
2 tbsp yeast
3 tbsp shortening
1 tbsp salt
1/4 cup molasses or honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
Enough Whole-Wheat flour to make a stiff dough.
Mix ingredients together, adding flour as you mix to make a stiff dough. Knead until it is well mixed. Let rise 40 minutes. Separate into loaf pans and let it rise again until double in size.
Bake for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Dinner Rolls
- 5 cups flour
- 2 tbsp yeast
- 1/3 cup shortening (or butter)
- 1/4 cup dry milk
- 1 pint of warm water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 eggs
Makes 40 rolls.
First, in a large bowl, disolve yeast in the warm water; add sugar and let yeast rise a little. Then, add shortning or butter. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and add to mixture. Sift together dry ingredients and slowly add to the wet mixture. Knead the dough until smooth. Put in a greased bowl and let it rise until double in bulk in a warm place. Roll out on a lightly floured board to a thickness of an inch. Use a wide mouth jar lid to cut it into circles. Fold the circles in half. Let raise again until about double in size. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.
You can cut the dough in strips of about 2 inches and tie them in knots.
Grandma's Biscuits
- 2 cups flour
- 3 level tsp baking powder
- 1 level tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cream (or canned milk)
- Some Buttermilk or milk
Sift dry ingredients in a bowl. Add cream and enough buttermilk or milk to make a soft dough. Knead a little to mix and roll out to one inch and cut into desired shapes.
Bake in 375 or 400 degree oven until light brown. 😉
Note: women in my grandmother and mother’s era who cooked a lot, learned by doing about how long to cook things. At 400 degrees, cooking time should be about 10-12 minutes. Also, you can bake biscuits at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Baking Powder Biscuits
- 2 ¼ cup sifted flour
- 4 tsp. backing powder
- ½ tsp. cream of tarter
- ½ tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. Sugar
- ½ cup lard (butter or margarine)
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1 egg
Sift together dry ingredients. Cut lard into mixture to make course crumbs. Add milk, and then the egg. Mix with a fork until dough follows the fork around the bowl.
Knead on floured board five or six times. Roll or pat into ½ “ thickness and cut with a 2” cutter.
Place on ungreased baking sheet, about ¾” apart, and bake in very hot oven at 450° for 10 to 12 minutes.
Makes 16 medium biscuits.
Stuffing
- Dried bread crumbs
- Chopped onions
- Dried corn bread crumbs
- Chopped celery
- Margarine or butter
- Sage
- Parsley
- Thyme
- Rosemary
- Hot water
- Milk
- Pine nuts (optional)
Fill a crock-pot or large bowl with bread crumbs, may omit corn bread crumbs, but they do make the stuffing more moist. Use 1 cup of corn bread to every 4 cups of regular bread crumbs. Mix in chopped onions, celery and herbs. Melt butter in hot water add milk. Pour over bread crumbs and mix well, adjusting seasonings to taste.
Note: Yes, once again, the seasoning is to taste.
Mom didn’t have set amounts; she just uses a pinch of this, a handful of that and enough wet ingredients to make it wet, but not soggy.
Zuchinni Bread
- 3 eggs
- 1 Tbsp. soda
- 1/2-cup oil 1 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 1/2-cup nuts
- 3 cups flour
- 3 cups grated zucchini
- 1 tsp salt
Mix wet ingredients first. Be sure to add all of the Zucchini with the wet ingredients. Add dry ingredients. And mix well Divide into 2 loaf tins. Bake 325 1 hour or until brown.
Muffins
Makes 12 medium muffins
- 2 cups flour, sifted
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 egg
- 1 sup milk
- 1/4 cup shortening, melted
Preheat oven to 400° F. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together. Beat eggs slightly, add milk and melted shortening to the eggs. Pour egg mixture into the flour all at once. Stir just enough to moisten the dry ingredients. Mixture should be lumpy. Fifteen to 0 strokes should be enough. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full. Use rubber scraper and push a spoonful of batter all at once into muffin tins. Place muffins in center of preheated oven. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Remove to cooling rack.
You may add 3/4 cup of fresh or canned berries, or 1 cup dates or raisins finely chopped, or even 1/2 cup grated sharp cheese.