No Bread In The House And Two Days Before Pay Day... Don't Fret

We have all been there, kids need lunches and there is no bread in the house, and no money till pay day which is two days away.

Well I have just the solution, a good household should always have these basic ingredients in their pantry and this disastrous situation can be solved super quick.

Heres the answer right here.




Soda Bread

Ingredients, Serves 4:

200g self raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200ml semi skimmed milk
Juice of half a lemon

Method:

Squeeze the juice of half a lemon, or 2 teaspoons bottled lemon juice, into the milk. Stand to one side to allow it to sour.

Meanwhile, weigh the flour and add the bicarbonate of soda, and mix through.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mix, and pour most of the milk-and-lemon in.

Mix well with a wooden spoon to form a sticky dough.

Use your judgement, if it looks dry, add the remaining liquid.

Tip onto a floured work surface and pat into a round shape, kneading ever so lightly.

The trick to amazingly light soda bread is not to fiddle with it too much.

Pop it into a loaf tin, score it across the top in three places, and place in a 180C oven for 40 minutes.

It should sound hollow on the bottom when tapped, and feel ridiculously light.

Break into chunks and serve warm with butter, or allow to cool completely and wrap in clingfilm to keep fresh.







Honeyed Beer Bread

Ingredients:


2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup bread flour
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1 (12-ounce) bottle beer
3 Tablespoons honey
4 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, the sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the beer and honey and stir with a rubber spatula until thoroughly combined.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared loaf pan and drizzle the melted butter evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature before slicing.

Leftovers should be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and stored at room temperature for up to 3 days.









Baking Powder Bread

Old Edmonds recipe, made with apple or cheese

Ingredients

3 cups Edmonds plain baking flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 teaspoons Edmonds baking powder

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup grated apple

3/4 cup milk, approximately


Method

Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl

Stir in sugar

Add apple and milk to make a soft, smooth dough

Mix together quickly to a soft dough

Place in a greased 22 cm loaf tin

Bake at 180°C for 1 hour or until lightly browned

When cooked, remove from tin and wrap in a tea towel or paper towels until cold


CHEESE BAKING POWDER BREAD

Replace apple with 1/2 cup grated potato
Add 1/2 cup grated tasty cheese and pinch cayenne to sifted ingredients



Rewena Bread ( without a bug)

Ingredients
Serves : 8
6 cups (750 g) plain flour
14 g yeast
1/4 cup (55g) white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups (750 ml) warm water, to mix

Method

Put yeast and a teaspoon of sugar and mix with about 1 cup of lukewarm water so that the yeast dissolves.
Let sit for 10-15 minutes until yeast becomes fermented.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour, sugar and salt.
Keep adding warm water until its combined into a soft and non sticky dough.
Knead dough for 10 minutes then leave to rise in a bowl for 45 minutes to an hour.
Knead for another 10 minutes, then allow to rise again for another 45 minutes to an hour.
Knead again, then cut into 4 balls and allow to rise once again.
Cook at 180 degrees C for 1 hour.
Wrap in a damp tea towel until cooled.
Slice and eat with butter or jam.

Tip

This is not a traditional recipe. This is a quick version which requires no bug.






Scones

3 cups Edmonds standard plain flour
6 teaspoons Edmonds baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
75g butter
1 - 1½ cups milk, approximately
extra milk for glazing
Instructions

Preheat oven to 220 celsius.

Method

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cut butter in until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add 1 cup milk and mix quickly with a knife to a soft dough, adding more milk if needed. Knead a few times.
Lightly dust an oven tray with flour. Press scone mix out on floured bench or tray, cut into 12 even-sized pieces.
Place on oven tray, brush tops with milk and place in top half of oven to bake
Bake scones for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Once golden brown with crisp crusts, remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Cooling on a rack will give you crisp crusts, while covering them with a clean tea towel will give a soft scone.  

There are many variations on this recipe, you could make

• Cheese scones, by just adding one cup of cheese to the above recipe.
• Cayenne Pepper & Cheese scones by adding 1 cup of cheese and 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper to the mix
• Sultana Scones by adding a little more sugar and some sultanas
• Date Scones by adding a little more sugar and some chopped dates
• Savoury Scones, by rolling scone mix flat, add grated cheese, chopped onion, bacon & tomato to the top and roll creating a pinwheel, cut up, place on an oven tray covered with cooking paper and glaze with milk adding cheese to the top.
• PinWheel Scones, using the same method above but instead of savoury ingredients, brush the scone mix with milk and then sprinkle over cinnamon and sugar plus add a few sultanas, roll up, cut, place on an oven tray covered with cooking paper, glaze with milk and cook.
• You can even  roll out the dough and place it on a baking tray and place pizza ingredients over tops and bake, it makes a great pizza, my children called it Nan's BangBang Pizza

Flat bread

Ingredients

8 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cup)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
3 cloves, very finely minced or crushed garlic
1/2 cup hot water

Method

Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder to a mixing bowl.
Add the shortening and garlic, and work into the flour with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Pour in the hot water and stir with a fork to combine.
Pour mixture on a lightly floured surface and knead with your hands for about 3 minutes to form a smooth, soft dough (add more flour as you knead if the dough is too sticky).
Place back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rest 20 minutes.

Divide the dough into 6 balls, and roll between your palms to make as smooth as possible.
With a rolling pin, roll out each ball of dough into a thin circle about 1/8-inch thick.

Preheat a dry cast iron or nonstick pan over medium-high heat.
Place the flatbread in the hot pan and cook for one minute, or until small air bubbles appear.
Flip over and cook for another minute, and then finish by flipping over one last time for another minute.
During the third minute the bread may puff up (which is normal and desired), and small charred spots will form on the surface.

Remove to cool slightly.
Once all are finished, the flatbread is ready to eat.
May be kept in a warm oven if you want to serve them all at once.

Pikelets

1 Egg
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup Milk (about)
1 cup Flour
1 tsp Edmonds Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
25g (1oz) butter optional

Beat the egg and sugar until thick and add with the milk to the sifted flour, salt and baking powder. 

Lastly add melted butter. 

Mix until smooth and cook in spoonfuls on a hot greased griddle or frying pan.

Special treat recipe, maybe but thought I would include it.

Perfect crumpets

Serves 4
1 tsp sugar
200ml whole milk
100ml boiling water
1 tbsp dried yeast
150 g strong white flour
100g plain flour
1tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
20g butter, for cooking

Method

Mix the sugar, milk and boiling water in a jug and stir in the yeast. Leave in a warm place for 15 minutes until frothy.
Combine the flours in a large mixing bowl with the salt.
Stir in the liquid and mix vigorously until smooth. 
Cover and leave in a warm place for between one-and-a-half and two hours until the batter is a mass of tiny bubbles.
Mix the bicarbonate of soda with 50 ml warm water and stir it into the batter.
Cover and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes.
Melt the butter and use it to brush the inside of four crumpet rings. 
Heat a large frying pan on a medium-low heat and grease the pan. 
Put the rings flat into the pan and ladle a spoonful of batter into each, so they are about half full.
Cook until the top is dry and festooned with holes, then push the crumpets out of the rings (you may need a knife for this operation). 
If eating immediately, toast the tops under a hot grill until golden, then serve. 
If you're keeping them, cool on a wire rack, then toast on both sides to reheat.