Fry Bread

Also known as Indian Fry Bread, these are delicious no matter how they're served.

There are yeast and baking powder versions, this is a yeast recipe.

Fry Bread Recipe:
1 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast
1/4 Cup Warm Water (100-105 degrees)
3 tsp Sugar, divided
1 Tbsp Olive Oil or Vegetable Oil
5oz. Can Evaporated Milk, room temperature
2 Cup Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
flour for kneading
peanut or vegetable oil for frying

Dissolve yeast in warm water with 1/2 tsp of sugar, set aside to proof.
In a bowl combine flour, salt, and remaining 2 1/2 tsp of sugar.
Add yeast mixture, oil and milk to flour, mix well.
Dump out on lightly floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 mins.
Cover and rise until double.
Punch down and knead, divide into six equal portions and shape into balls.
Cover and rest 10 minutes while preparing fry oil.
Add 3/4 inch of oil to a 10 inch cast iron skillet* or an electric skillet. **
Heat oil to 375 degrees.
One at a time, roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness, cut a 3 inch slit in the center of dough, cutting almost to, but not through the bottom of the dough.
Fry until puffed and lightly browned on each side (bread should puff almost immediately after being added to the hot oil) drain on towel.

Delicious plain or top with:
Butter and honey
Cinnamon and sugar
Taco fixins' for supper
Fried egg for breakfast

Notes
*To tell if oil is hot enough for frying when using cast iron, dip a wooded spoon into oil, if bubbles form around the spoon, the oil is hot enough to fry
**An electric fryer can also be used if the diameter is at least 8 inches or make fry breads smaller to accommodate

Buttermilk Biscuits

Flaky and perfect for biscuits n' gravy, with beans, or buttermilk fried chicken.

2 1/2 Cups Unbleached All Purpose Flour
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt
5 Tbsp Cold Butter, cut in pieces
1 Cup Cold Buttermilk*

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.
In a large bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Add butter and work together quickly with fingers until coarse "crumbs" form with no pieces bigger than a  marble.
Add milk in one pour and stir with wooden spoon until it just comes together. (add an extra 1-2 Tbsp milk if needed).
Turn onto a floured surface and knead 8-10 times just to make it form a ball.
Gently flatten with the palm of hand then roll to 1/2 to 3/4 in thick.
Pierce dough with a fork completely through at 1/2 inch intervals.
Cut into squares with a pizza cutter or use a 3 inch biscuit cutter.
Place on parchment lined baking sheet 1/2 inch apart.
Bake on upper 1/3 rack of oven for 8-12 minutes.
Makes approx. 9 biscuits.

*I don't always have buttermilk around but I do keep Buttermilk powder in the fridge and these will work well with buttermilk powder (like Saco found at Wal-mart). Just add 4 Tbsp of powder with the dry ingredients and use 1 Cup of cold water or milk instead of buttermilk.

Favorite White Loaf Bread

This homemade bread recipe makes good toast.

2 Pkg Yeast
1/2 Cup Warm Water, 110-115 degrees (use an instant read thermometer)
3 1/2 Cups lukewarm Milk or Potato Water
1/4 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Butter, room temperature
10-12 Cups Bread Flour
     (Sometimes I substitute 3 cups of whole wheat flour for some of the bread flour)

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water with a pinch of sugar taken from the 1/4 cup of sugar, set aside to proof.
Combine milk, sugar, salt, and butter in a large bowl.
Add 4 Cups of flour and mix well.
Add yeast and beat well with whisk until smooth and spongy.
Work in the rest of the flour, then knead until smooth, about 10 minutes.
Round up in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double, about an hour and a half.
Punch down and knead a little.
Shape into 3 loaves, place in greased (and corn-mealed, if you like) bread pans.
Let rise until double, about an hour.
Bake at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes.
If the top of the loaf starts getting too brown during baking, loosly set foil over top of loaves.

Homemade Corn Tortillas

Well, almost homemade, I am not going through the process of boiling corn in slaked lime and grinding here. I use masa harina (fresh corn masa that has been dried and powdered). Yes, you can just use the directions on the bag of masa but I find this cooking method turns out better tortillas.1 3/4 Cups Masa Harina (not corn meal)

1 Cup + 2 Tbsp Hot Tap Water

Pinch of salt (optional)

Mix masa with water and salt, knead in the bowl until smooth, dough should be feel like moist, sandy, play-doh.

Add more masa or water if needed to achieve the right consistency.

Wrap dough ball in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Prepare dough for cooking

Readjust the consistency of the masa back to "play-doh", it will dry a touch during the resting period.

Divide dough into 1-inch balls (about 1 oz. each) and cover with plastic.

Place a griddle on the stove over 2 burners to preheat, turn one burner on low and the other on med-high (or use 2 skillets).

To press tortillas

Split a heavy quart zip-loc bag down the sides to form 2 sheets and lay one piece on the bottom plate of a tortilla press.

Set a ball of dough on the press and cover with the other piece of plastic bag.

Close the press with a smooth even motion (do not over press)

Open and turn tortilla with the plastic 180 degrees, close and press again to an even 1/16 inch.

Peel off the top sheet of plastic, flip the tortilla, dough side down, onto one hand then starting at the corner peel off the other sheet of plastic.

Cook tortillas one at a time after pressing. Pressing all of them, and then cooking, may cause them to dry out too much.

If you do not have a press use 2 pie pans, plates, or cast iron skillets, but if you'll be making these very often a press is worth it.

To Cook

Start by placing the tortilla on the cooler end of the griddle, let cook for about 20 seconds.

If the edges dry out and/or curl the griddle is too hot or cook time was too long.

Then flip it over (uncooked side down) onto the hot side of the griddle. Let cook for about 30-50 seconds until brown spots form on the edges.

Flip again (on the hot side) and let cook for 15-30 seconds, the tortilla should puff up and when lightly browned remove from griddle.

If the tortilla does not puff the griddle may not be hot enough or the dough to dry. It may take a couple to get it right but after a few you get the feel of it.

As tortillas are removed from the griddle, place and wrap them together in a flour sack towel.

Let the stack of wrapped, hot tortillas rest for 15 minutes to soften and finish cooking.

Easy Skillet Rolls

Have fresh bread with supper using this recipe for quick and easy rolls baked in a cast iron skillet.

1/2 Cup Warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 Pkg yeast
2 tsp Sugar

3 Cups Bread Flour
1 tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 Cup Buttermilk
3 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
In a small bowl, sprinkle yeast and sugar over warm water, stir, set aside to let proof.
In a large bowl, add the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
Then add the milk, oil, and yeast mixture, stir to form a stiff dough, add a little more flour if needed.
Dump dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead for approx. 5 minutes.
Roll out dough to fit the bottom of a 10 inch Cast Iron Skillet.
.
Place dough in a well greased skillet.
Use a metal spatula, pressing straight up and down into the dough where you want the rolls to pull apart.
Cover and let rise for 1 hour.
Bake, uncovered, for 12 minutes at 425 degrees.

Homemade Wheat Bread Recipe 1

This is one of two wheat recipes I use on a regular basis for our weekly bread. It's actually a half white, half wheat bread loaf. I prefer the flavor and texture of the half and half recipes better than full whole wheat.

In a large bowl combine:

1 pkg. yeast
2 Cups warm water (100-110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
Let proof, then add 3 cups of white bread flour.
Beat with wooden spoon until smooth.

In a small bowl combine:
1/2 Cup warm water
1/2 Cup packed brown sugar
1/3 Cup shortening (room temp)
Add to bread batter and stir, then mix in 3 Cups wheat flour.

Dump dough out onto a well floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, adding flour as needed.
Place dough in a large bowl, cover and let rise until doubled (1-2 hours depending on room temperature)
Punch down dough, knead. Then again cover and let rise until doubled.
Punch down dough, cut in half and form into 2 loaves. Place loaves in well greased bread pans. Cover and let rise until the dome of the bread is at least level with the top edge of the bread pan.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cover loosely with foil mid-way through baking if the tops get too brown.

How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas

12 easy steps to great homemade flour tortillas

You will need:

2 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/3 Cup, room temperature, Lard or Vegetable Shortening (not oil)

I use a half and half combination of both

1 tsp of Salt dissolved in 1 Cup of hot (from the tap) water

1. In a large bowl combine flour and fats
2. Work together with fingers until completely incorporated, no clumps of fat left


3. Pour about 2/3 cup of the salt water into flour, stir with a fork until it just comes together. Then, if needed, add more salt water a tablespoon at a time so there is no dry flour at the bottom of the bowl. Dough should be in clumps, do not overwork into a solid ball.
4. Dump dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knead until smooth, about 4 minutes. It should be a little stiffer than bread dough and not stick to your counter top.


5. Divide into 12 pieces
6. Roll into balls, place on plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for at least 30 minutes (do not skip the resting period)

7. On a lightly floured surface, slightly flatten the dough ball with the palm of your hand.
8. Roll out until tortilla is about 6-7 inches in diameter and thin. Place between sheets of wax paper if not cooking as you roll them out.


9. Cook tortilla on a med-high griddle, the tortilla should form small bubbles within a few seconds if at the correct temperature. To test for temerature before cooking I drop a little water on the griddle, if it sizzles for a couple seconds then evaporates it's ready
10. A few more seconds later, when big bubbles form and the tortilla has brown spots, flip to cook other side


11. Cook the reverse side until brown spots appear
12. Enjoy!
Use this recipe for Empanadas