Lately I noticed a few posts under "hot dogs" that related to brown bread. Perfectly logical, but in order not to hijack that thread (more than I already have...) I'll put my brown bread adventures here!
As it happens, while not very many cookbooks have recipes for brown bread I seem to be fortunate to have three versions from which to choose.
1. The Better Homes & Gardens Heritage Cookbook. This is a rather feel-good account of how the U.S. became the U.S., told through recipes. Most of them are pretty mainstream or adapted to be so. That's not a knock but rather acknowledgement that starting here is at least safe for those whose kitchens aren't half the floor area of their entire house, like ours.
2. Fix It and Forget It: Baking With Your Slow Cooker (Phyllis Good) is another oddity from that genre of cookbook that tries to tell you how you can do anything you want with name-that-appliance. Useful for those without an oven, I suppose. I was intrigued, it was cheap, it didn't make me feel like taking a shower afterward. She gets a little cutesy at times.
3. I remember when I was a kid my mom had a CrockPot. As a lifelong Presbyterian she could use some astonishing language in the kitchen. I came to understand that anything worthwhile usually had some cussing involved. Oddly enough I make many of the same recipes and don't find it necessary to leverage my extensive knowledge of scatological English. What I remembered most was that there were accessories available for CrockPots, like the "Bread and Cake Bake" -- an aluminum pan with lock-on lid that could be used inside the cooker. I always thought that would be an interesting idea, so when I spotted one in a thrift shop I snagged it. Lo and behold it had the instructions and recipe pamphlet still in it.
OK, time to shift up a couple gears and get this baby rolling...
Greased up the Bread and Cake Bake, fired up the CrockPot. Rewrote the recipe from white flour and a little cornmeal to whole wheat flour + rye flour + cornmeal (as the more historical recipe suggests). I can eat raisins; Mrs. Hippie can't -- so added chopped dried cranberries along with a few pecans and almonds.
OK, I shoulda only put about half the molasses in. (shudder) Sweet!
I will make another one for "shaves and grins." I'll leave out the fruit and nuts, cut back the molasses. Then I'll go get some hot dogs, because.
Oh Aitch
As it happens, while not very many cookbooks have recipes for brown bread I seem to be fortunate to have three versions from which to choose.
1. The Better Homes & Gardens Heritage Cookbook. This is a rather feel-good account of how the U.S. became the U.S., told through recipes. Most of them are pretty mainstream or adapted to be so. That's not a knock but rather acknowledgement that starting here is at least safe for those whose kitchens aren't half the floor area of their entire house, like ours.
2. Fix It and Forget It: Baking With Your Slow Cooker (Phyllis Good) is another oddity from that genre of cookbook that tries to tell you how you can do anything you want with name-that-appliance. Useful for those without an oven, I suppose. I was intrigued, it was cheap, it didn't make me feel like taking a shower afterward. She gets a little cutesy at times.
3. I remember when I was a kid my mom had a CrockPot. As a lifelong Presbyterian she could use some astonishing language in the kitchen. I came to understand that anything worthwhile usually had some cussing involved. Oddly enough I make many of the same recipes and don't find it necessary to leverage my extensive knowledge of scatological English. What I remembered most was that there were accessories available for CrockPots, like the "Bread and Cake Bake" -- an aluminum pan with lock-on lid that could be used inside the cooker. I always thought that would be an interesting idea, so when I spotted one in a thrift shop I snagged it. Lo and behold it had the instructions and recipe pamphlet still in it.
OK, time to shift up a couple gears and get this baby rolling...
Greased up the Bread and Cake Bake, fired up the CrockPot. Rewrote the recipe from white flour and a little cornmeal to whole wheat flour + rye flour + cornmeal (as the more historical recipe suggests). I can eat raisins; Mrs. Hippie can't -- so added chopped dried cranberries along with a few pecans and almonds.
OK, I shoulda only put about half the molasses in. (shudder) Sweet!
I will make another one for "shaves and grins." I'll leave out the fruit and nuts, cut back the molasses. Then I'll go get some hot dogs, because.
Oh Aitch
