Few weeks ago I baked my first bread in the Dutch Oven, but used all-purpose unbleached white flour, mixed with some whole wheat flour.  The bread was very tasty, and spongy.

Today, I tried the same recipe, but with bread flour, and the results were amazing.

The bread dough was rising much more rapidly than my first one.  It was very spongy, and light, and the bread turned out even better than my first loaf.

I can’t believe there is such an easy way to make homemade bread.

Since I used the same recipe and same directions, I will not repeat them here, but you can check out my previous post, if you are ready to make some fresh bread for your family.

I am definitely going to invest in a Dutch Oven of my own (waiting for a good sale), as this one is borrowed from my daughter.

Can you believe this loaf of bread costs only 81 cents….and that includes all the ingredient, and cost of the energy used to bake it.

My mom always made her own bread for as long as I can remember.  She made the best bread ever.  I wish her recipe was written down, but unfortunately she always baked from memory.

I love the recipe I use for Ukrainian Traditional Easter Bread (Paska).

I also tried making bread in a bread machine, but it was a disaster (the birds in my back yard benefited from a nice bread snack instead, since I never throw away bread into trash).

This time I tried the Dutch Oven recipe (please click here for excellent step-by-step pictures and instructions).

At first I was kind of skeptical, since it does not require any kneading, only 18+ hours of rising on its own without any effort on my part, then it is baked for an hour in a covered Dutch Oven cast iron pot.

I was determined to try it out, and was pleasantly surprised by the look and taste of the baked bread.

This recipe definitely made it to my Pinterest board of  “Recipes Tested and Loved”.

Nothing tastes better than a slice of fresh-baked bread, smeared lightly with soft unsulted butter….aaahhh….so delicious.

My family, and even my toddler grandchildren, absolutely loved it.

As you can see, the bread was a success.

I did brush off most of the excess flour you see all over the top of this bread, then while the bread was still hot, I rubbed a cold butter stick all over the crust (brushed some olive oil into the crevices), for a more luscious appearance, and to soften the crust (a tip from my mom).

If you prefer a very crusty bread top, you may omit this process.

The recipe is very simple, as it only needs bread flour, dry yeast, salt and water.  I did not have bread flour at home, so I used 4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour and 2 cups of wheat flour, and it turned out great.

Since this time I did not make any changes to the original recipe, please go to the  original site  for a specific list of ingredients and instructions.

I would like to mention that I kept the covered dough in my oven (room temperature….not warmed at all), with the door closed, for about 16 hours rather than 18 hours, as it looked ready at that time.

I did use cooking spray with flour, to spray the bottom of the hot pot, before placing the dough in it for baking.

Also, I baked the bread for 45 minutes, covered, then again for 15 minutes uncovered.  I did use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bread to be 200 degrees F, as she suggested.  I checked it after 10 minutes of baking it uncovered, and it was only 185 degrees, so I decided to bake it for another 5 minutes.

Here is my bread baking time frame:

• 9 PM Friday – I mixed the dough, covered it and left it to rise
• 1:15 PM Saturday – the dough was ready to be formed into a ball, wrapped in a cotton kitchen towel, and rest for 2 hrs.
• 2:45 PM Saturday – Preheated the oven and placed the Dutch oven in there to heat it up
• 3:15 PM Saturday – Placed the ball of dough into the hot Dutch Oven and started baking process
• 3:15 – 4 PM Saturday – baked the bread in a covered Dutch Oven
• 4 – 4:15 PM Saturday – uncovered the pot and baked the bread until its center  reached 200 degrees F
• By 5 PM Saturday, the bread was cool enough to slice and sample.

I honestly recommend this recipe, as I know you will be so proud of yourself making a homemade bread that is almost effortless, yet sooooo tasty.

Not to mention the low cost of this loaf of bread!!

Here is a quote of the cost calculation, as posted on the original site:

81 cents for a substantial 2.5 pound loaf of bread

Enjoy!!

Eastern Europeans harvest their own poppy plants, thus have plenty of organic, home grown poppy seeds to use in their cooking and baking.

I already posted one Poppy Seed Sheet Cake recipe, and now have another one for you to try out.

This one uses butter rather than oil,  and larger quantities of similar ingredients, making it lighter in color and texture, and giving it a buttery, cake like taste.  It is the Solo recipe, with some modifications.

Here again, I would like to stress that this sheet cake is NOT very tall, even though it looks like it is, due to the close up of the photo.  Most sheet cakes are not very tall in general.

This cake rises well during baking, but drops to 1.5 – 1.75 inches in height, once completely cooled.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 can (12.5 oz) Solo brand Ground Poppy Seed Filling
• 4 large eggs, separated (keep the whites refrigerated for later use)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (I used lemon extract)
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Confectioners sugar for dusting the top of cake before serving

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Grease, and flour, a 10 x 2 x13 baking pan, and set aside. (I use Crisco shortening to grease my cake pans)
3. In a large mixer bowl place the room temperature butter and granulated white sugar, and beat well until light and fluffy.
4. Add Poppy Seed Filling, and mix until well incorporated.
5. Add the egg yolks one at a time, and mix well after each addition.
6. Mix in vanilla extract and sour cream, until incorporated.
7. In a separate mixing bowl sift the flour with baking soda and salt.
8. Gradually add the flour to the butter mixture, mixing well after each addition.
9. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
10. Using a spatula, gently fold the egg whites into the cake batter.
11. Pour the cake batter into the greased/floured pan, smooth the top to spread it evenly.
12. Bake in preheated oven, on a middle oven rack,  for 45 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
13. Remove from the oven, and cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.
14. After 10 minutes, transfer the cake from the baking pan onto the wire rack, and cool completely.
15. Cut into serving pieces, and dust with powdered sugar before serving.

This cake also freezes well.

Must be wrapped well, to prevent freezer burn.

Enjoy.

Easter is just around the corner, so all the necessary preparations for this Holy, and very traditional holiday, have to be planned well in advance, to be fully achieved in a timely fashion.

Ukrainians, and many other nationalities, enjoy many very rich traditions associated with Easter celebrations.

You can click on the links below, to learn more about the Ukrainian Easter Traditions.

• Paska Recipe – Ukrainian Traditional Easter BreadPaska
  
• Bakeware suggestions

• Ukrainian Easter Egg decorating technique
• Pysanka – Tradition and Design
• Ukrainian Easter Basket
• Special Foods and Symbolism
• Red Beets Vinaigrette – Burachky

This weekend was Paska Baking time for me and my daughter, as well as my 4 year old granddaughter, who not only loves to watch, she also was a very enthusiastic helper.  We are so blessed to have her in our family.

As a result of about 10 hours of Paska Baking time, we ended up with 9 round Paska loaves, as pictured above ( the small “roll” like loaf, was a left over dough from our decorations, so we decided to bake it for the youngest member of our family, who is only 10 months old).

We doubled our original recipe (in the link above), and implemented some changes to the second batch of dough, just to test the theory passed on to us by our friends.

In the second batch, we replaced 2 cups of regular flour, with 2 cups of CAKE flour, and used only 1/4 cup of melted butter plus 1/4 cup of Canola oil.  We also kneaded the dough for about 30 minutes in the bowl, and skipped the kneading on the floured board.

My oven seems to be baking better at lower temperatures, so I bake my paska for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F, and another 30 minutes at 325 degrees F, rather than the 15 @400, and 30 @350.

Here is a cross-cut section of our paska bread.  As you can see it turned out very light, and fluffy.

The paska with the cake flour was fluffier than the regular recipe, and the one with the mixture of butter and oil crumbled less, than the one with butter only.

Per baking tips from my mom, I always brush the tops of my baked, still slightly warm paska, with melted butter, to give them a nice finish, and to soften the crust.

Since I bake my paska at least a week before Easter, so to keep it nice a fresh, I freeze it until Easter Saturday.

Once the bread is totally cooled off, I wrap it in aluminum foil, place it in a freezer bag, and freeze it.  I also store it in a zip-lock bag after blessing of the basket, to keep it from drying out by Easter Sunday.

In my previous post about the different bakeware for baking paska, I promised that if I find more information about my favorite pans, will share it with you.

I stopped at a local Goodwill store, and to my surprise, I found several similar (brand new) pans, and bought them all @ one dollar each.

Most of them still do not have any manufacturing information on them, however one set was made by KOBE mixing bowls, designed exclusively for JC Penny, made in Indonesia.

Also, some of the flower designs of these bowls, resemble Corningware dinnerware, wouldn’t you agree?

If you still need to bake your Paska, now you have additional tips on the original recipe, and the paska bakeware.

Enjoy your Paska Baking experience.  Please share your pictures and tips.

HAPPY EASTER!

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KHRYSTOS VOSKRES – VOISTYNU VOSKRES !- (in Ukrainian)

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KHRYSTUS ZMARTVYCHVSTAL – PRAVDZIVIE ZMARTVYCHVSTAL! (in Polish)

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KRISTUS ER OPSTANDEN! -  JA HAN ER SANDELIG OPSTANDEN! (in Danish- shared by one of my readers)

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CHRIST IS RISEN – INDEED HE IS RISEN!

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This recipe came up at a spur of a moment, after I made an error in purchasing chopped dates, rather than chopped figs, intending to make Cream Cheese Fig Bars.

Since I never baked with dates before, it was a wonderful experience, and the Granola Date Bars turned out great.

I will definitely make these again, since they make a perfect mid morning, or mid afternoon snack, not to mention the abundance of fiber in these.

Next time I will try to mix in some Super Cranberry, Cherry, and Almond Muesli, made by Dorset Cereals, which I love for breakfast.

I guess the good old saying  “If God gives you lemons, you have to learn to love lemonade”, pairs up well with the birth of this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 8 oz chopped dates (2 cups)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup (Organic Vanilla Almond FlaxPlus Granola (or increase the oats by 1/2 cup)
• 1 -1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I used unbleached flour)
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (may use margarine)
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

Directions:

1. Combine dates and water in a medium saucepan.
2. Bring to boil, and cook 3-4 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thickened.
3. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
4. Set aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
6. In a medium mixing bowl, combine flour, oats, granola,baking soda, salt and brown sugar.
7. Mix well, to incorporate all ingredients.
8. Stir in melted butter, and mix to moisten dry ingredients.
9. Measure 2-1/2 cups of oats mixture, and press gently into a 9 x 9 inch baking pan, to make the bottom crust.
10. Top with date filling, leaving 1/4 inch margin all around the edge, free of filling (to prevent filling from crusting up,  and burning during baking).
11. Combine chopped nuts with the remaining oats mixture, fill the margin around the date filling, and spread the rest on the top of the filling.
12. Press gently into the filling.
13. Bake at 350 degrees F, for 2o minutes.
14. Cool in pan on wire rack.
15. Cut into serving size, 1 x 3 inch bars, or 1 x 1 inch bite size chunks.

Enjoy.

TIP: This recipe is NOT for The Fat Smash Diet phase I, but is OK in phase III.