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BREADS |
There was a time not so awfully long ago when a person didn't simply run down to the
local bakery or super market to buy bread, they had to make their own. Cowboys, who
normally worked from dawn till dark, simply did not have the time to wait for yeast to
work and the bread to rise, so they came up with a recipe for making biscuits in less than
half an hour.
COWBOY BISCUITS
2 Cups Flour
1 T. Baking Powder
1 T. Sugar
2 T. Crisco, Lard or Butter
2/3 Cup Milk
Preheat oven to 450, even though real chuckwagon cooks used a dutch oven and glowing
coals for baking biscuits. Mix dry ingredients and cut in shortening until mixture has a
texture sort of like corn meal. Add milk and use a fork, spoon or your hand to combine.
Put the dough onto a floured surface and roll around until all sides are coated and no
longer sticky. Place ball of dough into a well-greased cake pan or iron skillet and pat it
down to an even thickness. Grease the top surface with butter or margarine.
Using a soup can, baking powder can or even a small glass; cut one round biscuit right in
the middle of the pan. It should then look like a bull's-eye or the insignia on the wing
of a Spitfire. For the western history buff, that center biscuit is known as the
"Cook's Biscuit".
The tip of an egg turner works just great for the next step but it can be done with a
table knife. Cut through the dough between the center biscuit and the rim of the pan in 8
equally-spaced places, making a total of nine biscuits.
See how much simpler that was than trying to cut individual round biscuits which are no
longer round once they are shoved together in the pan.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until nice and brown on top.
Nine biscuits should serve four people, unless you happen to have some honey or a jar of
Mexican strawberry jam to go with them, and then they will probably only serve two.
COUNTRY CORNBREAD
The son of a rather backwoodsy family went off to college and when he returned home for
Christmas, his father asked him, "What are you studying in college?"
The son replied, "My favorite subject is geometry.
"Well, say something for us in geometry," ordered his father.
Now wanting to make his father appear ignorant in front of all their friends, he replied,
"Pi R Square."
The father jumped to his feet and yelled, "Them damn fool college perfessers don't
know nothing. Pie ain't square, pie are round. Cornbread are square."
1 Cup Cornmeal, preferably yellow
1/2 Cup Flour
I T. Sugar
1 T. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
3 T. Bacon Grease
1 Egg
1 Cup Milk
Preheat oven to 450. While country cornbread is always baked in a square pan, cowboys
cooked theirs in an iron skillet. You can use whichever turns you on. Melt bacon grease in
the pan and tilt to coat interior. Mix all dry ingredients and beat egg in the milk. Stir
the milk and egg into the dry ingredients. When well blended, pour all of the grease that
you can from the pan into the batter and mix. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 15
minutes, or until top surface is browned and toothpick comes out clean.
For Mexican cornbread, add 1/2 cup minced onion and two finely chopped jalapenos, which
have had the seeds removed, to the batter before baking.
My grandmother used to make what she called "Breakfast Cornbread" by adding a
cup of raisins or chopped dried fruit which had been plumped up in hot water, three
additional tablespoons of sugar and a dash of cinnamon. Served hot with butter and syrup
or honey, it was fantastic.
PAN BREAD
This is really an all purpose recipe which can become flour tortillas, pie crusts,
dumplings or a bread much like Pita Bread. The dough for this bread will keep for several
days in the 'fridge or at least one day at room temperature. In fact, it works better if
made ahead of time and allowed to set for a while.
1 Cup Flour
2 T. Solid Shortening (lard, butter, bacon grease or Crisco)
1 Tsp. Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp. Salt
4 T. Cup Cold Water
Cut flour, baking powder and salt into the shortening until it takes on the consistency
of corn meal. Add water and mix into a stiff dough If the dough is too dry and keeps
falling apart, add one or two more spoons of water. Work dough on a floured surface for a
couple minutes. Store in a plastic bag.
To cook as pan bread, heat dry skillet until a drop of water will bounce around a bit
before evaporating. It is important that the pan not be too hot or the bread will burn.
Pinch off pieces of the dough in balls about the size of an egg and pat between your hands
until no more than a quarter inch thick. Put into pan and keep checking the bottom side
until nice and brown. Turn over and finish cooking. Total cooking time will be about 10
minutes.
Cut the uncooked dough into one inch strips and boil about 10 minutes in chicken or beef
stock to make dumplings.
Toss these pieces of dough into hot oil and brown on one side. Turn to brown the other
side and you have Indian Fry Bread or Sopapillas.
To make flour tortillas, follow the directions for pan bread except that you will need to
roll the dough very thin before cooking.
This recipe will also make one pie crust when rolled out to fit the average 6 or 9 inch
pie pan.
QUICK & EASY ROLLS
There is nothing like a pan of hot, home-made rolls to brighten up the evening meal, however few RV cooks care to take the time and effort required to make them. Here is a recipe which is easy to make and require only about an hour from conception to consumption.