Breadsticks/Pizza Dough

My daughter's science teacher gave us a recipe to make for extra credit.  I made it twice that weekend.  The first time a single recipe the second time we doubled the recipe...and then I gained 2 lbs!  They are quite delicious.  My daughter sprinkled them with poppy seeds, but kosher salt, sesame seeds, or Parmesan cheese are also great on them.




Mrs. B.'s Bread Sticks/Pizza Dough

Preheat oven to 425F
1 pkg. yeast
1 cup warm water
a few tsp. sugar
Mix above ingredients together and wait until mixture becomes bubbly
add 2 1/3 cups of flour (white, wheat or a mixture)
1 tsp salt
Stir the flour and salt in thoroughly until the dough sticks together in a big ball (I rub some olive oil on my hands to prevent the dough from sticking to me)  Coat the dough with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap and a towel.  Set the dough in the bowl aside in a warm place to rise for 30 minutes.

After the dough rises, form it into either bread sticks or into pizza.  Let the dough rise for 10 minutes if you are making pizza, top with toppings and put in oven.
Bake for approx. 20-23 minutes.  Breadsticks may need less time. Remove from oven when ready
Coat breadsticks with butter after baking and sprinkle with parmesan cheese if desired.  Dip in tomato sauce.

One recipe is enough for one batch of breadsticks, but I often double or triple the recipe.

Patty's Corn Bread Pudding

As you know I made chili today.  I also like to make a corn bread pudding recipe when I make chili.  I got this from one of my dearest friends a few years back, and today happens to be Patty's Birthday -- Patty this is in honor of your 28th Birthday (That is a number we can both agree on right?) :-)

Patty's Corn Bread Pudding
Serves 6-8

1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 (8.5 ounce) package dry corn bread mix   
1 (15 ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (14.75 ounce) can creamed corn
1 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and lightly grease a 9x9 inch baking dish.
In a medium bowl, combine butter, eggs, corn bread mix, whole and creamed corn and sour cream. Spoon mixture into prepared dish.
Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top is golden brown.

My kids love this dish.

As you can see the ingredients are easy- 1 stick butter, melted; 2 eggs, beaten; 1 can creamed corn; 1 can corn kernels, drained; 1 cup sour cream and 1 box of corn muffin mix (I really like Jiffy).  Just combine them all together in the baking dish after you melted the butter in the dish and bake in same vessel.  Easy easy easy and ever so yummy!

Artisan Bread

I recently purchased a book: Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day.
The Authors are: Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

I won't post the recipe here since I think you should go out and get the book yourself (or at the library if they carry it) I highly recommend it! The master recipe is quick and easy! Hardly any time is used in mixing the dough.



I won't post the recipe here since I think you should go out and get the book yourself (or at the library if they carry it) I highly recommend the book!

You can make the dough ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks! Take dough out of the batch (the batch makes about 4 loaves) and bake the loaf when you want. It takes a minute to shape.. 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours to rise ...

and 35 minutes to bake -- and best of all: It tastes like the Artisan Bread at your local bakery! I am hooked! If you like sourdough taste, let it be in the refrigerator at least a week. You don't even have to wash out your bread dough container, just add the new batch of dough and it will become like sourdough more quickly.




Other things you need:
UNBLEACHED all purpose flour
water
kosher salt
Instant yeast (sold in bottles is better than packets, but packets can also be used)
a quality pizza stone -- I started off with a Pampered Chef one I had, but it is looking very dark now, I may upgrade to a thicker one in a while.
a pizza peel (though a cookie sheet with no edges works too in a pinch)
cornmeal
broiling pan and boiling hot water (for steam)
bake at 450 (get an oven thermometer- for best accuracy)

Enjoy!