Oatmeal Batter Bread

My mom sent me a whole bunch of batter bread recipes this week - thanks, Mom! Batter breads are kind of a cross between a quick bread and a yeast bread - they use yeast, but they come together really quickly, require no kneading, and usually only have one short rise rather than the standard two. So they're pretty easy, and relatively quick to make. I made a dill one a few weeks ago from James Beard's Beard on Bread, and it was delicious. But that's neither here nor there. The selection of recipes that Mom sent had four recipes, including one for a beer bread that is essentially just beer and flour. I was torn between making that one and the one that I ended up making, but decided to go the oatmeal route since I am planning on using the bread for my lunch this week and beer bread seems like it would be a better soup bread than lunch bread. Anyway.

Oatmeal bread - yum!

Pretzel Rolls - a test drive

It seems like pretzel bread is everywhere these days - maybe it was always there and I never noticed, but I'm noticing a lot more pretzel-based foods lately. Not that that's a bad thing. A good soft pretzel is pretty amazing. So here I am, part of the pretzel bread craze due to my husband, who is from the Philadelphia area. Apparently, Philly is known for its pretzels. This was news to me when we started dating, and now I've just accepted it. A Philly pretzel seems to me to be just a soft pretzel in a squished pretzel shape, and not unlike the Katie's pretzels I ate through high school. One of the great uses of the Philly pretzel, I'm told, is to make pretzel dogs. And so we are. Or at least, we will be.

Philly pretzels (from nj.com)

Bridal Shower Bites - Mom's English Muffin Loaf

I called my mom as soon as I got the Bridal Shower invitation - apparently she knew all about it but didn't want to spill the beans. Anyway, the first thing she said was, "I have no idea what recipe to send you. You already have all of my recipes!" And I do. Mom made a cookbook for me as a college graduation present that has all of the recipes I loved from growing up, and she keeps sending me new ones that she's tried or thinks look interesting. I send her recipes, too, so we have a pretty fluid recipe sharing system already set up. Which means that it was hard for either one of us to think of a recipe that she has that I don't, and she didn't want to send just any recipe without trying it out first. I told her she didn't have to send any, since she's already given me so many, but Mom likes to play by the rules.  So she went on a mission!

Is it a muffin, or is it bread??

Leftover Thursday - Biscuits

I've been thinking about making biscuits for a while, particularly since reading Amelia Simmons' recipes for biscuits.  As I think I mentioned earlier, one of Amelia's biggest contributions to the world of cookbooks is her use of chemical leaveners, particularly pearl ash and emptins.  Pearlash - potassium carbonate, for the chemists out there - is a more refined version of potash, which is made from the ashes of hardwood trees and is commonly used in soap-making.  Pearlash was discovered in the 1740s, although potash has been around for much longer.  By the 1760s, potash had become a major export from Canada, with most of it being sent to Great Britain.  Potash continued to be a major export from both Canada and the United States as pioneers moved westward, culling forests as they went.

First U.S. Patent, issued in 1790 to Samuel Hopkins for his new process of refining potash and pearlash.