Mummy's zucchini bread

My mom's been making this zucchini bread almost all my life. The original recipe came from a cookbook which was compiled by my paternal grandfather's side of the family and given out at a family reunion back in 1982. I think the original recipe came from my great aunt. My mom tweaked it a tad and this is how she (and I) make it.

4 C coarsely shredded zucchini (do not shred in blender)*
3 C all purpose flour
1 C vegetable oil
1 T plus 1 t vanilla
1 T ground cinnamon
1/2 t baking powder
2 C sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 C chopped nuts (optional; my mom always made it without).

*I always shred my zucchini with a grater. My mom does hers in a food processor, when we were little she would say "time for flying zucchini!" (Yeah, we're odd). I'm thinking I might be able to use the Magic Bullet as well, but I've never tried.

Heat oven to 325. Grease/Pam bottoms only of two 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pans. Blend all ingredients on low speed 1 minute, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed one minute. Pour into pans. Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50-60 mins. Cool 10 mins in pans, then remove from pans and cool completely.

Pizza dough, not in the bread machine

This is one of the recipes I used to use to make pizza dough before I got the bread machine. I got the recipe from some free magazine at a health food store. The recipe claims to make two 12" pizza crusts, but I generally got one. However I think my pizza pan is like 18" or something. Also, the recipe does call for half wheat and half white flour but I've made it with all wheat and it comes out fine.

1 package active dry yeast (1/4 oz.)
1 1/2 C warm water
1 1/2 C whole wheat flour
1 1/2 C plus 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 t salt
1 T freshly chopped herbs, optional
1 T olive oil
1 T honey or maple syrup

Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let sit 5 minutes.
Mix flours, salt, and herbs (if using). Add yeast mixture, oil, and honey or maple syrup and mix well.
Place dough on a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Add enough all-purpose flour, 1 T at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Place the dough in a bowl coated with oil or cooking spray and turn to coat. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes, or until double in size.
Punch dough down and let rest for 5 mins. Divide into two balls (if you want to make the 12" pizzas) or just spread the whole crust onto a larger pizza pan.

Pioneer bread

Woo hoo! A bread recipe that doesn't use the bread machine!

My mom made this a lot when I was a kid. I don't know where she got the recipe from, but she passed it on to me.

1 pkg. active dry yeast
3/4 C warm water (105-115 degrees)
3 T sugar
2 t salt
1 egg
3 T shortening
1/3 C yellow cornmeal
2 -2 1/2 C all purpose or unbleached flour
butter or margarine, softened
cornmeal

Dissolve yeast in warm water in large mixer bowl. Add sugar, salt, egg, shortening, 1/3 C cornmeal, and 1 C of the flour. Blend 1/2 minute on low speed, scraping bowl constantly. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in enough remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 mins. Place in greased/Pam'd bowl, turn greased side of dough up. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled...about 1-1 1/2 hrs. (Dough is ready if an indentation remains when touched.) Punch dough down. Platten dough with hands or rolling pin into an 18"x9" rectangle. Fold crosswise into thirds, overlapping the 2 sides. Roll dough tightly toward you, beginning at one of the open ends. Press w/thumbs to seal after each turn. Pinch edge firmly to seal. With side of hand, press each end to seal; fold ends under.

Place loaf seam-side down in greased/Pam'd loaf pan. Brush lightly w/butter/margarine, sprinkle with cornmeal. Let rise until double, about 1-1 1/2 hours.

Heat oven to 400. Bake until loaf sounds hollow when tapped, 35-30 mins. Remove from pan, cool on wire rack.

Wild and crazy south of the border bread!!!

I got this recipe from the Sunbeam website (they made my bread machine. Mia, get a bread machine). I am going to make turkey burgers tonight (recipe following!) and serve it on this bread since the bread WORKED.

Makes a 2-lb loaf.

1 C room temp water (70-80 degrees F)
1 C whole kernel corn, thawed
2 T butter/margarine, softened
2 T canned chopped green chilies
4 cups bread or white flour
1/2 C cornmeal
2 T sugar
1 1/2 t salt
2 t bread machine yeast

Pour water into bread machine pan. Add butter/margarine, corn and chilies. Add flour, cornmeal, and sugar all at once. On one side of the pan add salt to top of flour. On the other side add the yeast. Put pan in bread machine and choose basic setting (or equivalent) for 2-lb loaf, choose your crust color if necessary. Then let your bread bake while you do exciting things like weed the garden!!!!

Whole wheat bread in the bread machine

This recipe comes directly from the recipe book that came with my bread machine, I use the recipe often. My bread machine is a Sunbeam brand and you may have to tweak the recipe a bit based on the settings/size of yours but not too much. (Mia! Get! A bread machine!)

Something to note on this recipe is that it's very touchy, as whole wheat recipes tend to be. If conditions aren't right the bread may not rise as well as it should. It'll be edible, just more...uh...like a brick? Ha. It's best to make it on a dry day rather than a humid day and sometimes it's a good idea to add a touch more water than the recipe calls for. As far as yeast make sure you keep your yeast in the fridge sealed REALLY well in the jar. That's key especially for wheat/heavy flour breads.

1 C + 2 T water (75-85 degrees)
1 T + 1 1/2 t butter/margarine, softened
1/4 C firmly packed light brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 1/2 C whole wheat flour *
2 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

Place ingredients in the pain in this order: water, butter, sugar, salt, and flour. Make an indentation w/your finger on one side of the flour. Add the yeast to the dent, making sure it doesn't come into contact w/liquid ingredients. Insert pan into breadmaker and close lid. Choose the "whole wheat" setting on your bread machine, choose 1.5 lb loaf size (if yours has this setting) and also choose crust color (also if yours has this setting). Press the start button and VOILAAAAAAA you will have real whole wheat bread in about 3 1/2 hours!

*As I've stated before I always, always use King Arthur flours, especially for whole wheat (they also have white wheat which is whole wheat but they...do something to it?) KA flour is really fine and MUCH easier to rise than some of the other whole wheat flours.

Really. REALLY good banana bread.

My aunt (my mom's sister) sent me this recipe by email several years ago. SHE got it from my Aunt Anne, her brother's wife. My Uncle is the editor of the Seattle P-I and I'm not sure if he got it from his work, or something else...but it comes from a b&b in KY (as noted at the end of the recipe). This banana bread recipe is sooooooo. Good. I actually thought of entering it in the county fair; when I eat this stuff, I swoon. I found that using the little bananas (the ones that say they are from Colombia) make the best bread but I think any ones would work fine.

BEST BANANA BREAD
MAKES 2 LARGE LOAVES

• 2 cups mashed banana
• 1 cup strong, black coffee
• 1 1/2 cups melted butter
• 1 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 4 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• Grated rind from one orange
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

Moosh together in a mixing bowl the mashed bananas and coffee. In a separate bowl, mix the butter and sugar. Then add the eggs one at a time mixing in vanilla and almond extract between additions. Stir in the salt and baking soda.

In the third bowl (we didn't say this was easy did we?), mix together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange rind. Combine the ingredients into 1 bowl, mix gently then stir in the raisins and walnuts.

Grease 2 loaf pans and bake at 350 degrees 40-50 minutes. We usually eat one loaf immediately and wrap and freeze the other.

The following recipe is from the Helton House Bed-and-Breakfast in Owensboro, Ky.:

Pizza dough, the bread machine version

1 C warm water
3/4 t salt
2 T olive or vegetable oil
3 C whole wheat flour *
2 t bread machine yeast
cornmeal (if desired)

*This recipe actually calls for white or bread flour. However, being the rebel I am, I tried 100% KA whole wheat and it worked out fine. I've tried various combos of whole wheat/white flour (sometimes 50/50, etc) and it always came out fine. Carlos prefers white so I make it that way these days but whatever you want to use is good. All I recommend if you use whole wheat is that you use King Arthur or something similar; it's much finer than Hodgson Mills brand which is very hard to rise.

Use 1-lb recipe if your brad machine holds 10 C or less of water. Add ingredients to the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer (I add them...in the order they are on the recipe!!!)

Put bread machine on dough cycle. When cycle is complete, remove douth to lightly floured surface. If necessary, knead in additional flour to make dough easy to handle.

Lightly oil the pizza pan(s), springkle with cornmeal. NOTE: This recipe makes enough for 1 regular-sized pizza pan. I sometimes double the recipe if Carlos wants his own pizza. Roll or press to fit into prepared pizza pan(s). Add toppings, bbake at 400 20-30 mins until done.

I have another dough recipe that is not for the bread machine. I just need to find it!