McCoy, Jody and Sage’s Cookbook: Vegetarian Food that Tastes Good
Scones
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tbs honey
2 ½ cup unbleached or organic white flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/2 cup melted butter
Optional: walnuts, chocolate chips, raisins or cranberries
Beat the egg, milk, baking powder and salt. Stir in flour, honey and butter. Add in blueberries or grated semi sweet chocolate. Knead the dough several minutes. Roll out about a ½ inch thin into a regularly shaped rectangle. Cut in smaller rectangles, and then cut these on the diagonal to make triangles. Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
Waffles and Pancakes
Basically these are the same recipe but waffles have more oil
2 cups flour (mix unbleached white with whole wheat, or add some corn meal, or buckwheat
flour in the winter)
(gluten free substitution: 1 ½ cup brown rice flour + ½ cup tapioca flour )
1 3/4 cups milk or soy milk
2 tbs honey
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (vegan sub: 2 tbs cornstarch + 2 tsp vinegar, mixed together with baking powder)
1/8 (for pancakes) to 1/3 (for waffles) cup safflower oil (depending on pancakes or waffles)
Mix eggs, salt, baking powder , oil and milk well. Add flour. Add more milk, if necessary, to get a good pouring consistency for pancakes. You may preheat your waffle iron, and use a stick of butter to rub on plates to prevent sticking. Makes 8 pancakes. For pankcakes pour into a heated, well-oiled frying pan until bubbles form and flip. If desired spring chopped apples and fresh or defrosted blueberries before turning.
Biscuits
2 cups flour (1 cup unbleached and 1 cup whole wheat)
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1/3 cup safflower oil
2/3 cup milk or soy milk
Mix wet ingredients with powder and salt well. Add flour. Roll out into a large circle which is 1/2 inch thick. Cut in pie shape pieces.. Bake-12-15 minutes at 400. Check to see that your oven is not overly hot.
Cornbread
¼ cup oil
1 cup corn meal
1 cup whole wheat or unbleached flour (gluten free: 2/3 cup brown rice flour + 1/3 cup tapioca flour)
2 tsp molasses
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp sea salt
2 eggs (vegan sub: 2 tbs cornstarch + 2 tsp vinegar, mixed together with baking powder)
1 cup milk or soy milk
Mix wet ingredients well along with baking powder and salt. Then add meal and flour. Pour into oiled cake or 8 x8 pan. Bake at 25 minutes at 375 or until toothpick comes out clean. To spice this up, add chopped green or jalepeno chilis. Also adding frozen corn or grated cheese is tasty.
Focaccia-Pizza Dough
This is a nice yeasted bread that doesn’t take too long for an evening meal. This can also be used for pizza dough.
1 package yeast
1 cup warm water
1 tsp salt
3 tbs olive oil
pinch sugar or honey
2 ½ cups unbleached or organic white flour.
Dissolve yeast in warm water with salt, oil and sugar. Stir in flour. Knead as flour is added in to keep it from sticking, until dough is smooth and shiny. Let rise, covered, in a warm place for 30 minutes. After risen, turn dough out and work it into two oval shapes. Put these on oiled baking sheet and let rise 20 minutes. Bake in oven at 375 for 20-30 minutes. If you want a thick crust, you can put a cast iron pan at the bottom of the oven, and pour in boiling water just before you close the oven door on the bread. Rub bread with butter for a shiny crust.
Yeasted Bread-An Art in Itself
This is the sponge method loosely based on the Tassajara Bread Book I have found it takes about five hours to make bread. The three keys to making a great bread are sufficient kneading, salt, and sufficient time to rise.
Sponge
6 cups warm water
3 tbs yeast (3 packages)
½-3/4 cup honey
7-9 cups whole wheat flour
Sprinkle yeast over warm water. Stir in with honey. Beat flour in, adding several cups at a time. The concept of a sponge is to get the yeast growing well without the hindrance of oil or salt. When well mixed, cover and place in a warm place to rise 45-60 minutes.
2 ½ tbs salt
½ cup safflower oil
6-8 cups unbleached or organic white flour
2-3 cups additional flower for kneading:
Sprinkle the salt drizzle the oil around the bowl. Beat in with a large wooden spoon. Add the additional flour several cups at a time. When it gets too thick to stir, begin kneading the flour into the bowl. When the dough begins to hang together, take a sharp metal spoon and scrape all the pieces of dough off the sides of the bowl and incorporate into the dough. Prepare a kneading area by sprinkling it with flour. Work the dough by flattening it into a rough rectangle. Fold the dough in half toward you, and use the heels of both hands to push the folded dough back away from you. Turn the dough a quarter turn, and repeat, folding it, then kneading it by pushing the heels of both hands into the dough, then turning a quarter turn again. This is the critical stage. Knead at least 7 minutes. When the dough has a sheen about it and a hangs together well in a ball, you are done. It should not be gooey or too dry either. Clean the bowl out in which you mixed the dough in and then oil it. Place dough in the bowl, cover and put in warm place. Let rise 40 minutes. Vigorously punch the dough with your fist several times. Recover the bowl, and let rise again 40 minutes. Turn dough out and use pastry cutter (my favorite kitchen tool) to cut dough into fourths. To make a loaf, punch and pull each portion of dough into a rectangle, then roll dough up. Put in oiled loaf pan with seam side down. Take a sharp knife and slice 2-3 diagonal cuts in the top of the loaf. Let dough rise in loaf pans 20 minutes. Bake at 350 for 35-45 minutes. To check to see if it done, take hot pads and invert bread pan over your hand until loafs falls into you hand. Knock on the bottom of the loaf to see if it sounds hollow. This signifies that it is done. Turn loaves out of pans to cool when done. Rub butter on the top of crust to keep crust soft.
Cinnamon Rolls (Yummy)
Use ¼ or ½ of the yeasted recipe dough before making into loaves. Melt 1-2 sticks of butter or margarine and add ½ cup honey, as well 1-2 tbs cinnamon. You need a lot of cinnamon. Roll dough out into a very thin, long rectangle, about 5 inches wide. Spread a portion of melted mixture on dough. Roll dough up into a log. Cut 1 ½ inch sections with pastry cutter. Pour a generous amount of melted mixture into the bottom of a cake pan so that it covers the bottom. Put cut sections into pan with cut view facing up. Place so that the sections are touching but not too close together. Let rise 20 minutes. Bake 20-30 minutes at 375. The key here is to have enough of the melted mixture on the bottom so that when you turn the rolls out after colling on a plate they are gooey. You can also put the individual sections into muffin pans, and then you would need to put some of the melted mixture in the bottom of those pans.
Challah or Braided Christmas Bread
¼ cup warm water
3 tbs yeast
4 cups milk, scalded and cooled
½ cup butter
1 cup sugar, honey or molasses
6 eggs
2 tbs salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins
1 cup walnuts
15-18 cups unbleached or organic flour
Mix yeast, water, and sugar. Then add milk and melted butter. Add enough flour to make a sponge, set aside. Separate eggs and beat whites until stiff. Fold whites into beaten yolks. When dough has doubled add spices. Fold in egg mixture and fold in flour. Knead very well. Let rise again until double. Cut dough in half. Make nine sections of one half of dough. Roll these sections with your hands like clay until they are long round pieces. Pinch the top of the nine pieces together and begin braiding, bringing the side piece over the rest, then the opposite side piece under those. Continue braiding with the newly emerging side pieces. Pinch bottom ends together. Braid second loaf. Put loaves on oiled cookie sheets. They will rise when you bake, so leave sufficient space between the loaves. Let rise 20 minutes. Put on separate oiled cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Check bottom as above to see if done.
Muffins
2 cups flour (1 cup whole wheat, 1 cup unbleached or organic)
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 egg (vegan substitute 1 Tbs cornstarch + 1 tsp vinegar mixed with the baking powder)
¼ cup oil
½- ¼ cup honey or maple syrup
1 ½ cup milk or soy milk
Mix the wet ingredients well with the baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake at 375 for 15- 20 minutes. Obviously there are a lot of variations by adding fresh or defrosted blueberries, poppy seeds, nuts, raisins or cinnamon.
Popovers
1 cup unbleached or ogranic flour
¼ tsp sea salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbs safflower oil
Beat all ingredients with a beater to make sure there are no lumps. Put in well oiled muffin tins. Fell each tin less than half full. Bake at 425 for 25-40 minutes. They should pop up and over. Serve hot. One of my dad’s favorites.