Pumpkin Bread by my Mother

Every family has its staples...you know what I mean, something "produced or stocked in large quantities to meet steady demand."--thank you Webster.    Growing up in my parents' home we had some pretty great staples.  Each fall my mother made multiple batches of heavenly Pumpkin bread, it was a fall staple food and continues to be in my home today.  When I called my  mother this week to chat she was making up a super batch and I just had to whip up some myself.

My Kindergartener needed some cupcakes for school and I needed a loaf to use for my Preschooler's Joy School group.  This recipe made two extra large loafs plus a dozen cupcakes.  Perfect!

P.S. I used "Our Best Bites" Buttercream Frosting Recipe for the cupcakes, that is a DYNAMITE recipe!

Pumpkin-Walnut Bread Deluxe

(the MEGA batch)

5 ¼ cups flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. soda

4 ½ cups sugar

1 ½ tsp. cloves

1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

1 ½ tsp. nutmeg

*1 ½ cups walnut pieces

*1 ½ cups chocolate chips

6 eggs

1 large can of pumpkin

1 ½ cups vegetable oil

1 ½cups cold water

*optional

Blend flour, baking powder, soda, salt, sugar, spices, walnut pieces and chocolate chips in large bowl and set aside.

Beat eggs well in large mixing bowl, then add pumpkin and blend thoroughly.

Add oil and 1 ½ cups cold water and mix well.

Pour over flour mixture and stir until completely blended.

Place in 3 greased and floured small loaf pans or 2 large loaf pans.

Bake small loaves in preheated 325°F oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or large loves at 300°F for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Very Tasty Zucchini Bread

Starting over in a new town can be hard.  Our first month here I often felt alone.  My husband jumped into his new job with both feet and was busy and gone for a lot of our first few weeks.  Sometimes it felt overwhelming and one day my children and I just jumped in the car and started driving.  I was looking for something to help calm me down and that is when I first came across a local farm market.  It was love at first site.



Since that day, when I get stressed about being in a new place, I load up the kids and we head to a farm market.  I give the kids some change and they pick out a snack from the produce.  Sometimes my kids suggest a trip before I do.  I just love being surrounded by the fruits of a great harvest.  Everything is delicious and amazingly priced.  We are in produce heaven!

Right now there is squash of every shape and size everywhere you look.  I've got some groovy gourds decorating my kitchen counter.  But with all the fancy, multi-colored beauties, I still couldn't resist bringing home the "plain-jane" of the squash family.  Call me nostalgic but I grew up eating zucchini in every way imaginable and no fall would be complete without yummy zucchini bread.  This recipe came out of an old Mormon cookbook my mother gave me.  It is moist and fills my entire house with the most wonderful aroma.  And kids love it too--SCORE!  Enjoy!
 

Zucchini Loaf 

adapted from Mormon Cooking 1st Edition 1985

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 eggs

1 cup oil (AND/OR applesauce*)

3 tsp vanilla

2 cups grated Zucchini

Sift together:

3 cups flour

1 tsp soda

1 tsp salt

3 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking powder

Combine wet and dry ingredients.  Mix well.  Put into greased and floured pans.  Bake 1 hour at 325 degrees.  Makes 2 loaves.

*I usually pour about 1/2 to 3/4 a cup applesauce in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Then I fill in the rest of the 1 cup with oil (so about 1/4 to 1/2 cup oil).  

Easy, Light and Fluffy Rolls My Momma Makes

My mother bakes rolls and scones that make people swoon.  Seriously, she has mad skills in the kitchen. A few years back this lovely lady made a mighty batch of "Mormon Scones" (aka fry bread) at our family reunion in her usual custom of just putting in this and that till it "looks and feels right"...but I made her measure it all out and I wrote it down.  Since then I have adjusted the recipe down to make a pan of dinner rolls.  This recipe is fast and simple so it can be thrown together relatively quick and still bring tasty results.

Elaine's Roll & Scone Recipe
(as recorded and adjusted by moe)
2 1/4 cup hot tap water (as hot as you can get from the tap)
1 1/2 Tbsp yeast
1/3 cup sugar (sometimes I use powdered honey)
1/4 cup oil
1 Tbsp salt
5-6 cups flour (I like to use half whole wheat flour sometimes if I feel up to grinding some)

Pour hot water in a big mixing bowl.  Sprinkle yeast on top and pour sugar over yeast (sometimes I let this sit for a minute but not necessary).  Pour oil and salt in and add 2 cups flour and mix.  Cover and let this mix sit and "sponge" until the surface is nice and bubbly.

Once it is nice and bubbly add 3 more cups of flour and mix until the dough is workable (aka starting to leave sides of bowl).  Put the mixing spoon down, take off your rings and start to knead dough. Add more flour as you work it until you can touch the dough with an oiled finger and pull it away without dough sticking on your finger.  Knead for a few minutes (if you're stressed out knead a few more minutes, its great therapy).  Pour a couple tablespoons worth of oil on a clean counter. Place dough on oiled counter and let dough rest and rise covered with a kitchen towel (about 30 minutes).

Coat your hands in oil and begin grabbing small bits of dough and pinching them from dough mound.

Place in greased 9 by 13 pan.  *I believe the trick to great rolls is pan placement.  Put them close enough together so that they have lots of side-to-side contact.  That makes for nice crust on top and soft fluffy sides.

Let rolls rise in the pan for 10-15 minutes while oven heats.   Bake at 350 till rolls sound hollow when tapped on top (about 20-25 minutes).  Tops should be golden brown.

Serve with soups, roasts or whatever you like.  We ALWAYS serve these with Homemade Freezer Jam and my children inhale them...sometimes I wonder if they even have time to taste them before they gobble them up.

And I feel I must warn you...this recipe actually can leave you with a little bit of extra dough...especially if you keep your dough balls nice and small in your pan.  It leaves you with a perfect amount of dough to flatten out into a rectangle.  Smother that with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and BING! you have a small pan of {cinnamon rolls} all ready for dessert :)  Just for the record--my husband and I ate these cinnamon rolls with maple frosting after the boys were in bed...the entire pan.  I think we should get a medal or something for sparing our children the calories and tooth-rotting sugar that they would have been subjected to if we let them share with us.  Just sayin :)

You can also use this dough for scones (or "fry bread"). We make {Navajo Tacos} with this recipe very often (that is the "birthday" meal for both of my sons because they LOVE it so much).

The Most Excellent Banana Bread Recipe

One of my favorite treats is banana bread. I have so many wonderful memories of eating warm banana bread that my mom would make on fall or winter days. There is nothing much better than coming in from a cold snowy East Idaho day and eating warm banana bread. Now I have tried many different recipes for banana bread and they never are great. Finally, I came across a couple different recipes on Pinterest and combined what I liked from them and came up with this recipe. I use this recipe all the time and it always turns out perfect. It even taste good on hot humid Texas days. I hope y'all enjoy.

The Most Excellent Banana Bread Recipe

In one bowl mix-

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

In another bowl mix-

1 cup sugar

4 TBS softened butter

2 large eggs, 3 bananas

1/3 cup vanilla/plain flavored Greek yogurt

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together with hand mixer until mixed well. Combine flour mixture and wet mixture together and mix well but don’t over mix. Combine 1-2 cups of your favorite mixture combination. Some of my favorite’s are-

*1 cup mini chocolate chips and 1 cup broken up frozen raspberries(tossed in 1 TBS of flour)

*1 cup shredded coconut and 1 cup butterscotch chips

*1 cup cinnamon chips and 1 cup chopped walnuts

*1 cup mini reeses pieces

I pour into one large loaf size bread pan or three mini loaf pans then I sprinkle with a cinnamon streusel. This is Our Best Bites recipe doubled. It makes a lot and I store it in a airtight container in my fridge and use whenever I make sweet breads or muffins.

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup sugar

5 TBS flour

1 tsp cinnamon

3 TBS butter

Combine sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in butter with a two butter knives or pastry cutter until mixture is crumbly.

Put in oven and bake at 350 until center of bread is cooked through. The mini loaves take around 60 minutes. The large loaf takes 80 minutes.(Make sure you keep a eye on them both after 1 hour) I test the center by using a wooden bbq skewer. Enjoy a nice piece of banana bread with a spread of butter.

A quick shout out to my new favorite BREAD PANS. I ordered these from Amazon at the beginning of the year and they have been so much fun to use. I love that I can make three small loafs and give away most of my yummy treat. Then I don't feel so guilty baking yummy sweets. These are also perfect for freezing because they don't take long to thaw.

Look how cute these little banana breads turned out for my visiting teaching ladies. 

Aunt Tuney's Awesome Tortillas!!!

We LOVE this recipe.  I use it at least once a week now and it is a huge money saver too!!! (Tortillas can be expensive!!!)  We use it the most for bean burritos (my husband is on a high fiber diet) yum!
My hubby has some distant relatives that we are getting to know here in our new town!  At a family gathering my husbands cousin (Aunt Tuney) made us amazing burritos with homemade tortillas.  She was gracious enough to share the recipe with me and gave permission for me to post it here.  Enjoy!!! 
P.S.  I have started using whole wheat flour in these and is super yummy!

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder                                                       
1 teaspoon oil (Like Crisco not Penzoil)

Water to make a dough. I don’t know how much, try ½ cup, if not enough, add more, if too much, add a little flour.  Mix all this all together. Pull off some dough and roll it out, pretty thin.  Separate each one with wax paper if making enough for company.  Cook in a frying pan when grease is hot. Turn over onto other side and cook. It doesn’t take very long to cook, like maybe 10-15 seconds on each side. Place tortilla on a plate..
This recipe is okay to double but not triple or more.  Just make another batch.

Idaho Spudnuts with Citrus Glaze

This recipe was found online from Taste of Home: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Idaho-Spudnuts
So good and reminds me of growing up and watching my parents make donuts together!

Ingredients

• 1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
• 1-1/2 cups warm milk (110° to 115°)
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 7-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Additional oil for deep-fat frying
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

• Place potatoes in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid; cool to 110°-115°. Discard remaining cooking liquid. Mash potatoes without milk or butter.
• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in reserved cooking liquid. Add the mashed potatoes, milk, oil, sugar, eggs and salt. Add enough flour to form a soft dough. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top.
• Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; let rise again until doubled, about 20 minutes. Roll out on a floured surface to 1/2-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-in. doughnut cutter.
• In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375°. Fry doughnuts, a few at a time, until golden brown.
• For glaze, in a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, water and vanilla until smooth. Dip warm doughnuts in glaze. Cool on wire racks. Yield: 4 dozen.

I use a citrus glaze that I have in an old Mormon Cookbook that my mom gave me (thanks mom)

Orange Doughnut Glaze

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp orange juice

1 tsp orange rind

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 cup warm water

Place buter, juice, rind and water in bowl and heat over hot water until butter is melted.  Remove and add sugar and salt; beat until smooth (I usually add more powdered sugar)

Amazing Huckleberry Muffins!!!

Did I mention these were amazing...I got them from allrecipes. com--thank you Laura!!!
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/huckleberry-muffins/detail.aspx

Nothing says Idaho more than huckleberries, in our new town when we want to impress we make something with huckleberries in it and they are always a crowd pleaser.  These huckleberry muffins are no exception...I took them to a Relief Society gathering and they were gone within minutes of starting the social. 

Seriously addictive yet very simple:

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4  cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup huckleberry
1 Tbsp flour

 Cream butter and sugar, add wet ingredients.  Mix dry ingredients and pour in.  Mix well.  It says to toss huckleberries in the 1 Tbsp of flour but I just dump them in...in fact I just dumped everything into a mixer and mixed it all up.  Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.  Press on tops and if it bounces back up the muffins are done.  If I fill muffin tins to about 2/3 full I can get two dozen out of the recipe.  :)

Buttermilk Pancakes with Buttermilk Syrup

I got this pancake recipe from our friend's the Johnson's and it is heaven sent. I have never really had good homemade pancakes before and these completely sold me on the idea. Thank's for sharing Brittany :)

Johnson's Buttermilk Pancakes

3 eggs separated

1 tsp soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 2/3 cups buttermilk

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbs sugar

1/2 c vegetable oil

Beat egg whites until stiff, set aside. Put yokes and the rest of the ingredients together and mix. Last but not least fold in egg whites. It is what makes the pancakes so FLUFFY!!!

This Buttermilk Syrup is McKenzie's and I have been waiting for her to put it on here but she is just a little bit busy moving to "Braska" right now and so I thought I would put it on the blog for her. It is SO SO SO yummy! I had never had this Syrup until McKenzie fed me and Damien breakfast a few months back and I fell madly in love with it :)

McKenzie's Buttermilk Syrup

11/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup butter(one stick)

2 tbs corn syrup

1 tsp soda

You just mix all of the above ingredients and cook on medium heat. Stir constantly until the liquid turns the caramel color and is thick like syrup :) It is also really good on crepe's and on ice cream.

Homemade French Bread

My wonderful sister-in-law made this french bread recipe when visiting with her kids a couple weeks ago.  It was so yummy I had to try it.  I was really pleased with how it turned out.  Like her, I used whole wheat flour.  She loves the blog "Deals to Meals" and got the recipe from that website.  If you love yummy bread check it out. 

http://dealstomeals.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post_09.html

Sausage Stuffed Loaf- Taste of Home

2 loaves frozen bread dough (1 pound each)

1 pound Italian sausage

1 package (10 oz) frozen spinach, thawed squeezed dry

2 cups mozzarella cheese

2 cups swiss cheese

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 TBS butter

1 egg lightly beaten

Thaw bread dough until doubled in size. Cook sausage, drain, add spinach, cheese, oregano, and garlic and then set aside.

Roll each bread into 14 in by 12 in rectangle. Put sausage in middle, gently press down and then bring edges up and pinch to seal. Place seam down on cookie sheet and form into crescent shape. Brush with egg. Bake 350 for 20-25 minutes. Let stand 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Buttery Crescent Rolls

I got this from a Taste of Home recipe magazine and I like them.  They work great for chicken roll ups (recipe already posted)

1 pkg yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 tsp salt
4 to 4 1/2 cup flour
additional butter, melted

Dissolve yeast in water (I add the sugar too).  Add milk, butter, egg, salt and 2 cups flour--beat on medium speed 2 minutes (I then let it sit and bubble for a while).  Stir in enough remaining flour for a soft dough.
Knead 6 to 8 minutes and place on greased surface (turn once).  Cover and let rise until double (about 1 hour). 
Punch down and divide in half.
Roll each portion into 12 inch circles and cut into 12 wedges.  Roll up  and place on cookie sheet, curve edges.  Cover, let rise til double (about 30 minutes)  Bake at 375 for about 12-14 minutes
Brush melted butter and remove to wire racks to cool.  (makes two dozen)

Peaches and Cream Muffins

Peaches and Cream Muffins1 Egg
½ c sour cream (add a little milk if mix to thick)
¼ c vegetable oil
1 ½ c flour
½ c sugar
2 t baking powder
½ t salt
1 cup chopped peaches (good way to use canned peaches)
Bake @ 375 for 20-25 minutes. I have found that sprinkling brown sugar on the tops of muffins before cooking makes them taste super good. I also use this for cobbler in the Dutch oven. I just add a tsp of cinnamon to the batter and put the peaches on bottom.

Yummy Rolls

Yummy Rolls
1 c butter melted
2 c warm water
2 eggs
¾ cups sugar
1 tsp. salt
Mix all together & then add 2 T yeast. Let it sit until it begins to bubble.
Add: 1 t baking powder
About 6 ½ cups flour
Mix well. Let rise twice. Make rolls& let rise. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown on top.
I use this recipe for a lot of different purposes.
I usually half the recipe because Andrew and I can never eat that many rolls.
I make cheese rolls with this recipe by rolling out dough and spreading butter, parsley, and garlic all over dough. Then I take my wanted amount of cheese (cheddar and mozzarella) and spread all over on top. I roll up and cut just like you would with cinnamon rolls. Another option- if I had just cooked a chicken casserole and have leftover chicken I shred the chicken and use a little bit of the gravy from the leftover casserole and make chicken rolls. You can also use this dough for cinnamon and orange rolls. I usually put the cut roll pieces into muffin tins to keep together.

Scones

Scones
3 Beaten eggs
3 T yeast dissolved in ½ c water
2 C scalded milk
½ shortening
½ c sugar
1 t salt
6 cups flour- aprox
Raise twice- Roll and cut out and then deep fry.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

2 Cups Oats Bake 425F for 25 minutes

1 Cup Milk

1 Cup Flour

1/3 Cup Sugar

3 tsp. Baking Powder

1/2 tsp. Salt

1 well beaten egg

1/4 Cup Oil

2 Bananas

Combine milk and oats: let stand 15 minutes. Mix Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, and Salt. Mix Egg, Oil, and Oatmeal Mixture. Add at one to dry mixture. Line tins with paper. Fill 2/3 full. Makes 1 dozen muffins. I like that they aren't to sweet. I like to put a big spoon of Strawberry Freezer Jam in the middle to perfect the muffin :)