Sometimes I start blog posts and don’t finish them, then I can’t remember if I added the info to another blog post or not so . . if you’ve already read this, chalk it up to old age and forgetfulness. I did go back and didn’t see it on other posts but I could have missed it.
The milkman comes on Friday and I still hadn’t used the cream from last week’s milk. I had almost 1-1/2 quarts of cream so I made butter. Here’s how much butter I got from that amount of milk. 4.4 oz. doesn’t seem like much from 1-1/2 quarts of cream but I’m happy to have it.
What’s left is a rather watery looking milk and that’s called “buttermilk” but nothing like what most of us think of when we talk about today’s buttermilk. I love leaving this milk out overnight to “ripen” and then using it to make biscuits. I had planned to do that this morning but we ended up with other things to do.
This is the Oatmeal Toasting Bread that we love. I understand that no everyone wants to make bread but I kinda feel like everyone needs to know how to make bread. This bread is as close to a no fail recipe as I’ve found. You can see that the top separated a bit on the edge from the sides and that’s because they needed to rise a bit more before I stuck them in the oven but the loaves were already betting too big. The bread is tender but chewy and if the loaves get too tall, then the slices are huge . . really too big so I went ahead and baked the bread once the loaves had risen about 2″ over the sides of the pan.
The reason this happened is that on days when my kitchen is really cold, I add a bit more yeast and on days when my kitchen is hot, I use less yeast. When I started out making the bread, the kitchen was really cold so I added 1/4 tsp extra yeast. By the time the dough was rising, I had been baking and cooking and the kitchen was quite warm and the bread was really rising and once it reached the point where I wanted it to be . . I stuck it in the oven.
The recipe makes three loaves but you could easily half the recipe, make one loaf of bread and a few rolls. While we’re talking about bread, if you aren’t real pleased with your loaf pans and you’re a cast iron fan, I LOVE my cast iron loaf pans. The bread never ever thinks about sticking. I just grab the pot holders, hold on to the two ends of the pan, dump it upside down and the loaf falls right out. My very favorite bread pans ever! Amazon should have them. Lodge should have them. Walmart may have them . . I don’t know about that though.
Pat/SC says
How heavy are they?
judy.blog@gmail.com says
According to the listing at Amazon, one pan is 3.78 pounds. They have nice handles on both short ends so, using a pot holder or oven mitt, they’re easy to handle where as heavy skillet with the one handle, to me at least, is harder to handle.
Susan says
I once loved making bread, and have friends who still make ALL their family’s bread. It costs less, tastes better, and is a good item to know how to do, you’re right. One friend used to bake for my family, too, but she works now and doesn’t have time for the extra. Those loves look and sound tasty! I, too, like the cast iron pans. I’ve used glass for several years, though.
Judy Whitehead says
Do the cast iron pans need a coat of “grease” or cooking spray when you use them?
Joyce says
Would the cast iron pans work well for things like pumpkin bread or zucchini bread? I have one loaf pan I really, really like and one that tends to stick in a couple of spots no matter what I do. If I had some that never stick, I would be really happy!
judy.blog@gmail.com says
It has worked for everything I’ve used it for. I haven’t made pumpkin bread in it because I use my pumpkin pan for that. I have made apple bread, blueberry bread and zucchini bread in it and it did not stick.