"Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed."

 

Deuteronomy 28:5

"Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed."

The countdown to Thanksgiving has started.  If you haven't put your frozen turkey into the refrigerator by now, do so immediately.  You're probably still going to need to thaw it in cold water to make sure it's ready on Thursday morning.

Today and tomorrow will be my baking days.  I had already planned on baking my bread today (see early post for the mini-bread loaves that I'm baking for everyone).  God decided to bless me this morning as I was reading my daily devotional with this verse from Deuteronomy -- "Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed."  Also, my mother has my great-grandmother's kneading trough on the divider in her kitchen.  What a wonderful Bible verse and memory to have today as I make my bread and knead it (even though I'm using an electric mixer!) and bake it.

So here's my checklist for today:

• bake bread
• bake cornbread
• bake carrot cake cupcakes (for my son-in-law's birthday)
• make sugar cookie dough (cut & bake kind), refrigerate to bake and decorate tomorrow with my grandkids

 I hope you're taking time today to be thankful and that you're checking off all of those tasks on your holiday checklist.

 

Happy National Bundt Day -- a little late!

 

November 15th was National Bundt Day, so I'm posting a little late.  What reminded me of it was the weekly activity calendar that is included in each issue of Woman's World.  And in the one for November 11th through 17th was a recipe for a Caramel Apple Bundt Cake to celebrate National Bundt Day.  It's a very easy recipe:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.
• Peel and core one apple.  Chop and mix with 2 T. of dry yellow cake mix.
• In another bowl, blend the remaining cake mix, 1 box of butterscotch instant pudding mix, 4 eggs, 1 1/3 cup of applesauce, 1 stick of melted butter, and 1 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice.
• Stir in apple mixture.
• Pour cake batter into prepared Bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes.  Invert onto serving plate.  Drizzle with caramel & 1/2 c. of chopped pecans.

This would make a wonderful alternative dessert for Thanksgiving.

Maple Cookies

Today I baked maple cookies.  This a recipe from Taste of Home:  Vermont Maple Cookies.  This past summer, my husband and I took a trip to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada.  While we were in Nova Scotia, we visited Acadian Maple Products in Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia, near Peggys Cove.  We purchased some maple syrup products and I have used them for baking -- especially the processing grade maple syrup which is not quite good enough for pouring on your pancakes but is perfect for baking.  So even though this recipe is called Vermont Maple Cookies, it's really Nova Scotia Maple Cookies.  I hope you'll try the recipe and include it as one of your desserts for Thanksgiving.

Let's Get Ready for Thanksgiving!

I've been cruising Pinterest for ideas for Thanksgiving table decorations and came upon an idea to use a miniature loaf of bread as a table favor.  So today I decided to experiment with my favorite bread recipe and see what I could come up with.  I checked out some pull-apart bread recipes and found a suggestion to cut circles, brush them with butter, fold them in half, and place them in loaf pans fold side down.  Because the pull-apart bread recipes that I was looking at were for regular sized loaves of bread, they suggest using at least 4" circles.  But I want to have individual small loaves for everyone, so I decided to use my regular cookie cutter that has two sizes of circles -- 2 3/4" and 2".  And I have decided that the 2" circle works best in my small 6 and a 1/2" x 3 and a 1/2" x 1 and 3/4" loaf pans.  I cut six circles (2"), brushed them with melted butter, and placed them in the loaf pan fold side down.

Basic White Bread Recipe

2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)

2/3 cup white sugar

1 1/2 T. active dry yeast

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

6 cups bread flour

1.  In a large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast.  Allow to proof about 10 minutes.

2.  Mix salt and oil into yeast.  Mix in flour one cup at a time and knead dough until smooth.  Place in a well oiled bowl, turning the dough to coat.  Cover with a damp cloth.  Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.  (I use my electric mixer.  I mix the flour into the yeast using the paddle attachment.  Then I use the dough hook to knead the dough for several minutes.)

3.  Punch the dough down and knead for a few minutes.  Cut the dough in half.  This recipe yields two regular sized loaves of bread.

4.  Oil or spray the loaf pans.  Place dough in prepared pans and cover with oiled (or sprayed) plastic wrap.  Allow to rise for an additional 30 minutes.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes (large loaf) or approximately 20 minutes for mini loaves.

To make pull-apart bread:

Using one half of the dough at a time, roll out the dough and cut into desired sized circles.  If making a full-sized pull-apart loaf, cut circles that are approximately 4 inches in diameter.  If making mini pull-apart loaves, cut six 2" circles for each loaf.  You should be able to get approximately three mini loaves (18 circles) out of each bread dough half, which means you should be able to make six mini pull-apart loaves from this recipe.  Melt 3-4 tablespoons of butter and brush each circle with the melted butter.  Fold in half and place dough into loaf pan fold side down.

I hope you have enjoyed this idea for your Thanksgiving table.  In a couple days, I'll be posting an idea for wrapping the pull-apart loaf of bread to use as decoration and as an edible favor for each place setting on your Thanksgiving table.