Kellie Cooks

Today was bread making day. I think back to reading Little House on the Prairie and longed for the day I could join in on bread making day. Well, after today's experiment, my dreams are closer than I thought.

I have been hankering for some fresh bread recently especially when I was making the spaghetti and meatball recipe. I just purchased the 2 9"x 5" pans at no surprises here at https://kitchensforgood.org/ Their entire store front in San Diego was 50 % off over Father's Day Weekend. I also scored a fabulous Pioneer Woman measuring cup and spoon set with a leveler! I didn't even know they had those. It was a delightful find as I've been really precise with leveling my flour the last few times I've baked. It was so fun using the actual tool instead of a knife.

As I was baking this bread and was using my new measuring cups I happened to notice the branding and the word "pioneer" really stood out to me. When words catch my eye, I always look up the definition. As I registered the word, my eyes filled with tears as I had a light bulb moment in recognition of who I was embodying in that moment. I was a pioneer woman, setting out of my comfort zone to places I could only dream about: of scientific exploration. A topic I've only recently discovered is such a joy for me.

Pioneer can be defined as a person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or are. Some of the synonyms such as colonizer and colonist made me feel distinctively uncomfortable as the negative associations ( rightly so!) with the word. Often, I don't even realize my discomfort with a word until I start defining it. This will be a side quest I will embark on going forward.

However, the second definition really seemed to encapsulate why it caught my attention and why the tears flowed: a person who is among the first to research and develop a new area of knowledge or activity

My dive into cooking feels like my own journey personally as a pioneer into the arenas of scientific exploration, precision, and the ability to follow rules ( or in this case a recipe). These have all been things I have rebelled against heavily in my nascence. The thought of cooking would make me feel claustrophobic. I have dug my heels in and avoided any type of cooking activities.

Things look very different: I have discovered I LOVE cooking. I love the precision needed, I love being able to experiment. I adore cooking for the people I love. Right now mainly my partner. I cannot wait to see what new truths I find hidden among the recipes I will encounter. Here is to truth and discovering you were wrong.

Here is what I learned while making this bread recipe: https://butterwithasideofbread.com/homemade-bread/

I would give this recipe a 9 out of 10. For this recipe, I did not use a bread machine or mixer. Everything was done by hand.

I did indeed kneed for exactly 7 minutes as the recipe called for. Although I kept having to add flour during this process as the dough was incredibly sticky. The process was very smooth and the end result slid right out of the pan.

My goal is to make fresh bread weekly for all my bread needs. I would like to try some different variations such as raisin or cheesy jalapeno.

In my childhood, delicious biscuits were made with regularity. However, I've never given them a try as an adult.

To me, a perfect biscuit is flaky, soft, and only needs butter. I want it to be able to be pulled apart with ease, but still maintain enough of its integrity to be served with gravy, or to be used as a biscuit sandwich.

Here is what I learned on attempt # 1:
* use frozen butter. The colder the better
* Grate the butter and then incorporate into the flour mixture
( this makes combining a dream and you don't end up with big chunks of butter. I did end up with one chunk of butter which was the last piece of butter that was too small to grate)
In the past, I had only used a pastry cutter. I actually purchased on second hand at https://kitchensforgood.org/ for this specific purpose.
* make sure you have all the ingredients before you begin.
* you're going to need a WELL floured surface.
( no skimping here)
* making biscuits in a way reminds me of the process of making croissants although no rolling pin is required. You fold dough in half, shift the dough 90 degrees and then fold upon itself again, repeating a total of 6 times
* it is important not to overwork the dough.
This became more apparent as I cut out the last 3 biscuits from the reshaped dough. It completely changed the final products as seen in the pictures. It would make sense to use the last three aesthetically pleasing biscuits in a gravy dish where they will be covered.
* the biscuits need cook for 13 minutes at least in my non-convection oven.

Overall, I would give these biscuits a rating of 8/10. I didn't expect them to lean over but maybe there would be a way to be flaky but not leaning.

Any tips and suggestions are much appreciated.

What toppings do you put on your biscuits?

I followed this recipe:
https://sugarspunrun.com/easy-homemade-biscuits/