Tag: buttermilk

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread

Here is a bread that tastes good and is good for you. Oatmeal is an excellent source of iron, thiamine and dietary fiber and helps lower your cholesterol. Oatmal bread doesn’t have a lot of the grain, but it is a delicious way to get some of these important vitamins, minerals and fiber.

I have been making variations of this recipe for many years. This version is my favorite.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups water
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 T salt
2 T butter
1/4 tsp. white sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast
4 to 5 cups all purpose flour

PROCEDURE:

Put a half cup of warm water (105º to 110º) into a cup or small bowl. Stir in a quarter teaspoon of white sugar and two teaspoons of dry yeast. Allow the yeast to proof.

Bring one and a half cups of water to a rapid boil in a saucepan and stir in the oatmeal. Once the oatmeal is boiling again, reduce the heat and cook it for about three minutes until it starts to thicken. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the hot oatmeal into a large bowl.

Stir in the butter, salt, brown sugar and buttermilk and allow the mixture to cool if it seems warmer than 115º. Stir in two cups of all purpose flour, then add the yeast and beat the batter until smooth. Stir in more flour a cup at a time until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

Turn the dough on to a well-floured board and use a spatula or baker’s scraper to begin the kneading by turning the dough until the surface is floured. The dough will be sticky to start with. Knead well until the dough becomes pliable and elastic. Add flour to the board as necessary. You will see and feel the oatmeal as you knead. Kneading this dough will take eight to ten minutes.

Grease the bread bowl with butter or shortening and put the ball of dough in it. Turn the ball to coat the surface with grease and cover the bowl with a damp tea towel.

Put the bowl in a warm place and allow the dough to rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and remove the dough to the lightly floured bread board and knead for about one minute.

Grease two bread pans. Divide the dough in half and form two loaves. Put a loaf in each pan and cover them with a damp towel.

While the loaves are rising in the pans preheat your oven to 375º. When the dough is even with the tops of the pans, put them on a middle shelf in the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minutes. The bread should sound hollow when you tap on it.

Let the loaves cool (at least a little while), then slice and enjoy!

NOTE: Do not use quick-cooking or “instant” oatmeal to make this bread.

Mrs. Lanier’s Buttermilk Sheet Cake

On a yellowed scrap of paper torn from a sheet of the thin and inexpensive stationery you could buy in pads at the five and dime when I was a boy is a recipe written down for Jerri by Mrs. Lanier of Atlanta, Kansas. It’s probably the same paper that she used to write letters to her daughter Joyce. Joyce was married to Merle, one of Jerri’s twin brothers.

Atlanta is a small town, but it still has two churches, a United Methodist Church and a Christian Church. The Laniers belonged to the Christian Church, and you can be sure that Mrs. Lanier made her Buttermilk Sheet Cake for a lot of potlucks. For one thing, it’s delicious; for another, you can make it in a ranch house in the Flint Hills of Kansas with no electricity without tiring your arms beating the batter.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup oleomargarine
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda

PROCEDURE:

Preheat the oven to 400º.

Bring the oleomargarine, oil and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Sift the sugar, flour, cocoa and salt together into a mixing bowl. Pour the boiling liquid into the dry ingredients and beat well with a wooden spoon.

Beat the eggs with a fork or whisk until lemon colored. Then beat in the buttermilk and baking soda. Blend the egg and milk mixture into the cake batter and stir just until it is well mixed. You will have a thin batter that looks like milk chocolate.

Grease a 9 by 11-inch cake pan. Pour in the batter and bake it for 23 minutes on the center shelf of the oven. Test for doneness with a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is done. If not, bake for two or three more minutes and test again.

Cool and frost with your favorite chocolate icing. You might want to try this very simple recipe for Good and Easy Chocolate Frosting.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup granulated sugar
4 T butter
4 T milk
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

PROCEDURE:

Stirring continuously, bring the butter, milk and sugar to a rolling boil in a small saucepan over moderate heat. Boil for 30 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat and quickly stir in the chocolate chips. Stir until the chips are melted. Cool and use.

NOTES: If necessary, return the pan to the heat to help melt the chips, but do not bring the frosting back to a boil. Add a dash of salt if you make this frosting with unsalted butter.

I normally avoid using oleomargarine for anything, but Mrs. Lanier was from Kansas, where even today restaurants serve oleo and call it butter. Jerri told me that the cake recipe did not work with butter, and I have learned to trust her. It definitely works with oleo. Try it.