Friday Feature - Baking with Elaine

I wasn't planning on doing any blogging until Sunday, when it's Alan's birthday.  That was my plan - until I was chatting with my niece Mandy this afternoon.  She suggested that I do a blog when I've made Todd's favorite ginger cookies or flatbread or ?. Since I just happened to have a batch of bread ready to come out of the oven as we were chatting, it seemed a good time to start.  I had the camera ready and Howard took some pictures as I was turning the bread out of the pans and buttering them.  Now I'll have to get one of him doing a taste test.  We'll have some bread and fruit and I'll think of Aunt Ruth as she said that was their supper on bread baking day.  It will be canned peaches and Bernice Storlie's whole grain bread along with real butter, no margarine today!

Taste testing is over and I got to eat my favorite piece, the crust or as some call it, the heel.  Whatever you choose to call it, it was good!  Now the loaves are cooling on the rack.  That rack has a story to tell too.  It was a gift from Kirk when he was taking agriculture at Olds College.  He had a bachelor suite in the basement at Lyle and Agnes Peterman's.  Lyle did some woodworking in his spare time and one of the items that he made was a large cooling rack.  I love it as I can put a whole big batch of cookies on it and there's lots of room for the six loaves of bread.  Kirk gave one to Sandra too and she's equally fond of hers.

Now for some history about the recipe.  It came to me, thanks to Laurel's brother-in-law, Kurt.  He had tasted Bernice Storlie's bread and offered to pay her $10 a loaf if she would bake some for him.  She declined!  When he told me about it I was anxious to see what this recipe was like.  I phoned Bernice as I knew her from ELW gatherings.  She graciously passed her recipe on and now I'm baking bread for Kurt!  I don't charge him $10 a loaf but he pays well and also supplies wheat for me to grind so we are both happy with the arrangement.  An order usually includes a batch of ginger cookies too so I'll feature those in my next baking blog.

A baking blog isn't complete without the recipe so I took a picture of that too, on the paper that Bernice typed it, complete with grease spots added by Elaine!  It's a bit hard to read from the picture so I'll retype it here just as it was given to me.

WHOLE GRAIN BREAD   from the kitchen of Bernice Storlie   4 March 2009

4 cups whole wheat flour (I use multigrain)

1 TBSP salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 TBSP instant yeast

3/4 cup sunflower seeds

3/4 cup sesame seeds

3/4 cup flax seeds (I also add 3/4 cup ground flax and approximately 2 cups raisins)


Warm together and add:

1/2 cup molasses

4 cups water

1/3 cup cooking oil

2 TBSP vinegar

Knead in enough white flour to make elastic dough (5 - 7 cups)

Let rise 30 minutes. Punch down. Put in pans.  Let rise 'till double (approx. 1 hour)

Bake at 350 F 35-40 minutes.  Makes 4 loaves.


That's the recipe as given to me by Bernice.  I use whole wheat flour, freshly ground.  I add the ground flax seeds and about 1/2 cup or less of sesame seeds and no raisins.  Six loaf pans will fit in my oven so I increase the recipe by one half to make six loaves.  Oh, I usually add a cup of oatmeal to the first mixture.

So I'll dedicate this baking blog to Mandy who inspired me to do this.  I hope you'll start one too as you and Mareena are great cooks.  They live right across the street from each other and often get together and share meals.  Mareena even made potato klub the last time we visited!  I'd love to see you two get together and do a cooking blog.  Have a great weekend!