Tag: bread

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Luck of the Irish Soda Bread

By Fran Hill

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you celebrating the wearing of the green today? While Hubs and I aren’t really the green beer type, this day for the luck of the Irish is probably one of our favorites. Why? Of course, it’s the food.

Ten days ago, I brought a mix of fragrant spices and salts to a boil and added ice water to create a brine bath for a big chunk of trimmed brisket. After soaking for several days, that brined beef is slowly simmered with onions, carrots and celery until fork tender. Homemade corned beef really is so very delicious and something that we look forward to every March … especially the leftovers for Reuben sandwiches.

On the side with that corned beef, we always have buttered and steamed cabbage (much better than boiled, in my opinion), my version of Colcannon made with garlicky mashed potatoes and whipped with wilted spinach instead of cabbage or kale, and usually a mustardy cream gravy to top it all. Often, I also bake a moist and rich Chocolate Guinness Cake that is layered with Bailey’s Buttercream to end the meal. Our St. Patrick’s Day feast is a rival to all food holidays.

Back before I really began exploring cooking from scratch, I would have pulled the box of baking mix from the pantry to stir up a pan of Quick Irish Soda Bread. These days, it only takes a couple extra steps to create an equally simple loaf from scratch that has a tender crumb and golden-brown crust. Slices of this warm soda bread beg to be slathered with salted butter and served alongside everything from our favorite corned beef dinner to rich Irish lamb stews and even as a sub for biscuits with our favorite sausage gravy.

May your day be touched by Irish luck and a lot of good food.

Enjoy Irish Soda Bread topped with salted butter or alongside your traditional corned beef and cabbage St. Patrick’s Day dinner.

Cast Iron Irish Soda Bread

(adapted from Cooking Channel)

4 cups flour, plus more for dusting

3 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 cup currants

1 egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing pan

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly butter a 10-inch cast iron pan, set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt and currants. In a large mixing cup, beat together egg, buttermilk and melted butter.

Gradually add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients while stirring with a rubber spatula. Stir just until ingredients begin to come together into a shaggy dough. Lightly dust countertop with additional flour and turn dough out onto surface. Gently knead the dough a few seconds to pull together into a 6–8-inch round (dough will still be somewhat sticky, do not overwork). Place dough round into the prepared cast iron pan. With a sharp knife, carve an”X” into the dough ball.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 40 minutes, until golden brown and center is baked through (test with a skewer). Serve warm with salted butter.

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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Rounding Out the Meal

By Fran Hill

This August, like most, I am wholeheartedly jumping into the garden bounty. It is the time of year when EVERYTHING is at its peak, and I appreciate it all. Most of our meals revolve around a grilled protein and multiple vegetables. There are often a couple of salads on the table. (Kohlrabi Coleslaw has been a recent favorite.) Zucchini, summer squash, ears of corn, onions, carrots, beets and new potatoes fit right in on the grill. Tender, fresh from the garden green beans can be roasted in a grill basket (or steamed, if I want to bother with a pot of water on the stove). Sliced tomatoes round out every meal.

I don’t miss the carbs of pasta or rice. The perfectly ripened vegetables fit my summertime cravings. There will be plenty of time for noodles in the coming cold winter days. However, sometimes, I do want something else rounding out our plates. Garlic and Basil Focaccia is just the thing.

This yeast bread comes together so quickly that I recently whipped it up in less time than it took the repairman to fix my wayward dryer. The sliced garlic on top roasts in the depressions of olive oil and has a delicious flavor impact. In my world, basil always says freshness and makes this a perfect bread for summer meals.

I always bake it in a cast iron pan, but a cake pan will work just as well. If you choose a square utensil, any remaining of this flat loaf can be cut into squares and split horizontally to make an excellent vehicle for sandwiches.

Garlic and Basil Focaccia perfectly complements a meal that’s heavy on garden vegetables.

Garlic and Basil Focaccia

3/4 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4-ounce package Rapid Rise yeast

4 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

1 3/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon freshly grated parmesan

1 tablespoon freshly chopped basil

flaky sea salt

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.

Add sugar to warm water in a 2-cup glass measuring cup. Stir in yeast. Place in a warm (not hot) place and allow to stand for 10 minutes, until yeast is activated and foamy.

Add flour and salt to bowl of stand mixer fitted with dough hook. With mixer running, add activated yeast and water and continue to stir.

Gradually add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Mix on low until combined. When the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, increase mixer speed and allow mixer to knead the dough for about 3-5 minutes until dough is smooth and seems to be forming a ball. (Depending on the weather, more flour or olive oil may be needed to form a smooth dough.)

Grease a cast iron skillet or an 8- or 9-inch cake pan with 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil.

Lightly flour a flat surface. Remove the dough and place onto the floured surface and sprinkle the top lightly with flour. With your hands, gently shape the dough into a flat disk and place in the prepared skillet.

Gently press the dough evenly in the bottom of the skillet and to the sides, then cover with a clean towel.

TURN OFF THE OVEN and place the covered dough in the oven for 20 minutes to rise.

Remove the skillet from the oven and remove the towel. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Brush the remaining olive oil over the focaccia bread dough, sprinkle with the sliced garlic, grated parmesan, chopped basil and flaky salt. Make indents over the top of the dough with your thumb.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until golden. Remove from the oven. Cool slightly on a wire rack before serving. (Serves 8-10)

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and their three dogs ranch near Colome.

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Parker’s New Bakery

By Rebecca Johnson

These days,”gluten-free” is almost everywhere. Most major grocery stores carry gluten-free items and an Amazon.com search of the phrase turns up over 190,000 results. But it hasn’t always been that way.

April Smith was first introduced to the gluten-free lifestyle in college at the University of South Dakota.”I had a few roommates in a row diagnosed with celiac disease,” Smith says. She was sympathetic as they adjusted to the digestive disorder that causes an immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, and later was diagnosed with wheat intolerance herself.”It explained a lot of my food choices over my lifetime,” Smith says”It wasn’t just that I didn’t like pasta or beer. It was making me sick.”

After college, Smith spent over a decade managing natural foods sections in Hy-Vee grocery stores in Rochester, Minnesota and Sioux Falls.”One day I had four different dads come in looking for [gluten-free] cupcakes for a little kid’s birthday party at school,” she says.”It just drove me nuts that there were so many kids out there who couldn’t get a cupcake for their birthday safely.” More options are now available, but they’re not always delicious. So Smith and her husband, Clement, decided to start Heart of the City Bakery, a gluten-free bakery in Parker.

Clement spends his”day job” supervising the kitchen at South Middle School in Harrisburg.”He’s the one that hammered out how to make a lot of the initial recipes,” Smith says. They started their business at home, testing muffins, cookies and cupcakes on their kids. Gluten works like a glue that holds ingredients together so it’s a lot of trial and error.”It’s almost better that neither of us are trained bakers because if we were it would drive us nuts what we have to do to make things work now. Like a lot of times instead of kneading air out of bread, I’m trying to put air into bread. Or a cake mix that you would have mixed for 5 or 10 minutes on an industrial mixer, I now need to barely combine the ingredients and then walk away,” she explains

The couple initially filled private orders and traveled to farmers markets. But business grew quickly, so they moved to a building in downtown Parker last July. Space is shared with Brandy’s Custom Cakery, owned by Brandy Engels.”It was a giant old bakery, so we basically divided the back third of it up so it’s two separate bakeries now. We have walls and a door between us that stays shut whenever Brandy’s got any flour flying around,” Smith jokes.”And if an ingredient is not certified gluten-free, I don’t bring it into my bakery.”

April works full-time in Sioux Falls and bakes in her free time, while Engels keeps regular hours. Clients can pick up special orders from Engels’ storefront and the businesses work together for special events.”Brandy does all the wedding orders and we just come back to our bakery and make all the pieces,” Smith says.”Basically I make all the bricks and she mortars it together and makes it gorgeous.”

Besides gluten-free, Heart of the City Bakery can fill vegan orders and work with other allergies. Call (605) 929-9542 to order.”And people are always welcome to call and talk. If you just need to figure out how to feed a kid who has been diagnosed with an allergy, I can always point you to the right web site or the right dietician to get you started,” Smith says.”You know, I’m not trained in that at all, but I’ve spent 15 years helping other people learn how to eat again.”

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Luck of the Irish

By Fran Hill

My maiden name begins with “Mc”, and my father’s nickname was always “Red” due to the red hair of his youth. However, I can’t say that I have the luck of the Irish. I think that if I ever followed a rainbow, there would be a pot of coal at the end, or probably even an unpaid bill.

But, that doesn’t mean that Saint Patrick’s Day isn’t a time for me to break out the corned beef and cabbage recipes and green beer. I have a standard menu that I prepare each time the showing of the green comes around. My corned beef is trimmed well, layered in a crock pot with new potatoes, onions, and carrots, and slow simmered all day covered in broth and seasonings. An hour or so before serving, I add the wedges of cabbage and some caraway seeds to finish that dish. I round out the meal with an even easier Irish Soda Bread.

I am not really a baker. Easy baking is my mantra. I have been known to press my luck with ingredients that may seem odd, but if the end result is good, I am in. Lucky Irish Soda Bread is my four-leaf clover for the Saint Paddy’s Day meal. This has a sweet flavor and biscuity texture. The caraway seeds add a punch to every bite. It certainly isn’t traditional, but it is my lucky nod to the Irish.

Lucky Irish Soda Bread

1/2 cup club soda, not seltzer
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Bisquick baking mix
1/2 cup sugar
1-2 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 /2 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease an 8-inch round cake pan. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients until well moistened. DO NOT OVERBEAT. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 15 minutes. Bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Cut into pie-shaped wedges, and serve with butter and honey on the side.

Fran Hill has been blogging about food at On My Plate since October of 2006. She, her husband and two dogs reside near Colome.

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Our Zucchini Cook-off

By Katie Hunhoff


Zucchini overwhelmed the little garden in the backyard of our South Dakota Magazine headquarters in downtown Yankton in 2010. We stopped watering it as soon as we realized what was happening, but still the zucchini proliferated. Despite the lack of respect or water — and being rudely tread upon as we tended to the tomatoes and onions — the zucchini continued to grow.

We gave it to the neighbors until they would no longer answer their doorbells. All of our staff and their extended families were compelled to take a cube or two every day. As one reader commented on our website (where we’d advertised free garden produce), two never-watered zucchini plants will suffice for a family of 15. And we had four plants. Four well-tended plants.

Zucchini soon piled up on office tables, inboxes and file cabinets. I had been eating zucchini at every meal for over a month when our editor suggested a zucchini cook-off to use up some of the reserves.

There was just one rule for the contest. Anyone could enter but you must get your zucchini from the magazine garden. First prize? You guessed it: a summer supply of zucchini.

The contest was first met with some grumbling. Several staffers claimed to dislike zucchini, most of all Roger, our humor columnist. He is not a fussy eater, but never takes a bite of food at the office in the summer months without asking if zucchini is involved. Roger had a bad experience with zucchini bread some time ago and still hasn’t forgotten.

Zucchini recipes can be hit-or-miss. The high water content (about 95 percent) can potentially result in a mushy mess. So expectations were low, to say the least, on the day of the zucchini cook-off.

All six entries smelled good and looked tasty. More importantly, they were declared delicious by one and all. Mock its reproduction capacity if you must, but zucchini’s flavor enhances everything from pasta dishes to chocolate cake, plus it adds Vitamin A, Vitamin C and potassium and is high in fiber.

Plucking the flowers from a zucchini plant will slow growth, but I’d consider curbing our zucchini production this year to be wasteful — especially with so many good recipes to make. The flowers themselves are an expensive delicacy in some cultures. But if you do harvest the flowers, you’ll still have plenty of zucchini for the little known”Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night” holiday. Yes, this is an actual observance, held on August 8. If only we’d known about that last summer.

Every one of the zucchini dishes submitted by staff and friends was a hit, so we declared them all winners. Trying to award a”first” seemed irrelevant when everybody was enjoying seconds. Here are some of the recipes.


Zucchini Brownies

Submitted by John Andrews, Departments Editor

1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups shredded zucchini
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
6 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup margarine
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9×13 inch baking pan. In a large bowl, mix the oil, sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla until well blended. Combine the flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, baking soda and salt; stir into the sugar mixture. Fold in the zucchini and walnuts. Spread evenly into the prepared pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until brownies spring back when gently touched.

To make the frosting, melt together the 6 tablespoons of cocoa and margarine; set aside to cool. In a medium bowl, blend together the confectioners’ sugar, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in the cocoa mixture. Spread over cooled brownies before cutting into squares.


Zucchini Cake

Submitted by Ruth Steil, Business Manager

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini

Mix all ingredients together. Bake in greased 9×13 inch pan at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to cool, then frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting.


Zucchini Chili

Submitted by Jana Lane, Circulation Manager

27 oz can chili beans in sauce
15 oz can black beans drained
16 oz can kidney beans drained
1 lb burger cooked and drained
2 cups grated zucchini
1 quart canned tomatoes with juice or 28 oz. can
1 cups canned tomato juice
2 bell peppers, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 1/2 tablespoons cumin
2 1/2 tablespoons dried cilantro
2 teaspoons paprika

Add all ingredients to a 6-quart Dutch oven and cook over medium heat for 40-45 minutes.


Lemon Zucchini Cookies

Submitted by Andrea Maibaum, Production Manager

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or 1 teaspoon lemon rind
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup shredded unpeeled zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

Cream butter and sugar. Add egg and lemon extract. Stir in sifted dry ingredients. Mix in zucchini and nuts. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. Let cool and glaze. Makes 30.


Zucchini Bread

Submitted by Michelle Andrews

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup salad oil
2 cup zucchini, peeled and grated
3 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup nuts

Combine sugars, eggs and oil. Beat well. Add zucchini and vanilla. Sift and measure flour. Sift with salt, baking soda, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir into creamed mixture. Blend well. Add nuts. Pour into two greased and lightly floured large tin loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour and 15 minutes.


Italian Zucchini Pie

Submitted by Katie Hunhoff, Managing Editor

2 tablespoons butter
4 cups thinly sliced zucchini
1 cup chopped onions
2 tablespoons dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 eggs, well beaten
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese (8 oz)
1 can (8 oz) crescent dinner rolls
2 teaspoons mustard

Heat oven to 375 degrees. In 12-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add zucchini and onions; cook 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender. Stir in parsley flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil and oregano. In large bowl, mix eggs and cheese. Add cooked vegetable mixture; stir gently to mix.

Separate dough into 8 triangles. Place in ungreased 10 inch glass pie plate, 12×8 inch (2-quart) glass baking dish or 11-inch quiche pan; press over bottom and up sides to form crust. Firmly press perforations to seal. Spread crust with mustard. Pour egg mixture evenly into crust-lined pie plate. Bake 18 to 22 minutes or until knife inserted near center comes out clean. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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Kneading Tradition

Rediscovering bread 4,500 miles from home

By Katie Hunhoff

Visiting my German relatives was a whirlwind of touring castles, churches and farms along the Westphalian countryside. While I can’t remember the names of the castles or when the churches were built, I’ll never forget my cousins’ hospitality and the meals we shared. In retrospect, sightseeing was merely a pleasant way of passing time in between the real purpose of my trip: long meals and conversations at the kitchen table.

Karl-Heinz offers this advice for first time bread bakers: be patient. “You will have to work the dough over and over and you need time for the dough to rise. Look closely at the recipe and maybe the second time you try you will have a good bread.”

We breakfasted on delicious seeded bread with marmalade and Gouda cheese made in the neighboring Netherlands. For lunch we would have a perfectly crusted whole wheat bread dipped in steaming hot soup. Dinner might be a feast of beef and red cabbage served with yet another homemade bread.

Bread wasn’t something I liked back home. I was born in the country that gave the world the Atkins diet. Throughout my childhood, bread came one way — spongy, white, and perfectly sliced from the grocery store. In my 20s I learned from the media and low-carb diet crazes that bread was not a healthy foundation for any meal.

But then I visited Germany. On our first morning together, I sat down with my relatives to a meal of dark brown colored bread dotted with sunflower seeds. Because I knew it was laden with carbs I eyed it warily, but ate it like a dutiful guest. It didn’t taste unhealthy. It was nourishing and filling.

My distant cousin, Karl-Heinz, is retired and that leaves time for his bread-making. Our families became acquainted when Ulrike, his daughter, was searching online for Hunhoffs in America and came across our South Dakota Magazine website. She e-mailed us, reuniting the Hunhoffs on both sides of the Atlantic after generations of separation.

While we do have more than factory-baked white bread available in the United States, homemade, whole wheat breads are not a diet staple as they are in Germany, where families and neighbors exchange bread recipes and pass recipes from generation to generation. Today, the sharing is intercontinental: Karl-Heinz has began emailing me recipes, some centuries old. Here’s one of his recipes that is particularly good and fun to make.

Karl-Heinz’s German Seeded Bread

German bread is so flavorful, most don’t need butter, cheese or any topping at all.

4 cups and 2 2/3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 standard packet, dry active yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar
400 mL water at room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
150 mL plain yogurt
5 1/2 tablespoons flax seed
5 1/2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
5 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1. Put the flour in a bowl. In the middle of the flour make a hollow and inside the hollow place the yeast, sugar and 200 mL water. Stir the ingredients carefully with a fork and let the mixture rest for 10 minutes.

2. Mix in salt, yogurt, the three types of seeds and the other 200 mL water. Knead the dough for 5 — 7 minutes by hand on a lightly floured surface.

3. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size — approximately one hour.

4. Knead the dough once more on a lightly floured surface for 5 — 7 minutes. Divide the dough equally into two buttered bread pans and score the top with a knife. Let the dough rise once more in a warm place until it doubles in size — approximately one hour.

5. Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit followed by 45 minutes at 390 degrees Fahrenheit. (I covered the bread with tin foil after the first 15 minutes because it was already crusty).

6. Let the bread cool to room temperature before slicing.

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story is revised from the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of South Dakota Magazine. To order this back issue or to subscribe, call 800-456-5117.