Conference turris::cooks

    Most quick breads call for baking powder and/or baking soda, and
    no yeast.  Many of these are sweet breads, like zucchini bread,
    nut breads, and banana bread.  Then there are the various versions
    of corn-breads.  However, I'm assuming you're looking for something
    to replace regular bread for someone who is on a special diet.
    Is that right?
    
    Anyhow, in case that's right, here's one from the Dolores Casella
    book "A world of breads".  There are many more, but this one looked
    to be the most flexible recipe.
    
    	Hot Bread
    
    A combination of flours is always delicious.  If desired, use a
    cup of buckwheat or rye flour in place of as much graham (whole-wheat)
    flour.  This bread makes good cream-cheese sandwiches.
    
    	1/2 cup cornmeal		3 Tbsp. melted butter
    	2 cups graham flour		1/2 cup maple syrup
    	1 teaspoon baking soda		2 cups buttermilk
    	1 teaspoon salt			
    
    Combine the dry ingredients, then the liquid ingredients.  Stir
    the liquid ingredients into dry ingredients quickly but lightly.
     Pour into a buttered loaf pan, or 2 8-inch square pans.  Bake in
    a 350 degree oven about 45 minutes for the loaf pan, and 20 to 30
    minutes for the square pans.  Always test before you remove from
    the oven - insert a toothpick.  If it comes out clean, the bread
    is done.
    
    Variations:  You could add raisins, nuts, chopped dates or prunes.
    If you don't have buttermilk you can use regular milk and use
    one tablespoon baking powder in place of the soda.  You can make
    the bread more or less sweet by increasing or reducing the maple
    syrup, and you can change the taste by using molasses in place
    of the syrup.  This bread would also make delicious muffins; cook
    20-25 min for muffins.
    
    --Louise

    Ok here's one more.  It's not sweet at all.
    
    	Irish soda bread
    
    	This is the traditional bread of Ireland.  It should be broken,
    not cut, and is usually served hot with tea, but is good, hot or
    cold, with anything.
    
    	4 cups flour		1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
    1 teaspoon salt		1 tablespoon caraway seed (optional)
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1 teaspoon soda

    Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.  Make a hollow in the center,
    and pour in 1 cup of the buttermilk.  Mix with your hands, and add
    enough additional buttermilk to make a firm but not dry dough. 
    Turn onto a floured board and knead lightly.  Shape into a round
    loaf.  Cut across the top so that it will not crack.  Sprinkle with
    caraway seed if desired.  Place in a buttered skillet and bake at
    350 degrees for 40 - 45 minutes.

    I like raisins in my Irish soda bread.
    

    After typing in the recipe I just had to try it.  Didn't have any
    buttermilk, so I used 2% milk and added a teaspoon of vinegar to
    the batter to make the baking soda work.  Also, I used half
    white and half whole-wheat flour.  I baked it in my smallest
    cast iron pan, a No. 3, 6 5/8 inches in diameter.  The resulting
    bread is delicious, with a texture more like a regular bread than
    other non-yeast bread I've made.  It's sturdy enough to use
    for sandwiches, very likely.  Not like pumpkin bread.
    
    I like the raisin idea, if I were making the bread for breakfast.
    
    --Louise

    I was on a yeast free diet and found popovers to be a wonderful
    treat. They are also great stuffed with sandwich fixings.
    
    

    Thanks to you for replying to this note, so I didn't have to look
    it up in the directory!
    
    Here's my latest modification - you got me started on a new series
    of experimentations:
    
    1 3/4 cups corn meal (I used yellow)
    1/4 cup oat bran (good for you - lowers cholesterol)
    1 cup white flour
    1 cup whole wheat flour
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon sugar
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1 teaspoon baking powder
    1 cup milk (I used 2%)
    1 tablespoon honey
    
    Blend all the dry ingredients together.  Dump the milk and honey
    in.  Blend with a spoon until moistened.  Add additional flour,
    if necessary, until you can knead the mixture (it won't be as dry
    as usual doughs, but will be kneadable).  Knead on floured board
    or counter until your oven is hot - you've turned it on to 350,
    by the way, haven't you?  Oh.  You'll be kneading a while.
    Butter a #6 cast iron skillet (not the little one I mentioned 
    earlier - that worked for 1/2 a recipe - I had forgotten I'd cut
    it in half) - this skillet is around 9" in diameter.  Form your
    dough into a round and put it into the skillet.  Press it down until
    it's somewhat flat.  With a sharp knife, cut 1/4" deep across the 
    dough.  Turn 90 degrees and cut again.  You'll have 4 "pieces".
    Cut each one in half so you have 8 wedges.
    
    Cook at 350 for about an hour, checking at 50 minutes.  The bread
    will sound hollow and be slightly browned when it's done.  Remove
    from the pan onto a bread board.  You can check for doneness by
    cutting one wedge out.  If it's still doughy in the middle, stick
    the wedge back, put the bread back in the pan, and cook another
    10 minutes.  Good served steaming hot!
    
    Makes 8 servings.  This goes well with any sort of stew.  I made
    it to go with an Indian curried chick-pea and sausage dish.  It
    took me about an hour and 10 minutes to make, including baking
    time.  We're talking EASY, folks!
    
    --Louise

    
    	      		QUICK PEANUT BUTTER BREAD
    
    2 cups all purpose flour
    1/3 cup sugar
    2 tsp baking powder
    1 tsp salt
    3/4 cup peanut butter
    1 cup milk
    1 well beaten egg
    
    Sift dry ingredients into bowl.  Add peanut butter and mix thoroughly
    with a fork.  Stir in milk and egg until well mixed.  lightly grease
    and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.  Spoon in batter and let stand 20 min
    to start rising.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake
    bread about 50 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out
    clean.  Remove from pan immediatly and let cool on rack.
                       
    

                                              
    		NO YEAST PIZZA DOUGH
    
    2 cups flour
    3 tsp baking powder
    1 tsp salt
    4 tbls olive oil
    1/3 cup milk
    
    Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.  Stir in olive oil
    and milk. Add a little more milk, if necessary, to form a stiff
    dough.  Turn out on lightly floured board and knead lightly for
    a minute or two. Roll out to 1/2 in. thick and place on large pizza
    pan, allowing edges to curve sightly up sides of pan.  Spread with
    favorite pizza toppings and bake at 450 degrees for 18 to 20 min.
    Yeild one very large 4 to 6 serving pizza.

            
    			Salt-rising Bread  (2 loaves)
    
    "When successfully made, this bread has a delicious taste and unusual
    texture; but it is one of the most temperamental of all risen breads.
    The starter mixture must foam as the instructions indicate, ot recipe
    will not work. Starter must be kept warm (100� F) during it's
    fermentation period. Keep an electric oven on low heat, or put your
    `Yankee' ingenuity to work. Cooks of old wrapped mixture in heavy
    quilts, and renewed the boiling water as needed."
    
    			The Starter
    2 small potatoes, peeled 		2 tablespoons sugar
    and thinly sliced			1 teaspoon salt
    3 tablespoons cornmeal		2 cups boiling water
    Combine the above ingredients and pour into a warm 2-quart jar. Cover
    with lid, place jar in a deep kettle or bowl, and add boiling water so
    jar is almost immersed, leaving cap out of the water. Cover with a
    heavy towel and keep warm for 10 to 20 hours, until foam develops on
    top to a depth of at least 1/2 inch. (If foam does not develop, discard
    and start again.) When top is foamy, strain liquid into a bowl,
    pressing potatoes gently with a wooden spoon to extract as much liquid
    as possible. Discard potatoes.
    
    			The Bread
    1/2 cup milk		1/2 teaspoon baking soda
    2 tablespoons butter	5 to 6 cups flour
    1 1/2 teaspoon salt		melted butter
    Starter liquid
    Heat milk, add butter and salt, and stir until butter melts. When
    lukewarm, combine in bowl with starter liquid and soda. Beat in 4 cups
    of flour, 1 cup at a time, to form a soft dough. Turn out onto floured
    board and knead in 1 to 2 cups more flour, to form a soft, smooth
    dough. Halve and place in 2 greased 8-inch loaf pans. Cover and let
    rise until double (allow as long as 6 hours for this rising). Brush
    tops with melted butter and bake in a preheated 375� oven 40 to 50
    minutes. 
    				
    Copied without permission from the YANKEE cookbook `Breads, Rolls, and
    Pastries'