We remember Alzheimers wasn’t even on the radar before young couples were given whole suites of aluminum pots and pans in the 50’s and they became the sparkling and exciting wedding, shower, birthday, anniversary present. It may not be relevant and might be just our imaginings, but we are sharing our reality and the reality of our friends with you – so relevant or not – we stay away from aluminum in cooking.

7) One good characteristic of this dough is that it can be made into anything. So put two pieces of the dough into two glass bread baking pans and knead your favorite things into the third piece of dough: try a stick of softened organic butter (salted or unsalted, your choice) and then sprinkle the dough with raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate chips, coconut, sugar, etc. Then knead until those are all incorporated into the dough.

Form into a shape to fit the bread pan. Store-bought raisin bread pales by comparison to your own home-baked version.  Of course, you grease all of your pans with butter before putting any breads into them.

Or – you could make cinnamon buns by rolling out 1/3 piece of the dough until it is of a good size. A rectangle works for us. Thick or thin depends on whether you like your buns to have lots of dough or a little dough and lots of other stuff.  Spread the rectangle with softened organic butter and sprinkle heavily with cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, prunes, apricots, figs, etc. then roll the dough – jelly roll fashion. Once rolled, slice into thick slices to put into a rectangular glass baking dish – cover and let rise until doubled in volume.

Bake the bread at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. (possibly more, but seldom less)

Before you take the rolls out of the oven – mix powdered sugar with milk or cream (heavy cream is heaven here) to the consistency of a very thick liquid. Once out of the oven, brush the sugar and cream mixture over the rolls and let them sit for a few minutes to absorb the liquid. If there are leftovers, they can be reheated. These buns are wonderful either freshly baked or reheated. The little addition to taste from reheating comes from the crispiness of the toping which doesn’t happen with freshly baked buns.  We sprinkle a little water over the buns before reheating.

If you are Catholic, a little holy water while saying a prayer over your buns, please!  It’s good for the digestion!

For an excellent savory bun:  fry chopped onions, celery, green and red peppers, garlic and ground beef in about two tablespoons butter in a cast iron skillet.  If you are kosher, make that organic Canola Oil or better still Olive Oil.

It is extremely important that the ground beef be organic.  Let’s not set up for ourselves the possibility of eating road kill here – or worse, growth hormones to make this a dish that would pack on the pounds as those growth hormones go from the ground beef to you.

While this mixture is cooking, stir it a bit and sprinkle it with sea salt, cayenne pepper (keep that black pepper away from your food), thyme and oregano (to your taste, of course). Spread this mixture on the rectangle of dough. We have a heavy hand doing this because we like it better with lots of spread in those jelly-roll like slices.

As above for the cinnamon buns, roll this savory dish jelly roll style, slice it into thick slices, put them into a rectangular glass baking dish, cover and let rise until double in volume!  You will have a sumptuous breakfast, lunch or an evening snack!  They also reheat beautifully.

NOTES on BETTINA’s BREAD

Of course, all the ingredients MUST be organic – flour, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg,(especially all the seasonings) and on and on. Otherwise – why bother – you can get bread made from contaminated ingredients in any bakery or supermarket. This bread is pure, also restorative (you will be surprised at the increased size of your bowel movements) and the taste is amazing. This bread will be soft, light in texture, beautiful to look at – if you made it right.

Bread takes lots of trying until one day you get it – the process clicks – and you will then be able to turn out loaves of bread in-between all the other things you do – without feeling any extra strain and enjoying the results.

Contrary to popular mythology – this is not an exact science. Bread making varies with the person making it, the weather – sunny and dry, hot, humid, cold, etc. The ingredients also vary depending upon your taste, diet, what you have on hand at the time and your mood, which is why some choices are in parenthesis.  Besides our choices – you might have others. I’ve heard about chopped olives and olive oil; walnuts – if you have northern taste buds; or pecans – if you have southern taste buds; chocolate chips; – let your imagination soar.

Many of us are either afraid to make bread or we think it is so over our ability and/or time constraints we don’t try. When did all this happen?

It seems to me as cooking and baking became more commercial – money making instead of family feeding, it was taken over by male chefs and corporate types and the media took up the bludgeon to beat it into women that bread baking was way over their heads and they shouldn’t try anymore. “Why bake when you can buy” became one of many slogans which depleted our pocket books and our health.

What was the prevailing wisdom? Didn’t it go something like —– those who baked for generations should give up the task and turn it over to those who had never baked and whose interest was in turning bread into a profit center by using inferior and/or synthetic ingredients and all kinds of artificial equipment?

Under their hands and tutelage, bread for the upper classes became as white and light as possible resulting in that well known commodity – “Wonder Bread” and its cousins. Its a wonder our parents and grandparents lasted as long as they did and were able to be fruitful and multiply.

Before that time, bread was justifiably known as the “staff of life” or the “stuff of life”. It is nutritious, restorative, filling and it taste good.

The best, most nutritious bread was relegated to the poor and became known as “peasants bread” – one of the nicer epitaphs which some corporations tried to put on its tomb stone.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT searched the country for a recipe for a good, nutritious bread and found one which included molasses. The bread she found was made by poor country people. She took the bread and the recipe home to the White House and gave up “Wonder Bread”, that popular and expensive loaf which was eaten exclusively by her peers – no one else could afford it.

They thought the whiter and lighter the bread the more prestige to the family serving and eating it. Of course, health problems followed – which were either unknown or little known before that time, but it was a small price to pay for the prestige of serving this bread that looked and tasted like cotton.

Today, the rest of us put our pennies together and spend more then we should trying to imitate the habits of the wealthy of Eleanor Roosevelt’s day, without being aware of the history and without knowing why we have this cultural preference for cotton-like bread.  I am sure we all know people who look down their collective noses at that good old “peasant-type bread” and are hard-pressed to say why!  Better to give up this lifestyle – of making nutritious and delicious bread – and buy from bakeries and into the next generation also from super markets, then to be considered socially and culturally from the wrong side of the tracks.

However, do be careful, because once you start baking bread it will become an addiction. There isn’t much better than a slice of bread you’ve made — right out of the oven — covered with organic butter.

Enjoy – it is worth the effort.

Note:  I owe a deb of gratitude to the many bed and breakfast guests who tasted, commented on, suggested and generally helped me improve this recipe over many years.

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