Grandma's Kitchen - Yeast Baking

Zwieback (double buns)

5 cups milk, scalded
1 lb. butter
5 tsp salt
1 tbsp yeast, dissolved in 1 cup water and 1 tsp sugar
10-12 cups flour

Put first 4 ingredients into a large bowl. Add yeast and flour to make a stiff batter. Add more flour to make smooth soft dough. Knead well. Cover and let rise till double. Form into small buns and place a smaller bun on top, using your forefinger, attach to the bun underneath. Let rise until double in size. Bake at 350 - 375 degrees for 15 - 20 minutes until nicely browned.
Hedie Harder

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Crunchy Farmhouse Bread

1 1/4 cups warm water
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp oil
2 1/2 tbsp honey
1 1/4 cups white flour
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup bran
3 tbsp Sunny Boy cereal
3 tbsp flax
2 tsp yeast

Add other seeds as you like. Wonderful hearty bread -- works well in a bread maker.
Donna Driedger

Cinnamon Buns

4 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup soft butter or margarine
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 pkg. yeast
1 tsp salt
5 - 6 cups flour

Beat eggs and add sugar, butter, warm water, warm milk and salt. Add 1 cup flour and mix. Add fast rising yeast to another cup of flour and add to mixture. Continue to add flour and when stiff enough knead into a soft dough. Let rise in a warm place for 20 - 25 minutes.

Punch down and let rise again until approx. double in size. Divide dough into 2 parts. Roll out one piece and spread with 2 tbsp melted margarine or butter, 1/4 cup brown sugar and sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up and cut into approximately 18 buns. Place on greased pan. Repeat with 2nd part. Let rise until double in size for 20 - 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
Elva Epp

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Buns

4 cups warm water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
2 tbsp yeast

Combine these ingredients and let sit for 10 minutes. Add 4 well beaten eggs and 1/2 cup oil. Add 9 - 10 cups flour, white/brown. Knead. Let rise 2 hours, punch down and make into buns. Let rise 1 hour. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
Marlene Froese

Grandma's Kitchen: A Bakery for Leavened and Unleavened Bread

The aroma filled the kitchen, then permeated the whole house when Grandma had bake day and it was almost always on Saturday. Yeast baking was very popular as it produced fresh buns, bread, sweet buns or platz base for Sunday “Faspa”. Working with yeast was an art and also biblical as it was referred to as leavened bread. It was important to know how to treat leavened bread dough with tenderness and gentleness. The concept of leaven is quoted in 3 verses: Matthew 13:33, 1 Corinthians 5:7 and Galatians 5:9; A little leaven leavens the whole mass; It is compared to spiritual renewal and growing. A powerful comparison to Christ, the leaven in us.
The unleavened bread is also compared to the biblical concept of Christ’s body. He sacrificed for us.

It was unleavened bread that was used in the early communion service. I share with you the story of our mother who was given the responsibility of making “brötchen”.

In our church community, when I was a child, there was one Bishop and one deacon. Twice a year they traveled to four congregations to deliver and serve communion. Our dad, Henry Koop was the deacon and his wife. my mother, was to prepare the communion bread. So on Saturday afternoon it was time to make the bread.

A clean apron was put on, a prayer was said, the dough prepared (no yeast) and then the dough rolled out. The edges of the baking pan had a dough border so that the individual mini breads would not touch the pan. With a thimble, top cut out, mini individual breads were pressed out, laid carefully along the edge of the dough on the pan and pushed into a neat row with a large wooden depressor. Approximately 100 mini breads were made and baked. When cooled, they were wrapped in a clean, white cloth and boxed. It was important that everything was kept clean. Leftover bread was burned because the bread was blessed by the church and that made it “holy” bread, to be taken only by baptized believers.

Leavened or unleavened bread is a beautiful aroma in any kitchen. Grandmas were anxious to pass on the art.

Watch for 4 recipes for baking with yeast. Enjoy.

Marlene Froese

4 Grandmas 4 U

Are you interested in learning more about baking, cooking and managing your kitchen? Four grandmothers from Saskatchewan are happy to share on a regular basis on this blog their considerable knowledge of baking, cooking and managing of households. In December these 4 grandmas each posted a favorite, traditional cookie recipe that their family prepares and enjoys during the Christmas season.

This month they will be sharing recipes for baking with yeast. I am thinking, from the way they have typed up these recipes, that they are assuming the reader knows something about baking with yeast! That may not be the case, in which, I invite you to feel free to ask questions by clicking on “comments” and posting your questions there.

In alphabetical order the grandmas are:

ELVA EPP, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
DONNA DRIEDGER, Osler, Saskatchewan
MARLENE FROESE, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
HEDIE HARDER, Hanley, Saskatchewan

Haiti Relief: Blankets, Sheets and Relief Kits

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is undertaking a multimillion-dollar, multiyear response to the earthquake that struck Haiti Jan. 12. You can help through prayer for the people of Haiti and by donating to MCC's Haiti Earthquake appeal. In addition, MCC is asking for donations of 20,000 relief kits, 10,000 heavy comforters and 10,000 sheets for shipment now through Feb. 28. Donate online at donate.mcc.org/project/haiti-earthquake, by cheque to the MCC office nearest you, or by phone toll free: 1-800-313-6226. More details regarding instructions for donating relief kits, comforters and sheets is available at mcc.org/kits or by contacting your nearest MCC office.

Haiti Earthquake

Please continue your generous prayers and contributions for the people of Haiti. Mennonite Central Committee is committed to a long term rebuilding response and welcomes your support. Donations for "Haiti Earthquake" can be made online at mcc.org, by phoning 519 745 8458, or cheques can be mailed to 50 Kent Ave., Kitchener ONTARIO N2G 3R1(designated to "Haiti Earthquake")

- From 50 years of working in Haiti, MCC has deep friendships and strong partnership. This both intensifies our grief, and strengthens our capacity to respond.

- While we do not intend to be the first to arrive, we are often one of the last to leave. Our focus is on medium term and long term rebuilding and capacity development.

- We are eligible to apply to the CIDA matching funds arrangement for our Haiti response.

- Our initial response is providing water purification units and our full Disaster evaluation team has begun our long term plan.


In peace.

From Mennonite Central Committee - Ontario

Come and See

Christmas is over. The tree has come down; the gifts put away (or returned); the cookies eaten.

And yet, Christmas accompanies us into the New Year. The season of Epiphany – between January 6 and the beginning of Lent – is the time in the church calendar for the implications of Jesus’ birth to be made known. It’s a time for us to notice the gifts of healing and hope which God has given to us and our world in Jesus. But my question is: how do we do this?

The Gospel writer John gives us a clue. In this gospel, Jesus’ first question is: “What are you looking for?” His first invitation is: “Come and see.” Both the question and the invitation are spoken a couple days after Jesus’ baptism, to would-be disciples. Intrigued by Jesus, they follow for a day and then a week and then three years and then a lifetime.

As they walk with Jesus through towns and vineyards, in desert heat and the cool of mountain springs, they see the familiar landscape of their lives with new eyes. The longer they follow Jesus, the more they see.

We too are invited by Jesus to “come and see” - to glimpse the familiar territory of our lives with new eyes. As we do so, we see God’s dream for our world. We live more and more deeply into the mystery of Jesus’ incarnation – in this world, right here, right now. We become agents of God’s healing in ways both everyday and amazing.

Christmas isn’t over. It’s only just begun….

Sue Steiner,
Kitchener/Waterloo, ON

Women's Resources for Loan

Now It Springs Up: Spiritual Insights for Everyday by Carol Duerksen, Michele Hershberger, Laurie Oswald Robinson, Willowspring Downs, 2007.

Three women have teamed together to offer fresh engaging reflections on daily scripture readings that follow the rhythms of the Christian year. In addition to thought-provoking biblical meditations, each day's entry includes an invitation to prayer and to action.

Each day's meditation begins with scripture. Then drawing upon the best of biblical scholarship and their own close reading of the text, the writers open up the passages in a section titled 'pondering on the way.' Following the scripture reading and meditation is a section titled 'praying and walking in the world,' giving questions and ideas to think about to apply it to our lives today as well as prayer suggestions. Some of the day's readings were written specifically for children and families in mind and are indicated as thus.

Borrow this title from the MC Canada Resource Centre online catalogue.

Questions or suggestions?

Please contact the Resource Centre
or check our loan policy.

Loaned books are sent anywhere in Canada - free of charge - both ways!

We'll profile a new title at this blog every month