PUMPKIN BREAD/MUFFINS

Combine:

1 ¾ cups A.P. Flour
¼ tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
¾ tsp. Pumpkin Pie Spice

Cream together:

1 1/3 cups Sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs

Add: 1 cup pumpkin
Add dry ingredients alternating with:

1/3 cup milk to which you have added ½ tsp. vanilla

If you wish you can add:

½ cup chopped nuts
½ cup soaked raisins
(raisins soaked in spiced rum add an adult twang!)

You can now make bread in a greased loaf pan or muffins in lined cupcake molds.

Bake 350 about one hour for the bread, 20 minutes for the muffins

Top the muffins with cream cheese frosting for a real treat

Ham Baked in Rye

When I was young my family used to get hams baked on Christmas at the bakery. They would bake them in a rye crust at night time when the ovens were free. I remember the next day when they picked up the ham we would sit around and eat the delicious outside rye crust before slicing the ham. Would you have the recipe for the rye crust used for this purpose and how long and temp used.

Thank you for your time.

My father used to own the Kline & Bernard plumbing co. on Ludlow Av., and my aunt Henrietta still lives in Clifton.

Jim Bernard.

Hello Jim,

Attached is the rye bread recipe that was edited from the book. What’s a German baking book without a rye bread recipe I argued. Alas, I lost. You can use either recipe. I like the bacher rye.

Tom Thie

Oops! Almost forgot the ham! Roll the dough thin and big enough to wrap your ham. Place in the pan seam side down. You can use the starch glaze if you want it shiny. Cut a few vent holes on top. Bake in a 375 oven until the dough is nicely browned. I’m assuming your ham was already cooked once, most are.

Rye breads are not easy to make at home because the ingredients are hard to find. At the bakery, we used ingredients that are usually obtainable only at a baker’s supply house, such as caramel color, caraway emulsion and powdered rye sour, all essential to the finished product.

  Following this recipe, I have offered some ideas that may help.

1¼ cups slightly warm water

2 tsp. dry yeast / 1 package

Bloom the yeast in water.

Add:

1¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. shortening

2 Tbs. ground caraway seeds, or caraway flavor to taste (start with 1 tsp.)

Caramel color (start with 1 Tbs.)

Rye sour (start with ½ cup)

1 cup rye flour

2 cups high-gluten or bread flour

Mix remaining ingredients and knead about 10 minutes to develop gluten.

Grease bowl, add dough, cover and let proof until doubled in size.

Punch dough.

Round into a ball, cover and let proof for about 15 minutes (sometimes called a bench rest).

Shape the dough into a loaf and proof again.

After proofing, apply a wash of water thickened with cornstarch on the top of the loaf.

Dissolve 1 tsp. cornstarch in 1 cup water. Bring to boil until slightly thickened. It gives the bread a nice shine.

You can leave the top plain or sprinkle with caraway seeds.

The bread is then scored with a sharp knife on the diagonal with about 2” between slits.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Put the bread in the center of upper rack. After 5 minutes, reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake until golden brown.

Yield: 1 large loaf

Bacher Rye Bread

This recipe is the same except you don’t use any caramel color and you add 3 Tbs. whole caraway seeds to the dough.

For rye breads, the lower the water temperature used above, the longer the fermentation. The longer the fermentation, the better the yeast develops. Don’t go too cold, however, or you’ll be waiting all day. I like my rye bread to first ferment between one and two hours

  At the bakery, we would put the dough on boards with yellow cornmeal and, after proofing, slide them into the oven. At home, you can use cornmeal on a metal pan or simply use parchment paper on a pan.

Helpful Suggestions for Rye Breads

Caramel color—Used to darken the bread. Not necessary, but does add to the eye appeal of dark rye. You can make your own by burning sugar on the stove.

Caraway emulsion—A caraway concentrate used for flavor. I have seen caraway flavor at the store. You can also substitute finely ground caraway seeds.

Rye sour—At the bakery, we bought powdered rye sour from a supplier. To be truthful, I like the flavor better than the rye sour we used to make.

To make rye sour at home, as we did at the bakery:

—Take a small piece (about the size of a golf ball) of leftover yeast dough (or substitute a small pinch of yeast) and add that to 1 cup rye flour and 1 cup water in a plastic container.

—Mix well. (We used more flour and water at the bakery and used a 5-gallon plastic bucket.)

—This is the important part: we used one of Grandma’s old panty hose legs; hence the sour. (Just joking!) We did use a clean stocking, however, and we would tie a sliced onion in the toe and hang it over the side of the bucket so the juice would drip over the dough. (You can substitute tied cheesecloth if the stocking idea turns you off.)

—Cover the container with a cloth and place in the refrigerator 3–4 days until it stinks. You’ve now got old-fashioned rye sour.

The three ingredients mentioned above are adjustable in the recipe to suit individual tastes. For example, you could leave the caramel color out altogether and still have a great-tasting loaf of rye. Some people like the strong sour flavor and will add more. You get the idea.

One time at the bakery, we made “radioactive rye bread.” There was a big mixer next to a table that had another mixer and a shelf where one of the bakers kept all his recipes. Also on the shelf was a radio. That day, the dough was really tight and it was going wham, wham, wham, and suddenly the sound changed to a bam, bam as the radio fell into the mixer. All the transistors were ground up into the dough, and of course, the whole thing had to be thrown out.