I recently got a whole box of cookbooks from a friend, including The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking. Honestly not sure what makes the Jesuits specifically amazing bread people other than they’ve been practicing for a long time, but the first recipe I tried was a keeper! I actually doubled it, and was glad to have more to stash in the freezer for a pretty soon later! I hate carrot cake that has chunks in it, so I’m not sure why this bread, with all its texture, does work for me.
Ingredients (for one loaf):
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (actually my cinnamon is from the same friend!)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (the book didn’t specify, and I had about half that much left in a bag of light sugar, filled the rest with dark)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup oil (I used canola)
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9×5″ bread pan. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, applesauce, and oats.
Add the raisins and oil.
Stir in the flour mixture until just combined.
Transfer the mixture to the bread pan and bake for 1 hour. One of my bread pans is an 8×4, so I put the bread pans on a bigger pan in case there was too much batter and it overflowed, but that didn’t turn out to be an issue.
I let them cool for ~10 minutes in the pan, then carefully ran a knife around the inside of the bread pans and turned the loaves out to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.
A delicious way to get some fruit and whole grains into your carbs!
Brother Leikus’s Oatmeal Quick Bread
From The Secrets of Jesuit Breadmaking.
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup oil
Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 9×5″ bread pan. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and soda, salt, and cinnamon, and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, eggs, applesauce, and oats. Add the raisins and oil. Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Transfer the mixture to the bread pan and bake for 1 hour. Let them cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then carefully run a knife around the inside of the bread pans and turn out to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack.
Beat in the salt, vanilla, and yolk.
Add the flour and beat, scraping down the bowl, until no dry patches remain.
Shape into a ball, flatten somewhat into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Roll out the chilled dough and place in a 9″ tart pan, removing any extra by running your thumb over the edge of the pan to cut off the excess. My house is about a million degrees, so the dough instantly went back to floppy and was a nightmare to roll out, but even the cookbook mentions using excess dough to patch any holes. Prick the dough all over with a fork, then freeze at least 10 minutes.
Preheat oven toe 350, then bake the crust for 15 minutes, taking it out halfway through to check if there are any bubbles forming in the crust, and pressing down on them if so before returning to the oven. Set the crust aside to cool.
Once the crust is cool, put the bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Heat the cream over high heat on the stove until it just starts to boil, then pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit, undisturbed, for 30 seconds, then gently stir until the chocolate is evenly melted into the cream. Don’t stir too vigorously or you may end up with air bubbles in your chocolate.
Pour the still warm filling into the crust.
Ingredients:
Press evenly into a 9″ pie pan.
Bake for 10 minutes, then allow to cool. You’re done with the oven at this point.
To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium bowl and beat until smooth.
Add the caramel sauce and beat in.
In a large bowl, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
Gently transfer into the cooled crust, and sprinkle with…the sprinkles, if using.
Refrigerate at least 8 hours before serving. I waited until the next morning to cover with plastic wrap, and at that point it had enough of a surface that the plastic wrap barely stuck to it.
Add the onion, tomato paste, and water. Bring to a boil, cover, and boil for 5 minutes. Add the peanut butter and boil uncovered another 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Add the salt, bouillon cube, and chili powder, and stir well, then let boil 5 additional minutes without stirring. Serve over rice, potatoes, and/or vegetables.
Beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour and salt.
Fold in the chocolate chips.
The original recipe said to drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared sheets, but that’s TINY and would take forever and just…no thanks. I used my tablespoon sized dough scoop, and left even that a bit towards heaping when scooping.
Ingredients:
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add the vanilla, then the cocoa powder.
Add the flour and salt and beat until smooth, then fold in 1/2 cup of the chocolate chips.
Spread batter in the prepared pan. Press 9 Oreos into the surface of the batter, spaced evenly.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until they pass the toothpick test.
Meanwhile, place the remaining Oreos in a large ziplock and crush them, then add 1/2 chocolate chips to the bag and mix together.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining cup of chocolate together with the peanut butter. Remove the brownies from the oven and spread the melted peanut butter chocolate over the top, making sure to get it in all the spaces between the crushed Oreos to hold everything together.
Refrigerate for at least 2 hours to set, then let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before slicing and serving.
Just looking back at the archives, I hadn’t cooked mushrooms since 2018, and before that the last time was 2015… Occasionally they have their uses!
Stir in the flour and spices until the veggies are evenly coated.
Stir in the broth and bring to a boil.
Add the pasta, and reduce the heat. Cook at a simmer, uncovered, until the pasta is cooked, 8-10 minutes. Add the turkey and cream, cook just until heated through, and serve.
Ingredients:
Meanwhile, in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, cook the bacon until crispy, then remove to drain on paper towel. Cook the ground beef, breaking it up, until it’s fully browned through, then remove the pan from the heat and pour off any excess grease. Season with salt and pepper.
Top with the cheese, then use a spoon to make 8 dents and gently break an egg into each, being careful not to break the yolks.
Season the eggs with salt and pepper, then bake about 8 minutes, until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still runny. — Even if they still look like they’re jiggling suspiciously much, if the whites are actually white, not clear/translucent, they’re cooked enough, and you should yank them then.
Spoon onto plates and serve with a drizzle of olive oil and some scallions and extra rosemary.
Ingredients:
Stir in the milk to form a soft dough. (I needed to add a bit more flour one of the two times I made it, using different brands of flour, to get it not super sticky.) Roll out 1/4″ thick on a lightly floured surface.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cinnamon of the filling.
Spread over the dough to within 1/4″ of the edges, the sprinkle the raisins evenly on top of that.
Roll up like a jelly roll and cut into 1″ thick slices.
Combine the butter and sugar of the topping in a 9×9″ dish. Place in the oven until the butter melts and stir the sugar in. Cook a few more minutes until the butter dissolves, then remove from the oven.
Place the cut slices/the cinnamon buns into the hot sugar mixture, cut-sides-down, being cautious of the hot sugar.
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 and cook an additional 15 minutes.
Remove the rolls from the pan at once, turning sugar-side up. (If you had a large platter you could probably flip the whole dish out at once, but with that very hot butter/sugar mixture, I didn’t want any drips getting on anything/anyone, so fished the buns out one-by-one with 2 forks.)
Ingredients:
Roast 15-20 minutes until tender (=easy to stick a fork into).
Meanwhile, in a large bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, flour, and cayenne, then stir in the cheese.
When the squash is cooked, turn it out into a plate/bowl, and put the butter in the still-hot pan, placing back in the oven for a minute if necessary to melt the butter. Turn the pan all around to grease the insides of the pan.
Bake until puffed and browned at the edges, 30-35 minutes.
Remove from the oven, sprinkle with some more of the Parm blend and some chives, and let stand 15 minutes before cutting and enjoying!
sparecake 