Communion Bread

Suzan Stegemoeller makes this yummy bread. I assume that someone somewhere along the way served it for communion. I just eat it cause it tastes great!

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

5 teaspoons oil

3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons very hot water

3 tablespoons honey

3 tablespoons molasses

Directions

1.  Sift together 3 times.
2.  Stir in 5 teaspoons oil. Set aside.
3.  Mix wet ingredients together until dissolved.
4.  Add wet to dry ingredients and mix well. Should be slightly sticky. Do not knead.
5.  Add more moisture if too dry.
6.  Divide into 4 balls. Flatten each into a 1/4 inch thick disk. Score each disk.
7.  Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove. Brush top with oil. Bake another 5 minutes (maybe a little more, if needed).

Suzan's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Another yummy recipe from Suzan Stegemoeller.

2 sticks butter
2 cups sugar (raw or brown or a combination of the two)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
dash cinnamon
3 cups flour (half white, half wheat)
1 bag dark chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla.
2. Mix in soda, salt and cinnamon, flour.
3. Mix in chips
4. Roll into cookie size balls. 
5. Bake for 12 minutes at 325.

Molasses Peanut Butter Balls

This comes from Suzan Stegemoeller, one of my awesome running buddies.

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup molasses
1 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup dried fruit chunks

Mix and then roll into balls and coat with more powdered milk.

Applesauce Muffins

Ingredients

1/2 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 Cups applesauce
2 Cups all purpose flour
2 Cups whole wheat flour (part gluten, if desired)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 Cup chopped walnuts, optional
Cinnamon sugar, optional

Directions

1. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla; mix well. Stir in applesauce. Combine the flour, baking soda and spices; stir into creamed mixture. Fold in nuts.
2. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups three-fourths full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar if desired. Yield: about 2 dozen. (NOTE: I prefer bigger muffins, so this makes 16 muffins for me.)

Protein Balls

This comes from Kay Lynn Larsen.

1 c dry oatmeal
1/2 - 3/4 c coconut
1/2 c peanut butter
1/4 - 1/3 c ground flax seed
1/4 c honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
(optional) 1/4 - 1/2 c mini chocolate chips

Mix together by hand and form into balls.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

My daughter calls this "Sacrament Bread," probably because it is the bread I make whenever I'm asked to bring bread for the sacrament. Whatever you call it, it's delicious and a family favorite. The recipe comes from The Bread Machine cookbook. I've added a few simple directions for handmade bread.

NOTE: You'll need to play around with the amount of flour, depending on your altitude. The recipe calls for just 3 cups flour for a full batch, but that's never enough. Also, this loaf rises quite a bit.

Ingredients

For one large loaf (or one regular loaf and one small loaf):

2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) yeast

3 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs

1 cup milk

For one regular-size loaf:

1 1/2 teaspoons yeast

2 cups flour (may need more)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons sugar

1 1/3 tablespoons butter

1 1/3 eggs (? who adds 1/3 of an egg?)

2/3 cup milk

Directions

1. Mix 3 cups of flour (if you are making a full batch) and yeast in a bowl. (NOTE: Don't add all the flour at once.)
2. Heat milk, butter and sugar until butter starts to melt, and milk is almost (but not quite) hot. (A lot of recipes say to scald the milk, or bring it to boiling, but then you need to cool it down so that it doesn't kill the yeast. Whichever you do, make sure that when you add the milk to the yeast mixture, it's warm but doesn't burn your finger when you touch it.)
3. Add milk mixture, eggs and salt to flour and mix thoroughly. Add as much of remaining flour as you need to so that the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and forms a ball that you can kneed.
4. Kneed for 10 minutes (during which time you'll get a passable arm workout and cuss yourself for not buying a Kitchenaid).
5. Cover and let rise until double. Then shape into loaves (or rolls, if you like) and let rise again.
6. Bake at 400 for 10 minutes and then at 350 for another 15 minutes (small loaf) or 18 minutes (regular loaf). (NOTE: You'll have to play around with baking times a bit, depending on your oven and the size of the loaf. Also, if you are making rolls, just bake them at 375 for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the rolls.)

Instant Pot Steamed Broccoli

1. Put 1/2 cup hot water in Instant Pot.
2. Add broccoli/cauliflower (in steamer basket or on trivet rack).
3. Close lid and set to Seal.
4. Press Manual and set minutes to 0.
5. When the Instant Pot beeps (indicating pressure has built), quick release the pressure manually.