In Utah we have Pioneer Day, celebrating the day when the Mormon Pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley and starting us off in the direction of being a state. We have terrific "pioneer" opportunities here in Utah- some of which I've been able to experience and some left to be done.
I can officially check butter-making off my list.
My kids and I decided we would have our own Pioneer Day celebration- making foods that Pioneer would have {and that's the BIGGEST chunk of our day- baking take A LOT of time, I had forgotten}.
We started with some good 'ole whipping cream. Straight from the cow...er...'cow'ner market. ;)
We put the cream into a jar...we learned earlier that things with pop-tops will do just that...pop- and spilling cream everywhere.
I forgot to add salt to this one before we started shaking it.
Here's one ready to go! The shaking part went pretty fast, depending on how hard and fast you shake; however. The think that freaked me out was that after you shake the cream, it becomes solid, and then it becomes {or what seems to be} liquid again. Never fear! This is just what's left of your cream and your butter separating. I just poured that off into the sink.
It tastes TERRIFIC!
So next, we needed bread. I kind of cheated. I didn't grind my own flour and it wasn't wheat. I didn't even mix by hand. {Thank you Bosch!} Started my yeast...
And voila! Not really. I only had my hands at this point and they were covered in dough. I'll give you the recipe, though-
'Cause it was pretty fantastic.
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
6 cups bread flour
I dissolved the sugar in warm water and then stirred in my yeast. I allowed the yeast to proof until it looked like creamy foam.
Mixed in the salt and oil. Mixed in the flour one cup at a time. Kneaded the dough on my parchment paper and then place the dough in a well oiled bowl with a damp cloth to cover it.
I let it double in bulk(about an hour). Then I punched it down, kneaded it a little more and then divided it for my pans. I formed the dough into loaves and put the loaves of dough into oiled pans. I let it rise again (30 minutes) and then put in the oven to bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
Then it was onto the pie crust. This recipe was super simple and pretty darn terrific...This is after I made the dough and let it sit in the refrigerator for about an hour first. I've been rolling my dough out on parchment paper lately and have had great success. I like being about the transfer or flip the dough to tins, etc.
I used a mason jar lid to cut the crust dough into circles that would fit into a muffin tin.
I just used my hands to gently form the crust to the sides of the tins. They turned out fantastic, by the way (eaten before I could get the pictures done). The recipe:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening (I had mine in the fridge)
1/2 cup water (I used ice water)
I used my mixer again. I started with the flour and salt- mixed it together. I then added the shortening. I mixed with my mixer until it looked all crumbly. Then I added a little water at a time until the dough was the consistency of play dough. I divided it and wrapped it in plastic wrap. It sat in the fridge for a least an hour.
I rolled this out on parchment paper. It will cook in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
We had "Hobo Dinners" for dinner. (This consists of seasoned hamburger, onions, carrots, whatever leftover vegetables we have, potatoes and lots of garlic. You wrap them all in tin foil and we cooked ours in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.--- If you aren't privy to such things.)
The rest of the day was spent in the pool with our homemade waterfall,
in our beautiful backyard...in the great state of UTAH! I'm sure the pioneers would approve. ;)
