Basic quick pizza dough

1 T instant yeast 

1 tsp brown sugar 

1 1/2 cups water 

1 t salt 

2 T oil 

3 1/2 cups flour 

Mix all together and knead until smooth. Let dough rest for a few minutes to relax the gluten, then stretch or roll to fit a large pizza pan (or two smaller ~12" ones). Preheat oven to 425 or hotter. You can either bake the dough for 5-6 minutes and then add toppings and bake for another ~10 minutes, or do as King Arthur Flour recommends: "Instead of par-baking the crust, consider leaving off the cheese for the first two-thirds of the bake time. This allows liquid from the sauce and toppings to evaporate, concentrating their flavor. Melted cheese can act like a lid, trapping moisture and making dough soggy instead of crisp. After the edges of the pizza begin to brown, remove from the oven, add cheese, and return to the oven to finish baking."

(recipe handwritten in above "Spago's Pizza Dough" in one of our Parma ward cookbooks)

Lemon Poppyseed Pancakes

We made these the other day and they turned out so yummy that we had to write the recipe down!

 1 1/2 cups oat flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 

4 tsp baking powder 

1 T poppy seeds

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 c oil

1/4 cup applesauce/yogurt/sour cream

1 duck egg/2 small chicken eggs, yolk and white divided

1 1/2 cups milk 

Zest and juice of one lemon

3 T sugar

Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl, then dump wet ingredients except for egg whites on top. Stir together. Gently fold in unbeaten egg whites until no more streaks. Add a little milk if it's too thick. Cook as any other pancake recipe. 

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

I got this delicious 100% whole wheat recipe from Lindsey O a few years ago. I adapted it to use powdered milk instead of canned milk.


4 Loaves:
5 cups hot water
1 c instant powdered milk
1 1/2 T salt
2/3 c oil
3/4-1 c honey
3 T instant yeast
10-11 c whole wheat flour
3/4 c vital wheat gluten

5 Loaves:
6 cups hot water
1 1/4 cups instant powdered milk
2 T salt
3/4 cup oil
1 cup honey
3 1/2 T instant yeast
13-14 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup vital wheat gluten

Add the first 6 ingredients, plus half the flour and mix well. 

Dump 3 more cups of flour on top of the mixture, and gently stir the vital wheat gluten into the loose flour. Mix again.

Add remaining flour 1 cup at a time, mixing between additions, until if you scoop a bit of dough on your finger it keeps its shape and doesn't gloop down. Knead in mixer (Bosch speed 2) for about 10 minutes or until stretchy and elastic.

Form into loaves and place in greased 9x5 pans. Let rise until the corners of the pan are filled in and the top of the loaf is about 2 inches above the top of the pan (30-45 minutes).

Bake at 350 until golden brown. 

(I like to let the loaves rise in the oven with light on. Then, leaving the loaves in the oven, I turn it on to 350 and set the time for 30 minutes, without waiting for it to preheat.)

Oat Chocolate Chip cookies

These are adapted from the so-called $250 Neiman Marcus cookies (apparently it's not a true story, but the cookies are delicious!). I swapped out some things to make them a)cheaper (shortening is cheaper than butter, right?), and healthier (to me, I don't worry about the fats but I'd like less sugar and more whole grains). The results were delicious!

•  1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
•  1 cup shortening
•  1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
•  1 1/2 cups brown sugar
•  4 eggs
•  2 teaspoon vanilla
•  2 cups all purpose flour
•  2 cups whole wheat flour 
•  5 cups oatmeal, measure then blend into oat flour
•  1 teaspoon salt
•  2 teaspoon baking powder
•  2 teaspoon baking soda
• Chocolate chips
• chopped walnuts, opt.

Cream together butter, shortening, and sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Add flours and oats on top and stir into the flour the salt, baking powder and baking soda. Stir into the wet ingredients. Add chocolate chips and walnuts as desired and mix until just combined. Scoop into 1 inch balls on a cookie sheet, about an inch apart, and bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.

Rhubarb Crisp

5 1/2 c Chopped rhubarb
1/4-1/3 c honey
1 tsp lime zest
2 T lime juice
2 T Berry syrup (or orange juice)
1 T corn starch

1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c quick oats
1/2 c brown sugar

Combine rhubarb, honey, zest, lime juice berry syrup, and cornstarch and place in a greased 8*8 pan. Combine topping ingredients and crumble on top. Bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or until rhubarb is soft.

Masa Cornbread

We always have maseca corn flour on hand, but we always seem to run out of cornmeal. I've tried several recipes using Masa, and today I was finally happy with how it turned out. We like this cornbread served in a bowl with southern beans ladled over the top. Mmmm...

1 1/2 c corn flour (Masa)
1/2 c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/4 c brown sugar
1 1/2 c milk
1/4 c oil
2 eggs

1-2 T butter

Preheat oven to 425. Put butter in an 8x8 pan and set it in the oven to melt as the oven preheats. Mix dry ingredients together in a mixing bowl, then add wet ingredients and stir. Pour into prepared hot pan and bake for about 20 minutes, until beginning to brown on top. Remove from pan to cool if you want the edges to stay crispy.