Cooking with Sam: Bake up these bread recipes

One of my favorite foods with any meal is bread. If I can put butter on it, I will eat it.

When I was growing up, we never had loaf bread from the store, so there was never a sandwich on the table. When I started to school was the first real – that’s what I call it – loaf bread I ate. We had bread, but it was baked fresh every day, and there were no sandwiches.

Later on we had sandwiches, but the bread was baked and sliced just when you needed it.

There were meals three times a day for everyone on the farm. You had to eat to work from sun-up to sun-down, but that was everyone’s life back then. I was so glad after seeing how a lot of children were in the big city, never having green grass under their feet and never seeing the stars so bright.

That was memory lane; now let’s get to cooking some delicious bread.

Four French Loaves

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon or 1 package of baker’s yeast

1 teaspoon of honey

1 cup of warm water

Combine flour, yeast and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine honey and water thoroughly. Stir in flour mixture. Cover and place in a warm place to rise approximately 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Punch down and shape into four small loaves. Place on lightly-oiled cookie sheet and bake 20-30 minutes until crust is light golden brown. Serve warm.

I will usually make honey butter or strawberry butter to top each slice.

Ice Cream Bread

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

2 cups of butter pecan ice cream, softened

Combine flour and ice cream and mix well. Pour into two 3×5-inch loaf pans, greased and floured. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool before slicing.

You may use any flavor ice cream but not low-fat. Drizzle with chocolate sauce or fruit. Sometimes I will add nuts to give it more crunch. You can use fresh fruit in the batter, but be sure to pat dry with a paper towel before mixing in because you do not want to get a lot of liquid – your bread will not rise.

Deluxe Cornbread

3 tablespoons oil, divided

1 1/2 cups of yellow self-rising cornmeal

2 cups of buttermilk

1 large egg

One small can of whole kernel corn

1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese

¼ cup of green pepper, chopped very fine

½ cup onion

1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash extra spicy seasoning

1 cup of cooked and drained ground chuck

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all together and cook in an 8-inch skillet about 45 minutes.