The Agony of Defeat

My plans for entering the bread portion of the Hudson Cream Flour Bakeoff came crashing down around me last weekend.

Really, they came CRASHING down around me and shattered into about a million pieces.

Just so no one believes life always goes as planned here at The County Line kitchen, I am giving a little equal time to my monumental failure. Sure, most of the time, I try to post pretty photos of my cookies, pies and casseroles.

But, here's a little truth in advertising: Sometimes, things don't exactly qualify for a photo session at Better Homes and Gardens (unless they are illustrating the Top 10 Kitchen Disasters of All Time).

Here is Exhibit A - the Wide Angle View, just so everyone can feel a little bit better about any inadequacies they might feel they have in the kitchen.

Even this view isn't wide enough to see the glass that ended up traveling from the dining room all the way to the kitchen when my glass bowl "jumped" off the table and broke into a million pieces (I know it was a million because I had to pick them ALL up!)

I was attempting to make Nutty Orange Wheat Bread. And, if you can look beyond the shards of glass, you can see that it was rising nicely. Too bad it ended up in the trash can.

I was trying to do three things at once, never a good choice. I mixed up the Nutty Orange Wheat bread first. My plan was to enter it in one category for the Bakefest, and then enter Multi-Grain Bread in another category. I also had my Cherry Berry Pie in the works.

You've heard the old adage: Too many cooks spoil the soup. Well, I have a new one: Attempting too many recipes at once is an invitation to disaster.

I had kneaded the bread on a cutting board on the dining room table. In my zealous kneading, I guess I dislodged the table pad a little further than I realized.

When I put the second bowl on the table to rise, I came back in the kitchen. Suddenly, CRASH! I really didn't know what had happened until I rounded the corner and saw my catastrophe. There was so much glass, I thought both bowls had ended up on the floor.

Thankfully, one survived.

It was a sad day. Those glass bowls are my favorites to use for the rising process for bread dough. I was glad one survived my kitchen mishap.

The Multi-Grain Bread dough had landed on a dining room chair, right side up, its glass bowl still intact and the tea towel still covering it. It was a small miracle amidst the disaster.

I let it rise and then shaped it. I've mentioned before that shaping bread into loaves is not exactly my best kitchen skill. I think I have a mental block after years of white ribbons as a Pratt County 4-Her.

So I had a Stafford lady demonstrate the fine art of shaping loaves to my 4-H kids this summer. She bakes bread every single week.

After this session, one of my 4-Hers won the champion ribbon in the intermediate division at this year's fair. She then made four more loaves for the 4-H premium auction, all of which looked better than anything I have ever shaped.

Maybe it's like a second language. If you learn a second language - or the art of bread shaping - in your youth, it "takes" a little more quickly.

Randy would say I need to practice a little more. (I think there's an ulterior motive to that advice!)

Even with some expert instruction, my loaves didn't turn out perfect enough to enter in the bakefest.

Yes, there were few enough entries that I would have placed. But I know how they are supposed to look. This isn't it.

Even though they leave a lot to be desired in the "looks" department, they were very tasty as breakfast toast.

Didn't your mother tell you? Looks are not everything.

A little butter on freshly toasted homemade bread ... that just might be priceless.

Here are the recipes. My advice for you: Don't try to make them both at once. Enjoy!

Multi-Grain Bread

1 cup water
1 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup oats (old-fashioned or quick-cooking, I used quick cooking)
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup unprocessed bran
5 to 5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 pkg. rapid rise yeast
2 tsp. salt
2 eggs (divided - only one needed if one not used for topping)
Additional wheat germ or oats for topping (opt.)

Heat water, yogurt and oil to simmering. Stir in oats, wheat germ and bran. Set aside until cooled to very warm (120 to 130 degrees), about 30 minutes.

In large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, brown sugar, undissolved yeast and salt. Add cooled bran mixture; blend well. Stir in 1 egg and enough remaining flour to make soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes. Cover; let rest on floured surface 10 minutes.

Divide dough in half. Roll each half to 12- by 7-inch rectangle. Beginning at short end of each, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seams and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in two greased 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Optional: With sharp knife, make 3 diagonal slashes (1/4inch deep) on each loaf. Lightly beat remaining egg; brush on loaves. Sprinkle with wheat germ or oats.

Bake at 375 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove from pans; let cool on wire racks.

Makes 2 loaves.

A recipe note: You can purchase both wheat germ and unprocessed bran at Glenn's Bulk Foods just west of Hutchinson for a fraction of what it costs for the same products from grocery store shelves. If you don't live near there, try a bulk food store in your community.

Nutty Orange Wheat Bread

3 cups whole wheat Hudson Cream Flour
3 1/2 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose Hudson Cream Flour
2 pkg. yeast
1 tbsp. grated orange peel
1 1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts, toasted

In large bowl, combine 3 cups whole wheat flour, yeast, orange peel and salt. Heat milk, water, honey and oil until very warm (120 to 130 degrees). Gradually add to dry ingredients; beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Let sit 5 minutes for whole wheat flour to absorb liquid. Change to dough hook. After sitting, add toasted walnuts and enough all-purpose flour to a make a soft and satiny dough. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 30 to 45 minutes. Punch dough down. Remove dough. Using about 600 grams of dough, roll into rectangle and then roll as for jelly roll, forming a loaf. Put in a greased 8 1/2- by 4 1/2-inch loaf pan. Repeat for remaining dough. Makes 2 loaves.

Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 30 to 45 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes or until done, covering with foil the last 10 minutes to prevent excess browning. Remove from pans; cool on wire rack.

This bread is great toasted for breakfast. (Yes, we have had it before. We just didn't get it this time after the kitchen debacle!)

The Thrill of Victory

I had a prize-winning pie at the Stafford County Fair last week. And to think, I almost didn't even take it to get judged.

I am my own worst critic (just ask my family). I made two Cherry Berry Pies last Friday evening. One, I intended to take to the Stafford County Fair's Hudson Cream Flour Bakeoff on Saturday morning.

The other, I made because my husband said, with puppy-dog eyes and with a pleading voice, "Do I get a pie, too?"

My pie crust recipe makes three pie crusts. I had just made him a blueberry pie (I've even written a post about the blueberry pie, but I've had so many other timely things to write about, I haven't posted it yet). So it's not like he's been deprived.

But I really don't make pie that often. And he's a pretty good guy. So I made another pie for him. It just wasn't the picture-perfect version.

I had stashed my extra pie crust from the blueberry pie baking day in the freezer. That one was already fluted and ready for use as a one-crust pie. But instead, I used it along with the extra pie crust from my Hudson Cream Flour Bakeoff baking session.

It's hard to seal an already-crimped crust with a new one on top. So it boiled over and the filling just didn't set up that well.

I had already experienced the agony of defeat with my bread baking endeavor for the same bakeoff (Read about that tomorrow: I had to post the Thrill of Victory first. Don't you remember Saturday afternoon and ABC's Wide World of Sports? The tagline was "The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat. But, as usual, I digress ...)

This was not the first time I had spent an evening baking for the Hudson Cream Flour Bakeoff ... and then decided nothing was "good enough" to take. I am the queen of that. In fact, I told Randy Friday night, "PLEASE remind me not to do this next year."

But, Saturday morning, I woke up, and I looked at the pie again. Looking through the strawberry-shaped vent hole, I thought to myself, "Well, it looks like it's set up."

So with trepidation, I took my pie to the fair.

Al Brensing, who IS Hudson Cream Flour, was there when I entered it.

"That looks really good," he said.

I told him, "Well, we'll see if the filling holds up when the judge cuts it."

And it did! She said that it probably was on the verge of being "overfull" and I was "teetering with disaster." But, since I averted disaster, it was a pretty good pie. She complimented the "melding" of the three berries, but also noted she could taste each one.

It was good enough to earn me second place in her eyes. It was second to Sharon, who is a champion pie baker, bread maker and all-around great cook, so that was good enough for me.

The winners: Brianna McNickle (one of my 4-H foods and nutrition kids!), 3rd with an apple pie; Sharon Allen, 1st, with a fresh apricot pie; me, 2nd; Jim Sellers, 4th with an apple cranberry pie.

The Stafford County Commissioners also get to choose their favorite pie. And they chose my Cherry Berry Pie! The pie I almost didn't bring earned me $30 bucks - $15 from the commissioners and $15 from Stafford County Flour Mills, the maker of Hudson Cream Flour (the best flour of all time, really and truly. I'm not just saying that because they paid me $15!)

Well, I earned $30 if you don't count all the money I spent enlarging and matting photos for the open class photo show ... and if you don't count all the ingredients that went into the pies.

OK. Maybe I didn't really make $30. But my prize-winning pie helped me so I didn't end up quite so far in the hole.

And, as Randy says, it's good to exhibit in the local fair. You want people to have something to look at when they come to visit.

Wait ... maybe, he just wants another pie.

Cherry Berry Pie
(From Taste of Home magazine with a few variations)

2 cups tart cherries, pitted (I used canned)
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries (I did chop them fairly fine)
3/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. almond extract
Dash salt
2 tbsp. butter
Pastry for double crust pie
A little milk
A little sugar

In a large bowl, combine cherries, blueberries and chopped strawberries. Add lemon juice and almond extract. Combine sugar, salt and cornstarch, mixing very well. Add to fruit mixture. Line a 9-inch pie plate with bottom crust. Fill with fruit mixture and dot with butter.

Top with remaining pastry. Trim, seal and flute edges. Use a miniature cookie cutter to make a vent hole or just put vent slashes in the top crust with a knife. With a pastry brush, lightly brush top crust with milk. Sprinkle with sugar.

Shield crust edges with foil guards. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 to 55 minutes or until crust is light brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on wire rack. Yield: 8 servings.

Never Fail Pie Crust

3 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups shortening
5 tbsp. water
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 egg, beaten

Stir together flour and salt. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until well blended. Stir together water, vinegar and beaten egg. Add to flour mixture. Stir with a fork until a dough starts to form and pulls away from the side of the bowl. You may need to use your hands to help form it into a ball. Divide into thirds, as this recipe makes 3 crusts (enough for a 2-crusted pie and one single crust. I usually just put the extra crust in the freezer to use later for a one-crust pie.)

Enjoy!