Big Bend Eats
By Carolyn Brown Zniewski
HOMEMADE FRENCH BREAD
April, May and June, the second
quarter of the year, are a special time of
year as spring moves into summer. The
farmer’s market is at its busiest. The
stands are loaded with early vegetables
and a wonderful assortment of goods
made by local folks who make their
wares with special care, knowing neigh-
bors, friends and soon-to-be-friends will
be enjoying the fruits of their labor.
Home-grown lettuces, early tomatoes,
green beans, baby beets, delicious green
peas, the very thought of a walk through
the market has me wanting to make
abundant salads to serve for dinner,
along with crusty bread and tiramisu for
dessert. You can make the main dish and
the dessert first thing when the day is
still cool and the mourning doves are
calling, and tuck them away in the
fridge until it is time to eat. If spring
activities keep you late or busy schedules
make for differing dinner times, it won’t
matter.
As for the crusty bread, well, maybe
do a little bread baking late in the
evening when the night sky is lit with
the swirling Milky Way and the sound
of the train horn as it comes up to the
crossing makes you feel a little restless
and gets you thinking about far away
places. Make up the dough, knead it and
you can sit and enjoy a beer or two, lis-
ten to your favorite DJ on KRTS while
continued from page 4
maintenance due to cracking and leav-
ing the builder free to make the house
more sculptural. I like using crushed
glass from the recycling center instead of
sand (which is running an average of
$75 a yard these days, before delivery). It
works just as well to reduce shrinkage
26
you wait for it to rise. Then pop it in the
oven and enjoy another beer while it
bakes. It wouldn’t hurt to include a
friend in your plans. All you would need
is a few extra beers.
Some bread recipes can be made, start
to finish, including rising and baking
time, in only a few hours. You will have
plenty of time to gossip, tell ‘true tales’
and dance to the music on the radio.
Here are some bread recipes that require
only one rise and can be finished by
midnight. Any of these recipes can be
doubled. Baking time may vary depend-
ing on your oven.
Quick French Loaf
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup warm water
1 Tablespoon honey
1 pkg yeast
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
Combine water, honey and yeast. Let
it stand for a few minutes to allow the
yeast to foam up. Add the flour and salt,
stir well. Knead and stretch the dough
until it is smooth. Shape into a round or
oval loaf. Place on oiled cookie sheet,
cover with a damp cloth. Place in a
warm spot and let it rise until double in
size, about 30 minutes. After about 20
minutes, preheat your oven to 400°.
Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown
and the loaf sounds hollow when rapped
and add a little strength to the material.
It’s not only free, but takes a huge
amount of beer bottles out of the land-
fill. Gloves, a good respirator and eye
protection are necessary when handling
crushed glass, as with any masonry
product.
For decorative walls and non-load-
bearing elements in houses, I like whole
beer bottles to displace papercrete.
Staggered neck to bottom and laid side-
Cenizo
Second Quarter 2018
with your knuckles.
Remove from oven and allow to cool
on a rack.
Whole Wheat French Bread
1 ½ cups all-purpose white flour
1 cup whole wheat bread flour
1 pkg yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup warm water
Put 1 cup each flour, yeast, sugar and
salt into large bowl. Add water and mix
until combined–it will be sticky. Add
the remaining flour slowly until dough
is no longer sticky. Knead five minutes
until dough is elastic and smooth. Place
dough in bowl, cover with a damp towel
and let rise until double, about half an
hour. Shape into a round. Place on oiled
cookie sheet. Slash top two to three
times. Let it rest while the oven preheats
to 400°. Bake 25 minutes until it sounds
hollow when knocked with your
knuckles.
Bread Sticks
1½ cups warm water
1 packet active dry yeast
2 Tablespoons sugar
3½ cups all purpose flour
(more or less)
2 Tablespoons melted butter
2 teaspoons salt
Combine sugar and yeast and water.
by-side they fit like bricks, and can be
acquired easily in huge quantities, for
nothing. Papercrete adheres well to
them and when the ends are left exposed
they admit cheerfully tinted light into a
space.
There are probably a lot of ways to
make and apply papercrete, but I use
two: block making and slipforming. I
prefer the latter because it greatly
reduces the labor involved in papercrete
Allow 10 minutes to activate yeast. Add
flour, salt and butter. Mix until fully
combined. Knead dough for a few min-
utes until dough is smooth. Do not
overknead!
Divide into 12 parts. Roll each piece
into bread stick and place on oiled cook-
ie sheet. Cover and let sit in a warm
place for 45 minutes to an hour until
double in size.
Preheat oven to 400°. Mix half cup
melted butter, two teaspoons garlic pow-
der and one teaspoon salt. Bake 15-20
minutes. Half way through baking
brush with butter mixture and return to
oven for remaining time. Brush again
with butter after it has finished baking.
Easy Peasy French Bread
1½ cups warm water
1 Tablespoon honey
1½ teaspoons salt
1 Pkg active dry yeast
3½ - 4½ cups flour
Combine water, honey, salt and yeast.
Let sit for 5-10 minutes until it foams.
Stir in about three cups flour. Knead
in additional flour until dough is no
longer sticky. Cover with a towel and let
it sit for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to
400°. Shape dough; cut slits in the top,
bake for 15-20 minutes until it sounds
hollow when you knock on it.
production. Slipforming involves mak-
ing small forms out of parallel runs of
wood, usually two-by-sixes, which are
placed on a footer or wall and filled with
papercrete. After a short time, about
thirty minutes, the material stiffens suf-
ficiently to ‘slip’ the form along the wall
to the next section, where the process
can be repeated. Short pieces of rebar
laid on the wall hold up the form, and
these are easily pulled through the