With all this talk about cinnamon buns, you might be interested in purchasing yeast. Here is a yeast primer:

Yeast is a natural leavener for making bread rise. (Baking powder and baking soda are considered chemical leaveners.)

Instant Active Dry Yeast can be stirred directly into the dry ingredients without proofing. It was originally designed for breadmachines and is often called Fast-Rising, Rapid-Rise, Quick Rise, and/or Bread Machine Yeast.

Active Dry Yeast has a larger particle size than Instant Active Dry Yeast and must be “proofed” in water before using. Recommended water temperatures will vary by manufacturer between 100 – 115 degrees F as measured with an instant read thermometer. To test and proof active dry yeast: Add water, yeast, and a pinch of sugar. Stir to dissolve. If it foams and bubbles within a few minutes, the yeast is alive and active.*

To substitute instant or breadmachine yeast for active dry yeast, use approximately 25% less instant yeast than active dry yeast.

Storage/Expiration Date: Dry yeast will keep far beyond the expiration date printed on the package, if stored unopened at room temperature. Once opened, dry yeast will keep 6 months longer in the refrigerator, and 12 months longer in the freezer. If using frozen yeast, no need to thaw before using.

Measuring Yeast: You do not need to be excruciatingly exact in measuring yeast since it’s going to multiply fast. A little less is fine – the dough will rise more slowly and may taste better. NOTE: Too much yeast, however, will give an unpleasant yeasty flavor and aroma.

Yeast is sold in small packets at a cost of $38-$45 per pound.

Sold in jars at $16-$27 per pound.

Sold in one pound blocks, $2-$3 per pound.

Let’s see, should I buy the pound brick package of yeast (comes in a two pack) for $2.28 per pound? Or maybe the jar … or perhaps the three-pack?

* Years ago, before breadmachines, the common way to make bread was to proof the yeast by first adding it to water and sugar. But when breadmachines came along, yeast manufacturing companies developed the instant yeast. Many of our cookbooks and recipes were written before then so in older recipes it’s common to see instructions still listed as “proof yeast in water and sugar….”

Home-Based Baking at its Best! Yeasted products are typically more time-consuming than chemically leavened products. But if you have a regular morning business, such as selling at a farmers’ market, consider adding cinnamon buns, a wildly popular product.

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Baking with yeast yields wonderful homemade tastes and smells. Our kitchens can be filled with real homemade goodness. But learning the steps can seem daunting.

In my basic bread class we gain knowledge for making both a sweet dough and lean (sandwich) dough. In class, after talking about yeast, we make the doughs and let them rise.

Everyone has enough dough to make their own cinnamon buns.

Next, we scale off the lean dough for rolls.

Cinnamon buns fresh from the oven!

At the end of class we pack up rolls and cinnamon buns. The buns are still warm so (as pictured above) the icing goes home in a separate container.

Thanks again, Annie, for helping.

Annie Scibienski, from blue ribbon hearth, who specializes in artisan bread, will be teaching her own classes next semester!

I have another bread class on June 12. We’ll be making sticky buns and coffeecakes. To register, call BOCES (845) 331-5050. Hope to see you there!

Home-Based Baking at its Best!

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Granola is considered to be a strong part of the healthy eating trend.

Granola is one of the simplest products to bake and package.

When I started my business, I made three kinds of granola and sold them wholesale through my local food co-op. Every week I delivered in bulk, using recycled five-gallon molasses tubs. Granola was not a well-known or popular product at the time, but co-op members were familiar with it and bought large quantities of this breakfast cereal.

Granola has an exceptionally long shelf and recipes can be adapted to a wide variety of flavors.

This variation includes coconut, cranberries, and walnuts.

One of the most frequent questions I receive is about recommendations for a product line. Although granola is now a saturated market with corporations selling artisan-style products, there is always room for small home-based food businesses selling locally, especially at a farmers’ market. I suggest you package in plastic or poly bags and skip the expensive glass jars.

Basic Granola
1 ½ cups oil
1 ½ cups honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
10 cups regular rolled oats
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup nuts
½ cup sesame or sunflower seeds, optional
2-4 cups mixed coconut, raisins, craisins, chopped dates, pineapple, etc.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease or pan spray baking pans.
1. In a large bowl or stockpot, mix together oil, honey, vanilla, oats, salt, and nuts. Reserve remaining ingredients to avoid burning: these should be mixed in after granola is finished baking.
2. Scoop ingredients into a large, deep pan (roasting pan or lasagna pan works well), or two jelly roll pans. Bake at 325 degrees for approx 60 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes. Watch carefully, if your oven runs hot you may need to drop temperature to 300 degrees. When granola is a deep golden brown, remove from oven and stir in remaining ingredients.
3. Stored in an airtight container, granola keeps for several months.

Home-Based Baking at its Best!

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There’s something special about almond paste. It gives products a subtle flavor and adds a nice texture. A couple of weeks ago I bought a case and made:

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies, MrMacho’s favorite.

Almond Cherry Biscotti

Almond Buttons

Pear Frangipane Tart

Saturday, after our Hudson Valley Baking Society (HVBS) membership meeting, we had a workshop, Baking with Almond Paste.

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(The mixers were not entirely cooperative.)

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That afternoon at home I made another Pear Frangipane Tart.

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Frangipane is an almond filling made with almond paste (or ground almonds). This filling is most often spread over a crust (tart, cookie, or pie crust) and topped with fresh fruit. Bakeries keep a supply of tart shells par-baked and stored at room temp until ready to finish.

For the above tart, use your favorite sweet cookie crust dough; reserve a small amount of dough to use as a streusel topping. Press most of the dough into a pan and parbake until a light golden brown. Let cool for a few minutes, spread a thin layer of frangipane, and top with a layer of fresh fruit. Sprinkle remaining dough/streusel and bake at 350 degrees until done (approx 20 minutes) until the crust is a deep golden brown and the top is a light brown. Cool before cutting.

Frangipane filling
1 cup almond paste (8 ounces)
1 cup sugar
½ cup butter
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Beat together almond paste, sugar, and butter. Add eggs and extracts, beating until smooth. Mix in flour and salt. Spread thin layer over tart crust or use as filling for other products. Store in fridge.

Fresh fruit season is perfect for selling this product, especially at farmers’ markets. Make individual tarts or a large tart cut into small pieces. Optional: add a dusting of confectioners’ sugar.

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Today marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of our modern environmental movement. April 22, 1970 was the first US Earth Day, which began as a national teach-in day. For some history, read here and here and here.

Are you prepared for Earth Day?
Do you have any products to help celebrate this popular celebration day? As a business, sales are created when we take advantage of celebration days. American Food and Drink Days is a monthly calendar to help us plan ahead.

Taking advantage of celebration, or special days.

For the above cookies, prepare your favorite sugar cookie or shortbread dough. Color half the dough with green coloring and marble together the green and white dough. Roll into logs and refrigerate until hard, at least one hour. Slice and bake.

Home-Based Baking at its Best!

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Cookies loaded with whole grains and fruit.

Cookies for breakfast? These cookies are certainly healthier than donuts or most breakfast cereals. The healthy eating trend is here to stay. If you sell at a farmers’ market and don’t already have a product that incorporates a whole grain or fruit (fresh or dried), please consider at least one “healthier” product.

Young couples with children shop the markets looking for fresh, local, seasonal, and healthy.

Oatmeal cookies are a natural for this healthy eating trend. Most oatmeal cookie recipes already incorporate oats and dried fruits. Create your own recipe: start with your favorite oatmeal cookie recipe, use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, and add any combination of dried fruits.

My cookies have just enough batter to hold the dried fruits and nuts.

Small cookies are perfect sold in a small bag... bet your customers can't eat just one...

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I often hear people say there are no original recipes anymore, only variations of recipes that have been around for ages.

I believe it’s possible to create a truly new recipe, one that we tweak and refine so it becomes our secret product. But more often than not, its base has origins in a previous recipe. A good example is the Toll House recipe. According to the story, Ruth Wakefield, owner of the Toll House Inn, came up with the unique idea of adding chopped chocolate to a cookie. At the time, that was an original idea. So while most of us have very special chocolate chip cookie recipes that are “ours,” our recipe is a version of the original created by someone else.

I started thinking about this a few days ago when I made my Matzoh Candy Crunch recipe.

I like to use different toppings.

But chopped walnuts is my favorite version.

I’ve been making it every year since 1990, when MrMacho and I moved south to Tennessee. I’d been searching for Red Velvet cake (had never heard of it before!)  and was looking through many old community fundraising cookbooks. I came across variations of a toffee recipe that used crackers as the base.

This candy is known by many names: Chocolate Toffee Bark, Classic Saltine Cracker Toffee Candy, Chocolate Toffee Brittle, Saltine Cracker Candy, Saltine Toffee, Chocolate Toffee Candy Cookies, Christmas Crack, Saltine Toffee Cookies, (do a Google search for more, such as Chocolate Caramel Brittle, Chocolate Buttercrunch, Cracker Candy (or just Crack Candy), etc.

There are many many many named variations of this toffee cracker candy that use the same basic recipe: spread baking soda crackers (often just referred to as Saltines) over a sheet pan, cook two ingredients (1 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar), spread over crackers, bake, then top with enough chocolate to cover the crackers.  ALL THE RECIPES ARE THE SAME!!!!!

So instead of making this candy with saltine-type crackers, I used Matzoh. I tweaked a recipe and made it my own. But is it really my own?

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Chocolate Strawberry Sponge Cake from Dulce Delight

Sponge cake rolls are classics, but recently we’ve seen updated versions of this product with designs embedded into the top layer.

Photos courtesy of Dulce Delight

This cake by Dulce Delight uses hearts, a universal design that’s perfect for most events and holidays. But the product idea works for most designs from geometric patterns to writing happy birthday into the cake. Visit her website for more info and watch her delightful, entertaining video. You’ll learn to make a chocolate patterned cake roll filled with whipped white chocolate ganache and strawberries. And so much more…

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