Quick Bread - Story and Art by Sandra Russell

Quick Bread

Story and Art by Sandra Russell

The first words spoken by a rescued "Donner Party" member, was "Do you have any bread?" I faced the same question to myself this morning, and the answer was, 'I guess not; I'm out of bread'.

Well, I wasn't in the mood to trot to the store and spend five bucks on a loaf of bread, so remembering there was yeast, flour, salt in the house, decided to make English muffins for later. I used to make them all the time and so adept at it, failed to write down any recipe. That caused me to recall a couple riddles thrown up and an old job in the past. The riddle was offered as a sort of pseudo intellectual game played by a circle of folks who got together for 'Happy Hour' at a local bar and fancied themselves as members of Dorothy Parker's round table. Something like that? Anyhow, the quiz at one meeting was about sour dough bread and how the starter was passed from person to person as a rare and impossible to get as Jason's fleece. Who started the starter? was to rival creation vs evolution with this conundrum. But it's not all that mysterious if you just have to come up with some bread.

I did a project for the science fair in high school on yeast. I remembered that pioneers and peasants ‘caught’ yeast spores from the air. They peeled potatoes and left to sit in water, the starches from the leaching potato skins or bodies raised to the top of the water, a sort of foam, and this foam and natural sugars held yeast spores that were made into little cakes and later used to make bread.

Well, I don't trap air yeast, I buy it in the store, but I do make some quick and easy English muffins and start of that can be left to 'sour' if you like for sourdough bread later on. Basically, you shake a few grains of yeast, 1/4 t. is usually enough, can do more if you like. I put about that much in a half cup of warm water, a T. of sugar and a t. of salt, and let it make a sponge. After that sits for about an hour, can then add more milk (crumpets) or water (muffins) and more flour till you get a good half bowl of it, (makes about half a dozen muffins). Let that rise another hour, shape into muffins dropped onto some corn meal so as not to stick, and then fry on a griddle, turn over, pierce tops to let steam out and cook on the other side. These can be eaten as is or cooled and split then toasted in the toaster. I'm sure you can find exact measurements and methods for sourdough starter, and for English muffins online, but this is how I do it. It's very handy to know this if you are camping, and only have a campfire or hibachi to cook over. Bring the griddle.