Thankful! We are thankful for you, our readers! We wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving and a fruitful start of Advent, the time of preparing!
We will be seeing you next week, so this post will be a hurry-up-and-get-it-all-in from moi, your faithful blogger.
Whether you are aware of it or not, the universe carries on a rhythm — a hidden pattern of time. You can hear it better if you live the seasons wherever you are united with the seasons of the Church. Not just one, not just the other… Both. When your breath comes at the pace of the breath that's given, then there is peace!
Both together — heaven's time and earth's time. As winter comes (here, but even where it's slowly rising to spring, the Church maintains her song) we naturally carry on a certain preparation. What about the supernatural preparation? This observation, that there are two preparations, goes beyond analogy — it isn't just that something in our souls is like what is happening out in the world — it's that grace builds on nature, takes it into account, and makes a unity of it all.
If we listen closely, we hear the readings in this last week (including the readings in the Divine Office) crescendoing with the sounds of kingship, the purpose of everything, the end of the world, death, darkness — and then another note, one of the coming Light, newness. But — no need for us to invent anything new! Just live in union with the Church and you will be carried along like a babe in arms.
Goodness — maybe this Advent it will be fruitful to think more about goodness, and about how we ourselves can become good. Virtue is beautiful! We can be discouraged because we lose our peace when we — inevitably — fail and fall and stumble and mess up. If instead we start from that acknowledged place of littleness, we will have peace, because we won't be surprised! Just like that child who tumbles right over, we will laugh.
But virtue is what we are here for. This life on earth has to be one of making Christ's virtue our own. Our lives together are about growing in goodness.
for the future belongs to the man of peace.
The unrighteous will be destroyed altogether,
their posterity will be cut off.
The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord,
and their protection in time of trouble.
The Lord will come to their help and free them,
rescue them from the wicked and save them,
because they have put their trust in him. ~ Psalm 36 (37) from today's Office of Readings.
Do this your own way, which you find when you nestle closer to God's way and the Church's wisdom. Don't be afraid! It's the way of peace.
So may I suggest that this Advent you do more than keep it simple? Yes, prepare your gifts, learn all the carols, decorate your house, and encourage the children to be good for St. Nicholas, aka Santa, who has one eye on them and one on Baby Jesus.
In addition to all that, live your Advent along with the Church. Listen to the readings for each day. Pray along with her prayer.
This season is a great one for beginning some participation, however modest, in the Divine Office, the prayer of the universal Church, the prayer that unites us to the Mass even as we go through our day far from the actual building of the church. The Little Oratory, our book, will give you some ideas (including specific suggestions for how to pray as a family, even with littles), and you can also just plunge in by checking out an online app like Universalis. Even if you pray one of the antiphons for one of the prayers, you will be connecting to the mind and heart of the Church, the Body of Christ.
Another thought is to institute one Rosary a week, if you don't already pray the Rosary. The Sundays of Advent will be particularly great for this! Go here to join up with the Rosary Pledge.
While you pray, please include prayers for a sweet lady, Nicole, who is undergoing brain surgery today. Pray for her family of your kindness — for her five little children, for the little sixth that she just lost, and for her husband, who is a professor of our own Bridget's.
Perhaps you could join with your St. Greg's Pocket for an Advent encouragement! Meeting once a week before Christmas to pray the Rosary in the morning, with everyone bringing some delicious snacks and the children running around after prayers — so much fun!
Don't forget that the giveaway for the beautiful Embroidered Heirlooms ends tonight!
I was going to give you a passel of links to get you in the Advent frame of mind, but actually, this one post has the important ones, I'm pretty sure! Except for maybe this one.
And lastly… some festive bread!
Maybe you aren't solo hosting Thanksgiving this year. Maybe you aren't even really taking anything for the dinner to wherever you are going!
Well, here's a little bread project for you — not only braided bread, but braided bread worthy of a hostess gift — it will make a glorious breakfast accompaniment to those scrambled eggs that are being served up.
Stuffed Braided Bread of Specialness
As you, in your long-suffering way, know, I tend to just make the bread dough by “feel,” adding as much flour as my KitchenAid 5 qt. mixer will hold. Thus, as you may be able to detect in the pictures, there is more dough here — more than just for the two loaves. Don't fret yourself.
The recipe here, adapted from The All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book, is for two loaves and it will be just fine. If you want to do it my way, follow the basic method for the pizza dough in terms of adding the liquid, resting the mixture, allowing the fermentation, and not really kneading. The difference will be that you have other ingredients that make this a soft, sweet dough and that you don't want it to be quite as loose as for pizza, although looser than you think, still. If you are able to mix in about 8 1/2 cups of flour (and a proportionate amount of milk or water), you will have enough left over to make a batch of nice dinner rolls — about 12.
But you can also just follow the recipe!
Dough
1/2 cup warm water (110-115*F)
2 packages active dry yeast (I just use a scant tablespoon of instant yeast, because buying in bulk is stupefyingly less expensive)
1/4 cup sugar or 2 tablespoons honey
2 cups milk, warmed (you will need a bit more for more flour if you do it my way)
4 tablespoons butter (1/2 stick), softened
1 or 2 eggs, lightly beaten (2 will make your dough even richer — up to you and how glorious of an occasion it is!)
1 tablespoon salt (I use a bit more because I use more flour)
about 7 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (as I say, I use more)
{For the filling you will also need softened butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and raisins or dried cranberries.}
(Here follows my simplification of the method. If you can't stand my ways, just look up any sandwich bread or sweet roll recipe in any standard cookbook and follow what they say).
Combine warm water, yeast, and 1/2 cup of the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer if that is what you have. Whisk and let stand until foamy, about 5-10 minutes.
Add 1 cup milk, butter, sugar, eggs, salt, whisk. Add 5 cups of flour, mixing with the dough hook attachment, slowly, adding the rest of the warm milk as you gently mix. Stand by with some more warm water as you add the rest of the flour. Without letting the dough become dry, slowly get the mass of dough to come together, adding water if necessary. (You can also add most of the flour and beat with a wooden spoon, then turning the dough onto a board and kneading in the last of the flour.) (This is all described with pictures in the pizza post.)
Let it rest (“autolyse”) for at least 20 minutes. Give it another spin in the mixer and you will see it all come together in a smooth ball — or at least mass.
Place your dough in a large greased bowl, turning it so that the greased bottom is now at the top. Cover with a warm wet wrung-out towel and let rise until doubled about 1-3 hours, depending on the warmth of your kitchen. Don't rush this part.
Gently turn the dough on itself. No punching. No kneading. Just a couple of turns and a gentle deflation, bringing the outside to the center and flipping. Let rise again.
Generously (and I mean generously) butter two loaf pans (and one round cake pan if you are making rolls as well). You can also use a cookie sheet if you don't want sandwich-sized slices in the end. It's up to you. For loaf pans I really prefer the pyrex ones.
Gently turn onto your floured counter. Divide into two parts (or two equal parts and one smaller part if you have done it Auntie-Leila-fashion).
Set aside your smaller lump for making rolls. Now take your two equal pieces and divide each one into three. Spread each of these thirds on the floured surface (you can use a rolling pin), into a long oblong.
Spread each oblong with about a tablespoon of soft butter. Sprinkle with about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar and some raisins. You can also dust with cinnamon.
Now roll each oblong up lengthwise to make six (two sets of three) long rolls. Sort of pinch the long edges against the side. Take three rolls and braid them up (see this post for a tutorial on how to make the braids come out right and not wonky). Do that again with the other set.
Nestle each braid into its loaf pan (or place nicely apart on the greased cookie sheet so they have room to do their thing and won't burst into each other). Let rise for about 40 minutes or until they are just looking rise-y. In other words, they probably won't double in bulk but you do want them to look like they are expanding (say, 60%) and not just sitting there. If you listen to me here and just LOOK at them, you will see what I mean. I know, I know. Me and my vague baking instructions.
After 30 minutes, preheat your oven to 375*.
Pop your loaves (gently) into the oven (and the rolls too if you've made those). Take the rolls out after about 15 minutes. Let the bread bake for 45-50 minutes or until nicely browned and sounding hollow when you tap them.
Remove from the pans and let them cool on a rack. When they are completely cooled (like, after a few hours!), you can wrap them up and freeze them if you like!
This would all be even more impressive if I had remembered to photo them sliced, but I bet you can imagine how they turn out!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! MWAH!
NY Mom says
Prayer going up for Nicole F. from a Gregory the Great Academy and Christendom College family. What a heavy cross.
Helen says
I’m sitting here, in England, laughing out loud at your recipe writing, and vowing to make this sometime for the name alone!
We have a family member dying of an inoperable brain tumour. My heart goes out to Nicole and her family and she will be in my prayers.
Kimberlee says
That bread looks lovely! I will have to give it a try. Such a step above just tossing in the raisins.
A simple way to enter into the rhythm of the Church year with the family is to sing the Marian hymn of the season. We bid a fond farewell to the Salve Regina for a time and take up Alma Redemptoris Mater with our family rosary. Music is perfect for connecting to the Church from home.
Praying for Nicole, and a Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours! We are thankful for all you do here at LMLD!
Kimberlee says
Okay, it’s really Fabulous! My three loaves and pan of swirly rolls just came out of the oven and are delicious! Love this new method – ‘autolyse’ could be my new best friend. Thank you!
Mrs. B. says
The crosses some families bear are so heavy – it makes me ashamed of my complaining…
Happy Thanksgiving! Are you getting your first snow up there? And thank you for the bread recipe… I love your posts about dough making! I learn a lot!
LeeAnn Balbirona says
I like what you wrote about meditating on Goodness. It was a revelation to me, as a young adult, to realize what “being good is its own reward” meant. At some point, I stopped expecting congratulations and fireworks every time I behaved well and realized that happiness came as a direct consequence of my own actions in choosing good over evil. Choosing the Good can get harder as the decisions faced in life get more serious, but contentment in choosing the good can turn into a feeling of delirious victory when the battle has been tougher and we’ve stumbled a few times on the way.
Happy Thanksgiving, Leila and family. May God bless you all with a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Emily b says
I really liked this, LeeAnn; very true and well articulated!
Leila says
Beautifully said, LeeAnn. When we get serious about being good we discover a whole new battleground! But with Christ, all is possible!
Emily b says
This bread looks delicious! I am going to make a foray into bread baking on account of this recipe!
And that sweet family will be in our prayers.
sibyl says
This bread looks delicious. I realized for the hundredth time, today, as I was making the same old bread recipe (which doesn’t even make enough to last a week for my family of eight) that I am terrible at improvising. Just plain old follow the rules, that is me. So I am itching to try your more relaxed method. I’ll let you know how it goes.
However, I do have a pertinent question, considering that what would be GREAT would be to bake six loaves at a time in my ordinary oven: Do you use both racks during baking? Or do you make loaves wait so that each batch can be in a single layer?
I’ve tried to do the double rack thing where I reverse the pans halfway through (bottom to top, vice versa) but the tops don’t brown as well, it seems. I’m wondering what you do, especially baking for a crowd. (This would be three teenagers, two adults, and three hungry elementary age kids.)
Leila says
Sibyl, sometimes multiple loaves require some juggling. First, I do have a convection oven and actually my range has two ovens (the other one is not convection). So if I’m doing 6 straight loaves, I might organize things so that two or three are ready to go in the oven while the others are rising more slowly in a cooler part of the kitchen. I put in those first ones for 20 minutes, then rotate them to the upper rack and put in the others. Take the first two or three out 20 minutes before the others are done.
I might make two sandwich loaves, two free-form loaves on cookie trays (so longer but not as high), and maybe two pans of rolls. Rolls don’t take as long, so when they come out the others can go in for longer.
Just have the second part of the baking, after the rotation, end with those loaves on the top rack so that they brown. You can also add a little sugar, honey, or molasses (like, 2-4 tablespoons) to aid browning.
Lisa G. says
I am going to try this! I notice that you are using instant yeast, and you say you buy it in bulk. I got a big bag of active dry online, but couldn’t find a large amount of the instant online. At the time, I was using the bread machine more, but it isn’t really an issue, is it? The one has to be wet first, and the other doesn’t. Do you have a preference for any reason which might be helpful to us?
Leila says
Hm, Lisa, maybe I meant active dry. What is it that you get in bulk at BJs or Costco? The problem is that we open the package, decant it into jars to freeze, and then of course have no access to the label.
I think Deirdre got our last batch at Trader Joe’s. So I’m even more removed. Tell me what you think I have!
In any case, it does NOT require any sugar to begin working. Just water and flour! The advantage to using this kind is that you can begin your actual breadmaking with a sort of starter, rather than by adding the yeast to all your ingredients.
So yes, probably active dry.
Lisa G. says
Okay, never mind – I just saw the pizza post and got my question answered. 😀
Leila says
Wait, tell me!
Lisa G. says
Yes, it’s the instant which doesn’t need to get wet first. But, too late – I just mixed a scant tablespoon of instant (because that’s what you said) with a half cup of (cold) water and a half cup of flour. Plus two tablespoons of brown sugar. It’s going to sit on a shelf with dish towel over it all night. I hope the yeast doesn’t mind being mixed up with water! I’ll let ya know what happens, or doesn’t. If nothing, I can start again in the morning, with active dry. 😀
(all your talk of letting some rise more slowly, and some in the pan, some not makes my head spin. You’re a master.
Lisa G. says
Oh, boy – is this what they (should) call “comment tag”? Anyway, in Deirdre’s post she says you get it in health food stores or Costco type places. So, you didn’t get any online. I’m excited about making this!
Leila says
No, I never got it online… I used to get it at BJs, then at a local health food store (because I don’t belong to BJs anymore)…. then Deirdre came to stay with her boatload of yeast 🙂
So as to the loaves… you aren’t going to get them all put together all at once anyway. Just sort of stagger them so that they can bake two by two or three by three. Just a 20-minute stagger will do the trick 🙂
DeirdreLMLD says
I buy mine on Amazon!
Lisa G. says
OK – it’s morning now, and I guess instant yeast isn’t the thing to use when you want to let it sit all night. I’ve done this a few times with no problem, so it must be the yeast. I had a half cup of water, same amount of bread flour, 2 T. brown sugar and tablespoon instant yeast. It had apparently puffed way up, got stuck all over the dish towel and then deflated. So, I’ll start again from the beginning this morning.
But, I learned something here – quick-rise yeast doesn’t want to be forced to rise slowly!
That still doesn’t answer the question of which type of yeast you really used, but since you put it in water, I’m assuming it was active dry, and I guess I’ll go with that. (oh, brother – the more I think about this, the more trepidation I feel) But, onward and upward!
Leila says
I will ask Deirdre. But even if the yeast deflates, you can still continue — this is the beginnings of sour dough starter. It has just eaten all it can and when fed, will revive — I’m assuming you have something floury topped by something watery and a sort of alcohol smell?
Lisa G. says
Oh, blast – yes, that’s what it was. I dumped it, but thanks for that info. It definitely smelled like alcohol. But what a mess it made of the towel! Is that why you use a wet one? Other times when I’ve let it sit overnight using regular yeast, it ended up bubbly and puffy, but not such a mess as this. Because I usually like to try and use as little yeast as possible, I use cold water and let it take it’s time. Sometimes that isn’t possible. And with your recipe, I would rather do exactly as you say, and if I make it again I can try it with less.
I’m done with breakfast, and am ready to start over!
Lisa G. says
Well, I made the breads – lovely! Everything came out well. I will have to do a post on it next week, but now I’m seeing why you use the mixer – it’s so simple. I didn’t roll the sections long enough for any decent sort of a braid, but that’s okay. And on the first one I rolled them up the other way, and there were three little egg rolls before me, so I laid them side by side in the pan – it made a cute loaf.
Thank you very much – I think I’m beginning to get your method. God bless you!! As if you didn’t have enough going on near Thanksgiving! xoxo
Rach says
That bread looks divine. I cannot even handle how good it looks.