Home Baking Association

“Biscuit Month” has come again and brings to mind a life-long challenge for me—to bake a really great biscuit.  Is it because I was born in northern Iowa that I am biscuit-challenged?  Lack of success is not for lack of trying.  For anyone else who’d love to improve their biscuit baking skills, I’m trying these remedial steps for improvements:

1. Start with the right wheat flour from the six classes of Wheat and Flour 101 Flour used in biscuit baking should be “softer,” (lower in the flour proteins called gluten). Famously good biscuit bakers also bake with self-rising, all-purpose, and for whole grain biscuits, whole white wheat.
2. Learn the difference in leavening commonly used in biscuit baking, baking powder and baking soda, and use the correct one. What’s the difference between Baking Soda and Baking Powder?
3. Entrust your efforts to test kitchens that know biscuits, Crisco Baking Powder Biscuit.

Include one of the longest sources of soft wheat flour milling for biscuits, Southern Biscuit flour.  If these brands are not available near you, find a self-rising flour for starters.

4. Watch a pro–fifth generation milling CEO and biscuit baker–Robert Harper. Robert will share his best family biscuit favorites from Hopkinsville, Kentucky as he prepares Cinnamon Biscuits at www.sunflourflour.com
5. Finally, the best way to groove what you know is to share it—teach it. A ready-to-go lesson, Explore Biscuit History and Traditions, available from those who’ve produced the baking powder to leaven biscuits for over 150 years. Buttery Breakfast Biscuit lesson.

Keep in mind, the biscuit should be served with butter!  Explore a whole flight of deliciousness, sweet or savory here!

If you’re on the run like most, consider tweeting the links below to yourself and friends. This wealth of great breakfast bootie is meant to be shared, partly because making your own breakfast will save you cash.

My top three picks this fall include:

1. DIY breakfasts have saved me at least $16,000 to-date. (Yes we do eat breakfast out too.) Biscuits, muffins and pancakes are just three options for home baking savings while serving breakfast at home.

2. Leftover slices of pizza or quiche make great grab-and- go breakfast. Beginner breakfast pizzas can be made in 20 minutes. Keep on adding your savings. Indie servings like these at your favorite coffee stop cost about $5.

3. The masters of overnight breakfasts have grasped the issues. Getting up to Peaches and Cream slow-cooked steel-cut oats or Chai Buckwheat Groats lets you sleep a little longer if you prep the night before.

Finally, you will never go wrong with a freezer that contains a good Pumpkin muffin. Add some great Energy Bars or Whole Grain Jam Bars, both packed with essential nutrients, flavor, and you too can save a grand or ten over time.

Have you discovered, only much too late, interesting national observances that might be beneficial to your classroom lesson plans and community programs? For example, did you know September 17th is Apple Dumpling Day? You don’t have to be in the dark any longer. The Home Baking Association regularly compiles these interesting events and celebrations for your convenience. Download our Quarter 3 PDF here!

1: Lazy Mom’s Day

2: Macadamia Nut Day

4: Labor Day

5: Cheese Pizza Day

6: Coffee Ice Cream Day

Read-A-Book Day

7: Beer (Bread) Lover’s Day

9: Teddy Bear Day

10: Grandparent’s Day

11: Hot Cross Bun Day

13: Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day

14: Cream-filled Donut Day

16: Cinnamon Raisin Bread Day

Boys & Girls Club Day for Kids

17: Apple Dumpling Day

19: Butterscotch Pudding Day

20-22: Rosh Hashanah

21: World Gratitude Day

Pecan Cookie Day

22: Ice Cream Cone Day

23: Great American Pot Pie Day

26: Pancake Day

      Johnny Appleseed Day

Dumpling Day

29: Coffee Day

August puts the “wrap” on summer and the soft-opening of fall. Is that why someone deemed it National Sandwich Month?  People are still planning summer Family Fun at the same time they’re back-to-school shopping!  In honor of both summer and fall, the sandwiches could be the ice cream variety or the lunch-box specials kids can look forward to in school.

For one of the most popular meal delivery systems in America, let’s take a minute for sandwich history. “The bread-enclosed convenience food known as the “sandwich” is attributed to John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), a British statesman and notorious profligate and gambler, who is said to be the inventor of this type of food so that he would not have to leave his gaming table to take supper.”

Source, World Wide Web, 7/1/17 Foodtimeline.org

The best sandwiches begin with great bread. There are sandwich breads for everyone’s taste, including Gluten-Free Paleo! There’s the basics– Whole Wheat and White Buns and gourmet Asiago Herb Hoagies or choose from the winning bakers at nationalfestivalofbreads.com.

• Get started with an Everyday Bread 101 how-to tutorial at http://www.homebaking.org/baking_channel.php#.WVarUSMrJWM

Get Peachy

Peaches are the perfect fruit to celebrate for a month.  It seems like there’s a new peach variety coming into our local market every couple weeks. Peaches are the longest running fruit of summer, taking us from June to Labor Day! Check out these remarkable peach recipes from HBA’s members:

• 11 top peach cobbler recipes
• Fresh Peach Pie
• Lazy Daisy Fruit Dessert

By the 2^nd week of August, peaches give the nod to Apple Week. Try recipes to enjoy for breakfast like the Apple Cinnamon Rolls or wrap a slice of Spiced Apple Bundt Cake to make the trek back-to-school a little sweeter for your kids.

Bake for Service Learning: Host a Home Room Parent Party,

complete with Baking Crafts and Activities to build relationships AND benefit the classroom.

1. Bake Vanilla or Chocolate cupcakes and frost with plain icing.
2. Create designer Rainbow Sugars for signature cupcake décor.
3. Get stepping. Showcase and sell the cupcakes via a Cake Walk.
4. Ask the teacher what she’s needing for the classroom and contribute cake walk funds.

Delaine Stendahl, a Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher from Whitehall, Wisconsin has won the 2016 Home Baking Association Educator Award contest with her entry The Power of Eggs.

Each year the HBA has recognized outstanding educators with innovative programs for teaching kids of all ages to bake in communities and classrooms throughout the nation.  Family and consumer science educators and youth leaders for 4-H, Boys and Girls Clubs, Camp Fire USA and other after-school or community programs are encouraged to share their successful baking programs.

Charlene Patton, Executive Director Home Baking Association, says the association believes baking plays an important role in the development of healthy children that are socially and academically well-rounded.  Baking provides an opportunity to share family time and a joy of baking for others while learning life skills.

Math, science experiences, comparison shopping, examining the reaction of baking ingredients are all aspects of the baking process.

What if there were one day when, everywhere you went, there were opportunities to try delicious whole grain foods?

You’d stop into the cafeteria at your workplace, and you’d be offered a taste of quinoa salad. Your teenager would duck into a quick-serve restaurant, and they’d ask, “Would you like that on a whole grain wrap, instead of the usual bun?” In the park downtown, a food company would be passing out granola bars to joggers. At dinner, as you serve whole grain pasta to your family, your fourth-grader would report about the whole grain pizza in her school lunch.

That’s what happens every year on the last Wednesday in March, when the Whole Grains Council holds its annual Whole Grain Sampling Day.  Our goal is to have people everywhere saying, “That was great! Where have you been all my life?”

According to a 2014 survey by the International Food Information Council, 72% of consumers are seeking more whole grains. Whole Grains also feature strongly in the National Restaurant Association’s 2016 Culinary Forecast. This year, give customers what they’re looking for by celebrating Whole Grain Sampling Day!

More information here