Bread - Thin Bread

Welcome back to Cook Book Time Machine.  It has been a long time.  For those who are new to this project, I found an old church cook book from 1951 that belonged to my great aunt Marlys from Zion Lutheran Church in Thief River Falls, MN.  The cook book was assembled by the Zion Ladies Guild and is an interesting little snapshot on food, and domestic life on the prairie in the post-war era.  As far as the food goes, a few trends have emerged:  the food tends to be pretty bland, the directions in the recipe are often light on details, "salads" and hot dishes can be frightening.  Now, it's not to say that all the food is bad.  Aside from the carrot ring, we (or I) have manage to finish everything.  Wasting food is surely something the Ladies wouldn't have approved of.  So for each recipe I make, I document the preparation and reception of what I make.  It's a bit of an adventure, and it's kind of fun.

So now that I am done with nursing school, settled into my new job and a new house, I think it is time to resurrect the old blog.  I don't know that I'll go section by section quite as intentionally as I did previously, but I won't cherry-pick the best or worst looking recipes to make either.  For my first recipe revival, I decided to make Thin Bread.  I did choose this recipe in part to ease Sarah back into my doing this regularly.  There are multiple recipes that I've made that she was not a fan of.  Better to make something that appeared inoffensive than something scary.  So moving on...

Today's theme is Mystery.  Thin Bread?  What is Thin Bread?

Tortilla?

Pita?

Injera?

Lefse?

It is a mystery.

Let's find out.  Keep your eyes open for clues.

Preparation

So here is the recipe.  You can see from the lack of specific quantities or directions that there is some digging and figuring that must be done.

Kind of short on details there, Mrs. John Lager.

Now, as you can see, Mrs. Lager's other two recipes (one of which we did before) on this page both have temperatures, specific quantities of ingredients, and baking times.  I can only guess that this one doesn't as it may be a rather old recipe from when recipes relied much more on the experience of the cook and from when precision wasn't the rule for cooking nor for cooking appliances.  But since I don't have loads of 19th century cooking wisdom stored in my noggin, we'll have to do some detective work.  

A "hot oven," you say?  A pinch?  When was the last time you were pinched?

Fortunately, the Ladies give us a little insight.  Inexplicably, on page 16 of the cook book are some definitions.  Why on page 16 though??

Helpfulish

So I know "hot" means 400-450, but not how long to bake the bread nor how much flour or soda to use.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Let's get our ingredients together.

That's better.  4 ingredients, nice and simple.

The directions are pretty simple.  Mix, roll, cut, bake.  My first decision was on the amount of baking soda to use.  I made a half-sized recipe, just in case these weren't going to be very good and we wouldn't finish it all.  So I needed half a pinch of soda.  I seem to recall some discussion of "pinches" on a cooking show once upon a time using two or three fingers.  So I went with a two finger pinch of soda.  Then it was time for the whole wheat flour. How much?  Is it 1/2 cup?  1 cup?  4 cups?

Who knows?

Clearly 1 cup was not enough

I ultimately added 1 1/3 cups of flour before the dough seemed to be of a consistency that I could roll it out without it sticking to everything.  So roll it out, I did.  The next question though, was that of desired shapes.  Wedges would be simple enough, but what fun would that be?  No fun at all, is the answer to that question.

Time for cookie cutters!

I could have repeatedly re-rolled and cut the scraps out into shapes, but I was ADDing, so I just re-rolled and cut into wedges the remaining dough.  We don't want to be overloaded with fun now, right?  Onto the pan and into the "hot" oven.  But for how long?  Another mystery!

Are they done yet?  Nobody knows!

Is 10 minutes enough?  Nope.  15?  No.  20?  Not quite, but we're getting there.  After about 25 minutes, the insides of the bread no longer looked raw, and the tops and bottoms were golden brown.  Let's call that done.  

Another mystery solved... probably.

The aroma of the baking thin bread wasn't exactly what would describe as the most pleasant.  It certainly didn't smell like most bread I make, somewhat toasty, perhaps vaguely sweet smelling, inviting.  This almost smelled like what blind baking a lard-based pie crust smells like, that is, it wasn't the most pleasing smell.  But there's no lard in the recipe.  What gives?  Another mystery!

You said it, doge.

Tasting and Reaction

James was the first to get home and his eyes immediately widened when he saw fresh baked goods on the counter.  Homemade baked goods are always a good thing to discover upon returning home, no?

Ooooh! Can I have one, Dad?  What are they?  It's a mystery, kid.

Tasting would have to wait until dinner when Sarah and Thomas got home.

Sarah got home and saw the creation.
Sarah:  What's that?
Me:  It's Thin Bread, from the cook book.
Sarah:  Why?
Me:  I'm going to restart my blog.
Sarah:  Why?

So many questions.  So little confidence.

To go with the Thin Bread, I made some roasted butternut squash soup (roast the squash instead of cooking it in the pot though, it's much better that way).  James immediately bit the head off his Thin Bread man and posed.

He's not frowning.  A good sign.

So we all sat for dinner, tasted, and reflected.

Hello, family.  What do you think of these not-cookies.

Me – It’s pretty dry.  It was also hard to tell when it was done…

Sarah – Was Mrs. Gust Haugen? *with a grin*

Sarah gives a thumb’s down.

James – It’s pretty good, but it isn’t the best, so I would say thumbs right there *holding it sideways*

Thomas – I say thumb sideways.

Me – why?

Thomas – It’s really crunchy and I don’t like bread that is crunchy

Sarah – Like toast [what the boys have nearly every day for breakfast]?

Thomas – Toast isn’t as crunchy as this.  It’s way more crunchy

Me – It’s not bad dipped in the squash soup.

James – Oh, I never tried that.

Sarah has a bite then quickly hands what is left to James.

Sarah – False advertising.  It looks like delicious cookie shapes with none of the delicious cookie flavor.

Me – I wonder if I put them in too long.  They kept looking a little doughy in the middle.

Sarah – It kind of reminds me of when we roast pitas to make pita chips.  It has a similar consistency, but this is more tough.

Thomas – Is there peanut butter in there?

Sarah – Would you like peanut butter on it?  Peanut butter with chocolate chips?

James goes inside to get another piece.

James – This is good.  Please make it again soon!

Final Thoughts

Thin Bread.  What to say?  It wasn't bad.  It wasn't good (unless you are a James).  It wasn't flavorful.  It just kind of was.

Is Mona smiling or not after trying her piece of Thin Bread?  Nobody knows.

Honestly, it seems like this recipe belongs in the cook book.  It was kind of bland and unremarkable.  Thomas was right, I think, in that it was too crunchy.  The bread just seemed kind of dry and hard, but too soft to be considered a cracker.  It was in this kind of unpleasant middle ground without good flavor to redeem it.  Dipping it in the squash soup definitely helped, but there is much better bread out there for eating with soup.  I can't help but wonder for what occasions or for what kind of meals Mrs. John Lager made Thin bread.  Was it a snack bread?  Something to go in a lunch box?  I don't know.    Then comparing it to her whole wheat bread that I had made previously, this just doesn't stand up.  Oh well.  

Final grade:  C-, Mrs. John Lager.  Maybe put in a little more effort for your next recipe.

Next time:  Pineapple Butterscotch Cake.