Stove top Pan Bread

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As a youngster in Alabama/Georgia, I remember my mother making bread in a cast iron skillet on top of the stove (wood fueled cookstove). She always called it pan bread. It was a risen bread with a light texture though mych heartier than the stuff you find in the store. Unfortunately, she does not remember how to make it, so I am trying to find a recipe.

(We used to use fresh homemade butter and sorghum or blackstrap mollases mixed together as the topping.)

Anyone out there know what I am talking about?

Thanks

George

-- George Baker (georgeb1@thevision.net), January 11, 2002

Answers

The only pan bread we made was not a risen type of bread---more a biscuit type of bread---

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), January 11, 2002.

George..... I think the bread your talking about is what we in Mississippi call "Hoe cakes" Got it's name from the slave period when a cake like dough was cooked over an open fire using the blade of a hoe. (Or so my dad said) Anyway, it consist mainly of flour and water, but evolved over a period of time to be more like biscuit dough. I have always know ours, (my grandmother, my mother and mine) to be made like biscuits, only a tad thicker. They were made on the top of the stove in a skillet to keep from heating the stove, especially in warm weather. They also work great on a wood stove. Make up you biscuit dough, add less milk and less grease. Mix the dough a 'tad' more than you would biscuits, as this makes them a 'tad' tougher than biscuits and are easier to turn in a skillet. Place the whole dough mixture in a greased cast iron skillet, over low heat. Press the dough out with your hands to make a large cake. It will rise and after a while, (don't ask how long, when the bottom is brown) flip it to the other side. Now.... I am told in Lousianna, these cakes are called Gowletts. (may definitely have the spelling wrong) With a little practice, you should be making them in no time at all. Ain't nothing like soppin' cane syrup with a hoecake! When they are cold, you can slice them and make a sandwich. Making me hungry for one now..... think I'll fire up the stovetop.

-- Bear (Barelyknow@aol.com), January 11, 2002.

Gee....do you think this bread would make OK up north here or does it only work in the South ?? I know they make a bread up in Alaska but they add beer to the batter. Think I will give your receipe a try !! Wish me luck !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), January 11, 2002.

Hey George! My mother sent me backpacking with a great idea.....she put flour and sugar and salt and yeast in a plastic baggie. I added water mixed with powered milk, let it rise awhile in the sun (in the baggie) and fried it in a pan with butter over a backpacker stove in the middle of nowhere and ate like I never ate before. Mom called it Doughgods. Have no idea where the name came from, except she learned it from her mother (English, Irish, Scots).

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), January 12, 2002.

You could always take sourdough backpacking too, but you would want to mix a little extra flour in so it would be a small very soft ball you could stick in the flour bag for travel, not in a liquid form that could leak all over your pack.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 12, 2002.


Hey GT! Tell us what's in your sourdough mix for backpacking. Thanks,

-- Susan in Northern Michigan (cobwoman@yahoo.com), January 12, 2002.

Check out the Rhodes Frozen Dough website at:

www.rhodesbread.com

Scroll down to the area that says something like "Dutch Oven Cooking" and you will find several baking instructions that you could probably adapt, using your own bread dough.

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), January 12, 2002.


Bisquick has a recipe right on the box for pan bread. Ive taken that camping,, and had fresh bread everynight

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 12, 2002.

What I meant was to take some of your sourdough starter (which is normally like thin pancake batter), and add enough flour to it just to make a soft ball, then put that ball into your flour bag or container that you take with you, then reconstitute with a little water and use as you would normal sourdough--nice for pancakes.

The trouble with taking regular starter (in its liquid form) with you is that if you seal the jar, the fermentation will cause either the lid to come off or the container to break, both equalling a major mess (not to mention stinky mess) in your pack.

There are lots of sourdough starter recipes on the web, or you can purchase dried starter packets from some grocery stores, or places like Cost Plus Imports. I will post a site for a starter recipe, as soon as I check that it is still there.

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 12, 2002.


Just to add, cover the sourdough ball with flour so it keeps cool. Here is a site for capturing your own wild starter (the person lives in San Francisco). I have read that eventually starters, wherever you get them, will turn into "your town" sourdough, as local microbes take over, if you leave it out on the counter all the time. So, in other words, use the recipe and try to make your own, although you might be better off in spring or summer to do this. Good Luck and enjoy!

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 12, 2002.


Sorry, hit the button too quickly....

http://www.wanderingspoon.com/story-sourdough/ sourdough_starter_journal.html

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), January 12, 2002.


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