Bread was a staple food for pioneers…which means they ate it everyday!  To make bread as a pioneer was very time consuming…as was ALL of pioneer cooking.  Cooking, the clean up, and preparing for the next meal…this was a full-time job!  How exhausting it must have been to not have a dishwasher and to have to grind your own grain, milk the cow, gather the eggs, etc….just to make a meal!

Below are a couple quick and easy pioneer bread recipes:

Irish Soda Bread

• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vinegar
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 TBS. butter

Preheat oven to 425*

1.  Add vinegar to milk and set aside.
2. Mix together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
3. Rub in butter with your fingertips.
4. Add milk mixture to flour mixture a little at a time and stir in to form the dough.
5. Shape the dough into a flat circle about 2 inches thick on a slightly greased cookie sheet.
6. Bake in oven for 30 minutes.  East while fresh and warm!

Frybread

• 1 ½ cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 TBS. butter, melted
• ½ cup warm milk
• pinch of salt
• pinch of sugar
• 4 TBS. vegetable oil

1. To make dough, mix all ingredients except oil in a bowl. Knead the dough until smooth and divide into four pieces.  Shape each piece into a flat circle.
2. On medium heat, heat oil in a frying pan. Fry dough rounds one at a time until brown and crispy.

Basic Muffins

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 TBS. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ¼ cup veg oil
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350*.  Grease muffin tins.

1. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. In another bowl, beat together oil, milk, and eggs.
3. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients and blend just enough for a lumpy batter.
4. Spoon into muffin tin and fill each to ¾ full.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Additions:  You can add to the dry ingredients – 1 cup blueberries, raspberries, peeled and finely chopped apple, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or raisins.

** All of these recipes from the book Pioneer Recipes, by Kalman, Bobbie.