Honeyville Farms Pie Class Notes and Printable PDF

Usually on Monday I share food storage recipes and ideas.  Tuesday is our Tutorial...but since I did a huge amount of work developing recipes and preparing for my pie class yesterday...I wanted to share the details of the class! These pies were completely raved about! Plus...every single recipe is made from 100% food storage. You'll see it and be astounded! Plus, it all tasted outstanding! Huge perk!  So, thank you Honeyville Farms once again for providing the free ingredients and allowing me to teach at your stores! I love being able to connect with folks! Check  out which classes I'm teaching next by going here. 

Pie In The Sky!

Beginners' Pie Seminar 

with Food Storage Ingredients

by Chef Stephanie Petersen for Honeyville Farms

Welcome to pie and the tips and techniques for making amazing pie!

We'll be covering:

• Basic Pie Crust Tutorial

• Homemade frozen pie tips
• Fruit fillings (double crusted Pie)
• Custard fillings (lemon curd,sweet potato, cocoa-cream and pumpkin filling)
• Meringue toppings using powdered egg white
• Streusel topping

All these recipes will be made with food storage. That's why we're here. Enjoy...and feel free to ask questions. I'm here to make sure your journey is a good one. We might even eat a few pie samples if you're lucky!

Let's start with the Pie Crust Tutorial:

This makes two standard 9 inch single crust pies Using only Food Storage
Ingredients:

2 ¼ cup Honeyville Pastry or All Purpose Flour

½ tsp Real Salt

1 cup Honeyville shortening powder

½ cup Honeyville butter powder

1/3-1/2 cup Ice cold water

3T white vinegar

Directions:

1. Combine the flour and salt. Combine the shortening powder and butter powder very well in a large bowl. Add 2T cold water to the dehydrated oils. Make into a paste. Stir well to be sure there are no lumps.

2.Take shortening/butter combination and “cut into the flour” with a pastry blender. Combine lightly until the

mix resembles course meal or tiny peas: its texture will not be uniform, but will contain small crumbs and small bits and pieces. If you don't have a pastry blender, you can certainly use the wire whisk from your mixer. Or, my personal favorite...the techno-chef fingers. Just make sure your hands are freezing cold. It's winter, I'm sure you can work that out.

3. Make a well in the dry stuff and add 1/3 cup cold water and 3 T vinegar. I use vinegar in my crust. I have for years. It helps with the flaky texture and it actually does make an amazing crust. Should you doubt me, please, just try it once. If you don't like it, never return to it. I doubt you'll feel that way though. You may need more or less, so go with 2 T of vinegar at first...but I can't think if the last time I needed to change the recipe and add more water or vinegar than what it says.

4. Lightly combine, just until mixed. Over mixing the dough will always result in hard non-flake-like crust. You have been warned. I bring it together. Knead it only a few times and making into a ball. Place in a bowl covered with plastic. .Refrigerate about 30 minutes. It will be easier to work with, and it gives the gluten (protein in the wheat) time to rest so the dough will roll out easier.
5. Forming Crust Sheets. Take half of the dough. With your hands form it into a patty. I put my dough between two pieces of wax paper. I've used this method since my Granny Barbara W showed it to me. Forever. It's never failed me. Lightly...and I do mean lightly...wipe the counter top with a lightly damp clean washcloth. Place a piece of wax paper down,about 1 foot by 1 foot. Put the dough down. Top with another piece of wax paper of same proportions. Wax paper helps contribute to a tender crust, using extra flour on the counter instead may lead to a dry crust if overdone. This keeps me good.

6.Roll the dough out into a circle. This may take practice to get it just right. Take your time.

7. Remove paper. Once to the edges of the wax paper, remove the top piece of paper. Place crust, uncovered side down in the pan, with an inch or so of crust hanging over the edge of the pan. Now remove the second piece of crust.

8. Trim the edge so it hangs over about 3/4 inch, then fold it under so it leaves a little rim on the pan. This one comes up about 1/2 inch.

9. Flute the edges. I will now play the flute for your listening pleasure...pppflllkkkkiiispuutttt. Like so. Place one finger inside the pan and with your other hand pinch on the outside of the dough, pinching the dough between them.

Don't expect your first pie to look this neat and tidy. I may have made several hundred pies in the course of my days. If, however, yours looks this... Nice. You're a freak-of-nature-genius. I don't even know what to say.

10. Bake it right. You will need a 400 degree pre

Bake 15-20 minutes, just to make the crust nice and pre-cooked crust for pudding and cream pie.

*Pie dough is good in the fridge up to 4 days--Pat the dough into a ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Allow dough to soften to room temperature a bit before trying to roll it out.

Standard Recipe for Pastry dough (using shortening)

Basic Pastry crust: 2 9 inch single shells or 1 9 inch two crust pie
2 1/4 cup pastry flour (for whole wheat pastry flour increase water to about 1/3 cup)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup shortening (crisco works but if you want non trans-fat try "Spectrum" brand)
3T cold water
3T vinegar

Directions: Mix flour and salt, cut in shortening with a pastry blender. combine lightly until the mix resembles course meal or tiny peas: its texture will not be uniform, but will contain small crumbs and small bits and pieces. Sprinkle water and vinegar over mixture one Tablespoon at a time and mix lightly with a fork, using only enough water so that the pastry will hold together when pressed gently into a ball. This will vary on the moisture content of the flour.
Divide the dough into two balls. Roll the bottom dough out in a circle 2 inches larger than the pie pan(that's 11 inches in diameter), then fit it loosely but firmly into the pan. I do this by lightly folding the dough in half and gently picking it up with my hands. You may roll it out on parchment paper or wax paper to ease this "pick up" process. By far my favorite method is to roll dough between two pieces of parchment paper. I use a light swipe of a damp washcloth first on the counter, this moisture holds the paper in place. Once rolled, I remove the top piece of paper, flip the crust into the pan and remove the second piece of paper. Roll out the top crust. Fill the pie generously with pie filling of your choice, then put on the top and prick in several places with a fork or cut vents. Crimp or flute the edges and bake as directed I usually cover the edges with a strip of foil or a metal ring called a pie guard. Pie will get nice and brown but the edges will get almost black without the pie guard.

Frozen Pie Tips:

*Did you know pie dough is good in the freezer for up to 3 months? Yes!! You can make your own freezer pies! Most custard based pies will become runny, and remember that cornstarch will not hold it's thickening once frozen. Ultra gel will keep it's hold. If you thicken your filling with all natural flour (birds and flowers in a light green meadow...ahhhh) it will hold forever!*You can freeze a pie filled with fruit filling and just add 20 minutes to the baking time of the original recipe.
*Freeze uncooked crust in aluminum pie pans, put in a gallon size freezer bag and stack them if you want to maximize freezer space.
*When you want to bake frozen pies transfer them out of the foil into a stoneware pie plate for crispiest crust.
*Unbaked pie shells can also be filled with savory fillings like Quiche and pot pie stew!*Now here is the bonus of freezing. Because of the expansion of freezing and defrosting, those protein strands we talked about will stretch, break, and become even more tender. Meaning if you freeze your dough, you can count on flakier crust! How cool is that?!

Chef Tess' Food Storage Fruit Pies and Fillings

In general, it takes between 2 and 3 T of flour to thicken a 4 cup recipe of fresh fruit for a pie filling. Except peaches and nectarines-- they take ¼ cup of flour. Sugar is optional always! I don't use a lot of Splenda but a lot of my diabetic friends do. You can cook your own pie filling on the stove top too! Just simmer 10-12 minutes. Cook the full amount of time to allow the flour to thicken and the starch to cook fully. Allow to cool and use as you would any can of pre-made filling! The benefit is that this will have more fruit and no additives! If I am going to use a filling right away and not freeze it... I use cornstarch or ultra gel to thicken it. It takes 1-2T (usually right about half as much flour), and the starch cooks much faster so it will be ready quickly- 5-7 minutes. I have been know to use maple syrup in place of sugar in peach pie or Carmel sauce in place of sugar in apple pie--or vise versa.

Wise Woman Apple Pie
1/2 cup sugar or 1/4 cup honey (splenda is okay)
1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon (Or Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Spice blend)
3T cornstarch or Ultra Gel
4 cups Honeyville freezer dried apple, hydrated and drained well
1T vanilla
3T powdered butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and put in a prepared pie crust (bottom). Top with other half of the dough, rolled out to a 12 inch diameter. Using a knife, cut off the extra edge so that there is about a half inch of dough hanging all around the outside edge of the pie plate. Roll this "dough lip" under until almost flush with the edge. Seal edged lightly pressing down with a fork or pinching with your fingers into a crimped fashion. Cut several vents in the top (small decorative cookie cutters are sometimes used)--you can now freeze it or bake at 425 degrees 10 minutes. Cover edges with foil or pie guard and lower oven to 350 degrees and bake 30-40 minutes. For frozen, bake at 425 10 minutes and lower to 350, then bake 50 min. to an hour.

Blueberry is my favorite pie-
4 cups Honeyville freeze dried blueberries
3T Ultra-gel
1/2 cup of brown sugar

1T Honeyville lemonade powder

1 1/2 tsp double strength Madagascar Vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
2T melted butterDirections:
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line the pie pan (9 inch) with half the pastry dough . Hydrate blueberries by covering with hot 3 cups hot water for 10 minutes. Add ultra gel and remaining ingredients. Pile the mixture into the pan and roll remaining pastry dough to 12 inch diameter. Drape over the top of the blueberry filling of love and happiness. Follow crimping instructions used for the apple pie filling. Cut vents (5-6 cute little holes or one 1 inch hole in the middle). Freeze, then put in a gallon size bag with baking instructions-- or just Bake 10 minutes at 425 then lower to 350 for 30-40 minutes. To bake from frozen, add 20 minutes to final baking time.

Chef Tess' Tropical Mango Pineapple Pie

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell

3 cups Honeyville Freeze Dried Mango

1 cup Honeyville Freeze dried pineapple

¾ cup Honeyville vanilla pudding mix

¼ cup Ultra gel

Directions: Combine the filling mixtures with 4 cups hot water. Stir well and allow to set about 10 minutes.

Pour into a prepared pie shell and top with crumble topping: Combine ½ cup All purpose flour, ½ cup Honeyville powdered butter. 

powder, ½ cup Honeyville granulated honey, ¼ cup Honeyville macaroon coconut. Mix with 3T cold water until crumbly. Top pie. Bake 350 degrees 30-40 minutes.

Chef Tess Custard Pie Food Storage Recipes

Chef Tess' Spiced Lemon Curd and blackberry Meringue Pie

1 baked 9 inch pie shell (baked 15 minutes 425 degrees)

6T Honeyville whole egg powder

½ cup sugar

½ cup Honeyville lemonade powder

¼ cup Honeyville butter powder

1/8 tsp Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Spice blend or pumpkin pie spice

½ cup Honeyville freeze dried blackberries

1 recipe Chef Tess-no-mess-never-fail food storage meringue

Directions:

Combine ingredients (except for the blackberries and the meringue recipe). Add ¾ cup warm water. 

Whisk together  over a double boiler 15 minutes until slightly thickened. Fold in the freeze dried blackberries, just until coated. Pour into a baked 8-9 inch baked pie shell. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Prepare meringue recipe and top lemon curd mixture with whisked recipe Chef Tess-no-mess-never-fail food storage meringue. Bake 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.  This will be a thinner coat of meringue than I use for regular pie. It's more like a meringue "crust". 

Next...

Chef Tess Old-fashioned Southern Sweet Potato Cranberry Pie topped with Meringue

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell

2 cups Honeyville freeze dried sweet potatoes (1.75 oz) Pulsed in a spice mill until powdered

½ cup Honeyville butter powder (1.5 oz)

1 cup sugar (6.15 oz)

¼ cup Honeyville vanilla pudding mix (1.15 oz)

¼ cup Honeyville whole egg powder (.6 oz)

½ tsp Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East spice blend

2T Ultra gel (.4 oz)

½ cup Honeyville dehydrated cranberries (2 oz)

1 recipe Chef Tess no-mess never-fail-food storage meringue.

Directions: Combine sweet potato powder, butter powder, sugar, vanilla pudding mix, egg powder, Chef Tess spice blend, and ultra gel in a medium bowl. Add 1 ¼ cup warm water and whisk well. Stir in the cranberries. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour the filling mixture into the shell and bake for 50 minutes.

 Whisk the meringue according to the recipe.  Top pie with meringue 

and then bake 10 minutes until lightly browned.  

Raspberry Chocolate-Sour cream Pie 

with shaved Bavarian Chocolate

2 9 inch pie shell, baked 425 degrees 12-15 minutes, then cooled

2 cups Honeyville Raspberry Hot Cocoa mix (OR any flavor) (9.15 oz)

1 cup Honeyville sour cream powder (1.5 oz)

1 cup Honeyville Chocolate pudding mix (3.15 oz)

2 tsp double strength vanilla

1cup dark chocolate chips or Bavarian chocolate, chopped fine

Extra chocolate for garnish

4 cups whipped cream

Directions: Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake shells 12-14 minutes until lightly brown. Remove from oven. When still slightly warm, Divide the chocolate between the two pies. Cover the bottom of the crust with the chocolate chips and allow to melt. Spread the chocolate all over the crust. Cool shells.

In a medium bowl, combine the cocoa mix, sour cream powder, and pudding mix with 4 cups cool water and whisk until smooth. Pour half of the filling into each prepared pie shell. Top with whip cream and shaved chocolate garnish.

Chef Tess' Pumpkin Chocolate chip pie

filling you will need:

2 cups canned pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar

¼ cup Honeyville whole egg powder

1 1/2 cup evaporated milk OR 2 cups buttermilk ( I usually use buttermilk)

1/3 cup ultra gel

1 tsp vanilla, 1 tsp Chef Tess Wise Woman of the East Spice Blend or pumpkin pie spice
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Whisk all ingredients together like crazy in a medium mixing bowl. Fill a 9 inch uncooked pie crust with custard mixture. Place on a sheet pan. See if you can get it to the oven without spilling. Is that mean? It bakes 325 degrees 55 minutes, or until firm.

Chef Tess Meringue and Crumble Toppings

Chef Tess-no-mess-never-fail Meringue from Food Storage

3T Honeyville dehydrated egg white (.7 oz)

¾ cup warm (not boiling) water

6T sugar (2 oz)

1T Ultra gel ( .2 oz)

1 tsp vanilla

Directions: 

In a very clean (must be free from any oily film whatsoever!)metal bowl combine the egg white powder and water with a whisk until smooth. Fit a stand mixer with a metal bowl with the wire whisk (again, VERY clean). Pour egg whites into the bowl.

 Turn mixer on medium high setting. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and ultra gel. 

When eggs start to get stiff and glossy, add the sugar mixture in a steady stream to the mixer. 

Continue to whisk about 4 minutes until firm peaks form. Add vanilla and mix to combine.

 Scoop onto prepared pie and bake 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Chef Tess' Streusel Topping

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup Honeyville butter powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp almond flavor

Combine dry ingredients. Add ¼ cup cold water and mix with a fork until crumble topping is formed. Use as Streusel topping for pies, muffins and baked goods.

Take it to your kitchen Printable Here

©2011 Chef Stephanie Petersen. All Rights reserved. Visit http://cheftessbakeresse.com

for Honeyville products visit your local Honeyville retail location or http://honeyvillegrain.com

Southwest Sweet Potato and corn Fritatta and Southwestern Corn Chowder {Meals in a Jar}

This makes exactly 14 recipes so far for these convenience meals in a jar that started as a little post on an emergency preparedness meal plan that I call my "52 Method." After countless emails expressing a huge desire for me to come up with more recipes {write a book!} and more...I have kept adding more new recipes. The beauty of these meals is that they are all in ONE jar per recipe. No adding on or finding something else in your pantry. No bags or ways to organize in your closet. They're their own entity. Self contained is good right?  If you missed the other recipes they are here! The original post is here. As for today...

This is perhaps the most amazing meal in a jar recipe I have developed...by far! What can I say? An egg dish that tasted outstanding and is shelf stable for several years?! Yes! It's true! No refrigeration needed on the eggs, sausage, cheese or vegetables. They are totally safe to eat? Yes. This meal is made using the amazing technology of Freeze Drying! To learn more about this technology go Here.

 Today I'm using...

Corn

Mushrooms

Onion

bell pepper

Freeze Dried Sweet Potatoes{different from dehydrated varieties}

 Freeze Dried Cheese Yes. It tastes like cheese, cooks like cheese and works like cheese. It IS cheese.

 Scrambled Whole egg powder are probably the best dang shelf stable eggs I've ever tasted. Daggumit. I'm picky about eggs and I love how they cook and taste. Awesome eggs. 

 Freeze-dried Sausage freaked me out a little because I think I'm just used to having to cook meat. I was excited though that it was available!

 It looks a lot like sausage. Um...duh. It is sausage. Just Freeze Dried! Totally shelf stable. Only safety tip is to open the can and repack it into the bottles within 24 hours (or put it in the fridge with the lid on the can and use within a month of opening).  Because we will be returning it back to it's vacuum sealed state with the shelf stable jars, it's okay to open now.

 The sweet potatoes look like this in the can.

 Unopened they are shelf stable for 10-15 years! Woah! Now that's not bad considering it's JUST the potatoes...no preservatives! I'm a big fan of sweet potatoes...but seriously! Wow!

Meal 13:

Chef Tess' Sweet Potato and Corn Skillet Fritatta

You will need per Quart wide mouth jar:

1 cup (.85 oz) Freeze Dried Sweet Potato

1/2 cup (.9 oz) freeze dried corn

1/2 cup (.25 oz) freeze dried mushrooms

1/2 cup (.2 oz) freeze dried bell pepper

1/4 cup (.7 oz) dehydrated onion

12 scoops (equal to 9 eggs) Scrambled egg crystals (1.3 oz)

1 cup (3 oz) Freeze Dried Colby Cheese

1 tsp chef tess Southwest Seasoning

1/2 tsp dry Mexican oregano

1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper or ancho chile powder

2T all purpose flour

2T instant milk powder

1T dehydrated sour cream powder

Put the sausage and veggies in the bottom of the jar and top with the eggs. Shake the eggs down into the cracks.

 Add the cheese and the remaining dry ingredients.  Now...to the Oxygen Absorber. What do they do?

 Wikipedia  says: "An oxygen absorber is a small packet of material used to prolong the shelf life of food. They are used in food packaging to prevent food color change, to stop oils in foods from becoming rancid, and also retard the growth of oxygen-using aerobic microorganisms such as fungi...

Oxygen supports the growth of microorganisms and causes changes in color and rancid odors in packaged foods. Plastic packaging is less able to exclude oxygen from packaged foods than are the older glass and metal containers. Oxygen absorbers absorb oxygen and effectively reduce the aerobic environment to 0% oxygen. Therefore, aerobic bacteria and fungi are unable to grow in this environment. This will extend the shelf life of a food product from 1 week to several months. The advantages of oxygen satchels versus vacuum packaging are that the food products are not crushed or squeezed, as some products are of high value and are fragile, and its simplicity of use."

Yes I use them. There is an alternate method using a jar attachment and a Food Saver machine...but today, this is what you get to see.

 Totally fill the jar. I actually plan the recipes to do this so there is very little oxygen anyway...but also, it's fun to get everything in one place right?

 To make the Fritatta:
Combine 3 cups cool water and the contents of the jar in a 2 quart bowl and allow to hydrate about 10 minutes. Whisk a couple times after 5 minutes to be sure everything gets moist.

 Lightly oil a 10 inch skillet with a tightly fitting lid (or your solar oven casserole pan).  Heat pan on low for two or three minutes. Pour egg mixture into pan.

 Make sure heat is low.

 Cover with tight fitting lid and allow to cook 15-17 minutes on very LOW. Do not uncover.  If you are using your solar oven it will take 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees.

 Turn off heat. Do not uncover. Allow to carry-over-cook another 5-7 minutes Covered. Remove lid and slice as you would a pizza.

 Serve warm with salsa of your choice.

Meal 14: Southwest Corn Chowder

 Southwestern Corn Chowder with Sweet Potato and sausage is a classic combination around my house.


Yes...this does use a lot of the same ingredients as the Fritatta in Meal 13. I figured, "hey since I have all this stuff out, why not make two recipes using a lot of the same products." Shoot me. Two meals in one post.

Southwest Corn Chowder in a Jar

In a quart wide mouth bottle:
1/2 cup freeze dried sausage
1/2 cup freeze-dried corn
1/2 cup dehydrated onion
1/2 cup freeze dried bell pepper
Shakedown into the above ingredients:
1/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup instant milk combined to make the sauce


Top with 2 cups freeze dried sweet potatoes,
1 1/2 tsp Chef Tess Southwest Fajita Seasoning
2T Tomato Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda (to neutralize the acid in the tomato powder when cooking)
1 oxygen packet per jar


Directions: Combine contents with 5 cups warm water in a gallon pot. Whisk well. Allow to sit 10 minutes. Put on a stove and simmer low heat 15 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to continue to thicken 5 minutes more. Makes 7 cups of chowder.


There you go! Now here's a kicker...I'll be on Fox 10 tomorrow morning at 9:45 with several jars and recipe ideas for this amazing stuff! I'm so thankful and excited to be part of the Fox family! Big hugs!


Your Friend,
Chef Tess

I am no longer the corporate chef for Honeyville but we still love them dearly. My family is greatly blessed and relies heavily on the extra money brought in by sales tracked back to this site. This is also the company that packages and sells my spice line as well as my food storage cookbooks. Thank you so very much for your support. Xoxo!

Fall Sweet Potato Bread Tutorial

We had a pretty nice crop of sweet potatoes this year.

One thing lead to another in my love for gardening and baking. Here it is.

Fall being upon us, I thought it high time to bring to light one of my favorite Autumn breads. It's a lightly sweet potato bread, yeast raised, with a gorgeous leaf motif. Perfect for a center piece or a family size bread bowl, it will surely be an added measure of joy at the Thanksgiving table.

My recipe for the sweet potato bread is made using home grown sweet potato from our garden. I had the chance to grow some of our own this year and they have not disappointed me with their enthusiasm for life. Prolific little goodies-vine that they are. It's been a sheer treat watching them grow. However...most of the natural universe can just buy them at the store or even from the canned food aisle. I'm not checking your cupboard. Do what you want. I just liked the new adventure of growing them myself. Now I know how to do it growing, it seems a shame to let the little beauties go to waste. So, we steamed them and mashed them. For the bread we use: 5 day bread dough as the base, but used the sweet potato in place of regular potato.

Sweet Potato 5 day bread dough

2T active dry yeast (over 3000 feet use 1 T only)
4 cups milk, cold is best (cold soy milk is wonderful!)
3/4 cup honey Or Organic Maple SYRUP
1T salt
4 eggs (or 1 cup egg replacement)
3/4 cup oil
1 1/2 cup mashed sweet potatoes. cooled to body temp again. The consistency of thick oatmeal.
1T baking powder
2 cups whole wheat flour
12-14 cups all purpose flour (I have used fine ground white wheat and been fine doing all whole grain, use only 12-14 cups total if whole wheat is used )

I also add 2T cinnamon, 2tsp ground ginger and 1T vanilla to the dough.

Directions. Dissolve yeast in milk. Stir in honey. Allow yeast to get all foamy and look like it is having a hay day. Add egg, oil, mashed potato, baking powder, 2cups whole wheat flour, 2 cups all purpose flour and salt, in that order. Do not let yeast come in contact with salt on it's own or it will kill the yeast. Beat until smooth. Allow dough to rest 10-15 minutes

Add enough of the flour remaining to make a soft dough that is easy to handle but not dry. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead 10 full minutes. about 600 turns. Yea. 600 by hand. 5-6 minutes by machine on medium speed. Form into a ball and place in an ungreased 2gallon bowl, covered tightly. If you don't have a large enough bowl...use two smaller bowls. Or...just half the recipe if you are worried. Put in the fridge. Punch down after 2 hours (this may be faster if you use warm ingredients or flour. If the dough is over 85 degrees when you put it in the fridge, be sure to punch down sooner. Also...if you have kids who open the fridge a lot, be sure to lower the temperature a bit so that your fridge is really as cold as it should be) Form into a ball again. Cover tightly and chill at least 8 hours.

Be sure to punch down daily (this not only expels gas, but also ensures even temperature in the dough). This dough can be made up to 5 days before Thanksgiving! So, it's nice to have around. It's also amazing to make into rolls instead of bread, should you choose to do something else. This makes four loaves. Four.

I will only make one here, but you'll get the idea.

Take one quarter of the dough and roll it into a tight ball.

I like to expel as much air as possible so it raises rather uniformly.

Gather the dough at the bottom and make a tight ball out of the dough.

Place on a parchment lined stone or baking sheet, at least 12 inches by 10 inches. Allow to raise until doubled, uncovered, lightly misted with water. When almost raised, turn on the oven to 425 degrees. Take an egg white and with a clean pastry brush, coat the top of the bread with the egg. Place a clean silk leaf on the bread...

Sprinkle with paprika.

Carefully remove leaf and repeat design as desired.
Be creative.

Curry can also be used for gorgeous yellow.

Lightly snipping the sides of the loaf with kitchen scissors will allow air to escape and the dough to raise uniformly in the oven. It will also give a nice plain straight leaf pattern. I alternated the cuts between the leaves.

Like so...

Bake 425 degrees 15 minutes and lower the temperature to 350 for the final 15-20 minutes of baking. This will ensure the spices do not char to much. Use the Painted Bread Technique and add details as desired.

You can go as dark, or light as you want.

There you go. Make some amazing Fall bread.