What’s Thanksgiving without some rolls to go with all the rest of the carb-laden goodness? These are a great addition to the holiday table, and also make wonderful country ham biscuits. If you’re going to fill them, you can just roll them out and cut them into rounds. But for serving them with a meal, we like to make what my grandmother called “pocketbooks”, dipping them in butter and then folding them over, as shown in the picture.

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Angel Biscuits

Even though there is yeast in this dough, it is also leavened with baking powder/soda and does not have to rise before baking The dough may also be stored in the refrigerator for several days before rolling out and shaping.

1 package dry yeast
5 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 t salt
3/4 cup shortening
2 cups buttermilk
melted butter, for dipping (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 F. Proof yeast by dissolving in 2 Tablespoons warm water. (If it doesn’t bubble a bit after a few minutes, your yeast is dead.)

Stir together dry ingredients. Cut in shortening. Stir yeast into buttermilk, add add to the cut together mixture.

Knead well. Turn out on a lightly floured board and roll out about 1/4″ thick. Cut with biscuit cutter and bake as biscuits. Or, dip in melted butter and fold over to make pocketbook rolls.

Bake 400 F for 15 minutes, until lightly golden.

I made this gluten-free quick bread for a brunch several weeks ago, and now I’ve finally found the time to write it up. This is my first foray into gluten-free baking, and it turned out surprisingly well. It seemed like a good breakfast bread alternative for those who for one reason or another have to stay clear of gluten. I can (and do!) eat as much flour as I want, but I really enjoyed this bread, too. It’s healthier than most breakfast breads since most of the sweetener comes from the fruit, with just a little bit of honey. And the nuts, while adding wonderful flavor, also mean that it will stick with you better than the normal carbohydrate only quick bread. It’s a winner all around!

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Safeway had an amazing price on mangoes this week — 4 for a dollar instead of the usual $1.50 apiece! So we came home without about 8. So far, we’ve eaten them by themselves and in mango salsa. Then I noticed we had an overripe banana sitting on the counter, and I thought I’d try to make a banana-mango bread with the last two. I hoped to base it on my mom’s recipe, which adds some spice to the traditional banana bread. However, I couldn’t find it, so I turned where I always do, to Elise at Simply Recipes, who seems to have a recipe for anything and everything. I was thinking of a somewhat Indian-inspired concept, so I used spices normally found in chai. I didn’t think the spice flavor was pronounced enough (I added 1/4 t each of ginger, cardamon, cloves, and cinnamon), so I’ve upped the ante a bit in the recipe below. I also added some chopped pistachios, as I like a bit of texture in my quick breads.

So, how did it turn out? It like it, and if I ever end up with overripe mangoes again, I’ll definitely keep it as a possibility. However, that fresh mango flavor and texture didn’t quite shine through all the breadiness as much as I wanted to. So when they’re back to $1.50 a pop, I think I’ll stick to letting the wonderful juicy goodness of raw mango drip down my chin.

Just after deciding to make this bread, I heard that Not Quite Nigella is having a Banana Bread Bake-off. So this is my entry in that event … check out what everyone else did at the roundup, to be posted on May 12.

Banana Mango Bread

adapted from Banana Bread from Simply Recipes

2 ripe mangoes, chopped
1 ripe banana
1/3 c melted butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cardamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 c slightly crushed pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mash together banana, mango, and butter. Stir in sugar, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (baking soda through cinnamon). Stir dry ingredients into fruit mixture. Stir in pistachios. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes. Let cool slightly in the pan, then turn out onto rack to cool the rest of the way.

Other mango recipes:

• Mango Chutney from Simply Recipes
• Mango Shrikhand from Mango Power Girl
• Frozen Mango Lassi from Cooking With Amy
• Mango Salsa from Culinate

This month, I joined my first blogging event — The Daring Bakers. This is a group of (mostly) bloggers that all bake the same recipe once a month, and then all post on it the same day. One person sets this “challenge recipe” and everyone has to basically follow the recipe — few modifications are allowed. The idea is to bake outside our comfort zones a bit, but with a supportive group around to learn from and to compare our results. So this month I joined the Daring Bakers and our first recipe was Julia Child’s French Bread, hosted by Breadchick at The Sour Dough and Sara of I Like to Cook.

Talk about a challenge! I was excited when I found out this month’s challenge would be bread since I haven’t ever made anything but quick bread before and I’d been wanting to try it. But, it was also intimidating. This bread required three different rises, and the shaping was also fairly complicated. (You would think you just roll it into a log to make a baguette, but there’s actually a lot more to it in order to make the bread so that it’ll form a nice crust and gain enough volume and be able to support itself without baking in a pan. Or so I read.) Also, in order to make a simulated “baker’s oven”, I had to find a way to produce steam in the oven. So, all told, a good 6-8 hours to complete, but it was a lot of fun. I was pretty pleased with how the bread looked and tasted. So, if you are feeling ambitious, I recommend this bread, but I will admit I probably won’t make a habit of making this every weekend.

Thanks again to Sara and Breadchick for coming up with a great the challenge this month, and check out my fellow Daring Bakers’ posts from the Daring Bakers Blogroll.

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