Baking Traditions - What Happens to Lost Recipes

Do you having baking traditions in your family? Is there one thing that you always bake together during a holiday? Is there one recipe that has been handed down from generation to generation? Have you shared those traditions and recipes with anyone?

This is a subject that really hits home for me because I lost some of our family recipes recently. It made me think about what happens to a recipe if no one knows about it or cares about where it goes. Nothing happens to it. It is lost to the world and may never be found again. What a truly tragic end for a great recipe (especially a baking recipe!). A wonderful cookie, pie, or cake is never made again. I really love sweets so this truly brings a tear to my eye!

A recipe is a gift. A gift of love. A gift of time and effort. A gift that can keep on giving because each time you make it, you enjoy it again. It is not only a gift from the person who created the recipe but also a gift from the person who gave it to you. Treasure those gifts and share them. A recipe and story shared is worth more than one just sitting in your recipe box. Perhaps you are waiting for just the right person or time to share it. I have been guilty of that one myself. But a recipe that isn't shared is nothing but a piece of paper in box. It means nothing to anyone but you unless it is shared with someone else.

So how do you make sure your recipes and baking traditions are not lost?

Write them down. Of course your recipes are already written down in some form or another. But what about the funny family story or family baking tradition that goes with it? Make sure that story gets written down too.

Make sure someone in your family knows that this recipe and this family baking tradition are important to you. Make sure that they know you want it to be passed on in the family. No one will know how important it is to you unless you tell them. (So speak up!)

And last but not least, your baking assignment (should you choose to accept it) is to share one of your baking recipes (and the story that goes with it) this week with someone. Who knows, you may just start a baking tradition for that person and their family. And what better way is there to honor the gift of that recipe?

Happy Baking!

Jill Seader is the founder of Your Baking Story ? Baking Recipes. Her website shares her baking stories and recipes and also allows visitors to share their own baking stories and recipes. Come visit and share your own stories.

Bread Baking: Sweet Corn Yeast Bread

Ah, fall. The squirrel-like part of my personality wants to pack away foods for winter. That's great when I'm canning tomatoes or pickling peppers or freezing vegetables, but it's not great when I overbuy and don't get around to using things as soon as I should.

In this case, my nemesis was fresh corn. Knowing that corn season is just about over, I bought way more than I needed.

Corn starts getting old faster than almost anything else. Picked fresh and cooked soon, it's amazingly good. After few days, it's just okay. Another day or two, and it's time to get creative.

I cut the corn off the cob then "milked" the cobs to get all the juice, then started looking at my food processor...maybe it would take care of the texture problems that exist with corn that's a bit over the hill? Perfect! And of course, I decided to make bread.

While this bread has plenty of corn in it, this isn't your grandmother's cornbread. It's a lightly sweet yeasted bread with a subtle corn flavor that begs for butter. This bread is soft, moist, and sandwich-worthy. I love the smell of baking bread all by itself, but this one was particularly enticing, with the added scent of roasting corn as the bread started browning towards the end of baking time.

Note: When using the food processor, you need to be careful not to overprocess the dough. Process for a minute, then check the dough's consistency and temperature. If it feels warm to the touch, let it rest for a few minutes to cool, then process for another 30 seconds, and check again. It needs to be properly elastic, but it's possible to overknead with a food processor, so don't be tempted to keep going after it's done.

About the author: Donna Currie has been cooking for fun and writing for pay since the days when typewritten articles traveled by snail mail. When she combined those talents in a food column for a newspaper in her area, she realized that writing about food is almost as much fun as eating. She most recently launched the blog Cookistry and has now joined the Serious Eats team with a weekly column about baking.

1 1/2 cups fresh corn (about 3 small cobs)2 1/2 teaspoons (1 package) instant yeast1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt1 tablespoon sugar13 1/2 ounces (about 2 1/2 cups) bread flour2 tablespoons unsalted butterOlive oil for greasing bowlCornmeal for dusting

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