lpinkmountain - Cake flour is milled from soft wheat and is also bleached, which is one thing I avoid in flour (although King Arthur has a new unbleached cake flour available). Whole wheat pastry flour is also milled from soft wheat, but not so low in the protein as cake flour is. Using ALL cake flour (7.5-8.5% protein) would be a little too low in gluten for soda bread. I've seen soda bread recipes that use a portion of cake flour and all-purpose flour to lower the gluten level. Other flour choices would be Southern All-Purpose flours such as White Lily (which has always been the flour-of-choice for making biscuits for generations), Martha White, Gladiola, and Red Band. Yogurt is a good substitute for buttermilk because it is acid enough to react the soda in soda bread recipes, an acid ingredient is a MUST. Just give the yogurt a stir to liquefy it (which breaks up the curds), and you can add a little milk or water if you want to thin it a bit. In fact, yogurt (4.3-4.4 pH) is more acid than buttermilk 4.5-5.1 pH) - the lower the number the more acidic the food. Sour milk would also work, naturally soured or soured with lemon juice or vinegar. Powdered buttermilk is rather insipid, compared to commercial buttermilk. It just doesn't have that tangy flavor that is part of soda bread - BUT - if you want to use powdered buttermilk, you can use it to culture and make your own homemade buttermilk, and it will be nice and tangy like commercial buttermilk. How to: In a quart jar, place 1/2 c. buttermilk (commercial buttermilk or reconstituted buttermilk made from powdered buttermilk - according to package directions). Fill the remainder of the jar with regular milk. Stir well. Let stand in a warm place (at least 80°F - I place mine in the oven with the light on, as far from the light as possible). Leave the mixture until it clabbers - 12-18-hours. Stir when done and refrigerate. You can take a 1/2-cup of homemade buttermilk to culture your next (1-quart) batch of homemade buttermilk if you use it within two weeks. BTW - When making biscuits, once the liquid ingredients are added to the dry ingredients, keep mixing (by hand) to a bare minimum so you don't develop the gluten strands in the dough. I pat biscuit dough into a nice square with floured hands (no rolling pin) and then cut them into squares with a pizza cutter. When you cut biscuits into rounds, you have all that leftover dough which is balled up, patted out and cut again. Those biscuits are called "second cuts" and are generally more tough than first cuts because the gluten has been over-worked. So to save time and avoid second cuts, try cutting your biscuits into squares. -Grainlady

I think 2 tsps of salt should be enough...taste the dough and see what you think How about this recipe: I like to make them in the mornings for a breakfast roll too. I usually double the recipe using only 1/3 cup sugar in the doubled recipe. If you keep the dough for a week, punch it down every day or so. They are a great roll. Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls 1 Package dry yeast 1/2 cup warm water 1/2 cup melted butter 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon soda 2 cups buttermilk Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir in butter Combine dry ingredients; add to yeast mixture along with buttermilk. Stir well. Turn dough out on a floured surface, knead gently a few times and shape into a ball. Place in greased bowl, cover, and refrigerate until needed. Keeps for one week. Break off a soft ball sized lump of dough and roll into a circle about 1/4" thick. Cut into pie shaped wedges and roll up from the wider edge into crescent shapes. You do not have to let them rise again. Bake on greased baking sheet at 400 for 8-10 minutes I'm glad you liked the rolls Emily. I'm about to make 300 of them for an upcoming event. I should have mentioned that the dough is very sticky after stirring. I scrape it onto my board and very gently knead in another 1/2 to 1 cup more flour. Just firm enough to handle. The flour is coating the outside of the gluten ball. Later, when punched down, I use enough flour to roll them out..it's actually more of a streching the ball into a flattish round. I try not to disturb the gluten sack. I do roll a bit, however. I'm not explaining it very well, but bread doughs can be managed by using flour on the outside and not incorporating it into the dough itself. This makes a lighter roll. Or these...just what we need at Thanksgiving...more butter but they are very VERY good. Julie Trussler's Butter Brite Rolls 2 pkg dry yeast 3 eggs 1/2 c warm water 1 t. salt 1 1/2 c. milk 4-6 cups flour 1/2csugar 1 1/2 c. butter softened Disolve yeast in warm water and add 1 t sugar and let rest until proofed. Add sugar milk and salt and beat in 3c flour , add eggs and another cup of flour and mix very well. Add enough more flour to make a soft dough and refrigerate 15 minutes. On lightly floured surface, roll dough to a 15 X 20 rectangle. Spread bottom 2/3 of the rectangle with 1/2 c of butter and fold top 1/3 over middle 1/3 and bottom 1/3 over all. Fold each end to the center and fold one more time. Refrigerate 30 minutes and repeat buttering and folding 2 more times. Refrigerate overnight ( Julie says.....but a couple of hours is enough) Makes crescent rolls dinner rolls and sweet rolls. Bake 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes depending on size. These are not yeast rolls...but very good. New England Biscuits with Cranberries and Rosemary 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 5 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces ½ cup dried cranberries 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary, finely chopped 1 cup buttermilk 1 egg, lightly beaten Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray or line with parchment paper. In a food processor, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Pulse to combine. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Place the mixture in a large bowl. Stir in the cranberries, rosemary and buttermilk. Mix well. The dough will be sticky. Transfer to a floured work surface. Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough 10 times or until smooth. Pat into a round about ½ inch thick. Using a 2-inch round biscuit cutter or drinking glass, cut out biscuits and place on the prepared pan. Gather the scraps and repeat until all the dough is used. Brush the biscuit tops with the beaten egg. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool slightly.

Just came in from potluck luncheon. Ths hostess made a green tomato cake. Very light and moist. Not heavy on the spices, that's the way I like it. Hers had raisins in it and I thought I detected banana taste. Cooked in a tube pan and conf sugar glaze on top.

We had a nice sunny day today, late morning and afternoon. Did some running around, so never did try the bread manually. When I mentioned setting it in the sun.....I meant the sun streaming in through the window. (in winter I get full sun, summer.....no sun in my apartment). Like Cynic, I preheat my bread-machine pan with hot water and heat up the milk in the microwave. I've read that the light bulb in the oven is all it takes to make bread rise, but that's hard to believe. But what do I know. Even if I never do remember to bake it in the oven, that's fine with us. We love the bread out of the machine. Hole and all. lol Hmmmm dinner rolls, though. That's a possibility! Oh, how much is 2 packets of yeast (as per the recipe above). I buy my yeast in bulk and put 2 1/4 tsp of yeast in my machine.