The Canadian Food Experience Project - My Earliest Memory of Canadian Food

Have you met Val at A Canadian Foodie? She is a woman of boundless energy and creativity. This is her newest food challenge. She is passionate about good, clean, fair and local food. After attending the Canadian Food Blogger's Conference in Toronto this spring she is searching for our Canadian food identity.

This will be a year of challenges and I hope you join us on this journey of exploration. Every challenge is designed to make us dig deep into our Canadian psyche to record our interpretation of our culture as described through food.

Our first challenge is to share our first authentic Canadian food experience. I am a baby boomer born and raised on a small farm in southeastern Saskatchewan. My family homesteaded this land seven generations ago. We still own a part of that farm although we no longer work it ourselves.

Suffice to say that my first remembered food experience is authentic Canadian. My mental journey back to almost birth has been fascinating and enlightening. My mother was not well most of my life and as a result she did not do a lot of cooking. Our food was very basic but her one passion was baking. I don't even know if she ever used a recipe but we did have one thin book, the Five Roses Flour Cookbook.

We enjoyed home made doughnuts on special occasions. Almost weekly we would have raisin or lemon meringue pie. The cakes were simple but a family favourite was Matrimonial Cake.

When I was very young, as young as three years old, my mother would be in the hospital for extended periods and our neighbours, the Brock's, would look after me and my sister. This is my first memory of food. They cooked with a wood stove. Even we had a propane stove and oven but they still used wood.  We were grain farmers with chickens, ducks and pigs but they had a farm that completely fulfilled their needs. They had a dairy herd, berry bushes and a large garden as well as poultry. I remember them milking the cows by hand and separating the cream. They made butter! That was a treat even way back then when it really was not so unusual. But what I remember most vividly is the homemade bread that would come out of that wood oven almost every day. I remember the yeasty dough fermenting, the darkened bread pans and that oh so heady aroma. Smell is the strongest sense to bring back memories.

I have not made old fashioned white bread in many years. Today we are trendy with sourdough and rustic artisan loaves. This is my contribution to this month's challenge. I am making that wonderful pillowy soft white bread that I remember as a young child.

The Best White Bread     from Annie's Eats

Yield: 2 9-inch loaves

4½ tsp. instant yeast
¾ cup plus 2 2/3 cup warm water, divided (105-115˚ F)
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. salt
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
9-10 cups all-purpose flour
3-4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted (for brushing)

• To make the dough, dissolve the yeast in ¾ cup of warm water in a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the sugar, salt, remaining 2 2/3 cups water, butter, and 5 cups of the flour.  Mix until a dough begins to come together.  Gradually add in the remaining 4-5 cups of flour about ½-1 cup at a time at first, more gradually with the last cup, until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky but not sticky.  Continue to knead about 6-8 minutes, until a smooth ball of dough has formed.
• Transfer the dough to a lightly greased large bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with a clean kitchen towel.  Let rise in a warm place until the dough has nearly doubled in bulk, about 60-90 minutes.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently punch down to deflate the dough.  Divide into two equal portions.  Press one portion of dough into a rectangle, about 9 x 15 inches.  Starting on a short end, roll the dough up tightly into a log and pinch the seam shut.  Roll the ends under the loaf.  Transfer to a greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and press down gently to reach the sides of the pan.  Repeat with the second portion of dough.  Cover the pans loosely with a clean kitchen towel and let rise once more until nearly doubled, about 30-45 minutes.
• Place an oven rack in the lowest position and preheat the oven to 400˚ F.  Just before baking, lightly brush the tops of the loaves with some of the melted butter.  Bake for 15 minutes.  Rotate the pans 180˚ and continue baking until an instant read thermometer reads 190˚ F in the center of the loaf, about 15-18 minutes more.  If the tops of the loaves reach your desired golden brown before the baking time is complete, cover the tops loosely with foil to prevent over-browning.  Transfer the pans to wire racks to cool.  Let cool briefly, then turn the loaves out onto the racks.  If desired, brush lightly with additional melted butter.  Let cool completely.