Cooking From Scratch

Homemade Brown Sugar

Make your own from scratch - from Pioneering Today by Melissa K Norris.

Light Brown Sugar - Put 1 cup of granulated sugar into food processor. Add 1 tablespoon of molasses, and process until it reaches the desired consistency.

Dark Brown Sugar - Add a second tablespoon of molasses to the light brown sugar, and process again until it reaches the desired consistency.

Home Milled Flour

Buy grains in bulk from sources such as Palouse Farms, Azure Standard, and True Leaf Markets.

There are home flour mills - both electric & manual. I ordered a mill attachment for my KitchenAid, and a 5 pound bag of Hard White Wheat Berries from Palouse to experiment with. What I have learned so far is

( 1 ) mill enough to use in the recipe, no more, because the wheat berries will last for years in a FGQ 5 gallon bucket with a gamma lid.

( 2 ) one cup of wheat berries will yield about one and one quarter cup of flour

( 3 ) the mill has different settings for how fine the flour turns out, and keeping it on the finest setting seems to work for my recipes.

( 4 ) according to Pioneering Today, the flour from milling grains is more nutrient-dense than flour from the store, because the store- bought flour process for shelf life actually removes the wheat germ, which is where most of the nutrients are.

( 5 ) Hard White Wheat Berry grain is more for breads, and the Spelt is more for pastries.

UPDATE Dec 19, 2022 || I ran out of Hard White Wheat Berry's. Amazon had 5 pounds each of Hard White, Soft White, Spring Red ( from Palouse Farms ), and Ancient Einkorn ( from Grand Teton ), so I bought those, and just started a new sourdough starter with the Einkorn.

Homemade Onion Soup Mix - Lipton Copy Kat

Mix in small mason jar the following:

1/4 cup minced onion, 1 TBS chicken bouillon, 1 TBS beef bouillon, 1 tsp dried parsley, 1/4 tsp fine ground pepper, 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp celery seed, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp onion powder, and lastly - optional as bonding - 1/2 tsp cornstarch.

When ready for onion dip, mix into 16 ounces of sour cream, then "acquaint" in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

Homemade Sour Cream

Squeeze all the juice from 1 large lemon into 2 cups heavy cream, then mix well.

Cover with cheese cloth and sit at room temperature for 4 to 6 hours.

Mix again really well, then store in fridge for use as sour cream.