Birdhouse Bread Recipes

Steps:

• Pre-Heat oven to 400.
• Place muffin mix, oatmeal, and baking powder in large bowl and set aside.
• Wash whole eggs thoroughly and place in blender (shells and all.) Add baby food, applesauce, and wheat germ, and puree.
• Pour blended puree into your bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a large spoon. Stir in Tahini, cheese, grated carrots, and broccoli (if you have a fussy bird, you can puree these items in the blender in step 3.).
• Spread mixture in a lightly greased 9 x 13" pan and sprinkle the seed (or pellets) over the top.
• Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes. (Time may vary.) Let cool and cut into squares that are the size of a daily portion for your bird and freeze accordingly.
• Defrost daily portions in the microwave before feeding. Depending on your bird, either crumble the birdie bread into their bowl (especially smaller birds) or give them talon size chunks (bigger birds).
• Don't be afraid to experiment with the ingredients. The recipe is very forgiving. Instead of baby food, I sometimes substitute frozen mixed vegetables, a can of pumpkin, mashed bananas, or mashed sweet potatoes.
• Instead of oatmeal, I often use cooked brown rice, baby rice cereal, or wholegrain Cheerios. Other things I've experimented with include chopped nuts, raisins, cooked lentils, chopped kale, pureed chickpeas, or pasta.
• Tahini (sesame seed paste) is preferable to peanut butter, if you can find it. It's very high in protein and calcium.

Steps:

• Dissolve yeast in warm water and 1/2 T sugar.
• Add salt, honey, margarine, and buttermilk.
• Then add all seeds, corn meal, and rolled oats. Then whole wheat flour and oat flour.
• While its mixing slowly add the bread flour. You may need more or less of the bread flour, just enough till nice and elastic. Knead well by hand or with mixer.
• Place in a sprayed bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise till doubled. This is a heavy bread and may take awhile, placing in a warm place will aid this.
• Punch down and divide in 1/2.
• Shape into loaves and place in greased pans, cover, and allow to rise till doubled again.
• Bake in 375 preheated oven for 30 minutes or till tops are browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Steps:

• Slowly melt peanut butter, grease or fat over low heat.
• Add cornmeal or stale cereal crumbs.
• Slowly add enough warm water to make a stiff dough.
• Add birdseed and raisins, nut meats or chopped peanuts.
• Pack mixture into small foil pans or a large flat pan.
• Refrigerate overnight.
• Cut into pieces for tying onto tree branches.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• For the cookies: In a small mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and allspice. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter, shortening and sugar with a hand mixer. Add the cream cheese and the mix until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs 1 at a time and blend until fluffy. Slowly add the flour and mix until dough is combined. Turn out onto floured board and knead until dough is smooth. Divide dough into thirds and roll out to 1/4-inch thick pieces. Cut out shapes with sharp knife or dough cutter and transfer to a greased parchment lined cookie sheet. Crush candies in a baggy and spoon into cutouts. Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes or until edges are slightly browned and candies are thoroughly melted. Let cool on cookie sheet. Decorate with Royal Icing.
• For the icing: In a large mixing bowl, combine the meringue powder and sugar. Gradually whisk in 1 tablespoon of water at a time until icing has a creamy texture. Use the icing as a glue to assemble the houses, as desired.

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. For the gingerbread, melt the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan over a low heat. Combine the flour, bicarb and ginger in a large bowl, then stir in the wet ingredients to make a stiff dough. If it's dry, add a drop of water.
• Roll out the dough on a sheet of baking parchment to the thickness of two £1 coins. Cut out sections of the house, so you have two side walls, a front and back wall, two roof panels, a base and chimney pieces. Find our template here.
• Bake for 15-18 mins, or until firm. To ensure the pieces fit together, remove from the oven three-quarters of the way through baking, then use the templates again to trim the excess. Return to the oven to finish baking, then leave to cool completely.
• For the decorations, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave in short bursts. Spread some over the front and back panels using a palette knife, starting from the bottom and working up. Attach the biscuit sticks to the chocolate, snapping them to fit, for a log cabin effect. Leave to set for at least 1 hr. For the perch, snap the candy cane into a 3cm piece at the hooked end, then stick to the front panel with more chocolate. For extra support, cut a chocolate finger to fit and stick upright beneath the candy cane to look like a wooden post. Leave to set overnight, propped against a can.
• For the royal icing, beat the sugar, egg whites and lemon juice together in the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric whisk until stiff and smooth. Add a little water to loosen, but don't make it runny. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel so it doesn't dry out.
• Next, decorate the two side walls. Colour 2 tbsp of the royal icing yellow using food colouring, then loosen with a drop of water. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a small round nozzle. Loosen another 2 tbsp royal icing with a drop of water and spoon into a second piping bag, then snip off the end. Pipe three half-loops across the tops of the side panels using the plain icing to create a string, then stick on sugar-coated chocolate balls for lights, alternating the colours. Pipe windows and panes using the yellow icing, then pipe a line beneath the windows and stick on a piece of biscuit stick for a ledge. Leave to dry for 30 mins.
• Spoon another 100g royal icing into a piping bag and snip off a large 5mm hole. Put the base panel on a cake stand or plate. Pipe a line 2.5cm in from the back edge and attach the back panel. Repeat with the other wall panels. Gently push 25g white fondant icing into each corner at the base for extra support, then pipe more royal icing along the inside joins from top to bottom. Place mugs around the house so the handles press into each wall for support. Leave to set for 1-2 hrs.
• Make a robin using brown, red and yellow fondant, rolling small balls of white fondant for the eyes and drawing on pupils using the pen. Make Santa's legs with red and black fondant, and a snowman using some white fondant (attach biscuit stick arms, then decorate with small pieces of black and red fondant for mittens), presents in various colours and white fondant snowballs. Spoon another 2 tbsp royal icing into a small piping bag fitted with a small star nozzle. Use to pipe a hat brim and pom-pom on the robin, then pipe trim on the hem of Santa's trousers. For the wreath, roll out 100g green fondant and stamp out a 6cm circle using a biscuit cutter, then stamp a 2cm circle from the middle. Snip around the edge using scissors for a pine needle effect, then roll small red fondant balls and stick to the wreath.
• Once the house is dry, attach the roof panels with more royal icing. The angle is steep, so you may need to hold these in place for a few minutes while they set. Leave to dry completely, ideally overnight.
• Stick the four chimney pieces together with royal icing in the same way you made the walls. Leave to set for 1 hr. Re-melt the chocolate and paint some onto the chimney. Attach some biscuit sticks, breaking to fit until the chimney is covered, then attach the chimney to the house using more royal icing. Leave to set for 30 mins. Roll out 200g green fondant and cut out 100 small circles using a piping nozzle. Brush edible glue over the roof and attach the green circles. Use more glue to attach the chocolate buttons on top.
• Fill a piping bag with more royal icing, snip off a 5mm hole and pipe 'snow' over the roof and window ledges, pulling away along the roof edge and chimney to create icicles. Affix the wreath, robin, snowman, Santa's legs, presents and snowballs using royal icing. Leave to set for 1 hr. Will keep on display for up to two weeks.

Steps:

• Start at the top (recommended) or the bottom of the list, and put all the ingredients into the bread machine. Just make sure the salt and wet stuff stays away from the yeast until it mixes. If you like the old fashioned way, that will work too - just use your usual process.
• For rolls, use the dough cycle. When that cycle is done, dump it out on a floured surface and cut everything into even quarters, twice. Put the wads, evenly spaced, on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Let them rise once more in a warm area covered with waxed paper for a half hour or a little longer until they have roughly doubled in size, depending on how knocked down they got while cutting. Cook in an oven, preheated to 375 degrees, for 20 minutes or until they are nicely browned top and bottom. Brush with melted butter if desired.