PAP’S SWEET BREAD
- Lard
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 cups self-rising flour
Heat 2 cast iron pans on the stove; add a spoonful of lard to each. While the lard is melting, break 2 eggs in a mixing bowl. Next divide butter in half, adding a half to each pan. Add milk to eggs and mix well; add vanilla and mix well. Once butter is melted pour most of it into the milk egg mixture and stir well. Pap said he liked to melt his butter in the frying pan because it’s one less dish to wash. Next add sugar to mixture and stir well. Add flour and stir till smooth. Divide batter equally between the two pans and place in a pre-heated 350 degree oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown. Frosting can be added to the bread, but our favorite way to eat it is straight out of the pan. Pap liked to open a can of Granny’s peaches to eat with his.
—Celebrating Southern Appalachian Food written by Jim Casada and Tipper Pressley
Saturday was Pap’s death anniversary. I can barely believe that he’s been gone from this world nine years.
I always miss him a lot in spring of the year. Making a garden was something he really enjoyed. He enjoyed the planting, the growing, the harvesting, and especially the eating.
He taught me everything I know about gardening. As I type those words I can just hear him saying “Well now Tip I don’t hardly know that much so I haven’t learned you much.” But he did.
Last week he was heavy on my mind and I decided to make some of his sweet bread. He had such fond memories of his mother making it for him when he was a boy and I have the same good memories of him making it for us.
You can find mine and Jim’s cookbook here.
Last night’s video: Come Along With Us: Beautiful Plants, Good Friends, & an Adorable New Puppy.
Tipper
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Tipper, if you don’t have cast iron pans, what could you use instead?
Valerie-you can use a regular cake pan 🙂 9 inch or 8 inch or whatever you have.
Thank you!
Tipper, I’m enjoying your videos about the garden and flowers. I imagine if I went to Satterfield’s I would spend more money than I have! I typically buy perennials because they come back and thus I don’t have to buy a lot of plants every spring. I love Dianthus and I’m expanding my colors. They smell so good!
I’m going to try Pap’s sweet bread. I just love Celebrating Appalachia and The Pressley Girls!
I live in the southern coastal area of NC but I grew up in the foothills of the mountains.
They both have so much to offer, NC is a great state for sure.
Love reading all tje stories. My dad too was a wonderful man that did not talk much. When he did talk you always listened whether it was serious or downright funny! Love all your channels
I’ve really enjoyed every post you’ve done about your dad. He is a very special person, and I hope one day to meet him up there in heaven. My own dad passed away 22 years ago in mid April just after his 40th birthday. I was a kid then, but I have been surprised how many things he said have popped into my own speech lately. Daddies and what they teach us are gifts from God. Thank you for telling us about Pap. It makes my heart happy every time. I know you all must miss him terribly. ❤️ Praying for all who have lost dear ones here. Thank our loving Father that we will see them again!
Meg, thank you! I’m so sorry your lost your daddy way too young.
Tipper, I understand about this time being hard for you. I lost my Momma the last week of April and six weeks later I lost my husband suddenly. Although, spring is my favorite time of year and Easter my favorite holiday I still struggle with being sad. I miss them terrible even though it has been 22 years this year since I lost them. sending big hugs to you.
God’s comfort and peace to you all as you remember your sweet father – His faith in God who saves, all of the memories, things taught & learned too numerous to count, places, pictures, videos, the music and the recordings, they are a wonderful legacy. That tree stump, with the rock your dad put in it, Matt cut it and y’all placed amongst the daffodill’s (from your huge garden tour video last week), that is a wonderful addition there, makes it like a memory garden. The two flat cut places on it do seem like it would be a great place to put a couple of potted plants/flowers there, that is a great idea. I have not tried your Dad’s Sweet Bread recipe yet but it is on my list for us to try soon.
Thinking about things we are taught and learn, I once heared Dr. Charles Stanley preach on Galatians 6: 7 & 8 and this has stood out in my mind as wise words – “Not only do you reap what you sow but you reap MORE than you sow and you reap FOR LONGER than you sow.” I thought that is for the good and for the bad too when you think about the generations who have gone before us and the generations that will come after us and what we sow in our lifetime. That should stop us all in our tracks to consider what we are leaving for those who are in our sphere of influence.
Thank you for the recipe Tipper. It would be a good quick dessert next time I need one. You are so lucky to have such good memories of your daddy. He sounds very special. My own dad has only been gone from this old world for three months, but I just miss him so. I wish I could go back and stay a little longer each time I visited him in the nursing home the last few months. I have so many fond memories too. He taught me how to ride a horse, tend a garden, drive a tractor and so many other things. He didn’t have a lot of education, but he was so smart and talented. He was a wonderful gardener. He could shoe horses. He built buggies and wagons for horses to pull. He had a very creative side—he could make just about anything. He made the best fried potatoes you could ever eat. He took us on Sunday drives and picnics and swimming in the river. I look forward to giving him a big hug someday and never having to hurry up when we visit. Take care.
Tipper, I lost my Daddy in December of 2016–it will be 9 years for me in December. I miss him every day. Being an only child, I was his shadow for many years—even after I got married, I stayed close to him and when I had questions about just about anything he was my go-to for the answer…!!!!! My Daddy could do just about anything. He was an avid gardener, a really good cook, a mechanic, a welder, and one of the best carpenters ever. He could build anything from a table to a house. Daddy was also a very proud University of Georgia graduate and most certainly a HUGE Dawg fan. Daddy was buried in his favorite UGA tie. For almost 25 years, Daddy taught at our local high school and also coached. He taught Georgia Civics, United States History, and United States Government. During most of that time, he coached football, basketball and track. He was always very hard on me—very strict; but, he made me the person I am today!!!!! He also taught me—being in his classroom was definitely something to remember for sure!!!!! When he retired from teaching and coaching, he began his second career as a Georgia Farm Bureau insurance agent. He managed the local office for almost 30 years until he retired at age 73. He was always a larger than life kind of man—one you would never want to forget!!!!! Being an only daughter, you shared a very special bond with Pap, just like I did with my Daddy!!!!! Oh what special memories we have to treasure!!!!!
Sweetbread came to us from my mother’s side of the family. Daddy had worked at a bakery before WW2 took him in a different direction. He made doughnuts. Yeast doughnuts! Floated in an oversized cast iron skillet until brown on one side then flipped to the other. Plain or sprinkled with a little sugar doughnuts. Those are sweet memories, literally and figuratively!
Doughnuts!! Yes! My mama made the most delicious yeast doughnuts – usually she began the dough the evening before then completed them in the morning. She rolled the warm doughnuts in plain white sugar or cinnamon sugar, but at times would dip one side in either a white or chocolate glaze. Many in the community would seem to smell their aroma and come ‘calling’ on doughnut day. 🙂 Thanks for this reminder Ed.
Pap’s sweetbread brought back such wonderful memories of my own sweet mom. She wasn’t one to hug or say “I love you” but she showed her love for us in so many other ways and making sweetbread was one of them. She made it for us quite often, and my cousin said when they came to visit,
her house always smelled like vanilla flavoring. 🙂
My Daddy and Mother could sure raise a beautiful garden. They passed on that gene for loving to plant and gather the bounty to me and I have to hold back now since I’m in my 80’s and can’t get down on my knees. My son has bought and put up raised planters for me and buys the plants for Mother’s Day. As I live now in SC PA, you aren’t supposed to put plants out here till May 15 so I have to hold back:)
I sure enjoyed going along to see ya all pick out your flowers. That is a beautiful nursery and Quincy is a special young feller. What a fantastic little stream flowing there. I love his puppy too!!! I love all the flowers you picked out and I love Lantana but I haven’t had luck with growing it here, probably not long enough growing season. At my son’s home in NE MS it grows into a big showy plant. It really shows out there:)
My dear husband did not know the names of plants, he called everything a gladiola:) Matt needing a map of what you were planting made me smile as I remembered my planting this beautiful flower out by one of our gates and my husband used the weed wacker to trim around the yard. The next morning I went out to admire that beautiful plant and it was gone! Apparently, I didn’t give him a map of the flowers I had planted and he thought it was a weed. You better give Matt a map and after planting them take him on a tour to put that picture in his mind’s file cabinet:)
I’m so glad you have those precious memories of gardening with your dad and making the sweet bread. It’s been 15 yrs. since my dad passed away. Sometimes it seems forever ago, but other times it seems like yesterday.
Interesting recipe Tipper. Thanks for sharing it and some of your precious memories of your pap. You are most blessed to have such memories as many do not, or the ones they have they wish they didn’t. Each moment of each day is a memory we are leaving for someone in our midst – may we make sure we are leaving gentle ones.
I loved the gardening trip and shopping spree! As I already commented, I (and my daughters) would have had a very hard time to not take one of each of those beautiful colors!
Some of the smartest men in the world claimed they never lernt much. Your daddy and mine are good examples of smart men who never gave themselves credit for their superior knowledge on subjects that matter most, and I miss them both. I will never forget the day Pap left this world, as it was exactly one year and one day after my world was shattered with the tragic loss of my precious grandson. Pap’s sweet bread recipe sounds like it would be so good with a glass of cold milk. My parents talked about their moms adding ‘sweetening’ to the simplest recipes to create a rare treat when they were lucky enough to buy sugar.
I can’t imagine that lost as we spend Easter with our grandson, his wife and our 2 great grandchildren. We had the privilege of raising our grandson along with our son. What we have missed seeing with our special needs daughter, we have been blessed to experience it with them. I am so sorry for your lost. I am sure it was a great loss. I was blessed to have a great christian family growing up. I loss my dad, mom, and brother in less than 7 months in 2009. You never get over missing them, but comfort and peace from our Lord is always present. Be blessed.
Shirl, my Daddy only had an 8th grade and it was not all of that good because of moving around and going to so many different schools. His parents were sharecroppers, he quit school to help his Daddy farm. It was joked about but I suspect there was some truth in it, a sharecropper moved ever time the rent came due, sometimes during the middle of the night. He was very wise is being able to do many things because of common sense. I knew another man that only had a 3rd grade education, but was a successful farmer, logger, and also owned and ran a sawmill. Sometimes just good horse /common sense is better than a college education. One of the managers I had at Michelin finished either at or near the top of his class at West Point. He didn’t have enough common sense to step inside if it came a shower of rain. He was unable to run the manager job because of his lack of common sense and had to be let go.
Thank you for sharing this recipe . It sounds delicious. Also, thank you for the videos. My 95 year old mom watches them all the time. God bless you and family.
Pap knew what we all learned: Don’t bake one of anything when two can be baked with the same heat. Cooks and bakers invented energy conservation before there was such a term. We badly need more common sense in our time.
Thank you for sharing your memories of Pap with us. His recipe sounds delicious! May God bring you comfort and peace. Blessings from Ohio.
The recipe looks delicious; I will try it. My daddy and his seven siblings grew up orphans. He called his parents “mommy” and “poppy.” Poppy died when he was seven and Mommy died when he was ten. He had no memories of any favorite dishes but I’m sure he would have loved this recipe. Daddy loved this time of the year, too. He would start seeds at the first of the year, plow and disk the large garden and then put in the plants. He spent almost all of his time with this garden including after coming home from a long day of work and spending the rest of the day in the garden until it was too dark to see. He had a green thumb and could raise anything he planted. He liked to try new vegetables. My mother spent a lot of time putting up all the vegetables he grew. Daddy will have passed from this world to be with Jesus on June 26, 2000. I miss him so much as we were a lot alike.
Tipper, in my mind I can see, smell and taste that hot sweet bread my mommy would make us as a treat. I was about 5 and she was well into her 60’s and she would say “yall be good and go outside and I will make you my special cake!” I’d get so excited I didn’t know what to do! I miss her more than I can tell you and as I write this with tears in my eyes, thank you for the memories, as Bob Hope you used to sing…. You are a treasure chest keeper to me, Tipper, and some days you with the key, open it up and let me gander in there to a place long buried lest I should die of a grieving heart…thankyou for the recipe and this special memory… oh how sweet and fleeting these moments are so thank you dear friend. Oh what a wise papa you were blessed to have!!!! It shows in you.
Sadie says this so well – about Tipper being a treasure chest keeper with the key to open it up, for me too, and about your wise Pap. I whole-heartedly agree with what she wrote here!
Dad is not drawing away from me now as he was in 2001. Now he stands still and I draw closer to him. I’ll get there to the meeting by and by. Before then though it will be my time to draw away. I think about it for the sake of those I’ll leave. I want to make it as easy for them as I can. Your Dad did that to. We have our different ways of doing that. The sum though is how we have lived. Success is having left fond memories and increasing expectation of joyous reunion. For those who don’t have that, there is the ultimate solace from all the pains of this life.
My great-uncle was called Sweetbread because he used to put a piece in his pocket when he went a courtin. Maybe that’s the way Jerry found Louzine?
Pap left you and your family with a lot of wonderful memories to cherish. One day you’ll all who live with Christ Jesus as your Savior will see Pap again. This is God’s promise.
My Daddy loved gardening, too. He was always a furniture salesman and his last years were in Florida. When he was in St. Augustine, he had a little garden plot in the alley behind the store. I have a picture of him with his arms full of vegetables and the proudest look on his face! Thanks for bringing that picture to mind this morning. He’s been gone for 30 years, come this October and I am so thankful that my son has his same sense of humor.
You were blessed to have such a daddy! I never knew my dad. I hope you enjoyed your sweet bread.
Hey Tipper, my Daddy passed away suddenly on a Good Friday. Easter always brings memories of that day. I always think of how he is celebrating each day and look forward to the great reunion we’ll have one day. Praying for you this week. Thanks for the sweet recipe. I’m going to give it a try this morning.
Thanks for sharing these sweet memories of Pap. The recipe sounds delicious.
I have never ate sweet bread but think I will give this a try one of these days. One of my sister in laws also died in 2016. It does not seem that long ago. My father in law died in 2013, he always had a large garden each year, working in his garden was one of his favorite things to do, especially after he retired. I mentioned this before, some years he would plant an early small garden that he would call a “frost garden” – the frost would kill it, but he would say I couldn’t wait to start any longer.
Now I don’t feel so guilty about feeling like I do about my wife’s death and funeral last week after you mentioned feeling like you did last week about Pap. There are some things you just don’t get over or forget.
Carol, I spent yesterday afternoon with my wife’s sisters and brother in law, along with a few other family members. One sister in law had cooked dinner for us. In all of the years (53) I have never had nothing but a good time, unless it was for a death, anytime I was with my wife’s family.
Randy, so glad you could attend a happy gathering! Nothing like being with family!!
Randy , The loss of those we love are the kind of things you get THROUGH -never over.
Tipper, I miss my daddy this time of year, too, for the same reasons. May your memories bring you great joy and when tears fall may they be reminders of the deep love you shared.
I will be trying this recipe. My daddy would have loved this with peaches.
God bless
God comfort thee, about the passing of Pap, thank you for the recipe
That’s such a a sweet memory to have and thanks for sharing it with us. I truly wish my dad had been so kind.
Your pap left you such a sweet legacy that you can pass on to your grandsons!