What are you baking the week of November 25, 2018?

[Mike Nolan]

I still have to figure out if that first batch of pie dough is salvageable, and then figure out what I'm making with it. Just not in the mood to do that yet today.

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[BakerAunt]

I bought marked down bananas at the grocery yesterday. The store sells them for 69 cents a pound, but when they begin to turn, they are marked down to 29 cents. Given how many of their bananas end up marked for reduction, I’m not sure why they don’t just lower the price to a reasonable amount before they go brown.

Usually the ones I get are fine for eating, but these were a little too ripe, so I used two on Monday morning to try a new recipe for Oat Bran Banana Bread, from North Dakota State University Extension Services. It's one that Italian Baker might like because it uses baking soda for the leavening, not baking powder.

https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/foodpreparation/recipes/grains/oat-bran-banana-bread/files/oat-bran-banana-bread.pdf

As usual, I modified it. I ground the oat bran in the food processor, and I substituted in ½ cup of whole wheat flour for the 1 cup of AP specified. I added 4 Tbs. powdered milk. I used buttermilk instead of skim milk. I left out the optional salt. The recipe didn’t specify a pan size, so I used a 9x5 inch loaf pan. It’s not an overly high quick bread, so possibly 8x4 inch would work as well. I sprinkled the top with demerara sugar. It baked in 50 minutes in my oven in a USA loaf pan coated with THE grease, and it released beautifully. We had some for dessert this evening, and we like it. I might add some walnuts next time.

The loaf has about 8.75 g saturated fat and 222.5 mg calcium.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.

[chocomouse]

I made more pecan pie tarts today. I had some filling leftover from Thursday, so I added to that a couple squirts (maybe 2 tablespoons, I guess) of store-brand Karo, 2 good spoonfuls of white sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, and about 3/4 cup of pecans. My husband says the tarts are good, "sweeter that the first batch." I still plan to use Karo brand syrup from now on.

[BakerAunt]

I baked an Apple Crisp on Tuesday. The recipe comes from Baking Illustrated (2004), p. 290. I made a few changes. I used a combination of Jonathan and Winesap apples instead of Granny Smith and McIntosh. I decided not to peel them. I reduced the topping by about 25%, slightly more for the butter, as I used 3 Tbs., reduced the salt to 1/8 tsp. and used Penzey’s Apple Pie spice (a free sample). I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of AP flour. I used my pastry cutter, not the food processor, to incorporate the butter, and I used ¼ cup pecan meal in place of ¾ cups nuts, which would have been ground in. Instead of a 9x9 inch pan or a 9-inch deep pie plate, I baked it in a ceramic 8x11 rectangular dish. We had it with some frozen low-fat vanilla yogurt. We enjoyed it tonight and will enjoy it for the next two nights as well.

[skeptic7]

I did a pumpkin pie on Sunday from puree from baking small pie pumpkins. It took two cups of pumpkin puree about 1 1/2 pie pumpkins. This was combined with a butter flavored oil based pie crust and it turned out fairly well.

[BakerAunt]

I made my personal sourdough pizza crust on Wednesday.

I also baked my adaptation of Rustic Sourdough (KAF in the Spring 2016 Sift but probably also on their website) I used Irish Wholemeal flour, as I did last time. I was short 2 cups, so I used spelt flour to make up the difference. I increased the dark rye flour to ¾ cups and added 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. As I did last time, I reduced the salt to 1 ¾ tsp. In spite of increasing the amount of dark rye flour, I still had to add ¼ cup KAF AP in addition to the 2 ½ Cups. I slashed it before baking, and I also misted the loaf before putting it in to bake, and then after 5 minutes, and then another 5 minutes. The loaf had great oven spring, but it blew out along one side. I’ve not had such a dramatic blowout in a long time. Possibly it was slightly under proofed when I put it in the oven. It could be that my shaping or my slashing was not good enough. It may be this oven. I also think I should have put the loaf in width-wise (I used a hearth bread pan). This bread will still be a delicious loaf to eat and to use for sandwiches.

[RiversideLen]

I made a French style loaf today using KAF French style flour. Came out pretty good.

[Joan Simpson]

I made pie crusts today Sylvia's perfect pie crust it makes 3 but I up the flour to 4 cups and add a stick of butter and one extra tablespoon of water and get 4 crusts..It's a very good recipe and am always happy with it.I also made a apple pie with honey crisp apples it was really good,set up nice and the crusts were good and flaky, baked it in clear glass pyrex pie plate.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I decided to bake Bernard Clayton's French Apple Pie, from The Complete Book of Pastry Sweet and Savory. It's an apple pie with a streusel topping. I decided to try an oil crust, only to discover that crust needed to be blind-baked. (I posted about it in a thread under desserts.)

I decided to change around the recipe to accommodate the blind-baked crust. After I cut up the apples, I mixed them with the sugar, spices, and tapioca and let them set, while I blind baked the crust, which I had refrigerated after making. I then cooked the apples over medium-high heat until they were softened and most of the juice thickened. I sprinkled Panko crumbs on the bottom of the pie crust before adding the apple filling to try to keep it crisp. I topped with the streusel and baked at 375F. Bernard Clayton’s recipe calls for 15 minutes at 425F, then 375F for 45 minutes. With the apples pre-cooked and the crust already browned, I baked at 375f for 30 minutes, then an additional five when I could see it bubbling. It smells good. I used 5 Winesaps and 2 Jonathans.

I'll add a note tomorrow after we try it.
Promised Note: The pie is delicious, and the crust works well. I did substitute 1/3 white whole wheat flour in the crust. I also used half white whole wheat flour in the topping. The pie is still 4.85g sat. fat per slice (1/8th of the pie), but the oil crust makes it come out much better than it otherwise would.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.

[RiversideLen]

I made a batch of Jam-Filled Christmas Cookies I overbaked them a little, so they're not so good. It's my first time making that cookie so this was a test run. I'll make it one more time before deciding if it's a worthy cookie.

I also made some burger buns.

[skeptic7]

I did a spinach pizza on Thursday, and two loaves of whole-wheat buttermilk bread with a brown sugar cinnamon spiral on Saturday. I am getting better with this whole wheat bread in loaves. They both turned out fairly well. The only sugar in the breads is in the cinnamon spiral, so I will offer one to a friend who was on a sugarless diet for years but has done so well and gotten her blood sugar down enough that she can add a little bit of sugar to her diet.

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