The maple doughnuts are delicious.

Monday was a baking day while the contractor and his crew started work on re-roofing the house. In the morning, I baked another batch of seeded crispbread.

I also tried a new recipe for Buckwheat Granola, from Bob’s Red Mill, since I had bought a bag of buckwheat groats to try: https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/buckwheat-granola/

I made three changes: I used canola rather than coconut oil, I used raisins rather than dried cranberries, and I deleted 1 tsp vanilla as well as the optional almond extract. In the oven I’m currently using, the granola needed an additional 10 minutes of cooking time. I stirred in the raisins right after I removed the granola from the oven. I had a few bites, and it is delicious.

My last project for Monday is to bake a variation on my standard knead-in-the-bread machine bread. I’m making the 5-grain variation, using 1 ½ cup bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, ¼ cup dark rye flour, and ¼ cup white rye flour, and adding 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. As usual, the salt is cut to 1 tsp.

Those muffins sound delicious, Chocomouse.

On Tuesday, I baked the Honey Italian Whole Wheat Breakfast Cookies to which I posted the link last year. I’m still playing with the recipe. This time, I substituted ½ cup of barley flour for that much of the whole wheat. I used 1 tsp. vanilla (original amount), and reconstituted ¼ tsp. Penzey’s dried orange peel with ¾ tsp. water. I'll add a note tomorrow about taste.

Note: The cookies are softer with the barley flour, and I like the texture. I am thinking that I will stop adding the orange peel unless I have fresh zest. I might go back to adding a bit of the Fiori de Sicilia.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/honey-spelt-sourdough-bread-recipe

After my husband recovered yesterday from his five-day sinus attack, he was hungry. I realized on Friday night after dinner that I would need to bake bread on Saturday rather than Sunday. I had used and fed my sourdough starter two days in a row, and I wanted to try the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread recipe from KAF again. It had baked beautifully the first time, using KAF spelt, but I had tried twice to duplicate it with Bob’s Red Mill spelt, and it did not have the same structure, even though I weighed the ingredients, since I thought the BRM might measure differently by volume. However, both times, I got a sticky dough that baked into a loaf that sagged in the center.

When I made the levain on Friday night, I decided to increase the starter from 1 Tbs. to ¼ cup. I have a milk-based soupy starter, and KAF likely uses its own starter, which I understand is not soupy. I thought the additional starter would help with the rise and structure. I also decided to measure by volume not weight after noting that the Bob's flour seemed heavier per cup. (See note at end of this post.)

The next day, I proofed the yeast in a cup of 100F water with a bit of the honey. I then added the rest of the honey and the levain and mixed, before mixing in the additional 3 cups spelt flour, to which I had added ¼ cup special dry milk. I covered it and let it rest for 20 minutes so that the spelt could absorb liquid. I then mixed in 2 Tbs. of olive oil (replacing butter), before mixing in 1 cup of KAF AP flour with 1 tsp. salt (reduced from 1 ¼ tsp.). I kneaded for 4 minutes until I had a nice windowpane, then let rise for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I prepared my Emile Henry long baker (greased, then sprinkled liberally with farina). I pre-shaped the loaf, let it sit for 5 minutes, then did the final shaping. The dough needed about 1 hour 20 minutes for the second rise. I slashed it, replaced the cover, and put it in the oven. I changed the baking instructions a bit. I did do the initial 10 minutes at 425 before reducing the temperature to 400, but I then let it bake for about 23 minutes before removing the baker top. (The original recipe says 25-30 min.). I baked it uncovered for an additional 7 minutes. It tested 190F, and I removed it to a rack to cool. It has nice color, and it has the structure I recall from the first time I baked it. Tomorrow I will know about taste and texture.

I'm wondering if the KAF measurements in grams are off for this recipe. I was going to weight the spelt flour (Bob’s Red Mill), as I did previously, but I decided to measure a cup by volume. When I checked the scale, there was a BIG difference in weight, with the Bob’s flour coming in heavier. I decided that I would measure by volume—which is what I did the FIRST time I baked it. Doing so appears to have given me the results I liked so much the first time I baked this bread.

Mike--I think that it's the weight of the spelt flour that KAF has incorrect in the recipe. I might drop them a note.

I also would like to know about Len's basket weave shaping technique.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.