On Monday, I baked "Six-Grain Honey Sourdough Boule," from a recent King Arthur catalogue. The recipe is on their website as a Whole Grain Sourdough Boule; the only difference is the six-grain blend in place of the Harvest Grains and the addition of 2 Tbs. honey. I altered the recipe in that I added 3 Tbs. special dry milk and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I also cut the salt from 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 tsp. (KABC does love its salt!) I mixed it on the dough cycle of the bread machine and needed to add 2 Tbs. more water. The dough rose well both times. Instead of a boule, I shaped it into a long roll and baked it in my Emile Henry long baker. The catalogue recipe is baked in the bread bowl, but I think that it would be too much dough for the bread bowl. If I ever bake it as a boule, I will use my Emile Henry ceramic Dutch Oven with lid. I followed the website instructions for baking 40 minutes with the top, and an additional 10 minutes without. The loaf looks great and suitably impressed my husband. I look forward to slicing it at lunch tomorrow.

I have only tried the six-grain blend in one other recipe and was not overly impressed, so I am curious as to how the blend will taste in this bread. It was a good day to have the oven going, as the temperature never rose much above the low 20F. I have now figured out that the top of the wine rack, in which I store rolling pins, that sits on the counter, is right under one of the heater vents. It makes an excellent location for raising dough.

On Tuesday, I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, which I will bake next week.

The bread I baked yesterday came out well. We like it well enough, but I do not think it is worth buying the Six Grain blend from King Arthur to bake it. Once I use up the Six Grain blend, I will likely use the Harvest Grains, which we like a lot, but I would still add the honey.

In January, I received an email from King Arthur with its "Bake of the Week," which in this case was a recipe for Rye Chocolate Coffeecake. It looked good, but the 4 Tbs. of butter in the topping and the 4 Tbs. in the cake gave me pause, as I try only to include healthier fats in what I eat. After looking the recipe over yet again today, I decided that I could device a healthier version, so I baked it on Wednesday afternoon. For the topping, I kept 1 Tbs. of the butter, which I melted and mixed it with 2 1/2 Tbs. avocado oil. That is my usual substitution for streusels; it gives the butter flavor, but the rest of the fat comes from the neutral avocado oil. For the cake itself, I increased the oil to 1/3 cup and used olive oil (which goes extremely well with chocolate), then added enough buttermilk to make a half cup. I also added 1 Tbs. milk powder to the dry ingredients. I changed the mixing directions. I whisked together all the wet ingredients, then used a cake whisk and spatula to stir in the combined dry ingredients. My other change was to cut the salt from 3/4 to 1/2 tsp. I baked it for 39 minutes, until the tester came out clean. We had some for dessert tonight. It is not an overly sweet cake, slightly crumbly and with intense chocolate taste we both enjoy.

I have not received other "bake of the week" emails from King Arthur, so perhaps it was a marketing experiment?

Ah, yes, there was a bake of the week email today for purple sweet potato pie. I did not look at the recipe, as I am pretty sure it contains ingredients that I have had to stop eating.

I made my version of a Harvest Grains bread, two loaves.

I made a dozen burger buns. This time I followed the original recipe from Moomie exactly, except I needed to add about a tablespoon more flour.