I wanted to try the soft barley cookie adaptation again. I used the same proportions, except that I doubled the milk powder to 2 Tbs. This time, I baked them at 450 F, as the original recipe specifies. The cookies are firmer than the batch I baked at 425 F about ten days ago. We will test them tomorrow and see what we think about taste and texture.

My husband says that I have nailed the soft barley cookies with oil rather than butter. I agree, so I will type up the recipe and put it in my notebook.

I have found an excellent source of barley flour from Joseph's Grainery. The flour is wholegrain and excellent. Shipping was free. I did have to buy an 8 lbs. bag, but that is fine. I was just glad to locate a source after Bob's Red Mill stopped carrying it.

I needed to use up some blood oranges, so on Tuesday, I baked Chocolate Olive Oil Cake, a recipe that came from Bake magazine about five years ago. I have made some changes in that I used half barley flour, reduced the oil from 1 1/3 cups to 1 cup and increased the milk, which I replaced with buttermilk, from 1/3 to 2/3 cup. I also add 2 Tbs. powdered milk. Instead of baking it in a 10 cup Bundt pan, I baked it in a 6-cup small Bundt pan, and a 5-cup Solera Bundt pan, which is not so tall and flatter. The smaller cake baked in a little less than 30 minutes. The larger cake needed about 40 minutes. Both came out of the pans well, thanks to the miraculous Grease. I plan to freeze the smaller one. I will make the Blood Orange Glaze for the other tomorrow, and we will cut into it for dessert.

I have some lovely Cara Mia oranges--great zest and sweet flavor--so I used one on Friday morning to bake Orange Sesame Muffins, a Carnation Evaporated milk recipe that I have not baked in ages. I followed the recipe, except for adding 1 Tbs. milk powder, using just ¼ cup of water, and reducing the brown sugar to 1/2 cup. I came close to burning the sesame seed in the toaster oven but managed to get it in time. I made the recipe as six-large muffins and used muffin liners spritzed with no-stick spray. Eating a muffin for breakfast brought back great memories. I think that I first baked the recipe when I was in graduate school. I froze four for future fast breakfasts and will eat the other one for breakfast tomorrow. The recipe uses 1/3 cup of coconut and ¼ cup of sesame seeds (I toast both), so they are not food my husband eats.

In the afternoon, I baked three loaves of my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. Two loaves go into the freezer, and we will begin slicing the other one tomorrow at lunch.

Enjoy the reunion, Joan. I'm sure that your goodies will be welcomed as well.

BakerAunt, your post reminded me of a Giada DeLaurentis recipe we like. Unfortunately, I couldn't get it to copy and paste. It's at foodnetwork.com if you want to search for it:
Nonna's Lemon Ricotta Biscuits.
It calls for butter, and I have baked them that way. I've also used oil and been pleased. Either way, they are more like a biscuit than a muffin even thought baked in muffin liners.

I also want to let you know . . . belatedly, you were correct. The packing box for my Emile Henry ciabatta baker was larger than the product box. Especially in height. Once unpacked, the box would have been manageable if I truly had room for it. I will when a niece takes a set of china. In the meantime, it's resting on top of a tall bedroom dresser. Resting is the key word. I haven't opened it yet. I'm blaming that on my small kitchen. I can't visualize what I'm going to do with it after I wash it unless I make bread and wash it in the same day. That hasn't happened yet, because it still comes down to having no where to store it once it's out of the box. Niece is making plans to pick up the china, so homemade ciabatta is in my future eventually.