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[cwcdesign]

We are going to friends for Thanksgiving. im going to try my hand (bread machine) at making the cranberry-pumpkin rolls from KABC that were in last week's newsletter. Will is making pumpkin pie.

[Mike Nolan]

As Cass has written, bleaching flour weakens the gluten structure. So it is good for things that don't need a strong gluten matrix, like cookies and shortbread. I prefer an even lower protein flour for pie crust, I found I can get Bob's Red Mill unbleached white fine pastry flour (not the whole wheat one) at Natural Grocers at a much lower price than King Arthur unbleached pastry flour (under $6 for 5 pounds vs $9.95 plus shipping for 3 pounds), so that's what I'm currently using.

This time of year stores here tend to have a lot of sales on flour, it's always bleached, either house brand or GM. You have to look harder to find the unbleached ones.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks for your effort in passing along Cass's suggestions for the Portuguese bread. I've copied and pasted them into a Word document.

Cass, I plan to use all your suggestions, so I saved the Word document. I think using part Gold Medal flour and part KA makes sense, since I don't know what type of flour the recipe-writer used. My KA all-purpose is unbleached, but I can only find bleached Gold Medal AP flour. Will the bleached make a bad difference?

I appreciate you analyzing the recipe and telling me to use a pan, Cass. I certainly don't want to invest the time or ingredients to end up with a pancake!

Cass, you offered an interesting idea for enjoying the bread with olive oil. We'll try that for sure. I'll report back with the results in a couple of weeks. Initially, I had posted I was going to make this bread next week. I hadn't thought about Thanksgiving. Now, I'll bake it the week after the holiday.

A long time ago, on a vacation at Seabrook Island, I ate at a restaurant that offered an appetizer of bread for dipping in olive oil. It was the most scrumptious appetizer I've ever eaten. I can't believe it, but I didn't ask the waiter the name of the olive oil or the bread (homemade).

Fast forward recently, and I read something about Portuguese olive oil. I had never purchased good olive oil. I buy olive oil in a large can -- the same brand my mother-in-law used! I e-mailed portugaliamarketplace.com to ask which olive oil to purchase for dipping. I also asked what type of bread to use. A rep sent a suggestion for both. I don't recall the name of the oil, but when I bought it, the site said there were only 2 left.

This will be my first adventure with anything Portuguese, so I thank you Cass for your help, and BakerAunt for sending the help my way.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--When we were still living in Texas, and our now Indiana home was the "vacation" place, I had a set of the essentials there. That was easy in that we had kitchen items from my husband's parents' home that we had saved. I supplemented with trips to the local thrift store. I also bought some knives for there, since the ones his parents had were not so great. When I got better baking sheets for the home kitchen, I brought the older ones here. I bought a few metal mixing bowls from T.J. Maxx, so that I would have the sizes I needed. So, I would say, first take stock of what is there, then make a list of what are essentials for you.

Now that we live here, and sometimes do extended trips, I have a bin in which I put cooking items that can travel. It has measuring cups, measuring spoons, a liquid measure. It also has a case with knives and a sharpener, as most vacation places do not have sharp knives. I haven't done a lot of baking on our winter trips to Florida (and we won't be going this year again due to the still active Covid-19 issues), but I told my husband that next time we go, I want to take the smaller bread machine, as we could not find good bread nearby. My plan is to bag the dry ingredients for various breads and rolls, so that they are premeasured for use and to take yeast separately. I would take a bread pan and a smaller baking sheet. I also like my own mixing spatulas and a small whisk.

It all depends on what you are hoping to bake. You did not get advance notice to prepare, so you are starting from scratch.

We stayed at one place that had no baking sheets, and I ended up buying a nice, rimmed Kitchen Aid one at a local Tuesday Morning, which I use all the time at home.

You might be able to find measuring cups, etc. at local thrift stores.

[BakerAunt]

Thursday was a busy baking day. I started by baking my adaptation of Skeptic’s Pumpkin Biscotti, since I had a bit of leftover peanut pumpkin from Tuesday, and a bit of frozen leftover pumpkin from last year that gave me the half cup I needed.

I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them next week.

I baked an apple pie this evening, using seven Northern Spy and two Winesaps. I was worried about having enough apples for the filling and had my husband fetch the two Winesaps from the garage, but the Northern Spy would have been sufficient, as the pie is very tall. I used my favorite recipe, which is Bernard Clayton’s “French Apple Pie,” from his pie baking book. He used Granny Smiths, as I have in the past. (I agree with Mike's earlier comment that Granny Smith's are not that good anymore.) It has a streusel topping, which I adapt by replacing the 1/3 cup of butter with 1 Tbs. butter and 1 ½ Tbs. avocado oil. I used a teaspoon of Penzey’s apple pie spice (a free sample). The pie will rest overnight, and we will have a slice at lunch tomorrow. I have never used Northern Spy, so I am particularly looking forward to tasting it.

[cwcdesign]

I went to Harris Teeter on Sunday to be sure I could get a turkey breast. The freezer was pretty empty. I asked the butcher the million dollar question - were they going to get in more of the Empire brand and he said no. I went with Shady Brook - it had less stuff in it than the Butterball. They also had Plainville organic but the breast (frozen also) was $46!

The Shady Brook package said to thaw in the fridge for 3-4 days. Since we are going to some friends’ house on Thanksgiving, we’ve decided to cook the turkey Sunday after. Ina;so gave a crazy week at work next week so it will be nice not to have to worry about it.

And, I bought 4 cans of pumpkin purée on sale - there wasn’t very much left. I’ll be interested if they get more in

[BakerAunt]

I read somewhere that a shortage of canned cranberry sauce is the result of a lack of cans. Whether that is true or not, I do not know. However, my husband does not care for cranberry sauce, and I like fresh cranberry sauce, so that is not a problem for us.

I did stock up on TWO blue bags of Pepperidge Farm stuffing.

Len--my husband always covers the turkey with foil. It does keep it moist, although I miss the browned skin (which, of course, I should not be eating anyway).

[RiversideLen]

Whenever I've followed the guideline for thawing turkey, I've had to struggle with attempting to remove the neckbone and gizzards from a still frozen cavity. I've learned to allow a couple of extra days.

I have Amazon Fresh in my area, that is (usually) same day delivery of fresh groceries. Beginning yesterday they started offering fresh turkeys. I am having my brother over on Sunday for our Thanksgiving get together as he has other plans for Thanksgiving day. So I bought a bought a fresh Butterball. The options this year seem to be more limited, all they were offering were birds in the 12-14 pound range. They have more options for frozen birds. I got a 13 pounder. Another thing that appears to be in short supply is cranberry sauce. Fortunately I have a couple of cans on the shelf.

I think I'm going to cook the bird in a covered pan, which roasts/steams it and it gets done faster. It doesn't make for a picture perfect presentation but it's always came out tender and moist, plus plenty of pan juices for gravy.

[navlys]

I made my annual Christmas stollen. My German neighbor (long gone) shared the recipe with me and even had me over to watch her make it. Every year my stollen comes out differently. She used farmer's cheese which is hard to find so I either use cottage cheese or ricotta cheese. I used to use the Dr oetker baking powder packet until I could no longer find it in the stores. I was substituting regular baking powder until I just discovered this year the the German baking powder was single acting not double acting. After a little research I discovered I could substitute cream of tartar and baking soda. Ok I could have ordered the baking powder online but it was too late. My neighbor also used the Dr oetker essences which are also hard to find. Can't wait to taste this years stollen on Christmas morn!

[Mike Nolan]

I need to make semolina bread, probably tomorrow. I was thinking I might do it today, but I had to dig into the freezer downstairs to get some more semolina out. I have one more big container of it, I'll probably need to order more soon. Looks like the price of semolina has gone up since the last time I bought a 50 pound bag (15 months ago), and shipping costs are up, too. I will likely wait until January to avoid the pre-Christmas shipping crush.

[chocomouse]

This afternoon I got my Moderna booster shot. I'm glad I did all the cutting in of butter, stirring, etc when I baked in the morning, as my arm has already begun to ache a bit and stiffen up. I didn't have any problems after the initial shots (only the severe bruising and swelling that lasted 2 weeks following the 2nd shot, but that was from the needle, not the vaccine) so I expect this will last only a day or two. And what a pleasant experience I had compared to the first two vaccinations last February and March. No long lines and long waits, plenty of privacy and sanitation, friendly folks, good organization. We seem to have learned from earlier mistakes.

[Mike Nolan]

I put some of the rolls in the oven at about 200 degrees for about 10 minutes, it made the crust nice and crunchy, even more so than yesterday, and they were very good with supper. (My wife's comment earlier today was 'rolls with fish?', but I pointed out that fish and broccoli don't have many carbs.)

So I plan to make a batch of these next week and reheat them ahead of Thanksgiving dinner.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought a nearly 18 pound turkey at Aldi's yesterday (and it was one of the smaller ones), and was planning to put it in the refrigerator Sunday or Monday. I'll have to get it out early Thursday morning to make sure it is defrosted. Cooking time is likely to be 4 to 4 1/2 hours for one that big at 350 so I need it in the oven around noon if I want dinner by 5:30 or 6.

I don't put stuffing to eat in the bird, but I do stuff the cavity with the same mixture James Beard recommends for roast goose: Prunes soaked in brandy, almonds, apples and 'here and there a lemon slice'. The fruit really impacts the drippings so it makes wonderful gravy.

My son spatchcock's his turkey, that cuts the cooking time a lot.

Smaller turkeys are scarce again this year, I hear, I've seen a few 12-14 pound ones but most have been 15+. I saw one at Super Saver that was 30-31 pounds, a lot of people won't have an oven big enough for that big a bird.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for posting these reminders, Mike.

I have a comment on the refrigerator thawing time. When we have let the turkey thaw for a day for each 4-5 pounds, we have ended up with a still frozen turkey, and those were smaller turkeys. This year, we have a turkey over 20 lbs. because it was an excellent price at Aldi's, and we (and the dog) will have no trouble eating it all.

I moved the turkey from the freezer to a pan in the refrigerator before noon today. That is eight days before we will roast it. The Butterball turkey guidelines have the same refrigerator thawing time as the USDA guidelines, but it says that a thawed turkey can rest in the refrigerator for up to four days after thawing, so if it miraculously thaws in the allotted time, which I am certain it will not, it should be fine until we put it into the oven.

I'm interested in knowing if other people have found the USDA and Butterball thawing time in the refrigerator to result in a turkey that is thawed and not still frozen in the center.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the detailed report Mike. I've been thinking of trying this recipe, so your report helps. I'll be interested to see if you can incorporate some wholegrain flours.

The Rosetta rolls also use a long rise (a LOT longer than these), as well as refrigeration for a couple of hours before baking. Although that recipe says to rest them at room temperature for 20 minutes after they come out, the next time I bake them, I plan to put them into the oven directly from the refrigerator. That was Cass's suggestion.

The Rosetta rolls do have that thinner crust and the soft interior. Of course, what I am trying to achieve with those is the hole.