Somewhere I have a supposedly vegan recipe (would depend on the chocolate) for fudge that uses avocado. My husband said, "Don't go there!" Supposedly, avocado has a neutral flavor, but as I like the taste of avocados, I would disagree. I confess to buying and eating whole avocados--hey, I have to eat the whole one at a time because they don't keep. 🙂
I'm bemused by the avocado toast craze. Just eat the avocado! I do like it in some of the sandwiches I've ordered in the past, and I adore guacamole, although, as the chips that go with it are not a health food, I stick to the pure avocado.
I've heard about substituting avocado for butter before, they're high in monounsaturated fat, which is better than most other fats, at least in moderation. But you'd have to like the taste of avocado, my wife can't stand them. (I eat them when they're part of something I order but I don't buy them.) I don't think they'd make good cookies, for example.
Definitely giving this subject more than it deserves but I remember why I watched the whole show. One of the hosts was sharing tips ie. that one cup of pureed avocado can replace one cup of butter in baked goods ( got that BA?) and the best one.... that you can press leftover french fries in a waffle iron!!!
The left eye is next week, on the 29th, the right eye is two weeks later. The left eye is getting a lens that has variable focal ranges and corrects astigmatism, the right eye is getting a single (distance) focal point.
This may enable me to go without glasses at least some of the time.
Everybody I know who has had cataract surgery (a fairly large number, probably not so surprising since I''m 71) says they were pleased with the results. Right now I can't see well enough to drive, have trouble focusing on things up close, like cooking, and reading is something I can do a few minutes at a time. So I spend a lot of the day listening to the TV with my eyes closed.
based on your description, I can't decide if I want to watch it (to see a train wreck?) or say thanks you saved me some time 😁
Just watched "best leftovers ever". (Netflix) It made me grimace. It was incredible or should I say non-credible. The hosts, the set, the premise...I could go on. I was actually embarrassed but I don't know for whom! There were no commercials but I think commercials would have made it easier to swallow.
On Tuesday, I baked the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread. The levain took a long time to develop; at twelve hours, it did not have that many bubbles, but four hours later, it was ready to use. The first rise took 90 minutes, and after 90 minutes, I thought that I was not going to get much more rise, so I slashed and baked. However, the top really burst open (slashing job could have been better), so it probably needed to be left to rise for another 30 minutes. I like this bread a lot, but I struggle to get it to turn out consistently. I bake it in the Emile Henry long baker, and I like how well it bakes. My issue seems to be with judging the rising times, which are much longer than the recipe states, but that may be the cold house. I made two changes to the recipe in that I used Bob’s Red Mill artisan bread flour for the cup of King Arthur AP, cut the salt from 1 1/4 to 1 tsp., and added 3 Tbs. special dry milk. I’m sure it will taste good when I cut into it for lunches tomorrow, but I would like to get a prettier loaf.
In addition, I baked cornbread to go with some of the leftover soup. I used my regular recipe, but I used half medium and half fine ground cornmeal, as I want to stretch out what I have left of the fine grind, as Bob’s Red Mill is not selling it anymore.
Compliments to Will on a lovely loaf. Oh, to have a taste!
With Len, now three of us have made pizza in less than a week. That reminds me of the time when we were all baking cinnamon rolls.
On Monday, I made dough for another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. Although I only baked the last batch a week ago, it is diminishing rapidly.
I also mixed the levain for Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread (King Arthur recipe) that I will bake tomorrow.
We had a lightly snowy day, with temperatures just above freezing, the kind of day when it is cozy to be inside. I made a large pot of soup for Sunday dinner and beyond. I used Bob’s Red Mill Vegi-Soup Mix (a combination of brown and red lentils, split green peas, and bits of barley). I always start by sauteing the carrots and celery in olive oil. I brown a package of ground turkey, then add sliced mushrooms, followed by a bit o chopped garlic. Then the carrots and celery go back in. This time I added 8 cups broth and 2 cups of the lentil mixture. I rehydrated 1 Tbs. dried onion, added chopped parsley, and 1 Tbs. Penzey’s Ozark seasoning. I had leftover cooked freekeh from the other night, so I added it as well, brought the soup to a boil, then simmered for an hour. I had discovered this past year, that my husband likes and does fine with that Ozark seasoning, which previously, I could not figure out how to use. However, I also really liked what the freekeh added to the soup’s flavor profile. I’m making a note to use it again..
We had spaghetti, with hamburg, cauliflower, dried garlic chips, chopped onion and celery (I forgot the green peppers); and a green salad.
I don't think it is a new phenomenon, but I do think the explosion of interest in breadmaking and sourdough has muddied the waters a lot in the past year.
Yeast-risen breads fall into three categories:
wild yeast starters, ie, sourdough (This also includes 'old dough' recipes.) Historically, all yeasted breads were once sourdoughs.
commercial yeast This is a relatively new trend in baking, because bread has been around for thousands of years but commercial yeasts for much less than that, they were developed as an ofshoot of the brewing industry in the 18th or 19th century. Brewing yeasts and baking yeasts have evolved into products designed for specific usage. If you visit a homebrew shop you'll find many types of yeast, I'm told none of them will work well in baking.
hybrid doughs that use both wild yeast starter and commercial yeasts. This is done both for time considerations and to de-emphasize the sourness, though there are other ways to do that as well, such as Chad Robertson's 'young or immature starter' method.
I exclude those that use chemical souring methods to try to mimic the acidity of a bread with with sourdough starter in it as unworthy of inclusion.
Historically, many rye breads were pure sourdough but that's not necessary, the rye bread I make the most, Reinhart's marbled rye from BBA, is a commercial yeast bread.
Of the 78 bread in Ginbserg's The Rye Baker, a dozen or so use only commercial yeast.
I've been known to use Romano as well, I think it adds a lot of flavor and aroma when sprinkled on top and allowed to brown. I keep the brick of havarti in the freezer because it molds quickly. I take it out and grate some with a microplane, then put it back in the freezer. I'm not sure if it would work to grate it before freezing it, when I freeze grated mozzarella it clumps together in the freezer.
The lavash pizza we make is modeled after one we often get at a local restaurant/brewpub, they use havarti and mozzarella (and little or no tomato sauce.)
Tonight's pizza was pretty good, I topped it with artichokes, mushrooms, some tomatoes from our garden that have been in the garage since the fall, mozzarella cheese and some grated havarti, and fresh basil.
I think the crust could be better, it was crisp at the edges but still pretty soft in the center. Maybe putting it on pre-heated tiles that are a little smaller than the sheet pan I baked it in would help? I baked it at 500 at the top of the oven.
I'm thinking we may start havinv 'pizza night' at least once a month and I'll keep experimenting with pizza crust recipes, Lord knows there's enough of them available!
I thought the sauce needed more seasoning, perhaps more salt, definitely more spices. I thought there were too many mushrooms and artichokes, but my wife thought there weren't enough mushrooms. That may be a first for us!
I put about a half dozen leaves (chiffonaded) of fresh basil on it, next time I'll use even more, it was pretty good.
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I buy caraway in 16 ounce containers online or at a place like GFS, if there's a shortage of caraway I haven't had occasion to buy it lately.
I did just buy a pound of sesame seeds and some nutritional yeast flakes that I'm going to use for experimenting with hand-pulled Chinese noodles.
I know my older son, who has been working on recipes from the 'artisan beads in 5 minutes a day' book but hasn't gone the full bore 'sourdough' route yet, has been making rye bread more frequently lately. In some ways rye breads are more forgiving (or we are about them) because they're generally expected to be a bit on the dense side, and they're often more flavorful, too.
I plan to make some pizza dough later today, using Reinhart's 'Roman' recipe but adding in a little triticale flour. I'll make pizza tomorrow. I wish I could still get the Oscar Meyer pepperoni, the Hormel one that seems to be the most prevalent one in the stores here has garlic in it and all the other ones I've looked at either have garlic or are not very mild.
I don't ever discard either. I'm not sure why I started doing what I do but I build up starter until I need it.
I add small amounts of flour a couple or three times a day (between 5 and 15g) and equal water. But when I add some flour and water I don't dump an equal amount. Then when I have enough starter I make something with it like bread or crackers. This has given me starter with a nice, sweet odor and flavor. If I want something with a more sour bite I can feed it once a day, in larger amounts.
I have about a kilo of starter on the counter I'll use it to make sandwich bread and BA's crackers this week.
I do not like the idea of dumping dough into a 450 degree Dutch oven. I usually make sandwich loaves because to me the rounds are a pain to make sandwiches from. But I'm starting to work on boules and batards more. I did try dropping a boule into a cast iron skillet. I had it sitting on parchment and used the parchment to lower it into the skillet. I may see if I have a Dutch oven bottom that will fit in the skillet and then I can put this on top. But I'm with BA on being afraid of this.
I need to figure out how to get more my boules and batards a little stiffer and then I can just put it on the stone. I'm trying to let my bread rise/rest in a well floured towel but it's not floured well enough and it keeps sticking like crazy. I may have to break down and buy a couche and or basket...
