It's back for the holidays starting tonight (Dec 6). Paul Hollywood has come across the pond. Not sure who his co-hosts will be.
Anyone watched the Netflix shows? I've watched the seasons 5 and 6 (the two Netflix produced ones) and Paul and Pru (the Mary Berry replacement) seem old, and stodgy, and mean. The technical are really mean.
The bakers are young and very skilled. Sure things go wrong some times but many of them make some really good looking baked goods.
A couple of things surprised me. In season 5 they had an Italian week and no one thought to practice pizza. So when it appeared in the technical they were ALL baffled!
Also, the judging is not good and I think the winner of season 6 was decided around the third or fourth week. But I won't say anymore so as not to spoil it.
Best wishes on your baking project, Chocomouse. Be sure to watch that your husband does not divert customers in order to save the goodies for himself. 🙂
Our little town is having twice a month farmers' markets over the winter for the first time. If we were not going into home/kitchen renovation (our contractor plans to start Monday! Hurrah!), I would have tried some of my specialized holiday treats.
I have been craving homemade stew for a long time, and when I found some lean stew meat for a good price at the local grocery, I bought it. Wednesday night’s dinner was stew, started on the regular stove, them cooked on top of our wood stove. I used a bit of Penzey’s beef soup base, ½ tsp. Sweet Hungarian Paprika, some crushed rosemary, and a couple dashes of allspice. I also added onion and garlic, and I deglazed the pan with a bit of red wine and added 1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce and 1 Tbs. tomato paste. After the beef had cooked in it for 90 minutes, I added cut-up Purple Viking potatoes from the farmers’ market and carrots from our garden. (They grew short and fat.) I added chunky mushrooms, more water, and ¼ cup red wine. After the vegetables cooked the additional 45 minutes, I stirred in frozen peas, then used Clearjel and water to thicken the broth.
Chocomouse--I'm going to have to try the Greek Seasoning with chicken. It was a free sample, and I tried it because I was tired of dill in that recipe. I will be buying it when this jar is empty.
I've spent quite a bit of time baking today. Saturday I'm vending at an Artisan Fair, for a local charity group. My husband is going to sell his maple syrup, so I decided to sell maple baked goods. It's my first time vending my foods, so there is a lot of work in addition to the baking. I've made Vermont Maple Oatmeal Bread (a KAF recipe) which is the only yeasted product I'll have. I also made Maple Coconut Cookies, Maple Pecan Scones, Maple Oatmeal Cranberry mini loaves and muffins, Maple Walnut and Fig Bread (from Sift magazine). Tomorrow I'll make Maple Bacon Shortbread and Maple Cornbread mini loaves. I'm also giving out copies of some of my recipes. Next year, assuming I choose to do this again, I'll add things such as Maple Vinaigrette, Maple Cinnamon Buns, cheesecake, etc. I'm enjoying the challenge of doing something different. Of course, my husband is hoping none of my goodies will sell, and therefore will go straight into the freezer!
On Tuesday evening, I baked a new recipe, Lime Bundt Cake, which I found online, as I was searching for cake recipes to use my bounty of limes. I also needed to find ones that used oil rather than butter, since I am limiting saturated fat. I was pleased with the one I made a couple of weeks ago, but it only used lime juice in the glaze. This one uses it in the cake as well:
Lime Bundt Cake
I made some changes. I used buttermilk instead of regular milk, and I changed 1 ½ tsp. baking powder to 1 tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. baking soda. I used canola oil rather than olive oil and substituted in 1 cup of barley flour for that much AP flour. The recipe specified a 9-inch Bundt pan. I correctly guessed that it would fit into a 10-cup Bundt pan, and I used my “Party” Bundt pan (the one where it can be cut into 20 even slices). I used THE grease to coat the pan. The cake baked well and released beautifully. It is a small cake and perhaps would work in a 6 cup pan. I'll glaze it tomorrow, and add a note on taste and texture.
Promised Note: I like this glaze much better than the one I used on my previous lime cake. It was just the right thickness and looked lovely on the cake, as well as tasting good. My husband liked the cake a lot; it has the texture of a pound cake. In terms of taste, I feel it needs something--but, of course, I made some changes, including using canola rather than olive oil. I might add 1/2 tsp. vanilla to the cake next time.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by
BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by BakerAunt.
I found this simple but delicious dessert somewhere on line but don't remember where. Anyway, though I rarely, rarely used boxed cake mixes, or any prepackaged food this one is very good.
Banana Cake
1 yellow cake mix prepared per instructions (I used milk in place of the water)
4 ripe bananas, mashed with 1 teaspoon baking soda.
Fold the banana mixture into the prepared cake mix.
Put in a well greased and floured 9X13 pan.
Bake at 350 for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool completely
Frosting
1 pkg. instant vanilla pudding prepared with 1 cup cold milk. When set, mix in 1 8 oz. tub of Cool whip topping. Spread on cake, and refrigerate.
I added l/4 cup sour cream when mixing the cake mix.
Also added l/4 cup ground flax at the same time.
This is really a very moist dessert. I am sure you could use several different cake mixes also. Spice cake comes to mind.
Sliced bananas added on top of the frosting would be nice, when serving.
I've often made individual sized pot pies with laminated dough for the top (and no bottom crust), but when I make larger ones I lean towards using a hot water crust, which comes out remarkably flaky.
Thanks, Joan. That is interesting and makes sense for someone doing a number of pots at once. I wonder where he dumped the lye mixture when he was done. 🙁 At least I just have the one pan.
That is a good hint about the rust. My husband used vinegar to clean the rust off a used jointer he bought, and it worked well.
We had another rainy day, so I have not yet tried the oven cleaner, which according to my husband contains lye.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.
I baked my favorite cornbread Sunday evening (called “Healthier Cornbread”). I used 2 Tbs. coarse corn meal and made up the rest of the cup with the finer grind. We had it with soup.
I made soup for Sunday dinner, using homemade chicken broth, Bob’s Red Mill Vegi-Soup Mix (various lentils and split peas blend), pearl barley, onion, celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, leftover crushed tomatoes, ground turkey, and thyme.
Ok I decided to make chicken Tuscan cakes (delicious but labor intensive). Well instead of shredded chicken I used ground turkey which I sautéed. Second mistake was using Panko instead of regular bread crumbs. I even ground the panko when I realized the large crumb wasn’t working. That was a waste of time. So we had Tuscan crumbles.
I was watching a video on reconditioning cast iron pans with the sound off during last night's Pas 12 championship game, it looked like she was recommending using steel wool or even a wire brush for a drill in extreme cases. I think she started by baking the pan in a hot oven for several hours. I'm not sure that helps if the pan has a lot of caked on grease and food, though.
There are dozens of videos out there on how to do it, with what appears to be a wide range of methods. I suspect they all work fairly well.
If it was me, I'd probably start by using something like Carbon-Off to take off the grease and crud, so I knew exactly how much rust I had to deal with, then use my stainless steel scrubber to take off the rust and smooth the surface as needed. (I prefer those to steel wool, because they don't rust, last a lot longer, and don't leave shards of steel in my fingers. I've never tried the chain mail scrubbers, I'm not sure I've ever seen one in the stores.)
I know that people have been concerned about not hearing from Cass (Kid Pizza). Cass phoned on Monday, and we had a nice talk. He is doing well.
On Friday, I decided to bake Bernard Clayton's French Apple Pie, from The Complete Book of Pastry Sweet and Savory. It's an apple pie with a streusel topping. I decided to try an oil crust, only to discover that crust needed to be blind-baked. (I posted about it in a thread under desserts.)
I decided to change around the recipe to accommodate the blind-baked crust. After I cut up the apples, I mixed them with the sugar, spices, and tapioca and let them set, while I blind baked the crust, which I had refrigerated after making. I then cooked the apples over medium-high heat until they were softened and most of the juice thickened. I sprinkled Panko crumbs on the bottom of the pie crust before adding the apple filling to try to keep it crisp. I topped with the streusel and baked at 375F. Bernard Clayton’s recipe calls for 15 minutes at 425F, then 375F for 45 minutes. With the apples pre-cooked and the crust already browned, I baked at 375f for 30 minutes, then an additional five when I could see it bubbling. It smells good. I used 5 Winesaps and 2 Jonathans.
I'll add a note tomorrow after we try it.
Promised Note: The pie is delicious, and the crust works well. I did substitute 1/3 white whole wheat flour in the crust. I also used half white whole wheat flour in the topping. The pie is still 4.85g sat. fat per slice (1/8th of the pie), but the oil crust makes it come out much better than it otherwise would.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.
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This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by BakerAunt.
I've used salt and a scrubber-type sponge, but I've never had a badly rusted pan to clean. I rarely re-oil my pans, either, and I have one I got new over 50 years ago. I do have a funny looking pan, never seen another one like it, that has some kind of a thick, gooey substance on it that I have not been able to get rid of, although I did manage to clean off a couple small spots of rust. There's a "new cast iron cooking" group on Facebook that you might look at; they have lots of suggestions for cleaning and also for cooking (though not the healthiest food to eat!!). My favorite cast iron pieces are the bread pans and the huge round pizza pan - I use them all the time.
