Not much baking this week - sourdough cinnamon raisin bread with my sourdough discard (it made 2 loaves and I gave it away). I tried using the KAF fudge cake recipe with the mini Maryann pan I had recently purchased. The frosting didn't come out as smooth as I thought. I had made several pans of KAF Sourdough
Cinnamon Crumb Cake and froze them a couple of weeks ago. Took one out on Thursday and been slowly eating away on that. Hopefully will be able to bake some more next week.
Another buttermilk question. I was planning to make MrsCindys Irish oatmeal bread again tomorrow - some of my ingredients arrived from KAF today. I ran out of milk - there’s 2 cups in the sort of starter. But I have buttermilk which I know I can use (it gets boiled with the oatmeal). Since it’s a yeast bread, do I have to worry about baking soda?
And, the recipe calls for honey which I don’t have enough of. I’m thinking of substituting maple syrup or Lyle’s golden syrup. Any thoughts on which you’d use. I think either would be a good choice.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
cwcdesign.
I am baking Ellen's (formerly Moonie) buns as rolls. They are on their first rise. The idea was to have them for a picnic lunch tomorrow. We are supposed to go to the Indiana Dune's State and National Parks for a talk on invasive plants at the visitors' center and then some hiking on our own. I'm having my doubts as to whether we will be going, as a snowstorm--not predicted--has moved in and is dropping a lot of heavy wet snow. We may be picnicking at home.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by
BakerAunt.
Tonight, I made Pork Loin Roast with Barley, Butternut Squash, and Swiss Chard, from the special issue of Cook's Illustrated Fall Harvest Recipes, that I bought in the autumn (p. 22). It's the third time I've made the recipe, and the first time that I've had all the specified ingredients. The first time, I did not have pearl barley or Swiss chard, the second time I did not have Swiss Chard. When we made our run to the next town on Wednesday and went by three of the four grocery stores (Aldi's, Walmart, and Kroger), I found Rainbow Swiss Chard at the Kroger, organic at that, from Salinas, CA. (I really do not understand how anyone can hope to shop locally.)
The recipe is delicious. It does seem to take about 2 1/2 hours from start to finish, so I'll make a note of that. However, we should get about four meals out of it. I used my 5 1/2-quart Le Creuset Dutch oven. My only modification for the recipe, is that I think the roast needs to be turned half-way through in order to get even cooking. I also use the whole butternut squash. I did not notice a great deal of difference with the Swiss chard as opposed to the frozen mustard greens I used the first two times, although to my taste, the Swiss chard is somewhat milder and preferable.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
This afternoon, I baked a new recipe, "Bob's Delicious Chocolate Chip Muesli Cookies," because I have a large container of muesli left over from a disastrous banana yeast bread recipe (thank you, Paul Hollywood) I tried a while back. If you are looking for this muesli, they now call it "Old Country Style Muesli." I had hoped to post a link to the recipe on the Bob's website, but the recipe is not there. It is on the muesli bag, which is where I got it.
I followed the recipe, which is pretty much a standard chocolate chip cookie recipe, with the addition of muesli and chocolate chips. I used dark chocolate chips. It made 26 cookies, and I taste-tested three of them warm. (Taste testing is part of the Baker's Oath.) I like the flavor and texture that the muesli gives the cookies. I may try using it in my standard chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe in place of the oatmeal.
Bob's Red Mill is now an employee owned company, as Bob, now 89, wanted to preserve the company's mill and values and make sure that it would be run well after he dies. They have free shipping for orders over $50 (no 25 pound bags). The free shipping includes cases, which contain three or four units, at a reduced price. They have internet specials, and if you are fortunate to live near where they sell Bob's products (I once was, sigh), you can even print up to two $1 off coupons per month. Their website is a bit frustrating until you get used to it, and I wish that they had a search engine.
I have one small bottle of olive oil, I don't remember the last time I used it. (It's in the fridge so the oil is solid.)
A close friend of ours is allergic to olives (as is my brother-in-law) so we just don't use it much, and I don't really care for the taste of it. I'm currently using corn oil instead of canola oil, corn oil has almost no flavor.
It's been a week for salmon! So far, four of us featured it in a main dish this week.
Mike--I do usually sprinkle a little salt and some freshly ground pepper over the salmon and couscous (I use the golden couscous from Bob's Red Mill) before I bake it. I also think that the olive oil gives it some flavor. If you cannot use olive oil, you might try grapeseed oil, although it is a neutral oil. Let us know how the recipe works with other fish and if you find an additional spice to brighten it up.
I tried the baked salmon with dill and couscous today, because my wife had an appointment after work and will pick up something for herself for supper. I didn't have any olive oil, so I used corn oil, butter might have been a better choice. It had a nice salmon flavor, more than what I get when I poach salmon in butter, but without adding salt I think it needs something else, not sure what, maybe some parsley or rosemary. I might try the recipe for two with cod. (My wife's reaction was 'two out of three sound good', she doesn't care for salmon.)
For Valentine's Dinner, I made the KAF Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza, and we each topped it according to taste.
I also baked the Vanilla Pound Cake from KAF's Whole Grain Baking (pp. 384-385). (I reduced the salt to 3/4 tsp.) As I do not have access to my 12-cup Bundt Pan, I tried baking it in one of the Quartet pans and a 3 cup Kaiser Pan. I may have overbaked it a bit. (I've had this recipe test done before and not be done.) We cut up one of the little cakes into small slices, then had sugared strawberries over it and vanilla ice cream. I had planned to bake Valentine's Sugar Cookies, but we did our shopping run to the larger town north today, and Aldi's had lovely strawberries at a great price.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
Last night I cooked chicken thighs in a maple-mustard sauce, with baked potatoes and buttercup squash. Tonight I made a pork roast in the tagine, with potatoes, carrots, and onions. The flavors (cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, tumeric) for the Moroccan style cooking are quite different from our usual, but very good.
Unlike restaurants, I generally don't salt burger meat anyway, but the toppings and the bun are where the salt comes in, pickles, cheese, catsup and mustard all have salt in them. Hot dogs, like all sausages, have a fair amount of salt in them. I haven't tried making lowered sodium buns yet, but that'll happen at some point. (I cut the salt in our regular breads by 50% or more.)
With a 1500 mg daily limit, yeah, I can have a burger or a dog from time to time, but probably just one. Sandwiches are going to be a bigger challenge, deli meats are all heavy on salt.
Most days I've been well under my sodium limit. I'm sure I'm eating healthier and also eating less, and as a result I'm down about 20 pounds since late December, most of that in the first two weeks, so it was mostly water weight.
I've commented a lot on what is not available in our very small town, but pizza can be ordered from Papa's (a restaurant). I've had their pizza at friends' house; it is expensive although good. A less expensive place, Bourbon Street Pizza (I think it might be a chain, at least in the state) opened last year across from the park. It is less expensive, according to our friends, and also very good. A third place, Culver Wings, on the outskirts of town, was selling pizza and hot wings, but I do not know if they are still in business, and no one I know ever got pizza from there.
We like my pizza, so if we ever order out, it would probably be because of lots of company.
I'm making the Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza tonight. I wonder what inspired that choice? 🙂 Could it be because we have been talking a lot about pizza these past few days?
I've hand-tossed (Do Not Put extra flour on the dough before tossing it!), I've hand-stretched, and I've rolled it. Part of the reason I roll it now is that it makes it flatter.
In college we would have hand-tossing competitions to see the different ways and tricks people had for tossing pizzas. I was never good enough to compete.
We are actually having Giordano's tonight. I ordered heart shaped stuffed pizzas. I was going to let them sit outside last night but my we had a bear tip over a trash can Sunday so I kept them in the garage.
I've never had the nerve (or motor skills) to try tossing pizza dough, but hand stretching doesn't compress the dough as much as rolling it does.
I need to try the baked salmon and couscous recipe, but I'll have to scale it down for one, because my wife doesn't like salmon. (When we have fish, I have salmon and she has orange roughy.)
