Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

I've used it to make roux many times when cooking GF, but I've not baked with it much.

Some years ago, I tried making a small batch of Béchamel sauce with six or so flours, including wheat, to see how they worked and tasted and had my family taste them all. (Our GF daughter-in-law didn't taste the one made with wheat flour, of course.)

Chick pea/garbanzo bean flour was the non-wheat one we liked the taste of the most. Since then, I've made gravies, sauces and even souffles with garbanzo bean flour, and also with gar-fava bean flour, which is sometimes easier to find from Bobs Red Mill.

As a thickener, it isn't quite as strong as wheat flour. (I think McGee rates it a 3 on a 1-5 scale, wheat is a 4 and potato and tapioca are both 5's.)

[BakerAunt]

The local grocery store here often has good prices on whole chicken legs (thigh and drumsticks). Tonight I am roasting four on a parchment-lined half-sheet pan with small potatoes from the farmer's market and some small carrots that the store had on sale. I rubbed them with olive oil and sprinkled on poultry seasoning and rosemary. We are also having sweet corn from the corner stand and green beans from the farmer's market.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight we made sous vide flank steak. I can see where one issue I would have with a circulation heater is finding the appropriate level of doneness for beef, my wife doesn't care for rare/medium rare beef. (A second issue is that it's considerably more work when cooking for just two.)

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked a one-loaf recipe of my version of Buttermilk Grape Nuts Bread (recipe on this site). I used the bread machine, as my stand mixer is still packed and will likely stay that way until we get settled. We have been having trouble in the warmer weather finishing the 8x4 inch loaves, so I halved the dough and baked it in two 7x3 inch bread pans (nice heavy ones that I happened on a few years back at T.J. Maxx). I baked the two loaves for 35 minutes. I will freeze one.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

Historically, scalding milk accomplished at least 2 purposes. One is that it killed any bacteria in the milk. (Pasteurization took care of that problem decades ago for most bakers.) The other is that it neutralized the protease enzymes in the milk, which can inhibit yeast growth. The experts are somewhat split on whether pasteurization disables the protease enzymes. I suspect ultra-pasteurization (which is what most dairies use these days, because it's faster) might do a better job neutralizing the protease enzymes than the old pasteurization process did, because it uses a somewhat higher temperature for a shorter time, but I haven't looked to see if there are any scientific tests of that hypothesis in the journals.

I think there's a third reason, though. Scalded milk smells and tastes different than milk straight out of the carton, and I think that has an impact on the bread flavor and possibly on texture.

I always let scalded milk cool back down to the point where it's no more than warm (say, 110 degrees) before using it to make bread. Yeast dies at 138 degrees, so you certainly don't want to pour HOT milk in with yeast.

The tangzhong method (pouring boiling hot water/milk on the flour or cooking it on the stove to gelatinize it) is another option for bread recipes that call for milk, but that might be a separate thread.

[Mike Nolan]

My son and his family are here visiting, so I'll be doing a lot of baking over the next week or so.

Today my granddaughter and I made a batch of bagels and a batch of madelines.

I actually have two madeline pans, but neither had been used before now.

I did some research on madelines recipes, most of them call for using brown butter, some call for grated lemon zest. I used the madelines recipe in the KAF Cookie Book, and had a lot of trouble getting the first batch to release from the pan. I used canola oil for the first batch, but probably not enough of it, and I think I overfilled it a bit, too. The recipe says it makes 24 cookies and I used less than half of the dough for the first dozen , but madeline pans come in multiple sizes--I know because I have two sizes of them. I used the larger one, but KAF may be using an even bigger size pan than the ones I have.

I moved from a #60 to a #100 scoop for the 2nd batch, and I also followed the prep instructions (more or less) in the Foxrun pan box, which had you grease the pan with a mixture of melted (or browned) butter and flour. I didn't take the time to brown this small amount of butter. That helped a lot with the releasing, and the cookies had a browner surface as well. Of course, they're quite a bit smaller.

For the final batch (not quite a dozen) I really slathered the pan with the butter/flour mixture. I let them cool in the pan a big longer, too. They all came out easily and have the best shape, too. Lesson learned.

The cookies are a bit softer than I was expecting, perhaps they'll harden up over time. They're tasty, though. I'm going to dip them in chocolate later on, my chocolate pot takes over an hour to heat up and temper a batch of chocolate. I just hope there are some cookies left by the time the chocolate is ready.

I may have to try one of the variants in the KAF cookie book and add some cocoa powder to the batter.

[BakerAunt]

I had some frozen pumpkin to use up (brought with us), so I baked Pumpkin Oat Muffins, using as the base recipe one submitted by Carol Hale of Sarver, PA to Taste of Home Baking, 2010, p. 122. However I used Irish Wholemeal flour, and my version increases the pumpkin and decreases the oil. I also omitted the topping and just sprinkled with cinnamon sugar.

[BakerAunt]

I shelled pecans on Sunday (we still have a lot from the tree in Texas), and on Monday I baked a double batch of Pecan Lime Cookies, using Nick Malgieri's recipe from Cookies Unlimited (p. 188). I had brought on our move frozen lime juice from last year's limes on my tree (we brought the lime tree to Indiana as well), so I needed to use it.

[Italiancook]

I was looking for a quick dessert to make tonight to take to a family with dinner tomorrow. I tried Trisha Yearwood's Easy Peach Cobbler. It's made with canned peaches. After I had it assembled, I read that it has to bake for 1 hour. Not as quick as I had hoped. I'm going to have to toss it out, because the batter part ended up liquidy in the bottom of the baking dish. It didn't fully cook after 1 hour 10 minutes even though the top was golden brown where there was crust.

The recipe says to use the juice from 1 can of peaches (it takes 2). That was a scant half cup, along with 1 cup milk. For my oven, that was too much liquid.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by Italiancook.
• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by Italiancook.

[BakerAunt]

Joan--I use buttermilk in the place of regular milk and often most of the water in my yeast baking. S. Wirth's comments about it convinced me to give it a try. Buttermilk makes it tender, and improves its keeping qualities. I use honey in place of sugar for similar reasons.(That hint came from Cass.)

I wanted the bread to have a soft texture, which is why I used only the 1 cup of bread flour. More bread flour seems to make it firmer. My husband has told me he would like firmer for sandwiches, so next time I may try half whole wheat and half bread flour. I had a slice today with the last of my soup from the freezer. (That was Cass's mother's spinach-lentil soup, although I ended up having to use black beans.)

[cwcdesign]

Glad you arrived safe and sound, BA.

Tomorrow we head out for Massachusetts by car and Will left his job at Jos. A. Bank today, so he will take some time off.

On Thursday, I baked him some brownies for his boss because they are close. She loves milk chocolate- you know I'm a dark chocolate fiend. So I made a batch of KAF Fudge Brownies using the triple cocoa blend from KAF. My espresso powder completely solidified in the jar (I won't tell you how old it was) so I added extra vanilla. Then I used milk chocolate chips instead of semisweet. After they cooled, I made milk chocolate ganache for the top. We put them in the fridge overnight and then cut into small brownies. She was thrilled and said they were perfect and she'll probably freeze most of them

[Mike Nolan]

I've had 50 pound bags of flour in the past, I just kept them in the basement, well sealed. I lost one to a periodic infestation of indian meal moths, but it was one I wasn't using quickly anyway.

Wheat berries keep much longer than flour does, and are less prone to bug problems. (The bigger problem for wheat mills is rodents.) I've had a bucket of spring soft wheat for several years, it's just fine.

The Wheat Montana cookbook doesn't appear to specifically have the recipe for the super-sized cinnamon rolls, I was curious as to how much dough each one takes.

[BakerAunt]

I am finally able to bake! On Saturday, I used Donna German's Austrian Malt Bread recipe that Mike has often recommended, but I made a few changes. I substituted in 3/4 cup of buttermilk for that much water. I used 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1 cup bread flour, and 1 cup KAF AP flour. I used 1 1/2 Tbs. honey instead of sugar. I reduced the salt to 1 1/4 tsp., and the yeast to 1 tsp. regular and 1 tsp. special gold. (I brought it here in a cold chest, so I'm going to use it!) I've not unpacked my mixer yet, so I used the bread machine for the kneading. The bread rose quickly, due to the humidity and the special gold yeast. It baked into a beautiful 8x4 inch loaf. I look forward to sampling it tomorrow. We actually had to eat a loaf of the store-bought stuff this past week. 🙁

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you for the good wishes, Italian Cook.

Actually, the meat thermometer said it was close to 190. It would have been dry except for all the sauce. It was not pink. Boneless pork loins cook very fast. The maple-glazed one that I make for Easter every year (which gave me the idea about the glaze) is browned on the stove top and usually is done within 25 minutes or so in the oven. That recipe says to cook the roast until 135F, then remove to a platter and cover with foil for 15 minutes, at which time, the temperature should go up to 150. I have also heard that 145F is

I have an older, 3 1/2 quart crockpot from the 1980s. It came from Montgomery Ward. I suspect that it gets hotter than newer crock pots.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

I've bought Wheat Montana wheat berries for years, though I'm having trouble getting them lately.

So, as we came through Montana on the way back from our trip to Oregon, when we found a Wheat Montana Bakery at Three Forks MT, we HAD to stop! (We saw at least one other Wheat Montana bakery on I-90, but the one at Three Forks appears to be the mother ship.)

They had the biggest cinnamon rolls I've ever seen! We got one, it fed three people!

I bought the Wheat Montana cookbook, and I also got five pound bags of wheat berries (hard spring red wheat, hard winter red wheat and winter white wheat) to play with. The price was on the high side, but this way I can compare the three and see which I want to buy in bulk next time. The car was already quite full, otherwise I might have bought a 50 pound bag of wheat berries.

There was a group of Wheat Montana people getting ready for a tour of the mill operation (the bakery is located at one of the Wheat Montana mills), but I couldn't convince them to let me tag along on the tour.