On Monday, I made up the dough for David Lebovitz's "Salted Chocolate Chip Tahini Cookies," which we talked about a few weeks ago. It used up the rest of the tahini I had in the refrigerator and 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips. The dough has to sit overnight, so I'll bake them tomorrow.
I also made up the dough for Rye Crisps, from a recipe in The Baking Sheet 13.1 (Holiday 2001), pp. 18-19. I made them last year and liked them. This dough, after the first rise, goes into the refrigerator for up to 24 hours, so it too will be baked tomorrow. I've used up almost all the medium rye flour. I'll sneak the remaining 1/2 cup into the dough when I make rolls for our trip.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by
BakerAunt.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
I think that I did make these, maybe four or five years ago and commented on it on the KAF Baking Circle. I used a recipe from a cookbook (Was it called Baked Elements?), which unfortunately is now packed. It was by two brothers who structured the book around four elements, one of which was Dulce de leche. It is put in these cookies like sandwich filling. I remember that it used a lot of cornstarch. I think this was before I started the What Did You Bake Thread, so I may not have notes on it.
Has anyone tried making Alfajores, a latin sandwich cookie which can be gluten-free ( a search will find recipes made with almond flour or even cornstarch) and generally has dulche de leche in the middle.
This is what Wikipedia says about biscotti:
"Biscotti" is the plural form of biscotto. The word originates from the medieval Latin word biscoctus, meaning "twice-cooked."
Biscuits as a 'twice-baked' product were often made as travel food, especially travel by ship. (Hardtack. which is made from flour, water and sometimes salt, shows up in many books about sailing ships.)
Not sure how the name got applied to raised biscuits in the USA, which are a quick bread.
I'm up for trying to promote National Cake Week, maybe we can get others working on it too. I'm not sure an 'online clandestine cake club' would work, part of the fun would be seeing and tasting other people's cakes!
Hi. I baked off some challah dough I had in the freezer. I put it in in March so I figured it was approaching EoL and I needed to bake it. I made a six strand braid which came out pretty nicely. They really do have a nice, three-dimensional look that three and four strand braids do not have. It was a two and a half pound loaf that my two sons polished off in a matter of hours. It's not my normal recipe and I don't like it as much but apparently my boys did not care.
I also made another double batch of rye bread and learned a few things. First, I figured out what caused my blowouts. I made two two-and-a-half pound loaves. I put them too close to each other in the oven and they expanded until they were touching. Without room to rise evenly on both sides they each blew out the opposite side.
I like three slashes better than five but that is an aesthetic decision.
I did not check my ingredients before I started and ran out of first clear flour half way through. So the loaves were half real clear and half bread flour. I do not like the color as much and I do not like the taste as much as the all-real clear loaves. But it did have a slightly higher rise in the finished product. Cass was right as usual.
I left one loaf unglazed and brushed egg wash on the second. I like the cornstarch the best (pace Mike). But it is also more of a pain in the neck as the cornstarch glaze involves cooking.
On Saturday, I made our favorite chicken salad with grapes and celery. The original recipe calls for 3(!) cups of mayonnaise (Hellmann's) for 3½ pounds of chicken breasts, poached. After I made another salad with half plain yogurt/half mayo, we decided we wanted to try this recipe with that combo. I've started roasting 5 pounds of chicken breasts on the bone because the big chicken breasts are tougher when I poach them. I used 1 cup each of whole milk Greek yogurt and mayo and it was plenty to create the "sauce" with the grapes cut in half. Will thought we might be able to up the proportion of yogurt next time. We were really happy with the outcome.
On Sunday evening, I baked a new recipe, "Spelt Raisin Pecan Bread" (but I used walnuts), that came from the back of a package of spelt flour that KAF sold. The recipe, which is not on their website, took a pound of spelt flour, or a little over 4 cups (so I think that I no longer have any in the freezer). I used golden raisins and 2 tsp. gold yeast and 1/2 tsp regular yeast. I considered cutting back on the yeast, but I've not worked with spelt flour in bread, so I decided not to do so; I recall that Wonky had tried to do an all-spelt bread and it came out heavy. However, with a first rise of 45 minutes and a second one of 20 minutes, perhaps I should use less yeast next time. The oven spring was dramatic, with the loaf almost too large for the 8x4 loaf pan. It needed the full 40 minutes baking time. I'll add a note tomorrow, after I sample it for breakfast, about taste and texture.
Promised Note: I had a couple of slices of the bread this morning for breakfast. It is good. It's substantial enough for slicing thinly. If I make it again, I would definitely try it with only 2 tsp. of yeast, since that might make for a softer texture. It should make good French Toast later in the week.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
In honor of the Formula 1 race on Sunday morning, I made pancakes to eat as we watched it start. I have a recipe for Oat Pancakes that came from a free paper in Los Angeles years ago. This time, I used half Irish Wholemeal flour for the AP flour, and I used 1/2 cup half and half (need to use up) with 1/2 cup 1% milk. These were very light pancakes, maybe because of those changes. After I saw how light scones that included the Irish flour were, I thought that it would work well in pancakes. I'm sure that the half and half helped also.
The weather cooled down on Saturday, so I seized the baking opportunity. I tried a new bread recipe, "Naturally Sweet Wheat Bread," from the KAF Whole Grain Baking book (p. 190). The need to use up various ingredients and substitute for others where I was short meant adapting the recipe. I left out the raisins, as my husband will use this loaf for sandwiches. I omitted the orange juice (we like the whole wheat taste) and substituted additional water. I used 2 Tbs. honey and no brown sugar. I used 1/2 cup half and half that was starting to sour, along with 1/4 cup 1% milk. I used 3/4 cup spelt flour (only one package left to use!) and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour rather than all whole wheat. I only had about 1 1/4 cups bread flour left, so I used First Clear Flour to make up the remainder. I also used the gold yeast, as that is all I have on hand. I should probably cut back on the gold yeast; the first rise was 45 minutes and the second one 30 minutes.
For dinner, I made the KAF Utra-Thin Crust Pizza. Now it is time to pack my large rectangular Emile Henry pizza stone.
Chocomouse and Navlys--Thanks for your comments. I hate to waste food, not to mention valuable ingredients. I also tend to stock up when there are sales, and I probably stocked up too much on some ingredients. I remember when Zen moved a few years back, and was trying to use up her stock or explain to her son why some items needed to be moved.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
i made Vienna bread (PaddyL's Double Crusty recipe) and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (my mother's oatmeal crisps recipe) today.
I just made potato salad (using up 3/4 of the baked potato I didn't eat) to go with the grilled tuna steaks and corn which we will have for dinner. It's a good thing I used the plastic egg timer in the water because the egg would not have been hard boiled after the 3 minutes suggested online.
On Friday, I made Dilled Salmon and Couscous again. We did not plan this week's menu very well, and it was quick to pull out the last two pieces of frozen salmon from the freezer.
I made Four Bean Salad (recipe from my college roommate) on Saturday morning. I think that I posted it on this site. That uses up four cans of beans and finishes up the large bottle of cider vinegar.
-
This reply was modified 8 years, 10 months ago by BakerAunt.
Friday evening, as the weather began to cool down, I made a batch of Chex Party Mix. I also baked Pecan Pumpkin Bars (like pumpkin pie with nut base), since I found another 2 cups of pumpkin puree in the freezer.
My friend's husband has made a large batch of his delicious meatballs for us to have for sandwiches at work (the Lighthouse) today. So I figured I had better bake something. I made Ina's Chocolate Chunk Blondies from her Foolproof Cookbook. I left out the nuts because of one of my co-workers, used large instead of extra-large eggs and used my 9x13 pan instead of the 8x12 she used. I also only baked them for 25 minutes. They are really good!
I've also started cutting brownies in much smaller pieces when I make them for groups. So instead of 1 dozen, I got 4 dozen and am taking 3 dozen in. That way anyone who just wants a bite can have one and they're rich enough that it's probably enough. Because it's so hot down here already even with the AC on, I put them in the fridge so they wouldn't melt.
I enjoyed the article. To finish reading the article, BA, I had to click on the next page icon a couple of times, but I did read it all. You might want to try again.
I decided to check out the website on American holidays - there's a flour month (March) and a cookie month (October), but only individual cake days - carrot, pound, & chocolate that I saw through quick perusal- I had no desire to look at 365 days of food holidays :-). It does appear that National Cake Week may have been started by the Clandestine Cake Club.
Mike, the nearest one to me is probably 5 hours away - not happening 🙂
