On Saturday, I tried a new recipe, a Bundt cake from KAF, titled "Orange Pound Cake with Bourbon Glaze." Cwcdesign had suggested that I could make it with lemon juice instead (I have a lot of frozen lemon juice), so I tried that suggestion. Although the recipe said a 10-cup Bundt pan, that seemed small to me for the amount of batter, so I used my older 12-cup one, and I'm glad that I did because the cake filled it. I will not glaze it. I also baked my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. The Bundt cake and cookies are for after service snacks at church tomorrow.
Next Day Update: The lemon cake is on the tart side, which is fine for me, but anyone looking for a sweeter cake might want to increase the sugar a bit, being careful not to unbalance the cake. I suspect that because the original recipe used orange juice, which is sweeter than lemon juice, this cake is naturally more tart. People at church did like it. I'm going to serve the remaining slices for our family dinner this evening with strawberry shortcake topping (we found lovely strawberries at the store) and Stonyfield frozen nonfat vanilla yogurt.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by
BakerAunt. Reason: update on lemon cake added
On Thursday, I made an enormous pot of soup, using onion, garlic, red bell pepper, mushrooms, celery, carrots, canned low-salt Spam, some beans I had frozen, about 10 cups broth, a can of diced tomatoes, 1 1/2 cups of pearl barley, 1 Tbs. Penzey's Paprika Smoked Spanish Style, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. cayenne, and fresh parsley. I began by sautéing chopped onion and garlic in olive oil, then added the red bell pepper, and mushrooms, and chopped celery. I added the cubed Spam, then the chopped carrots. Then I added the rest of the ingredients, brought to a boil, then simmered for 30 minutes.
I like to do "throw together soups," using what I have around the house. (A can of Spam is unusual.) The hard part for me is figuring out the spices. I've used the paprika blend for pot roast, but after adding it here, I felt it needed a gentle kick, so I added the chili powder and cayenne. Of course, my broth is flavored with rosemary, sage, thyme, and sweet curry powder. I will freeze some of it, but the rest will get me through lunches in a very busy week ahead.
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This reply was modified 8 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.
On Tuesday, I baked a new recipe, "Glazed Pumpkin-Pecan Cakes," from a Better Homes and Gardens special publication, 100 Best Pumpkin Recipes (p. 12), that I picked up in Barnes & Noble last fall. I baked them in two Nordic Ware swirl mini-Bundt pans. I made two changes: I added 1 Tbs. of flax meal, and in place of 2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice, I used 1 1/4 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. ginger, and 1/8 tsp. cloves. I used the orange juice glaze. We liked them a lot--although I realized after baking that I'd left out the 1/4 cup of oil. Oops. The texture is still surprisingly good. I will make them again--and use the oil, but I may cut back on the water by 1/4 cup, since I make and freeze my own pumpkin puree.
For dinner tonight, I made one of our favorites, Dilled Salmon and Couscous (recipe on this site).
On Sunday or Monday I made the chicken sausage and sweet potato sheet pan dinner and then on Thursday our favorite sheet pan Fajitas a day early for Cinco de Mayo. Last night I tried the slow cooker chicken lo mein in my new slow cooker. We've decided we really don't like it and don't want to bother to fix it. I do need to figure out adjusting the cooking times since it cooks hotter. One article suggested cooking water for a period of time and then measuring the temp to see how much hotter it is than the temp it's supposed to be after that time (I think it's 6 hours on low to reach 185)
I've never worked with Autocad, back when we were designing our house 20 years ago we had an architect who did the real work in Autocad (or a similar program) and I was using a version of Broderbund's 3D Home Architect program to shadow his work and do 3D 'walkthroughs' as we worked on room layouts, deciding where to locate appliances, doors, closets, built-in cabinets, furniture placement, etc.
As I told my wife the day they started digging the foundation, I could have probably walked through the house blind-folded before it was built. Interestingly enough, in 20 years we've found little reason to move anything around, we'd already done that hundreds of times on paper.
For Sunday breakfast, I baked Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins, a recipe from Home for the Holidays: Festive Baking with Whole Grains, by Ken Haedrich (p. 23). I made a couple of changes, in that I used buttermilk instead of regular milk, and adjusted the baking powder from 2 tsps. to 1 tsp. plus 1/4 tsp. baking soda. I also used 3 Tbs. of lemon juice in place of that much buttermilk, and I reduced the brown sugar from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup, and I sprinkled coarse sugar on top.
I will probably not do the lemon juice substitution again, as it really did not make the muffins that lemony. I only tried it because I have lots of recipes that call for lemon zest, but then I have the juice left over. Maybe dipping the muffins into lemon juice and sugar once they have baked might be a more lemony option if I am going to reduce the sugar in the recipe.
I still have a lot of poppy seed in the freezer that I need to use up.
I messed up the 6 strand braid, unwound it as far as I could, and redid it, but it still wound up a bit mis-shaped, though not badly so. One or more two tries on the recipe and then I'll post it, maybe by then I'll have a picture-perfect loaf too.
I need to have my son bring a couple of loaves from McGinnis Sisters when he comes to visit this summer, so I can comparison-taste. (Of course it isn't a true taste test unless he also brings some of their famous spinach dip, even if it does have garlic in it.)
Bread is a series of trade-offs, time for flavor. There are subtle differences in what happens in a starter (like a biga or a poolish) versus retarded fermentation, there's more enzyme and bacteria action going on in the latter, the longer it sits around the more it starts to develop sourdough-like characteristics. I don't think it would be wrong to say that sourdough is the ultimate in retarded fermentation, as it represents the longest point on the time-for-flavor scale.
Does it make a BIG difference? You'd probably have to run side-by-side tests to see if you can even tell which is which.
When I was testing the baguette recipes for Peter Reinhart's 'Artisan' book, I tried delayed fermentation periods of up to 7 days. (After about 7 days the dough got funky, 1 of 3 test batches had to be tossed out on day 6 because I no longer trusted it.)
After about 4 days, the dough and resulting bread took on characteristics similar to a sourdough, with a slight tang in the taste. I thought the bread was best after about 48 hours of retarded fermentation, my wife and son couldn't detect any significant differences. The dough felt different, though, and I think there were differences in the crust as well.
On Monday, I cooked a combination of brown and black rice in chicken stock in the rice cooker to go with roast chicken. On Wednesday, I cut up leftover pork and combined it with sautéed vegetables (red bell pepper, mushrooms, broccoli, and the saved drippings from the pork. I mixed it with mushroom fettucine, some of the pasta water, and added sliced green onions before serving. On Thursday, I made broth from the bones from two turkeys and two chickens. I also roasted a butternut squash and pureed it. I'll use the puree in soup tomorrow with some of the broth.
Aaron, have you checked with the restaurant supply folks to see if clear flour is available in bulk?
As I recall, when my ex-neighbor checked on it, GM had it in 50 pound bags in the eastern US and on the west coast, but not in the central US. (Unless I wanted to order a pallet--40 bags.)
Stover & Company (Pittsburgh area restaurant supplier) has Bay State Milling clear flour in 50 pound bags. Star of the West Milling also sells clear flour.
It is not quite the same as adding bran to flour, clear flour has a yellow tint that make it almost cream colored. That's not a problem when making rye bread.
I've added rye chops to rye dough, it adds a crunch like cracked wheat.
Kid, Mike, Thanks.
I am working to make a Jewish deli rye. I have three recipes I am looking at and going from simplest to most complex there is:
Jim Lahey’s which does not use a starter or an altus but is mixed and then sits for 18-24 hours at room temperature. So it will ferment and this will add some nice flavor. Mr. Lahey does not refer to his rye as
Then Marcy Goldman’s from Jewish Holiday Baking has a bread with no altus but a starter.
Last is George Greenstein from his book Secrets of a Jewish Baker. This recipe calls for a sour which is a starter that is built over 48 hours (at least) as well as a half cup of altus (this is optional but recommended). Mr. Greenstein also calls for real clear flour and the only place I’ve found this retail is KAF.
I’ve checked with Whole Foods and Hartford Baking Company (HBC makes the best bread in the area and where I apprenticed shaping and making breads) and neither uses an altus but both use a starter.
I will try those three and see which hits. Based on experience at HBC the people around here do not like very sour bread like the kind found in San Francisco and Seattle.
AARON:
Good afternoon. Aaron the best rye bread or any bread that is best for you is the recipe that pleases you.
Sooo, with that said, you need to bake a easy recipe. One that is to your understanding of what you are doing. This way you may get what you are happy with.
I have a saying...SIMPLICITY IS OF THE ESSENCE... keep it simple Aaron.
Aaron do a simple recipe with a "OVERNITE SPONGE"
Aaron a simple DELI RYE is simple. Look "CLEAR FLOUR" is good for rye but only for this reason...it is flour that is hi in gluten but with the bran left in, hence it provides the article that tannish color to the bread that deli rye is associated with..
Aaron you can do the same thing go to the health food store & buy BRAN FLOUR in bulk form . Use bread flour unbleached style. Do not employ more than 3/8ths in weight of the total flour weight in MEDIUM OR LITE RYE FLOUR. You can use tiny bit of cocoa powder or even 1/2 tsp molasses or brown sugar even a very slightly amount of OJ for the hydration. Trust me Aaron you can make your recipe just as well as these book authors can.
Let us know how you well you have done for yourself...SOON !!!.
Enjoy the day.
~KIDPIZZA
Kid, Mike, Thanks.
I am working to make a Jewish deli rye. I have three recipes I am looking at and going from simplest to most complex there is:
Jim Lahey's which does not use a starter or an altus but is mixed and then sits for 18-24 hours at room temperature. So it will ferment and this will add some nice flavor. Mr. Lahey does not refer to his rye as
Then Marcy Goldman's from Jewish Holiday Baking has a bread with no altus but a starter.
Last is George Greenstein from his book Secrets of a Jewish Baker. This recipe calls for a sour which is a starter that is built over 48 hours (at least) as well as a half cup of altus (this is optional but recommended). Mr. Greenstein also calls for real clear flour and the only place I've found this retail is KAF.
I've checked with Whole Foods and Hartford Baking Company (HBC makes the best bread in the area and where I apprenticed shaping and making breads) and neither uses an altus but both use a starter.
I will try those three and see which hits. Based on experience at HBC the people around here do not like very sour bread like the kind found in San Francisco and Seattle.
My husband is cooking pork chops, macaroni and cheese (made with the KAF cheese powder) and broccoli for dinner tonight. It's a good dinner for the cold, windy weather we have had this weekend.
On Saturday, I baked Oat-Flax Buns (recipe at KAF site) to use for Sloppy Josephines. I substituted in 3/4 cups of buttermilk for 3/4 of the water and omitted the special dried milk. I also reduced the honey to 2 Tbs., the yeast to 2 tsp., and the salt to 1 14 tsp. salt.
