Search Results for '("C'

[Mike Nolan]

We had a thunderstorm roll through overnight, with nearly an inch of rain, and at one point the cat tried to jump on the table and knocked several things off, setting off the glass break alarm at 4:30 AM. Nothing broke but it took us a while to get everything picked back up again.

So the new cat is causing us to do some reorganization in the family/informal dining room, as he has not yet learned not to jump on the table. (That might be a hard lesson since he's about 2 years old.)

We are also doing some reorganization in the kitchen, swapping some things between two sets of lower cabinets and getting stuff the cat might get into or knock over put away, even though we're currently keeping the cat out of the kitchen entirely. That probably won't last forever, I used toddler gates to build a wall between the kitchen and the butler's pantry, but it means we have to go the long way around for everything, which will get old in a hurry. The one serious mistake we made when designing the house was we didn't put a pocket door on both kitchen doorways.

[Mike Nolan]

I can tell you from decades of baking chocolate chip cookies that the brand and variety of the chocolate chip does make a difference in side-by-side tests. In terms of the grocery store name brands, I prefer Hershey's over Nestles.

If you're going to melt them and use them in something like a cake, that might make them a little harder to tell apart, especially if you're also adding cocoa powder.

Milk chocolate chips are very different from semi-sweet chips The dark chocolate chips have a higher percentage of cocoa solids, and usually less sugar.

I stay away from the really cheap house brands, they taste waxy, probably because they scrimp on the actual cocoa products in the chip and use cheaper oils. (Some of the cheap ones can't legally call themselves chocolate.)

The size can make a difference, too. The mini chips seem to almost disappear into the cookie, the big chunk ones will usually become a soft pocket of chocolate in the cookie, hardening a bit over time.

I tend to keep Callabaut couverture callets (semi-sweet and milk chocolate) on hand, but that's because I buy them in large bags. (I'm afraid to find out what an 11 pound bag of them will cost now!)

Valhrona and Scharffenberger are good couverture grade chocolates as well; Guittard and Ghiradelli are OK but I think they're a step down from the couverture grade chocolates.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I was picking up some chocolate for mother's day at a small, local chocolate shop. The chocolatier was there and told me something interesting. He said chocolate chips are a compound chocolate and while they may have different tastes to start, after baking they are all the same.

Could this be true? Most of the pastry chefs I know swear by Guitard which are pretty tasty but also spendy. Can I really just buy the big bad of Kirkland (which he said was pretty high quality).

TIA

[aaronatthedoublef]

What is more important than what I am baking this week is what I did NOT bake this week - a birthday cake for my oldest. His little sister insisted on making it herself (and was annoyed with me for hovering). She did make some mistakes so the texture was off but it tasted good.

Of course she considered "making the cake" just mixing and baking the layers. While I was making the birthday dinner and cleaning off the outside table and chairs I also had to make frosting and frost the cake. But it all worked.

[BakerAunt]

I decided that this year I would buy at least some of my eggs from a vendor at the farmers market. The people from whom I buy pumpkins in the autumn have started selling eggs, so I chose them. At the moment, I use those eggs for omelets, frittatas, quiche and use the grocery store ones for baking. It seems to me that the farmers market eggs (chickens are free-range) have better taste and brighter yolks.

I have also noted that the shells appear to be thicker than the shells of the commercial eggs. With the latter, I have had problems with pieces of shell falling into what I am preparing to bake. With the farmers market eggs, the shells crack evenly.

With the farmers market eggs selling for $4 a dozen, I will probably still bake with the commercial eggs, but I wondered if anyone else has noticed a difference between farm eggs and commercial eggs.

[BakerAunt]

My husband had the rest of the turkey loaf, mashed potatoes, and some applesauce. (I found another container of the latter in the freezer.) I made a two-egg omelet for myself with onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms, and a bit of kale from the pot my husband is still growing, then completed it with mozzarella.

[Mike Nolan]

We had big salads, tuna on Diane's and pork loin on mine. (The cat enjoyed the tuna water and got a bite or two of tuna, too.)

[Mike Nolan]

We stopped going to Red Lobster several years ago because they changed their recipes and their crab alfredo now had garlic in the sauce. Bleh!! (That should be a culinary felony!)

Other recipes changed as well.

I don't eat shrimp (I had a bad reaction to some shrimp creole 50 years ago and since then I just avoid it), which means their shrimp promotions were lost on me. And shrimp scampi has garlic in it (as did several other shrimp dishes) which means they were lost on Diane as well.

The location in Lincoln closed several years ago, and it was over a year before Diane even noticed. (It needed some serious remodeling/upgrades, as did many of their locations according to various articles on their bankruptcy.)

There really isn't a good seafood place in Lincoln these days unless you count the sushi places, and some of them aren't that great. The nearest Joe's Crab Shack is in Missouri and Legal Seafood just opened in Pittsburgh but nothing really close.

But if the restaurant industry had to depend on us, they'd all be out of business.

[BakerAunt]

Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread (makes two 8 ½ x 4 ½ loaves)

Marliss Desens adapted this recipe from the first edition of Bernard Clayton Jr.'s The Complete Book of Breads (pp. 422-424). Use Cara Cara oranges for best flavor.

2 ¼ tsp. special Gold yeast (high sugar doughs) 2 ¼ cups (290 g) bread flour
1/3 cup warm water 1 ½ tsp. salt

½ cup (105 g) sugar (use a bit to proof the yeast) 4 Tbs. avocado oil
1 Tbs. grated orange peel
¾ cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 3 Cara Cara oranges)
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg Filling (I split into 2 containers)
½ cup (105 g) sugar
4 ¼ cups (556 g) white whole wheat flour 1 Tbs. cinnamon
4 Tbs. (30 g) special dry milk water for spraying
3 Tbs. (21 g) flax meal

Set aside ¼ tsp. of sugar for proofing the yeast. Grate orange peel into a small bowl with the rest of the sugar. Use a fork to distribute throughout. Combine sugar with white whole wheat flour, dry milk and flax meal in a medium bowl. In bowl of stand mixer, combine buttermilk, orange, juice and egg.

Proof yeast in 1/3 cup water with bit of sugar. Add to stand mixer bowl and mix to combine. Add white whole wheat mixture and mix to combine. Cover mixer with a towel and allow to rest for 15 minutes so that the wholegrain flour can hydrate. In the meantime, combine the bread flour and salt.

After the rest period, add the bread flour and salt to the wholegrain mixture. Mix, then change to a kneading spiral. While the mixer runs at Speed 2, drizzle in 4 Tbs. avocado oil. Increase to Speed 3 and knead for 6 minutes. Check dough. It will likely need another 3 minutes. It is ready when you can pull a windowpane.

Place in 4-qt., oiled rising bucket with lid. Allow to rise for an hour. After the rise, turn out onto a Silpat mat and divide in half, using a scale. Form each into a rough oval, cover, and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, grease two 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pans. Divide the filling ingredients between two small bowls.

At end of rest period, form each half into a 15 x 7-inch rectangle. I pat it out by hand; I think that a rolling pin stretches out the dough and increases the chances for a blow-out when baking. Leaving a 1 inch bare area at one of the 7-inch sides, and about a ¼ inch bare area along the longer sides, sprinkle half the filling on one rectangle, then half on the other. Using a spray bottle with water, gently spritz the sugar-cinnamon filling on one rectangle (about 1 tsp. of water). Starting at the covered short end, roll the dough to form a loaf. Seal the seam (why you left the bare area) with your fingers by pinching together and smoothing. Then pinch seams at the ends to try to prevent leaking. Place in prepared pan. Repeat with second rectangle. Place loaves in covered plastic container and allow the loaves to rise for an hour or until they crown the sides of the pan. About 20 minutes before loaves will be ready, preheat oven to 375 F.

Note: Baking Temperatures Change during the Bake.
Put the risen loaves into oven. Bake at 375 F for 10 minutes.

Turn oven temperature down to 350 F and bake for 12 minutes.

Turn oven temperature down to 325 F and bake for another 18-23 minutes to an internal temperature of 190 F. Remove from pans and allow to cool on a rack.

Optional Frosting (Loaf should be completely cooled before frosting.) I omit it.
1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tsp. grated orange peel, 4 tsp. orange juice.

What I changed. I replaced AP flour with white whole wheat and bread flour. I tried regular whole wheat, but the orange flavor was overwhelmed by the wheat taste. I added the special dry milk and the flax meal. I replaced regular yeast with the special Gold yeast for doughs higher in sugar. I replaced the milk with buttermilk and increased the water from 1/4 to 1/3 cup. I replaced ¼ cup of shortening with 4 Tbs. of avocado oil. The original recipe called for baking the bread at 375 F for 10 minutes, then dropping the temperature to 325 F. I was uncertain that the bread would bake completely in the allotted time, and I was unsure how my oven might handle the reduction, so I included an intermediate heat reduction. Sometimes, no matter how carefully the loaves are formed, some filling may leak, so the lower temperatures help prevent the sugar from burning onto the pan. I have completely re-worked the directions

[Mike Nolan]

He's getting a bit less shy, though he tends to retreat to the cat carrier and mew softly when we go out there. But he did walk out into the family room this evening, wander over to and look out the back door, and then retreated back to his safe place.

He does appear to know what a litter box is for, and I think he knows the sound of the refrigerator door being opened, too. Not sure if he recognized the sound of the can opener, but the tuna water drew him out quickly.

When Diane brought her mother's cat over after she passed, it took months before Gracie would stay on my lap and close to a year before she'd climb up there on her own. So we're used to being patient with an adult cat in a new place. (Kittens will explore anywhere.)

[BakerAunt]

I have a bag of Cara Cara oranges that I have been wanting to use for baking, and on Sunday, I pulled out Bernard Clayton's recipe, "Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread," which appeared only in the first edition of The Complete Book of Breads (pp. 422-24). I baked a whole wheat adaptation of it last year but felt that the whole wheat flavor overwhelmed the orange, so this time, I used 4 ½ cups white whole wheat and 2 ¼ cups bread flour. I used the gold yeast (high sugar) rather than the regular yeast. I increased the water from ¼ to 1/3 cup to allow for the whole wheat flour. I zested and juiced three of the oranges, which gave me just a bit less than ¾ cup juice, so I increased the buttermilk (replaced regular milk) slightly. Before I added the sugar, I used a fork to mix it with the grated zest. I've been applying this technique when I add zest to a recipe, and I find that it helps incorporate the zest more evenly and is more flavorful. My other changes were to add 4 Tbs. special dry milk and 3 Tbs. flax meal. I replaced the ¼ cup shortening with 4 Tbs. avocado oil.

When I baked the recipe last year, I had a lot of filling leak out. To try to prevent that happening again, I left a 1-inch margin without the cinnamon sugar the far end when I rolled up the dough., as well as a smaller margin on the two sides that would make the end of a loaf. I still had some leaking on the ends when I baked the loaves. The recipe calls for starting at 375 F for ten minutes, then dropping the temperature to 325 F for 30. I dropped it to 350 F, then 12 minutes later, when I noted some leaking of filling at the end, I dropped it to 325 F. I baked the loaves to an internal temperature of 190 F., so they needed an additional 5 minutes. I was pleased that only one loaf leaked at just one of its ends. I look forward to slicing it for breakfast tomorrow. The other one will go into the freezer.

For my dinner on Sunday, I am baking a Beet, Spinach, and Goat Cheese Flatbread, a recipe that I adapted from Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. I make it as one large flatbread on a 1 2/3 sheet pan. I had 2 oz. of goat cheese leftover from the frittata I made last week, so I used it with another 4 oz. log. I used golden beets, which I found in the organic section of Kroger a couple of months ago, and which have been waiting in the refrigerator for me to have time to make this entrée. Due to my other baking project, it will not be ready until close to 8:30 p.m.., but at least now I have it to warm up for meals this week.

[chocomouse]

I have planted peas and cucumbers in hanging baskets; an experiment, hoping the vines will produce well growing down instead of up. I have a large, waist-high planter with lettuce and spinach, up about 2 inches, almost ready to eat. And I planted 3 rows of bush beans (green) in the second planter. Yesterday I potted up a SuperSweet 100 cherry tomato in a large pot. I need my husband to rototill the in-ground garden and put up the electric fence before I plant there.

[Mike Nolan]

Well at least for now, we have a new cat. This was a cat that lived in the house across from my sister-in-law, when that family moved, they apparently left the cat behind.

He has been wandering around her neighborhood for a couple of weeks and probably had two or three people willing to feed him, but for now we've got him at our house. Not sure if we can convince him to be an indoor cat, but we'll give it a shot. He's a black-and-white tabby male, probably 2-3 years old, about 12 pounds, not neutered (for now) with both front and back claws.

He's kind of freaked out about the move, and he was hiding behind the microwave in the kitchen for most of the evening. We put him in the mudroom for the night, that's where the litter box goes and there is food, water and a couple of cat beds for him to choose from.

[chocomouse]

I made burger buns this morning. To save time, I baked two pans (KAF bun pans) of them in the Breville countertop oven, one below the other. I never bake two levels of anything, in the Breville or the Jennair, because they just don't bake up right. This the result; bun on the left was baked on the top rack, bun on the right baked below it.

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[Mike Nolan]

I've got a bunch of tomatoes I could put in now (and may do so this evening) and more that aren't quite big enough yet, I'll probably put them in a bigger peat pot for a week or two.