Search Results for '("C'

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover chicken farro stir-fry and microwaved fresh broccoli. My elder bonus son flew home today, so it is back to just the two of us (well, three with the dog!) at meals.

[BakerAunt]

I baked that batch of Cinnamon Swirl Pumpkin Rolls on Saturday morning. The cinnamon sugar mixture stays put much better in these rolls than in my usual cinnamon rolls. I think that is because it uses white sugar rather than light brown, and there are also more layers, so the cinnamon filling is not as thick in each layer but more spread out. My husband likes the interior of the rolls, but he finds the slightly harder outsides (next to the ceramic dish in which I bake them) less to his liking than the outer part on my usual recipe.

At lunch, today, my husband showed me that we were almost out of bread, so in the afternoon, I baked three loaves of my adaptation of Grandma A's Ranch Hand Bread, which is one of my favorite recipes.

Chocomouse--You are fortunate that you can grab the flour so easily when you run out!

[Mike Nolan]

Only got down to about 37 last night, but didn't get much above 45, the next 3 nights the predicted lows are 28, 28 and 19, so I picked what I wanted out of the garden. (I stopped picking green tomatoes a few years ago, they never taste that good and I can get decent tomatoes at the store most of the time.)

[Mike Nolan]

I think I posted the link to the apple butter recipe I used. It was fairly easy to make, since we have a 6 quart slow cooker, but I did wind up tinkering with the spice blend to get it to the point where we liked it. (It's still less spicy than the commercial apple butters my wife buys, which are too spiced up for me, usually too much clove, I think.)

[Mike Nolan]

I made a big batch of apple pie filling today, so of course I had to make a pie to test it out! (I had made enough pie dough for 2 double-crust pies the other day.)

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked "Peanut Butter Honeys," a recipe from Mumpy that is posted here at Nebraska Kitchen. I wanted to use up the rest of a jar of no-stir peanut butter that I accidentally bought. (Note to self: pay attention to words on label not just picture, as this brand also makes the natural peanut butter that does need stirring.) I made the same changes as last time by using 3 Tbs. avocado oil instead of butter, replacing the flour with white whole wheat, and adding 1 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. I used the specified amount of salt this time rather than halving it; the salt is needed to offset the honey. This time, I also added 2 tsp. flax meal. I used local honey that I bought at our farmers' market. I used my Zerroll #40 scoop and got 23 cookies. I baked the entire batch on my 1 and 2/3 sheet pan on parchment. I initially baked for 8 minutes, rotating halfway through, then gave them an additional minute. We had some for dinner tonight, and they are excellent. Next time, I will try making them with natural peanut butter, so I will need to adjust for the oil difference.

[Mike Nolan]

I've probably made over a half dozen different Challah recipes over the years, though I haven't done your apple cider one yet. (Soon.)

The one I've gone back to the most is Peter Reinhart's recipe in BBA. I recently bought Maggie Glezer's book, A Blessing of Bread, though I haven't tried any of her recipes yet.

I did a chocolate Challah once, I forget whose recipe I used for that one, though, and I'm not sure if I saved it anywhere. (I've got stacks of recipes I've printed over the years off the Internet.) It made interesting French Toast.

Get Violet a good set of gloves. I like the barbecue ones better than the welder ones.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I ran into Temple and pre-shaped the challah and then Violet and I shaped it and baked it. It was nice having full-sized sheet pans and a large, professional oven. I could bake all 14 loaves at once. Violet now wants to do challah bakes with me every week. It's funny - she loves the smell of my dough and, of course, the smell of baking bread, but she dislikes challah. Who dislikes challah (everyone asks that)? Violet does. Although she says mine is better than others she still has not desire to eat it.

Saturday Violet and I made my birthday cake. She is funny. She asked my favorite and I pulled out the recipe and told her she could see how often I'd made it by the mess on the pages. 🙂 It is Rosie's chocolate fudge cake. Rosie had wonderful bakeries in the Boston area when I lived there. I moved to Seattle and was a little homesick, saw the baking book on remainder in Barnes & Noble, and scooped it up. It is a sour cream chocolate cake with a non-cooking version of a boiled chocolate frosting. We added milk chocolate chips between the layers to add some texture and contrast to the unsweetened and semi sweet chocolate. The we added toasted and untoasted coconut to the outside.

And, this is the REALLY big news - Violet asked if she could turn the cake pans in the oven and then take them out of the oven. She has always been afraid to do this so I am really proud of her.

And we still need to work on grabbing a cake pan by the edge and not sticking one's thumb in the cake. But I still do that sometimes so...

[RiversideLen]

I made cupcakes from a box mix (Devils Food).

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I continued working to adapt Ken Haedrich's Pumpkin Soda Bread recipe. I had baked it with the changes I made last year upon first baking it. I replaced the butter with avocado oil, and I used 2 ½ cups of King Arthur's Irish Style flour. I increased the pumpkin by ¼ cup, since I freeze my pumpkin in 1 cup containers. I added 3 Tbs. Bob's Red Milk powder. The recipe calls for forming two loaves on a baking sheet, which is what I did last time, but as soda bread is messy, I decided to bake it as a large loaf in a ceramic bowl I bought from King Arthur some years ago. (It is white with snowflakes around the flat rim, and they had a couple of bread recipes for it.) I did not lower the temperature from 400F, which may have been a mistake. After 40 minutes, it was not done but browning a lot on top. I lowered the temperature to 375F and covered the bread to prevent overbrowning. After another 15 minutes, it read 160F. It took another 10 minutes to reach 200, which various internet sites said was the correct temperature for soda bread. I cooled it in the dish for ten minutes, then turned it out onto a rack to cool.

The crust is slightly too dark, but I had good reviews from my husband and elder bonus son on taste, and I agree that the flavor and texture are good. I seem to recall from last year's attempt with this soda bread, when I baked it on a baking sheet, that it was still a bit too dark on the outside and not quite cooked through, so this year's bake is an improvement. It went well with the soup, and it will be excellent as breakfast tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a batch of bagel dough (Hamelman's recipe) this evening, it will sit overnight in the fridge, in the morning I'll let it warm up a little, then shape, boil and bake the bagels.

[Mike Nolan]

I do let the cracker dough warm up a little, usually a half hour or so, before running it through the sheeter. With laminated doughs, it's more like do a turn, rest dough in fridge for 15 minutes, do another turn, etc. You don't want the butter to get too firm, or it will shatter, or too soft, in which case it soaks into the dough.

I haven't tried it yet, but I think I could be working on 3 trays of laminated dough simultaneously, in stages, 2 in the fridge and 1 on the sheeter. I don't have a reason to make that much dough at one time right now.

I'm getting ready to build up the wheat starter to make another batch of crackers, but I've got quite a few of them left to eat first. I think the next batch will be made with the durum flour, because it is a finely ground whole grain flour. It ought to have good extensibility from the durum wheat.

I'm thinking I might add either more salt or more cheese powder if not both. I was also wondering if I could dissolve some salt in water and brush it on either instead of the oil or in addition to it. (Salt will not easily dissolve in oil, heating it or adding a surfactant is possible but not always reliable.)

I wish these crackers were a little less dense, but am not sure how to do that without messing up the recipe. I suppose I could add some commercial yeast, or possibly a little baking powder.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm finding the process of building spreadsheets for things I bake interesting, especially the costing data.

Recently I've set up a spreadsheet for pie dough and one for apple pie filling.

A double crust costs between $1.25 and $1.75 depending on the size of the pie pan and the thickness of the pie crust. (These days I'm trending towards thinner crusts.) Butter is, not surprisingly, the most expensive ingredient.

Apple pie filling for a 9 1/2 inch pie pan (not quite deep dish but close) runs about $3.80, the biggest variable and expense is the cost of the apples.

[RiversideLen]

I made another batch of sandwich/burger buns, again making 9 instead of my usual 8. I tempted one when it came out of the oven and it was a few degrees higher than it should be (209 v 205f). They look fine but I think next time I'll take 30 seconds off the baking time.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I don't allow the crackers to rise before I bake them. I usually roll them out, brush with avocado oil, cut them, prick each cracker a couple of times, then put them into the oven. With the first two trays, I don't turn on the oven until the second tray is started, so it does sit longer than the rest. I have not noticed any difference. I think that some of the main development comes from the rest period of 5-7 days in the refrigerator. I divide the dough (double recipe) into four pieces, wrap in saran, and park it in the refrigerator. I've baked them earlier than five days, but I think the taste suffers.

I'm going to post my updated oil recipe later today--probably with the original recipe as an alternative.

Aaron--I'm glad to hear that your challah project continues successfully.