What are you Baking the week of April 12, 2020?

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I was doing the pre-shaping but some of my breads don't seem to do so well with the pre-shape. It may be my technique, or lack of technique. With the pumpkin-rye bread, once I put it onto the floured (with white rye) mat, a second shaping is difficult. I could try pre-shaping it on just the Silpat, then putting it onto the white rye flour.

The bread tastes as wonderful as always. My husband likes it but would like higher slices for sandwiches.

[Mike Nolan]

I do nearly all my baking free-form, unless you're making a huge boule (like a 3-4 pound miche), it is difficult to get more than about 3 1/2 inches of height. For tall loaves you really need a bread pan to force the dough to rise up rather than spread out.

I don't have a banneton, but the reports are that it does help increase height, you just have to be delicate when turning the dough out of the banneton to bake it so you don't lose the shape.

A lot of my loaves are about 5 inches wide and about 3 1/2 inches high, and usually 10-12 inches long. We think that's a good cross-section size for sandwiches.

[Italiancook]

What I wanted to bake and did NOT is KAF Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars. I've made them before. They're best if they sit overnight, as KAF Tip suggests. They use 3 eggs, and I had to choose between my sweet tooth, my husband's desire for breakfast eggs, and the uncertainty of eggs not being in stock at grocery store. So I opted not to make it. I ate some chocolate chips and called them cookies.

[BakerAunt]

Italiancook--I think that I posted about the eggs on a different thread, so I'll repeat it here. If you have flax meal, you can substitute 1 Tbs. flax meal plus 2 Tbs. water (let is sit for 10 minutes or so) for one of the eggs.

[Italiancook]

I missed seeing that, BakerAunt. I don't have flax meal, but I imagine I can find it online. Thanks for the helpful formula!

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked the Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I decided to bake them at 375F on the convection setting, rather than 400F regular. I watched them and reduced the time. I think that about 12 minutes, switching the sheet around midway, is the correct timing. I had fewer overly browned crackers using the convection setting, so I will do so from now on,

Mike--My rye bread was 3 inches high and about 6-inches in diameter, which I think is a dandy size.

[chocomouse]

Today I made rolls that are a variation of the KAF Crusty Gruyere Rolls. I used a basic lean dough recipe with bread flour, which gives them a crispy crust with soft insides. I rolled the dough into a rectangle and spread it with chopped green olives, gruyere, and cheddar, and then rolled it up like for a cinnamon bun. I put these into sprayed muffin tins and baked for 25 minutes at 375. Good with soup. We are forecast to get 4-7 inches of snow tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

I am making burger and hot dog buns today, using Jeffrey Hamelman's 'soft butter rolls' recipe. The hot dog buns will have poppy seeds on them, the burger buns will have sesame seeds on them.

[chocomouse]

I used Len's recipe "Wheat-Rye-Semolina Buns" to make sandwich thins today. I had a turkey sandwich and my husband had ham. The dough was very easy to handle and the flavor is excellent. This will become my standard recipe for the thins, and I'll also try it for burger buns. Thanks for sharing the recipe, Len!

[BakerAunt]

I have a Nordic Ware large square pan that has wells for two eggs and two halves of a bunny. I have never used it, and since the Easter season extends to Pentecost, I thought, Why not? So, on Saturday, I used my lime Bundt cake recipe and used The Grease on the pan. I had seen in a review for a different square Nordic Ware bunny pan that the person put a cookie sheet on top and weighted it down with a cast iron skillet. I did that and tried to grease the surface of the pan. I baked the cake for 50 minutes at 350F (on the third rack from the bottom). That was a bit too long, but no real harm done. I’d check at 40-45 minutes next time. I did have a bit of sticking to the cookie sheet, with one of the eggs, and on the body of one bunny, but I scraped it off and stuck it back on. It will be in the center of the bunny and the bottom of the egg, so it will not show. The ears of the bunny are a bit shallow, so they got overly browned. I’d put a little more batter in that section next time. Now, I need to figure out what I will use to stick the two halves together tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

We do not have quite enough of that wonderful rye bread for tomorrow. As I was working on the rabbit and egg cake, I pulled out the Zo bread machine and my standard bread machine recipe that uses 1 ½ cup bread flour, 1 ½ cup whole wheat, and 1 cup of some rolled grain. I decided to use white whole wheat flour and ¾ cup 5-rolled grain cereal (BRM) and ¼ cup of KAF’s malted rolled wheat. I added 2 Tbs. of oat bran and 2 Tbs. fine cornmeal. It's now in the oven.

[Mike Nolan]

Hamelman's 'Soft Butter Rolls' recipe made excellent burger and hot dog buns, I'll make these again. The poppy seeds didn't stick on as well as I would have liked, I tried a little diluted honey to get them to stick, maybe next time I'll use a little egg white. I've used a honey-and-milk solution a few times, that seemed to work fairly well, too.

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