What are you Baking the week of April 21, 2019?

[Mike Nolan]

Happy Easter! I made my rye bread yesterday, going to be warm again here today, so I probably won't bake any bread today, though if I get ambitious I might make the 100% whole wheat bread.

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[BakerAunt]

No baking here today either. I had hoped to do a lamb cake for Easter this year (and that would have been in last week's thread for Saturday) by trying out an oil-based Bundt cake recipe (the lime cake recipe I created) in the mold, but I did not grab the lamb mold when I saw it in a box last fall because I assumed that we would be done with remodeling by now. The mold is somewhere inaccessible in the shed. Next year there will be lamb cake!

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday morning, I experimented with a biscotti recipe to see if I could substitute 1/3 cup canola oil for ½ cup butter. The recipe is Double Ginger biscotti with Pistachios, and it originally appeared in the Bon Appetit “RSVP” column. I had made it once or twice, before I had to change my way of eating, so I’d made some changes. I do not use orange zest but ½ tsp. lemon extract, and I used an equal weight of almond flour to the whole almonds which the original recipe toasts then grinds, and I add 1/2 cup crystalized ginger. Without butter, I thought the biscotti might not brown as well, so this time I added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill powdered milk (and increasing calcium is always good for me). The dough was rather dry, so I added 2 Tbs. water. I deleted the resting period, since I did not need to let any butter in the dough become firm in the refrigerator. I don't do an egg wash, but I spritz the logs with water and sprinkle with demerara sugar. After the first bake, I cooled the pan on a rack for 25 minutes, then spritzed the logs with water. (I got this technique from KAF, for their Cinnamon Biscotti, and I always use it, as it prevents crumbling.) Five minutes later, I sliced them, then baked them standing on edge for 20 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the time. I have sampled an end piece, and I am pleased with taste and texture.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by BakerAunt.

[chocomouse]

Thanks for the info about KAF technique for Cinnamon Biscotti. I never make biscotti anymore because it is either rock hard or crumbly. I need to read about that, and maybe I"ll try again. It's not my favorite anyway; I prefer bread or muffins or scones.

[BakerAunt]

Sigh. I had to give up scones due to the butter content.

All but one of my biscotti recipes called for butter. The one that does not is the KAF Cinnamon Biscotti, but of course the cinnamon chips add a lot of saturated fat. Skeptic kindly posted some recipes for me, and we really like that pumpkin biscotti. I also made one I found on this site, but it was pretty sweet, and my husband disliked the anise. I did like the Cardamom-Tahini biscotti to which I posted a link, maybe more than a month ago. My husband disliked the cardamom--although I noted he still ate a few--so those lasted me a while.

The biscotti I made yesterday are a bit hard. Next time, I'll bake them for less than 20 minutes. However, my husband crunched through about four last night. Clearly, he does not recall that he told me he does not care for ginger!

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday morning, I baked Millet-Sunflower Bread, a recipe from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking, that I first baked earlier this year. As directed, I cooked the millet the night before and refrigerated it overnight. (Note: I cooked a half recipe of millet, using the directions given, which is enough for one loaf with enough left over to use in pilaf.) As I did last time, I held back the salt (reduced to 1 tsp.) and the olive oil until after the 45-minute rest that follows mixing all the other ingredients together. Once again, it baked into a lovely loaf. It’s a great wholegrain bread recipe for people not keen on whole grains, as the bread has a mild taste. I look forward to cutting into it tomorrow.

[skeptic7]

When I was making fat-free biscotti, I used to beat the egg yolks with sugar until fluffy, and serately beat the egg whites until fluffy then I would gently fold the flour into the yolks by thirds, alternating with the egg whites. This made them lighter and fluffier and less hard.
If you are adding oil to biscotti, you can add it to the egg yolk and beat it till fluffy. Start by beating the egg yolks until fluffy and then add a little oil at a time.
One of the reasons I went over to doing full butter biscotti was because it was so much easier. I could do everything in one bowl with a good mixer.

[Joan Simpson]

Today I baked a recipe I found on FB for brownies.It was for a mix to make up and put in pantry for using like a mix.It was very good,moist I think I could cut down on oil a little but am happy with it.

Brownie Mix
1-cup sugar
1/2 -flour
1/3-cup cocoa
1/4-tsp.salt
1/4-tsp.baking powder
Add:2-egg
1/2-cup oil
1-tsp.vanilla
Mix up and bake at 350* in 8x8 greased pan for 20-25 min. I used special dark cocoa that's what I have in pantry.They turned out very good.Do y'all think cutting down on oil would work? I was thinking like 1/3 cup oil instead of a half cup.

I couldn't find the originator of the recipe it had been shared a zillion times.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by Joan Simpson.

[chocomouse]

Today I baked bread and a carrot cake (from a mix I found in the pantry; no idea where it came from or why I have it! My husband says even the cat won't eat it, but would love to eat the cream cheese frosting!) Then I made pizza for dinner and the fun began. I put it in the pre-heated oven at 375 for 25 minutes. That yielded a warm but white, soggy, yeasty, doughy crust. I upped the temp to 425 and set the timer for 10 more minutes. No change! So between the toaster oven (which did bake the dough through, but not a crispy crust) and the Jennaire griddle (which did not bake the dough quite through, but did make a crispy crust) we finlly ate pizza. And then called the appliance repair man. The Jennaire is 34 years old, but I'm hoping we just need a new element or something else simple and quick. I'm going away next week, until May 8th, and my husband is worried he won't have a stash of chocolate chip cookies to snack on. I told him he'll just have to go to the store and buy Oreos!

[BakerAunt]

Joan--you probably could cut the oil to 1/3 cup and not see too much difference. You could also replace half the oil with buttermilk, which would keep them nicely moist.

Chocomouse--I'm so sorry that your oven decided that NOW is the time to demand mechanical attention. At least it waited until after the holiday.

[Joan Simpson]

Thanks BakerAunt,I'll do that!

[Mike Nolan]

Unsweetened applesauce is sometimes used as a substitute for oil, but I don't know if it works in brownies.

[BakerAunt]

I used up the last of our orchard Winesap apples from last fall, which for the most part kept well in the cold detached garage with thermostat at 48F. We only lost one apple, although some were beginning to soften. I made that Apple Cake from Recipes from the Old Mill, which I’ve baked about four times since last fall. This time I reduced the whole wheat flour to ¾ cup, and the AP to 1 cup and instead used ½ cup of barley flour. I added 2 Tbs. flax meal and 1/3 cup powdered milk (large granule type). I used white whole wheat flour in the topping in place of the AP flour. The texture of the cake is particularly delicious, as is the taste, so I will use this combination again.

[BakerAunt]

To go with our soup on a cold, rainy Saturday, I made Buttermilk Scallion Flatbreads, a recipe from the KAF site (that also appears in an issue of Sift) that I first made last fall and adapted to have less saturated fat. This time, I cut the salt to ½ tsp., and I substituted ½ cup of white rye flour for that much of the whole wheat flour. The rye gave a subtle flavor to the flatbreads, cooked on an iron flat grill pan, and it also made the flatbreads easier to roll out, as there was no shrinking from the 7-inch-circles. I pointed out to my husband that on Saturday, we had both eaten six different kinds of whole grains: oats, millet, whole wheat, barley, farro, and white rye.

• This reply was modified 5 years ago by BakerAunt.

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