What are you Baking the Week of April 23, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

Almost time to start making burger buns here, spring is slowly winning the battle against the frost, though it got down into the 20's again last night.

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[BakerAunt]

On our last shopping trip to the larger town, I was able to buy two bags of blood oranges. On Sunday, I baked Blood Orange Yogurt Loaf in a fancy Bundt swirl loaf pan. I have made the recipe my own by using half barley flour and half King Arthur AP flour, using nonfat Greek yogurt rather than 2% or full fat (neither available locally), and replacing the half cup of coconut oil with avocado oil. Tomorrow, I will make a half recipe of my favorite Blood Orange glaze and we will begin slicing it.

Expect more blood orange baking in the coming two weeks.

[Mike Nolan]

Our arborist was here today removing a dead tree on the east side of our property, with our neighbors enjoying the floor show in their lawn chairs. Their grandkids were watching, too, and I took them some of the peanut butter cookies.

Even the boy enjoyed the cookie, though his grandmother told me he doesn't like peanut butter.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them at the end of the week.

I also pulled out Bernard Clayton's first edition of The Complete Book of Breads and baked "Orange Cinnamon Swirl Bread," a recipe that I have only baked once some years ago. It did not get a fair trial, as that was the evening my oven central panel malfunctioned while I was baking a cake before the bread, so I ended up freezing the dough and baking it later. the taste was good, although the rise was not so great.

I chose the recipe because I wanted to take advantage of the last of the Cara Cara oranges for their zest, so out came the recipe. I replaced 4 ¼ cups of the AP with whole wheat flour and used 2 ¼ cups bread flour. I replaced milk with buttermilk and ¼ cup of shortening with 4 tbs. avocado oil. I added 3 Tbs. flax meal and 3 Tbs. special dry milk. I cut the salt from 1 ½ tsp. to 1 ¼ tsp. I used special gold yeast, as the dough has ½ cup sugar. I changed the directions in that I mixed the zest with the sugar before adding it. The baking instructions were 10 minutes at 375F and 30 minutes at 325F.

I chose to bake at 350F, although I pre-heated to 375 and turned down the temperature after putting the loaves into the oven. I am keeping an eye on the loaves, which have about 25 minutes left. I will report on them tomorrow, as I plan to slice one to have at breakfast.

My mixer did fine with the dough.

[BakerAunt]

The bread is delicious, but the filling leaked, and I had to soak the pans overnight. When I bake this bread again, probably in another year when the Cara Cara oranges are in season, I will carefully keep the filling away from the edges and try to seal them effectively, although I suspect there will still be leakage. A bit more hydration in the dough might also make sealing it easier. The orange flavor did not show up that much, probably due to the amount of whole wheat flour. I might try white whole wheat next time.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, glad the dough tasted good even though it leaked!

Mike, Violet does not like peanut butter either but she does like Reeses and the no-bake peanut butter energy bars she makes with Kate that have chocolate chips and other good stuff.

We needed some bread so I made a quick batch of ciabatta that I use to make sandwich rolls.

This is my last bake of this week and next. My brothers and I are going to Israel for a week.

[skeptic7]

I did a cheese bread with white flour and Extra Sharp Cabot Cheddar. The sharpness of the cheese really stood out this time. It could be using all white flour instead of whole wheat, and it could be because this was extremely sharp cheddar. The cheese is sharper than I normally like it. I went on a tour of Cabot Cheese and they joked that they had some cheddar they sold to people for a hunting trip, by the time they came back they had forgotten they disliked the taste. I think the cheese would have improved with some apples, either raw or in a pie.
Aaron, I hope you have a good trip. Stay safe and well.

[BakerAunt]

Enjoy your trip with your brothers, Aaron!

Last summer, I baked "Vegan Peanut Butter Cookies," from the blog, The Simple Veganista. I, however, did not make them vegan, as I used regular milk instead of almond milk, as no vegans would be eating them. On Thursday, I baked the recipe again, this time using almond butter that I got on sale and needed to use up. I again used milk. I cut the sugar (used regular not "cane") to 2/3 cup; the recipe called for 1 cup but said it could be cut to ¾, which is what I did last time. I used spelt flour, which was the first on her list. I used 1/8 tsp. salt as my nut butter was unsalted. I did the traditional crisscross pattern with a fork dipped in sugar. I suspect that my husband will sample one at tea tie, but I will wait for dessert tonight.

Update: The cookies have a milder flavor than when I used peanut butter, but sometimes it is good not to have the assertiveness of peanut butter. My husband and I both like them, so I will be typing up my version of the recipe for myself for future use.

[RiversideLen]

Have a great trip, Aaron!

[Mike Nolan]

We've been buying the Cabot 'seriously sharp' cheddar cheese, I don't know where it falls on the sharp scale compared to extra sharp, but it's got a good bite to it.

I get it at Costco but I've also seen it at Aldi.

Have a great trip, Aaron!

[BakerAunt]

I baked Blackberry-Strawberry Jam Oatmeal Bars on Friday, using my homemade jam. The recipe is an adaptation of Apricot Oatmeal Bars, posted at Nebraska Kitchen. I cut the brown sugar in the crust to 1/2 cup and the salt to 1/8 tsp. I also replace the AP flour with white whole wheat flour.

[chocomouse]

Today I'd planned to make Harvest Grains breads, using the KAF grain mix, but I couldn't find the mostly used bag of grains in the pantry, so I grabbed the bag of Super10 Blend. I used 3 cups of that, and 2 cups of AP flour, and added sunflower and flax seeds, plus some other odds and ends of grains and seeds. The rise was fine and it smelled great. When I returned the remainder of the Super10 flour to the pantry, I spied the bag of Harvest Grains sitting on another shelf among my boxes of Keurig cups! Oh, well, there's always tomorrow.

I also made a batch of cinnamon chip scones, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar on top, in the mini scone pan. They smell wonderful and taste even better!

[Mike Nolan]

I'll be making peanut butter cookies this evening.

[RiversideLen]

I made a batch (8) of sandwich/burger buns.

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