What are you Baking the week of April 26, 2020 (started a day early)

[Mike Nolan]

I've locked the weekly baking thread so I can test new themes to see if they exhibit the lost posts problem, so I figured I'd start the new weekly baking thread a day early.

Spread the word

      

  

  

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt; I remember seeing the regular Pain Au Chocolat recipe on the King Arthur Flour site, but it doesn't seem to be there any longer. There is a recipe there but it calls for a Puff Pastry Dough, which I find indistinguishable from Croissant dough. There is a Brioche recipe in "Peter Reinharts's Whole Grain Breads" which I might use for inspiration. Clayton also has a Brioche recipe and a Petit Pain au Chocolat recipe that oddly enough calls for 1 1/2 lbs of brioche dough -- the odd thing is that the brioche dough recipe makes 2 1/2 lbs and 1 lbs of dough.

[Mike Nolan]

There are two main differences between a puff pastry dough and a croissant dough.

Puff pastry does not use yeast, it relies on the water in the dough (and especially in the butter) to cause it to puff up.

And because it is using the butter in the water for that purpose, puff pastry generally uses more butter than croissant dough. A typical croissant dough will have the butter block weigh 25-30% of the detrempe (dough) block, for puff pastry the butter weight is usually 45-55% of the detrempe.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic. I will look for the recipe; right now, I'm not sure where it is. (My recipe organization needs work.) When I find it, I can post it--if that's ok with Mike--since it no longer seems to be around. Or, if I can find the name, Rottiedogs might be able to find it in the Way Back machine and give you a link.

It may be that the recipe originally appeared in one of the email recipes that King Arthur used to send out regularly. I miss that time.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked four mini-blueberry pies with the last of my canned pie filling from the summer of 2018. I used a pan from Chicago Metallic called “Cup Pie Set.” The pan has wells for four pies, with removeable bottoms, so they can be popped out easily. I used a three-quarter recipe of my oil pie crust, which was just the right size. I used small basket coffee filters to blind bake the shells. It should have been at 400F for 10 minutes on the second shelf up, but I mistakenly set the oven to 425F because I was looking at the large pie shell recipe. I preheated the 2 cups of blueberry pie filling and added a dab of lime juice and about 1/8 tsp. allspice. I made a streusel recipe that was one-third of what I use for my large blueberry pie; next time, I’ll just do a quarter recipe. I baked for about 12 minutes at 400F until bubbly.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made chocolate chip cookie... I should have chilled them a bit and/or made them smaller as they all ran together on the pan. But they taste good and bend until they snap! Perfect except for the fusion.

Also while on a family walk some friends offered to help me with garden work in exchange for pizza so once this social distancing stuff is done I'll take them up on that!

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I also baked Barley-Wheat Bread, a recipe that appeared in the glossy King Arthur Baking Sheet (Summer 2009), p. 10. I remember discussing this recipe on the Baking Circle with Cindy (not Mrs. Cindy) who needed to use up some rolled barley. I reduced the salt by a quarter tsp. and added 2 Tbs. special dry milk. I replaced the 2 Tbs. of butter with 1 Tbs. olive oil. I reduced the yeast by one-quarter tsp. I let the Zo bread machine do the kneading. I had to add 1 Tbs. whole wheat flour and a half Tbs. of AP flour. Both risings went well, and the loaf baked in 40 minutes. It had a great rise, although it has a tiny bit of "spillover" in the center on both sides. The 8x4-inch loaf pan is almost a bit too small.

[BakerAunt]

Note: The Barley Whole Wheat bread (uses cottage cheese) is a delicious soft sandwich bread. I remember why I like this recipe so much.

I decided to experiment with my pizza dough recipe on Sunday by using the Zo to do the kneading. I doubled the dark rye flour and reduced the AP flour. I cut the salt to 1/2 tsp. and the yeast to 1/4 tsp. Once the dough came together, I drizzled in the tablespoon of olive oil. As it kneaded, I decided it needed more moisture and added 1 tsp. of water. The dough rose for two hours. It was easy to fit into the sheet pan. An hour later, I topped it with cooked ground turkey, a variety of halved, cherry tomatoes, sliced large mushrooms, pre-grated low-fat mozzarella, and some coarsely grated Parmesan. I baked for 17 minutes at 450F. I really like the crust which is lighter than when I make it using the mixer. From now on I will use the bread machine’s dough cycle for my thick-crust sourdough pizza.

[RiversideLen]

That pizza sounds wonderful, BakerAunt.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sounds good! You are inspiring me to experiment with pizza. If my family doesn't like it I'll just blame you folks!

[Italiancook]

I made KAF Now or Later Pizza Dough yesterday for fridge. We'll have pizza for lunch with leftovers for dinner.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked Squash, Whole Wheat, and Oat Quick Bread, using 2 cups of grated squash from last fall. It was almost a quick bread without the squash, as the dog was asking to be taken out, I tried to send her out with my husband, but she wanted me, and then I realized that I’d put the batter into the pan, and the squash was still in its container on the counter in front of me. I divided it up among the four wells of the four loaf Bundt pan, putting it on top of the batter, then used my spatula to mix it in the best I could. They look like they baked ok. I used an 8-cup pan that has four fancy loaves. It’s one of the older very dark ones, so I set the oven to 325F and baked it on the third rack up of the oven. They were done at 43 minutes.

[skeptic7]

I've started a half recipe of English Muffins, using the whole wheat flour I bought from Giants. I wanted to see if I could make a 100% whole wheat bread using generic ww flour. So far this flour is coarser and has more large bran flakes than KAF flour. I threw away any bran flakes that would not pass through the sifter. I've had KAF also appear with more bran than I would like, but not in the last 2 years, and I would call Customer Service to complain when that happened.
Wish me luck.

Also NY Times had an article on focaccia -- it seems some people are decorating their focaccia with bits of vegetables and herbs to make floral pictures before baking. I'd post a link but its behind a firewall.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by skeptic7.

[Mike Nolan]

It looks like you can access that article with the free logins as well, and I agree, those breads are fantastic.

Here's the URL for those who want to see if they can access it. NYT article

[BakerAunt]

Wow! I may have to give focaccia a try!

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