What are You Baking the Week of April 7, 2019?

[BakerAunt]

Early Sunday afternoon, I baked the KAF recipe for Maple Doughnuts:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/maple-doughnuts-recipe

I made a few changes. I used white whole wheat flour, I used 6 Tbs. buttermilk rather than water. I reduced the baking powder to ½ tsp. and added 1/8th tsp. baking soda. I reduced the salt to 1/8th tsp. I used a disposable Wilton piping bag with the end cut off (no added tip) to pipe it into a 6-well standard baked doughnut pan coated with The Grease. I allowed the doughnuts to cool before making the glaze. I changed that recipe slightly in that I used glazing sugar that I bought from KAF—back when they carried it—and I substituted 2 Tbs. half and half for the heavy cream. I did not use the maple flavoring in the glaze. We will try these for dinner tonight.

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[chocomouse]

I made two loaves of buttermilk-oat-honey bread. So dinner was turkey sandwiches on fresh bread!

[BakerAunt]

The maple doughnuts are delicious.

Monday was a baking day while the contractor and his crew started work on re-roofing the house. In the morning, I baked another batch of seeded crispbread.

I also tried a new recipe for Buckwheat Granola, from Bob’s Red Mill, since I had bought a bag of buckwheat groats to try: https://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes/how-to-make/buckwheat-granola/

I made three changes: I used canola rather than coconut oil, I used raisins rather than dried cranberries, and I deleted 1 tsp vanilla as well as the optional almond extract. In the oven I’m currently using, the granola needed an additional 10 minutes of cooking time. I stirred in the raisins right after I removed the granola from the oven. I had a few bites, and it is delicious.

My last project for Monday is to bake a variation on my standard knead-in-the-bread machine bread. I’m making the 5-grain variation, using 1 ½ cup bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour, ¼ cup dark rye flour, and ¼ cup white rye flour, and adding 2 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. As usual, the salt is cut to 1 tsp.

[chocomouse]

Today I baked "tropical" muffins. No recipe, just mixed pretty standard ingredients, including Greek yogurt and flax meal, until I got the right consistency. I added shredded zucchini, drained and lightly squeezed (which started as 2 cups, last fall, before I froze it), orange peel I candied in December, dried pineapple, golden raisins, and coconut. They turned out great, good fruit flavor, and not too sweet. I used only 2 tablespoons of sugar, because most of the sweetness comes from the fruit.

[BakerAunt]

Those muffins sound delicious, Chocomouse.

On Tuesday, I baked the Honey Italian Whole Wheat Breakfast Cookies to which I posted the link last year. I’m still playing with the recipe. This time, I substituted ½ cup of barley flour for that much of the whole wheat. I used 1 tsp. vanilla (original amount), and reconstituted ¼ tsp. Penzey’s dried orange peel with ¾ tsp. water. I'll add a note tomorrow about taste.

Note: The cookies are softer with the barley flour, and I like the texture. I am thinking that I will stop adding the orange peel unless I have fresh zest. I might go back to adding a bit of the Fiori de Sicilia.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I made the dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers and fed my sourdough starter. I’ll bake the crackers in a few days.

On Thursday, I made the KAF Cinnamon-Apple Flatbread, using some of our remaining Winesaps. I replaced 2 cups of the AP flour with white whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill Ivory) and reduced the salt to 1 tsp. and the yeast to 1 ½ tsp. For the topping, I used the entire half cup of the syrup that I drained off of the apples. (I’m not throwing those ingredients away!). I used 3 Tbs. sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon, which I mixed with 4 Tbs. ClearJel, in order to approximate the ¼ cup of KAF cinnamon filling. It’s cooling on the counter. We will have some for dessert tonight to celebrate, cautiously, my husband’s partial recovery from the sinus attack.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making Vienna bread today, but forgot the yeast until after it had NOT risen for 90 minutes. So, I added the yeast, kneaded it a bunch more, and it is rising, but not all that vigorously. (It's also cold in the house today.)

Hopefully I'll have bread for tomorrow.

[chocomouse]

I screwed up my bread baking today, too! I forgot the dough was rising, so it over-rose and split open. I took it out of the cast iron bread pans, kneaded a bit, and reshaped it. In less than 10 minutes, it had risen significantly and looked like it was about to split, so I popped it into the warming oven. It didn't rise as much as it normally does, although there was some decent oven spring. It looks kind of "messy" on top, but the crumb is fine and my husband says it tastes great.

[RiversideLen]

I baked a basket weave loaf yesterday. Part rye, semolina and whole wheat.

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[Mike Nolan]

After the mistake and delays, my Vienna bread came out just fine.

[BakerAunt]

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/honey-spelt-sourdough-bread-recipe

After my husband recovered yesterday from his five-day sinus attack, he was hungry. I realized on Friday night after dinner that I would need to bake bread on Saturday rather than Sunday. I had used and fed my sourdough starter two days in a row, and I wanted to try the Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread recipe from KAF again. It had baked beautifully the first time, using KAF spelt, but I had tried twice to duplicate it with Bob’s Red Mill spelt, and it did not have the same structure, even though I weighed the ingredients, since I thought the BRM might measure differently by volume. However, both times, I got a sticky dough that baked into a loaf that sagged in the center.

When I made the levain on Friday night, I decided to increase the starter from 1 Tbs. to ¼ cup. I have a milk-based soupy starter, and KAF likely uses its own starter, which I understand is not soupy. I thought the additional starter would help with the rise and structure. I also decided to measure by volume not weight after noting that the Bob's flour seemed heavier per cup. (See note at end of this post.)

The next day, I proofed the yeast in a cup of 100F water with a bit of the honey. I then added the rest of the honey and the levain and mixed, before mixing in the additional 3 cups spelt flour, to which I had added ¼ cup special dry milk. I covered it and let it rest for 20 minutes so that the spelt could absorb liquid. I then mixed in 2 Tbs. of olive oil (replacing butter), before mixing in 1 cup of KAF AP flour with 1 tsp. salt (reduced from 1 ¼ tsp.). I kneaded for 4 minutes until I had a nice windowpane, then let rise for 1 hour 15 minutes.

I prepared my Emile Henry long baker (greased, then sprinkled liberally with farina). I pre-shaped the loaf, let it sit for 5 minutes, then did the final shaping. The dough needed about 1 hour 20 minutes for the second rise. I slashed it, replaced the cover, and put it in the oven. I changed the baking instructions a bit. I did do the initial 10 minutes at 425 before reducing the temperature to 400, but I then let it bake for about 23 minutes before removing the baker top. (The original recipe says 25-30 min.). I baked it uncovered for an additional 7 minutes. It tested 190F, and I removed it to a rack to cool. It has nice color, and it has the structure I recall from the first time I baked it. Tomorrow I will know about taste and texture.

I'm wondering if the KAF measurements in grams are off for this recipe. I was going to weight the spelt flour (Bob’s Red Mill), as I did previously, but I decided to measure a cup by volume. When I checked the scale, there was a BIG difference in weight, with the Bob’s flour coming in heavier. I decided that I would measure by volume—which is what I did the FIRST time I baked it. Doing so appears to have given me the results I liked so much the first time I baked this bread.

[Mike Nolan]

King Arthur Flour's recipes tend to be on the light side for the weight of a cup of flour, at 4 1/4 ounces for AP flour. There are many authors who use 4 1/2 ounces per cup, some who use 5 ounces per cup, and I've seen one that used 5 1/4!

Even the USDA database uses 125 grams (4.41 ounces) for a cup of AP flour.

[Joan Simpson]

RiversideLen that basket weave is beautiful!

Today I baked a Apfelkuchen:German Apple Cake from One Acre Vintage-Pumpkin Patch Mtn. By Jennifer.
It was baked in a spring form pan with a batter base and apples on top.Mine didn't look like the picture,my apples seemed to be dry when it came out of the oven but as it sat it became very good it was sprinkled lightly with powder sugar.The base around the edges cooked almost like the crunchy part of a pound cake,which is my favorite part the crunchy top.It's OK,I used 4 apples that needed to be ate.So we have coffee cake.

[Mike Nolan]

Len, what's your method for the basket weave? Looks like it comes out nicely.

[BakerAunt]

Mike--I think that it's the weight of the spelt flour that KAF has incorrect in the recipe. I might drop them a note.

I also would like to know about Len's basket weave shaping technique.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

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