What are you Baking the Week of August 2, 2020?

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I baked Hot Cross Buns with Blueberries. The wholegrain recipe is my own, although it began life, years ago, as a Los Angeles Times food section recipe. I was able to use the Zo to knead the dough; I had been unsure if it could handle that amount of flour and liquid. I wait and add the blueberries after the first rise, and yes, it is always a bit of a mess. I pat the dough out, put some on half, fold it over, repeat, and eventually incorporate all of them, but it is messy. I do not weigh to make sure the buns are equal, and I do not really form them in more than a rough glob, as I try not to smash too many of the blueberries. (It helps somewhat, but only somewhat, to select firm blueberries.) As I have had issues with acidic fruit affecting my USA pans, instead of using the 11x11` pan that I use for the raisin Hot Cross Buns and make sixteen, I used a 13x9 inch Pyrex dish and a small one that is about 6x10 inches. I made eighteen, putting twelve in the larger dish and six in the smaller one. I baked them on the third shelf up for 25 minutes. I frosted with my usual topping. We had some for dessert this evening.

[BakerAunt]

I made the maple granola recipe from KAF’s Whole Grain Baking on Friday, although I follow the revised recipe on the website that uses less oil and adds ½ cup powdered milk. I only used ¼ cup powdered Bob’s Red Mill milk powder because I am down to my last bag, and it is essential for my homemade yogurt. I always cut the coconut to ½ cup, and I add ½ cup pumpkin seeds. When it comes out of the oven, I stir in 2 cups of raisins.

Aaron--the granola is a great snack food, and the recipe can be adjusted according to preferred ingredients. It is easy, with little hands-on time.

[Joan Simpson]

I made pie crusts today and used two to make a cherry pie.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm baking another semolina/malt bread loaf.

[chocomouse]

I made two loaves of oatmeal-whole wheat bread.

[Mike Nolan]

Here are some numbers for Aaron on weight loss during baking and cooling for yesterday's semolina/malt bread, baked in a loaf pan:

Pre-bake weight: 982 grams
Post-bake weight (still hot): 942 grams
Post bake weight (1/2 hour of cooling): 922 grams
Post bake weight (next morning): 904 grams

So it lost just under 8% of the pre-bake weight by the time it had fully cooled.

[cwcdesign]

I finally made the lime cookies on Wednesday and baked some on Thursday before I went back to work. I have a few dozen in the freezer that we can bake when we need them. The recipe was originally in Cottage Living. It had sour cream in it. They were good - Will really liked them. My comments are that the needed more lime zest and that they were a little tough. Any suggestions for next time. I did double the recipe and can provide any other information.

The nice thing about the new kitchen cabinets and countertops is that the configuration gives us more counter space. While I was prepping the cookie dough on one counter, Will was making his tortillas - we are going through more flour since he started making them

[chocomouse]

We designed our house for retirement, so it has a fairly small, efficient kitchen. I do have a separate walk-in pantry, and a large "shrunk" (we brought back from Belgium; it's like a huge china cabinet, 3 meters long, and about 2.5 meters tall) so I have plenty of storage space. But with all the baking I do, I'd love to have more counter top footage. I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out of your new space!

[Mike Nolan]

We designed our house to have all the important stuff: kitchen, master bedroom, laundry room, etc. on the first floor, with a slight ramp up from the garage so there are no steps. All the doors are at least 36 inches wide, the bedroom hallway is a full 48" wide.

My wife has been using a walker for a few weeks because she's having some back and hip issues, but the house is ready for that.

[chocomouse]

We did the same, and I do use a walker when I'm out, but not in the house.

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