What are You Baking the Week of December 23, 2018?

[BakerAunt]

I made the Bob's Red Mill coarse-grain cornmeal pancakes for breakfast this morning.

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[Mike Nolan]

This morning I made a double batch of banana nut mini-muffins and 18 bagels.

Yesterday I made marbled rye bread.

[BakerAunt]

I usually make a Swedish Coffee Ring with almond filling for Christmas, but it did not fit into the low-saturated fat parameters (less than 11 g per day), given the other food, such as stuffing and pumpkin pie, that I’d be consuming per day in this holiday week. (I’ll save it for another time.) I happened upon KAF’s Cinnamon Star Bread recipe, and I baked it Sunday evening.

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinnamon-star-bread-recipe

I used half white whole wheat flour, and I replaced the ¼ cup butter with 3 Tbs. canola oil. (That means the whole coffee cake has about 4 g. sat. fat, instead of 29g.) I also added a Tbs. of flax meal. I slipped up and only used 1 tsp. cinnamon in the filling. It’s still good, and next time, I will grab the correct spoon (oh, yeah, it’s the BIG ONE). I used all the water, since I had subbed in the white whole wheat flour. It is a soft, slightly sticky dough, which I mixed and kneaded in the bread machine.

I found it easiest to roll each round on parchment, with saran over the top. After I did the bottom one, I left it on the parchment on which I would be baking it, and I rolled out the others on another piece, one at a time. I then flipped that piece over, peeled off the parchment, and used the saran to position the dough onto the stack of circles. I peeled it off and proceeded to the next one. I discovered that after marking the center circle with a cookie cutter, it should be removed, or its weight will cause it to cut the dough, which will make the twists more difficult (you want them attached to the center at the top). When using the bench knife to make the 16 cuts, it is best to wet the blade slightly, or it will stick.

There is a blog with the KAF recipe that helps show how to make the twists. Although the recipe said to bake for 12-15 minutes, I use a heavy baking sheet, and I needed to bake it 25 minutes before the center tested at 195F. We had some for breakfast this morning, after our oatmeal, and it goes very nicely with coffee and it looks nice, even if all the twists didn’t quite come out correctly. I will bake it again.

[chocomouse]

There is a UTube video showing how to make this star, but I can't find it right now. I watched it quite a few years ago, before KAF came out with their recipe. The ladies are speaking a language foreign to me, but it's easy to see what they are doing. I've also made it with a thin layer of raspberry jam, and it was delicious.

[skeptic7]

On Monday I baked two loaves of buttermilk whole wheat bread with cinnamon spirals. One of them had currants kneaded into the dough and the other one had dates kneaded into it. These were shorter and denser than I had hoped. There are a couple of reasons that could have caused this perhaps having fruit in an all whole wheat bread weighed it down, perhaps the sponge had fermented too long, perhaps it was just too cold to rise well.
I also made two more pans of gingerbread. In honor of the season I had 1/2 cup of candied orange peel as well as 1/4 cup candied ginger. I gave 1 1/2 pans away but I kept the rest for myself.
I hope to bake cookies today -- I really shouldn't I've eaten enough cookies this holiday season but it would be good to use up the almond flour. I plan to add substitute 1 cup of almond flour for 1 cup of whole wheat flour in a regular biscotti recipe. Is this likely to cause problems? My normal recipe has 3 cups of whole wheat flour so this is only 1/3 almond flour.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I think that your substitution should work. The biscotti may be more tender or crumbly with the almond flour.

Chocomouse--My Bake from Scratch bread collection has a star coffee cake that uses jam in the layers. It's on my list to try with my black raspberry jam, since I made a lot of it and peach jam, expecting to use the jams in recipes that on my forbidden list for the time being.

On Christmas Eve, I baked a pumpkin pie, which for my husband is a Christmas tradition, so I've adopted it as well. I used the same oil crust recipe I used for the two previous crumb apple pies, but I made the larger amount so that I could build up the sides in my Emile Henry deep pie dish. My only changes were to reduce the salt, use buttermilk, and use 25% white whole wheat flour. After blind baking the crust for 15 minutes, I removed the liner with the beans and put it back for another 5 minutes to crisp the bottom crust. I made the pumpkin pie in my usual way—pre-cooking all the filling ingredients except for the eggs, then whisking one egg into a little bit of the filling before returning it to the rest, then whisking in each additional egg. I did cut the butter in the pie from 2 ½ Tbs. to 1 Tbs. I baked it starting at the higher temperature for 10 minutes, then reducing it. The pie did not puff up as it usually does, and I had to bake it an additional 10 minutes before I decided it was set. It does not look quite like my previous pies, so I was not quite sure about doneness.

The mystery was on its way to being solved on Christmas day, when I realized why this oven in the apt.—a “Galaxy” (brand of which I have never heard)—has been performing differently from the old Frigidare I had in the house. I’d put it down to different ovens of different vintage. I was pleased that the oven temperature on the thermometer was identical to the stove’s temperature setting, although I’d also noted that this stove takes a lot longer to pre-heat than the other, and sometimes slips slightly below the temperature. I was also having to bake items at least 10 minutes longer. Today, when we put in the turkey, I noted it was close to the top, so the rack needed to be lowered. My husband said, “Is there a top element?” I looked (this oven has no light in it, which is irksome) and noted the top element, which was not lit up. The light bulb in my brain came on: I don’t think that the top element is working, which would explain the long preheat and the longer baking times. After the turkey cooks, and the oven is cool, I’ll try turning on the broiler. It may be that the top element needs to be replaced. I don’t have a manual for this range, as it was in the apt. when we bought the place.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
Perhaps you can find a manual for the oven on the internet. I found instructions for mine there.

[Joan Simpson]

Merry Christmas to all of you.
Our son came in Christmas Eve and will be here through Jan.3.So we've been enjoying him.I baked his favorite chocolate cake which uses a cup of hot water and replace it with hot black coffee and use the special dark cocoa so it's very chocolaty.Besides baking corn bread that's all the baking except for dressing and sweet potato souffle with marshmallow topping.

[chocomouse]

For Christmas dinner, I made a Chocolate Caramel Tart. Everyone else liked it, but I did not. It was way too sweet and rich for my tastes. It was difficult to serve, as the caramel softened as soon as it was removed from the refrigerator. I think it would work better if made into mini-tarts, although I probably won't make it again.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--yes, I'll check the internet. The broiler does work, so maybe the oven just takes longer.

The pumpkin pie was excellent from the crust to the filling! At about 4.5 g. sat. fat per 1/8th, it is slightly high, but workable for my low-saturated fat parameters.

[Mike Nolan]

Whether or not the upper element comes on during a preheat cycle seems to be something of a fad. There was a time when most electric ovens did that, then for a long time only the bottom element came on during preheat, more recently it seemed like both elements are coming on again.

Best to check the manual for your specific model.

The 'cold oven' method of baking bread seemed to be assuming that only the lower element would come on, which more closely mimics the action in a gas oven, I think.

[BakerAunt]

I found basic instructions for the Galaxy, which is from Sears. There was no mention of whether the broiler is supposed to come on for pre-heating. I think that Mike is correct, and that the broiler is not supposed to engage. As the oven holds a temperature that equates with what is on the dial, it's good for baking, even though my baked goods seem to need a longer time.

[Mike Nolan]

One of the presents I got from my older son is a Meater+ wireless meat thermometer.

You stick it in the meat and it send data to your phone via bluetooth.

It can monitor both the temperature in the meat and in your oven, so you can see the oven temp moving up and down (the hysteresis effect) and the meat temperature as it approaches your target temperature. It can even give you an estimate for when the target temperature will be reached, including allowing for carryover. (For example if you set it to 150, it might have you take the meat out at 147 knowing that carryover heat will bring the center up to 150 over the next few minutes.)

I haven't used it yet, I also got an immersion circulating heater, we used that on the duck legs.

[chocomouse]

I made two loaves of pumpernickel bread, to use with the leftover Christmas ham.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I baked a bread that KAF called “Nelson’s Choice Rye Bread,” on a long-ago package, but which they now call something else. The recipe comes directly from Secrets of Jewish Baker, and it was so attributed at the time. It’s an iffy recipe, and KAF now has reduced the original amount of water in order to produce a better result. I used 1 cup plus 1 Tbs. water; next time, I will reduce that to 1 cup, although the rainy day may have also affected the dough. I baked it this time with dark rye flour (usually I do a mix of dark and medium rye flour), and I used non-fat plain Greek yogurt in place of the sour cream. (I’ve used regular sour cream and low-fat sour cream in the past.) I added 1 Tbs. canola oil to try to make up for the fat that isn’t there in the dairy. I do not have vital wheat gluten, an ingredient that I do not stock, so I omitted it. I had to add an additional 4 Tbs. of First Clear flour, which is the other flour in the bread. With this bread, the key is not to let the second rise go too long, or it will collapse when baking. I let it rise for about 35 minutes, then slashed and baked in a round 8-inch cake pan. The bread did not rise as high as it sometimes does, but it held its shape better. We will try it for sandwiches on Friday. I'll add a note to this post then about taste and texture.

Note: The bread came out delicious, and the crumb was even throughout.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by BakerAunt.

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