What are you Baking the Week of December 24, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

I may make forgotten chocolate meringue cookies Sunday or later this week. With my son and granddaughter here, we go through bread a lot faster so I'll probably have to make semolina bread at least once more before they leave on Friday.

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[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a small batch of cinnamon rolls to go with the chili tonight.

[BakerAunt]

After dinner on Christmas Eve, I baked the Zimtsterne (cinnamon star cookies) from dough I made last night. I used the same star cookie cutter as last year, which is probably too large (about 3 inches across) and got 14 stars and a circle from the leftover dough. This year, I did the meringue topping that is spread on the cookies before baking. Because my cookies are larger, I baked them for 15 minutes, just until the tiniest part of the tips of the stars started to get a bit of light brown. When I baked the Zimtsterne last year, I used a glaze that I found online that was ok but not so great, so I am looking forward to tasting these cookies tomorrow with the traditional topping.

I had about ¼ cup of the meringue frosting left over, so I stirred some hazelnuts and mini-chocolate chips into it, then used a #40 scoop to make three cookies. I baked them for 15 minutes, at 300F, until lightly browned. The three cookies made from the leftovers came from my vamping off of a hazelnut cookie recipe that calls for one egg white, hazelnuts, and sugar.

After I finished the cookies, I baked a pumpkin pie. It will cool on the counter overnight.

[BakerAunt]

We love the Zimtsterne (Cinnamon Stars) with the baked meringue topping. I will not be baking them any other way. I wanted to post a link to the recipe, but the exact one I used is not coming up on Google. I found one with the same proportions, so if you are interested, and have a surplus of egg whites, here it is:

https://www.food.com/recipe/zimtsterne-cinnamon-star-cookies-262925

I did not find that I needed to thin the meringue with milk.

I used fine almond flour, by weight, rather than grinding almonds.

I'm in favor of making the larger stars, unless you have patience for spreading the meringue. I used a small spatula to spread it out to the star tips.

I would NOT use the second method for spreading meringue specified in the recipe, as it would waste a lot of dough that could not be re-rolled.

We also love those three meringue cookies I made with the leftover meringue topping. I could see baking these using a recipe of the topping.

[Mike Nolan]

A few years back the Washington Post had an article on what to do with left over egg whites, with separate recipes for when you have one egg white, two egg whites, three egg whites, etc.

This includes the Forgotten Chocolate Meringue cookie recipe that I've made several times.

https://wapo.st/48xaxJw

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike. I will look at that article again.

As we were having a simple Christmas dinner, and I had three egg yolks left over from baking the Cinnamon Stars, I decided to bake Cass's recipe for Challah on Christmas afternoon. I have used 25% white whole wheat flour in the past. This time I used 14 oz. bread flour and 6 oz. white whole wheat flour. The recipe calls for seven egg yolks, so I used the three I had plus two whole eggs. For the water, I used it to rinse out a honey jar before proofing the yeast. I used the bread machine to make the dough but let it rise in a dough bucket. My braiding could use some practice. Both loaves had breaks in the center. I should probably braid a bit more loosely. I baked for 25 minutes at 360F, slightly lower than the 375F of Cass's recipe, then covered the loaves with foil for another 15 minutes but removed it with three minutes to go. The loaves tested done at 40 minutes.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a batch of a dozen bagels today.

[skeptic7]

I did a double recipe of "Nutty Brownies". This is the recipe that I had been telling everyone was the perfect cakey brownie with nuts. This time I used KAF all purpose flour instead of whole wheat, and a new oven, and mixed it in a stand mixer. I've noticed some changes. It was domed in the center and lower at the edges. Probably was cooked too quickly and should have been in a higher rack. Its lighter and fluffier and seems to have less depth of flavor than when the recipe uses whole wheat flour. Of course this could be my imagination.
My father had ben given a package of sugared pecans with just a hint of salt and I added this to the brownies. It was quite tasty but the salt tinge is very subtle.

[BakerAunt]

Might the doming be the result of over mixing? Perhaps mix in the flour by hand?

[Mike Nolan]

I've always read that overmixing results in brownies that sink in the middle, though some sites say having too much leavening can also cause that. Some sites say doming is caused by having the oven too warm, or using the wrong kind of pan.

[Mike Nolan]

Tonight I made forgotten chocolate meringue cookies and Diane is making a double batch of oatmeal-raisin-date spice cookies, which will hopefully fit in our 4 1/2 quart mixer.

It might seem odd to be doing holiday baking after Christmas, but these are mostly to go back to Pittsburgh when our son and granddaughter leave in the morning.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, thanks: (1) For posting your Pumpkin Puree (accent missing) recipe. I'll never make it; I don't like pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. In the recipe, you mentioned using a Kuhn-Rikon knife. At the time, I had an acorn squash that I didn't feel like tackling with my chef's knife. I searched Amazon for your knife. The first thing that popped up was a watermelon knife. There was no mention in the blurb or the reviews about using it for squash. I bought it anyhow. Summer will come again, and we like watermelon.

I continued to search for a squash knife. Still none with that label. I found the orange knife with a review mentioning acorn squash. I bought it, too. I'm going to use it on the acorn squash tomorrow.

(2) Thanks for letting us know you buy freezer containers from Lehman's. I buy several items from them but didn't know they sell freezer containers. To my pleasant surprise, they're USA-made. Immediately, I texted a niece about them. I no longer make the multi-course Italian Christmas dinner, but she does. She kept me in the loop about all her many, many preparations, including her Christmas Eve tamales -- all the WORK. After the holiday was over, I texted to her that she really needs to do most of the prep in October and freeze everything. Thanks to you, BakerAunt, she now knows where to buy the freezer containers.

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad my posts were helpful, Italian Cook. Thanks for letting me know. I actually have the Kuhn-Rikon "watermelon knife as well. My husband uses it to cut cantaloupes. Having the right tool for the job really makes a difference. I also use my "pumpkin" knife to cut butternut squash and any other winter squash with a hard rind. One thing I miss about being close enough to a T.J. Maxx to wander through frequently is that I would often find these items that turn out to be so useful.

I hope your niece finds the freezer containers helpful. I even used them to hold the green beans I froze.

One of the great things about Nebraska Kitchen is that we share information about useful tools. I'll be making yogurt again today, and the Chef Alarm that Mike recommended has made the process of monitoring the milk temperature and maintaining it at the ideal temperature for ten minutes so much easier.

[BakerAunt]

For breakfast on Friday, and the next couple of days, I baked an adaptation of the King Arthur recipe "Easy Holiday Eggnog Muffins." I cut the sugar from ¾ C to ½ C., which I started doing years ago when I baked the recipe. I replaced 1 ½ C. of the 2 ½ C. flour with white whole wheat. I replaced ¼ C. butter with 3 Tbs. avocado oil. I only used ½ tsp. nutmeg in the muffins, but next time, I will use the recipe's 1 tsp., as it needed more. For the topping, I reduced the sugar and flour from ½ C to 1/3 C., as I recalled it being too much for the muffins. I used 2 Tbs. avocado oil in place of 3 Tbs. butter. I used Organic Valley low-fat eggnog, which is the only lower in fat one I could find that does not include junky ingredients like high fructose corn syrup. I still use the Eggnog flavoring that I got from King Arthur, although I noticed recently that KA no longer carries it. I sampled two muffins for breakfast while they were warm. The recipe's additional nutmeg is needed, as they seemed a tad plain, especially with replacing the butter. However, as oil cakes and muffins usually improve over the days, I will see how the taste is tomorrow after the spice has time to rest. It may be that I need to bake these the night before serving, or it may be that for the topping, I will need to include a smidge of butter for flavoring.

[chocomouse]

I was at TJ Maxx this morning, first time in ages, and I found nothing to buy!! I also went to Joann's and the one item I wanted to buy there was out-of-stock! A half hour drive, each way, and I bought nothing except a tank of gas. Baking is more fun.

So I made a 9 x 13 pan of date-nut coffee cake when I got home.

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