What are you Baking the Week of February 1, 2026?

[BakerAunt]

Now, if King Arthur would just get the special dry milk back in stock. They have been out of it for over two months.

Chocomouse--I have Secrets of a Jewish Baker. There is a rye bread that I particularly like in it, which King Arthur featured in one of its email recipes a long time ago. I need to pull it out and see what else I might bake from it.

I baked my oil-based Cranberry Scones on Tuesday afternoon, adding grated orange peel and pecans. I had a scone with tea this afternoon, froze four for quick breakfasts, and left out three to eat later in the week. Scott is not fond of cranberries, so these will be for me. I still have cranberries to use up from the autumn.

[cwcdesign]

BakerAunt, King Arthur is also out of Irish-Style Flour and Double Dark Cocoa powder. I called them yesterday as I'd gotten an email about the Irish flour being back in stock and it wasn't - that could be another couple of weeks and the double dark cocoa up to a month. I'm waiting until they come in to place my order to save on shipping. At least I have some triple cocoa powder I can use up

[BakerAunt]

CWCdesign--they have also stopped carrying the malted wheat flakes. I'm beginning to wonder if there are supply issues. I, too, have been waiting to place an order.

[BakerAunt]

It was one of those days when I wanted cookies with tea, but none were made, and I did not have much enthusiasm for what to bake. I pulled out my cookie recipe binder and paged through until I came to my Healthier Oatmeal Scotchies recipe. Suddenly, I knew what I wanted, and two hours later, I had my tea with two of the cookies I had baked. Scott snagged a cookie for his teatime as well.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake the crackers next week.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, I admire that when you wanted cookies for tea, you baked a fresh batch. I'd no longer do that, but I still like to have cookies at-the-ready. So I prepare the dough in advance and freeze it in cookie shape. If the cookie has a lot of fat, think chocolate chip cookies, I scoop them out with a round scooper. I don't take the time to roll them into a complete ball. I don't object to having a flat side.

I place these dough balls on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet. I flash freeze them on the pan for 1 hour. Then I place a tea-time serving plus one or two for my husband in Kroger sandwich bags. (Kroger brand cheaper than national brand.) I put the sandwich bags inside a Ziplock gallon freezer bag & freeze. I write the baking time and temp on the Ziplock bag. My experience is that frozen cookies will bake completely from frozen at the upper baking limit on the recipe. But you'd need to experiment with your oven, since ovens vary.

For less fat cookies, such as anything with oatmeal, I scoop them out onto the waxed paper. Then I use the bottom of the small, round cylinder of my Cuisinart food processor to gently, slightly press each cookie ball to form a cookie shape. Because, less fat means the frozen cookie will bake up round, not flat if they're not flattened a little. I don't completely flatten the cookie. Maybe only half-way or less. That way, the cookie will rise a little and still be a flat cookie shap when baked from frozen.

I bought two 1/8 sheet pans from Williams-Sonoma (Gold Touch, but I think they're now branded as W-S.) They're non-stick. When I need a cookie or two, I pull out a sandwich bag from the Ziploc freezer bag & place them on the 1/8 sheet pan. I take them out and place on pan at the same time I start preheating the oven. I don't recall having ever greased a pan for this, but maybe I have. I think that if the recipe had called for a greased pan, I'd grease the tea-time cookie sheet. The 1/8 sheet pan holds 4 cookies -- 5 if I don't mind they run together. If a recipe wanted a grease pan, I would have written that on the Ziploc bag.

I no longer make a normal batch of cookies just to have in the house. Too much temptation & too much working making and baking them all in one day. I make a batch, follow the protocol I've stated here & freeze all except what we'll eat in a day or two. Been doing this for ages, and my "future self," as you once said, thanks me everytime.

[BakerAunt]

That's a great system, Italian Cook. We tend to be tight on freezer space, but I do have some containers for holding frozen cookie dough that I bought from King Arthur some years ago. I only make oil-based cookies these days, and I need to experiment on whether the dough can be frozen and then bake well.

I baked Sourdough Pan Pizza for dinner on Friday. Instead of the bread machine, I used the Ankarsrum to make the dough. As usual, I topped with tomato sauce (the last I had frozen from our garden), Canadian bacon, chopped up mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, chopped red bell pepper, green oinion, Greek olives on my half, and Parmesan.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked another loaf of Whole Grain Sourdough Bread in a Cloche. I replaced the flax meal this time with some buckwheat flour that I am trying to use up. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow.

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