What are you Baking the Week of February 11, 2024?

[Mike Nolan]

What are your baking plans?

I've got a recipe for baked 'tortilla' chips I'm looking at, the ingredients are mozzarella cheese, almond flour and some seasonings.

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[Mike Nolan]

I made the 'tortilla' chips, they're quite good. I used part-skim mozzarella, because that's what I had, and I think that led to them browning more than I expected, so they're probably not quite as crisp as they should be.

But they go pretty well with cheese dip, with sour cream onion dip and even peanut butter! They're also pretty good with nacho cheese sauce and I think they'd be great with salsa.

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[chocomouse]

I made arepas today. They are not very pretty, but taste excellent. I chopped up 1 cup of whole kernel corn (canned, drained) to add to the batter; and I think this adds a lot to the flavor, although fresh would be even better. After they were cooked on the griddle, I put shredded mozzarella between two of them for lunch.

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked Leckerli, which is a Tyrolean holiday cookie. The recipe comes from McCall's Cooking School (#11), with a publication date of 1983/1984. Although Leckerli is considered a Christmas cookie, the cut-out hearts of this recipe remind me of Valentine's Day. The first time I baked it many years ago, I had a lot of problems with the dough, probably because I did not have the almonds ground evenly, and the dough also stuck to the waxed paper horribly. I may have baked them another time, although I do not recall doing so. The recipe requires candied lemon and orange peels, which became hard to find once King Arthur stopped carrying it. (It was back seasonally this year.) I had a jar of candied orange peel, and I found a jar of candied lemon peel in the Annex refrigerator. When my older bonus son stayed with us a couple of years ago, he had moved it, so last year, I thought that I had none. (Really, putting it in the butter holder in the door?) I ordered another bag to be ready for this year, and of course I then found it.

Instead of grinding unblanched almonds, I looked a the King Arthur weight chart and found out that 1 cup unblanched almonds weights 5 oz. or 142 grams. I needed 1 ½ cups, so I used 213 grams of Bob's natural almond flour (made with the skins). That certainly makes for a dough that is easier to roll. I divided the dough into fourths, as specified, but instead of rolling it out onto waxed paper, I cut half-sheets of parchment in half, which fits rolling it out to the specified 9 x 8-inch rectangle, although the eight inches takes it right to the edge. I put saran wrap over it to roll and for the required hour of refrigeration. When I cut the hearts, I moved out the trimmings, and left them on the paper, rearranging a bit for spacing, which I moved to a baking sheet, so there were two on each sheet. That works very well. My heart cutter is larger than the 3-inch specified, so I got six hearts per rectangle rather than nine. [Why do I never have the exact size of cutter a recipe specifies?!] I re-rolled the trimmings and ended up with 34 cookies--the last one being a smaller blob.

It was hard to know when they were baked. The recipe stated 8-10 minutes, and because mine were larger, I gave them 12 minutes. I had to let them cool a bit before removing them to a rack for the glaze. I baked them on parchment rather than directly on the baking sheet (recipe says ungreased baking sheet, so that may have affected them as well. They were a bit soft when moved but have firmed on cooling.

The recipe makes 46, so a slightly smaller cutter--mine was about 3 ½ inches--would be ideal. I thought that it used a lot of glaze for the baked cookies, so I made a half recipe, which was perfect. I did not do the decorating with candied red or green cherries (have none) and citron, but the cookies do not really need that unless one is out to do a showstopper presentation at a fancy party.

We will try the cookies with tea today, and I will post about the taste and texture.

[Joan Simpson]

I baked a pan of brownies today didn't think they were the best I think it used too much oil.I'm giving them to my sister in law to see what they think.

[BakerAunt]

Note: The Leckerli are delicious. I am not going to put apple into the container to soften them. They are just the right texture and go well with tea or milk.

On Tuesday afternoon, I baked Bittersweet Blackberry Brownies, which are now cooling on a rack prior to being refrigerated. They are much better after an overnight rest in the refrigerator, so they will be ready tomorrow for a Valentine's Day dinner. I found this butter-free recipe last summer when I was picking wild blackberries in our woods and tweaked it a bit. It uses just 2 Tbs. avocado oil. They are a cross between fudge and brownies in the very best way.

[Mike Nolan]

I tried making peanut butter cookies using almond flour with monkfruit and erythritol (corrected) as the sweetener. Erythritol tends to leave a 'cool' sensation on the tongue and there was kind of an aftertaste as well, which may be from the monkfruit. The texture was off, but that's more easily fixed than taste issues. So I call this one a fail.

I may see what happens if I use allulose, which browns faster than sucrose, so I'll have to watch for that.

[BakerAunt]

On Valentines Day, I baked Oatmeal Date Muffins for breakfast using some Valentines paper liners.

For dinner, I made sourdough pan pizza.

[chocomouse]

I made lemon muffins, using the new-to-me Lemon Crumbles. I used my own basic muffin recipe, and stirred in about a cup of crumbles plus a tablespoon of my favorite Lemon Juice Powder. The crumbles are good, more sweet than tart, so I don't care for the muffins as much as I love them made with 3 tablespoons of the tart juice powder. I think adding some pecans would add a lot to the flavor. And KAF has a recipe for lemon streusel (I think it is part of a lemon something recipe) which I often put on top of muffins but might be good swirled through the batter in the tins. I now have some good excuses for future experimenting!

[Mike Nolan]

I tried another half-batch of peanut butter cookies, this time the only change I made was substituting almond flour for the wheat flour. (I did accidentally put in a whole egg rather than a half egg, and that made the cookies flatten out a bit more.)

They're pretty good, the almond flour changes the taste a little, but they taste good enough that Diane had two this evening. And they're somewhere around 6 carbs each as opposed to 9 carbs for the originals.

[Joan Simpson]

I baked another batch of brownies to take to friends tonight we're playing cards Texas Hold'em , never played this poker game but I'm up for trying..

[BakerAunt]

I baked two loaves of Pumpkin Mixed Grains Bread, a recipe that had its origins in a Jane Brody recipe for Pumpkin-Rye Bread. My version is over two-thirds wholegrain, with whole wheat flour and dark and pumpernickel rye. I also added some of the King Arthur six-grain blend and this time increased it from ½ to 2/3 cup, as well as increasing the water I use from ¼ to 1/3 cup. (I substitute 1 ½ cups of buttermilk for the rest.) I found a 1 cup container of kabocha squash puree from two years ago in the freezer, so I combined it with 1 cup of pie pumpkin puree. I look forward to sampling the bread tomorrow. Just the way the dough felt and the baking smell tells me I am on the right track.

[Mike Nolan]

The keto friendly bread that I made 6 days ago was gone, so I'm trying another keto-friendly recipe tonight. This one uses 4 whole eggs and some ground flaxseed. It's in the oven, but it says not to slice it until it's cool, so I probably won't taste it until morning.

This recipe recommends keeping it in the refrigerator or slicing and freezing it. The other one didn't.

[Mike Nolan]

Haven't tried it yet,but it's a bit crumbly, a big corner of it broke off as I was handling it. But given that it didn't have any gluten or a gum (like xanthan) for structure, that may not be surprising. I will try slicing it at lunchtime.

I've ordered a bag of King Arthur's new keto flour, we'll see how it works, but it's really expensive.

[BakerAunt]

You have a good attitude toward the keto baking, Mike. I'm not sure that I would. I had enough trouble cutting the saturated fat in our menus. I suppose it gets easier the more one does it, but sometimes I just want to eat a large bag of tortilla chips with salsa.

My husband and I are both pleased with the Pumpkin Mixed Grains Bread that I baked yesterday. I'm not sure how much to attribute to my tweaks and how much to the cup of kabocha squash puree that replaced half the pumpkin. I will bake another two loaves with all pie pumpkin after these are consumed.

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