What are you Baking the Week of February 25, 2024?

[BakerAunt]

I took advantage of having recently fed my sourdough starter and, having made the levain Monday night, I baked my Rustic Sourdough Mixed Grains Bread on Tuesday. I used a Romertopf glazed bowl (greased with Crisco and coated with farina) and put the cloche top on it. This loaf came out particularly well in appearance, so maybe I am getting better at forming a boule. I look forward to slicing the bread tomorrow.

I think that I will stick to my ceramic bakers. With this recipe, I put the covered bowl, with dough that has risen for 35 minutes and then been slashed, into the cold oven, set the temperature to 425 F, turn it on, and bake for 55 minutes. It's nice to be able to use the pre-heating as part of the bake.

[RiversideLen]

Last night I made a Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake. I subbed 2 of the eggs it called for with flax seed meal hydrated with water (1 tablespoon of flax seed meal with 3 tablespoons of water soaked until it turns into a paste, per egg). I figured the flax meal would turn it into a health food :). Also used milk instead of water to give it some calcium. I topped it with white chocolate ganache and shredded coconut. It baked up nicely and turned out tender and moist, somewhat crumbly.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[chocomouse]

I made a rhubarb cobbler, using rhubarb from the garden that I froze last summer.

[aaronatthedoublef]

It's been a while. I've been lurking and reading but not posting. Was busy at work but I realize now I was working too fast. I finished my two-year contract in nine months. Oh well... something will turn up.

Len - I like your idea of health food! Your cake looks great.

A while back I asked you all about making buns as my buns kept turning into rolls. I realized they were turning into rolls because... I was making rolls. I made ciabatta a couple weeks ago and instead of doing my usual loose shaping, for some reason I rolled them into nice, tight little balls. While I could flatten them some they just popped up into nice rolls with a tight crumb - not very ciabatta like at all. Duh... I'm tempted to make a batch of natural starter and see if the same thing works.

I am kind of off starter. Mine is sitting in its home in the freezer now. I sort of want to see if I can revive it. What I've been doing with pizza dough is saving a couple hundred grams from batch and then using it in the next recipe. It will give me a nice, funky, fermented flavor without starter and in under five days. It also is softer than the sharp flavor I tend to get from sourdough. I may try that with my ciabatta.

I've made a few batches of brown butter/toasted sugar shortbread. I think I like toasted sugar better than brown sugar at least for now. I was reading the KAB brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe and they take the brown bits out. I like to leave them in as it gives a nuttier flavor. Is there any reason I should be taking them out or is that just a preference?

Have any of you ever made your own white chocolate? I want to try this to make a less sweet white chocolate.

Hope everyone is doing well. Condolences to BA's mixer!

[Mike Nolan]

I've been known to add additional cocoa butter to white chocolate, but that changes its viscosity too, so you have to be careful.

[BakerAunt]

It's good to have you posting again, Aaron. Thanks for your condolences on the hand mixer.

On Thursday morning, I baked Orange Breakfast Muffins, a recipe that came from a Grape Nuts cereal ad in the old Los Angeles Times food section. (I'm not impressed with the current L.A. Times food section, from what I have seen of it online.) I altered the recipe by replacing AP flour with white whole wheat, reducing the sugar from ½ to 1/3 cup, cutting the salt from ¾ to 1/4 tsp., reducing the baking powder from 3 tsp. to 2 tsp. and adding ¼ tsp. baking soda, and replacing ½ cup melted butter with 1/3 cup avocado oil. The orange I used was not that juicy, although it produced a good amount of zest. I only had ¼ cup, so I added water to get the ¾ cup liquid. I had part of an egg to use up, so I used it and another one for the two eggs. I also added 3 Tbs. milk powder. I reduced the temperature from 425 F to 400 F and baked the twelve muffins for 15 minutes. The orange flavor does come through, although not as strongly as it would have if I had had the full amount of orange juice. It was nice to be able to bake a healthier version of an old favorite.

In the evening, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made last week.

[Mike Nolan]

I threw my sourdough starter out, because at least as long as I'm on a mostly keto diet, I won't be baking much bread, much less sourdough. I can always build another, it's not too hard to do.

[skeptic7]

Aaronatthedoubleff;
What is the difference between buns and rolls? I have never cooked with toasted sugar. Is it less sweet?

BakerAunt;
How big is Rustic Sourdough Mixed Grains Bread? When I was experimenting I found I could stuff a 7 cup recipe in a cloche, but if I limited myself to a recipe with 4 cups of flour I didn't have to worry about it hitting the top. I could also put a boule of that size in a cake pan in the cloche and didn't worry about sticking to the bottom pan or having too hard a bottom crust.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I took the King Arthur recipe for Maple Walnut Biscotti and adjusted it by replacing 1 ½ cups of the AP flour with white whole wheat, adding 3 Tbs. milk powder, and replacing the 1/3 cup of butter with ¼ cup avocado oil. I thought the recipe would work, since the butter in the original recipe is melted. I changed the mixing instructions so that all the dry ingredients and sugar are mixed together, then the wet ingredients are added, along with the walnuts. I followed the baking temperature and time for the first bake, but when I put the cut pieces back, I reduced the temperature from 350 to 325 F and baked for 15 minutes. The biscotti have a great maple flavor and will go well at teatime.

Note: I made a correction to this post. It should be 6 cups of flour/grains.
Skeptic--The recipe has 1 cup sourdough starter (that would be 1/2 cup of flour), 3 cups whole wheat flour, 1 1/2 cups bread flour, 1/2 cup pumpernickel flour, and 1/2 cup of King Arthur's Harvest Grains. So that is 6 cups of flour/grains. The bowl helps the bread hold its shape. I might be able to do it with the cloche bottom, but I worry that it might stick to the lid along the sides. I have done a 3-cup recipe in it that I like.

[chocomouse]

I made focaccia, using Gael's Saturday Focaccia recipe from KAF. I sprinkled half of the pan with KAF's The Works Bread Topping and the other half with Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkles.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm planning to make blueberry mini-muffins using almond flour, but probably not until tomorrow.

My laptop computer wouldn't boot up this morning, I'm not sure what's wrong, but it's around 3 years old and I seldom get more than 3 years from a laptop. So I'm working from a computer in the basement this evening.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi Skeptic,

For me, buns are flatter and useful for sandwiches. Rolls are more like dinner rolls. I know there are things like sub rolls. I have been adding a pre-shape where I would roll my dough into nice, tight little balls and then a final shape where I tried to get it to spread. It never worked. I realized that if I just skip the pre-shaping I can get a better sandwich roll.

Toasted sugar has some caramelization to it from baking. I toasted it for about a half hour and could probably have gone a little longer.

[skeptic7]

Aaronatthedoublef;
My small bread tends to come out in the shape it wants, not the shape I hope for. The softer doughs will tend to be flatter and more sandwich shape. I used to bake a lot of English muffins and if I let them over proof, they would slump down and be flatter and the sides of the English Muffin rings would keep them from turning completely into pancakes.
Could you let the tight balls proof for a while and then press them flat? When I was making steamed bao lately, I would form them into balls and then roll flat. Then I would reroll them and they would handle much easier. My recipe made eight and I found by the time I finished rolling the last bun, the first one would be ready to be handled some more.

[Mike Nolan]

The blueberry muffins made with almond flour and allulose are good, but I think I need to make them a little smaller next time, they kind of overflowed the pan and were hard to get out. Another minute or two in the oven might have been better, too, but I turned them upside down and put them back in the oven for a few minutes to dry out the bottoms. They're almost certainly under 3 carbs per muffin.

Each muffin got 3 blueberries.

Diane is making oatmeal-raisin-date cookies again today. They're about 12 carbs each but as long as you only eat one that won't blow your carb number up much.

[Joan Simpson]

I broke my KitchenAid mixer in this week, I made pie crusts 5 for the freezer. I baked oatmeal cookies that I took with me to play cards Friday night. I made a batch of peanut butter cookies for a friend .My birthday was Friday March 1st and I had a great day.69 years old and am thankful for each day the Lord gives me.

[Author]

Posts