What are You Baking the Week of February 26, 2017?

[BakerAunt]

I made a double recipe of wholegrain waffles for breakfast Sunday morning. My recipe started out as a Cornmeal Waffle recipe. I began to substitute in half of the unbleached flour with whole wheat flour, then substituted in buckwheat flour for 25% of the cornmeal (new preference medium ground cornmeal), and added some flax meal. I had cut back the butter and added a bit of canola oil, but today's innovation was to forgo the canola oil, and just use 5 Tbs. of butter per recipe, rather than 8 Tbs.. I was inspired by Mike Nolan's story of how his wife once made waffles, and the next day, they found the melted butter in the microwave: They had not missed it when eating the waffles. We liked how the waffles came out, so from now on, I will use the reduced amount of butter and no oil. One of these days, when I stop fiddling with the recipe, I will post it. Most of this morning's waffles have now been frozen for quick breakfasts. When my younger stepson was still living with us during high school and college, he always liked to sleep in as long as he could, so he would often grab a waffle from the freezer, toast it, smear it with peanut butter, and breakfast on the go as he headed for class.

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• This topic was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: added omitted word

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, like Mike and you I've cut way back on the butter (and the sugar) in my waffle recipe. Especially as you add flax meal you can use less butter. I think I am down to two or three TBLs. I use pastry flour and flax meal. I have not yet started to add in some whole wheat flour. But maybe I'll get some WW pastry flour and sub that in. I use the same recipe for pancakes and waffles because three people like waffles and one likes pancakes so everyone get what he/she wants. My oldest is now a teenage boy and I think he eats things faster than he can taste them.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, I tried the snickerdoodles recipe my wife brought home, and they didn't come out anything like the sample she brought home, which was very flat and crisp.

I think I put in too much flour (it was specified by cups rather than by weight.)

A second problem was the baking temperature, 400. The sugar/cinnamon on the outside tasted and smelled burnt to me, so I lowered the temperature to 350 and increased the baking time.

I also started tinkering with the recipe, adding another egg, more oil and more sugar. At least now they're coming out crisp, but still not flattening much when they bake, but I think the extra egg was a mistake.

I stuck most of the dough in the refrigerator, I may try baking some more tomorrow, or I may write this batch off as a failure and see if my wife can get any advice from the person who gave her the recipe.

[Joan Simpson]

I made a batch of cinnamon rolls Saturday and threw in some left over mashed potatoes I made with sour cream and butter and that made the dough so soft and moist really good,then frosted with cream cheese icicng.Made 4 pie crusts today and an apple pie.So more pies are in the near future.

[BakerAunt]

For Tuesday dinner, I made pizza, using the KAF Thin Crust Pizza Recipe. My husband was late getting home, so the dough rose for 2 hours, but it was fine, and perhaps even better than when it only has the one hour rise,

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, I've taken one, brief pizza class (it was part of a larger class) with an Italian chef who taught that all the pizza makers in Naples allow a three day rise for their dough. I started doing that and then extending it to five days. I am not back down to between one and two because my family likes that better. It ferments too much for their tastes otherwise.

Andris Lagsdin, inventor of the baking steel was blogging here at KAF and he talks about extending Jim Lahey's no knead pizza dough to 72 hours. So there are a few of us out preaching long, slow rises.

[Mike Nolan]

I tend to agree that 1-2 days of retarded fermentation is great for pizza dough. After 3 days, it starts to taste and act more like a sourdough.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks Aaron and Mike.

I should have mentioned that it is the Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza recipe:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/ultra-thin-durum-semolina-pizza-crust-recipe#reviews

I think that the semolina flour and the durum wheat flour particularly contribute to the flavor. I may try making this pizza dough a day in advance. Would I need to alter the recipe? I'm assuming that it still needs to come out of the refrigerator for an hour or two to warm up before shaping and baking?

My husband does not care for strong fermented flavor (does not care for sourdough), but I could probably get by with a day in advance, and it would make dinner preparation easier.

My husband goes light on toppings. A bit of tomato paste, some nitrate-free salami (or occasionally ground turkey), a few mushrooms, and a bit of red bell pepper, and then mozzarella and some parmesan. I use more of everything, and add black olives and green onions. I also sprinkle the Penzey's Tuscan Sunset and some garlic powder over the tomato sauce before I start adding toppings. (If we are using ground turkey, I sprinkle on some fennel.) KAF says not to overload this crust, but I make them 12-inches in diameter, and I don't have a problem. Of course I put them on parchment on top of the pizza stone.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[RiversideLen]

I always use some semolina in my pizza dough, it makes the dough easy to work. I usually make enough dough for 3 small pizzas, one third gets used either that or the next day and the other thirds are used the following days. I find the third day on the dough is very fine. If I can't use it before 3 days I'll roll it out and freeze it.

There are two things about the KA recipe I would change. If you're making this a day ahead of time, I would use cold water, refrigerator cold. Let the dough proof at room temp for several hours and then put it in the fridge. I even do that when I'm going to use it the same day, I just make it early in the day to give it enough time to work. If the dough is being made ahead of time, I would cut the yeast by at least half. My go to recipe I use exactly one half the amount of flour the KA recipe calls for and I use only 1/4 teaspoon yeast. Pizza dough, especially thin crust, doesn't need the kind of rise a bread loaf needs.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I like parchment too. It's just so much cleaner than flour or corn meal.

Fermentation is definitely a matter of taste. The sour dough here is much less sour than when I lived out west because that is the way most customers here like it. And like your husband my family likes less fermentation. But when I made them pizza with fresh dough that had only had a few hours to rise, they said it was missing something.

[BakerAunt]

On Thursday, I tried a new recipe, Spiced Pumpkin Cake, which was included among four recipes with a Kaiser Backform Deep Swiss Rosette 11-inch pan with removable bottom that I bought ages ago. I'm packing up some bakeware to move during spring break, and I came across it. As I had cake flour in the freezer, and some frozen pumpkin to use up--I'm working my way through perishables before we move at the end of June--I decided to bake it. I did not use the frosting recipe (2 packages of cream cheese!) with a Tbs. each of maple syrup and molasses, as well as 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar), as it would be a bit rich for the two of us. Instead, I used the maple glaze recipe from the KAF 100% Whole Wheat Apple Cider Baked Doughnuts, except I used glazing sugar rather than powdered sugar and reduced the maple extract to 1/4 tsp. The cake's center was a bit sunken (another reason for glaze!). I suspect the leavening agents might need adjustment. I should have realized that 3 tsp. baking powder and 1 tsp. baking soda is likely too much. I've posted the ingredients in the dessert category, and I hope that Cass will look at it.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[cwcdesign]

I've been crazy busy (which is a good thing) but haven't had time to post. At the end of last week I made the Salted Caramel Kentucky Butter Cake for work and it was a big hit. I also took my time blending in the ingredients and it was much less messy. This week I made the Chocolate Cherry Doughnut Bread Pudding from foodiewithfamily.com. It's made with glazed doughnuts! I have a friend who's crazy about Krispy Kremes so I had to make it for her. It was not as sweet as I expected it to be. Next time I would add more cherries and layer in the chocolate and cherries. Mixing it the way she recommended, a lot of the chocolate ended up on the bottom.

[luvpyrpom]

So this past week I finally finished using up all the unfed sourdough I accumulated while reviving my starter. Two sourdough boules, 6 loaves of sourdough English muffin toasting bread - three of them were plain and the other three I added raisins. My freezers are packed!

[cwcdesign]

Luvpyrpom,
I'm so jealous you have freezers (plural)!!! I have a side by side in my rental and the freezer is right next to the wall and I can't open the door all the way so we don't even have full access to that ☹️

[chocomouse]

I've actually done quite a bit of baking this week. I made a raspberry coffee cake with raspberry streusel; really tasty. I sliced up some cranberry-coconut refrigerator cookies left in the freezer since Christmas. I made a couple of small, 3 x 5 inch pans, loaves of Olive and Herb bread using KAF add-in flavor. For our standard sandwich loaves, I made DH's favorite Maple Oatmeal Buttermilk bread from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook, except I subbed in one cup of Sprouted Wheat Flour that I bought at KAF, in place of a cup of AP. It made a nice loaf, with only a subtle change in flavor. This is a terrific recipe which I strongly recommend. I make lots of substitutions, such as honey, agave syrup, as well as a variety of flours in place of 1-2 cups of the all-purpose. I've not yet been disappointed.

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