What are you Baking the Week of February 27, 2022?

[Mike Nolan]

No baking plans here yet.

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[chocomouse]

I made bagels, and use AP flour instead of Bread Flour. They are a little too soft, not chewy enough, so I will go back to using Bread Flour.

[Mike Nolan]

With AP flour you have to cut the liquid, so that your dough is stiff. But bread flour is more traditional for bagels.

[BakerAunt]

I baked multigrain crackers today--a recipe that I have adapted from one in the King Arthur Whole Grains baking book. My version replaces the butter with avocado oil. As it is a baking powder rather than a yeast cracker, they bake up fast.

I have discovered that if I roll the dough directly onto my Silpat mat, with saran over the top, it rolls out quite easily. I can then flip the mat over and carefully peel off the Silpat and replace it with parchment paper. I then can flip it back over, remove the saran and transfer the parchment with the dough to a baking sheet.

[Mike Nolan]

Speaking of parchment, I took a BBGA class in which the instructor took a sheet of parchment and wrapped it around as a shield on a KA mixer. Looks like it kept the flour from spilling out the top.

[BakerAunt]

That's a nifty idea for keeping flour contained, Mike. I will have to give it a try with my Cuisinart stand mixer.

Today I baked a half recipe of the King Arthur Favorite Fudge Birthday cake, using two 6-inch cake pans. I changed the mixing instructions because of my experience with oil cakes. They are more tender if mixed by hand, and it is better to mix the sugar in with the oil, then mix in the eggs and vanilla. I mixed in the dry ingredients with a cake whisk before slowly incorporating the water.

I made a couple of ingredient changes. I used olive oil because as Cass once told me, it brings out the flavor in the chocolate. I made that substitution the last time I baked this cake, and it stayed moist for the four or five days over which we ate it. I also replaced the King Arthur AP flour and cornstarch with Gold Medal AP flour for a lower protein level.

For more details about this project, see the thread: A Special Little Wedding Cake

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA, interesting tip about the olive oil. I've always added some coffee as it's supposed to bring out the chocolate flavor. My chocolate cake calls for oil. Never thought about using olive. Always used some neutral cooking oil. Next time I'll try olive oil.

What kind did you use? Right now we have several different ones from the inexpensive big jugs of Spanish OO from Costco to some fancy Italian oils to some interesting Israeli stuff my brother gave me when he came to visit. All are extra virgin.

My kids would love it if I made different cakes to test the different olive oils but my wife might kick me out.

[skeptic7]

I did an apple pie recipe this weekend. I'm still with my father in his house so I don't have all my tools, but my father kept my mother's pie pans so I could use those. I used the smaller pie pan which took about 7 cups of apples. I read Mike's apple pie filling recipe, and cooked the apples before putting them into the pie. This worked better than I expected and the slices were easy to fit in the pie crust. I was afraid the apple slices would burn or crumble when cooked but they didn't. I boiled the juice and thickened it with some flour before adding to the pie. I thought since the filling was precooked the pie would take less time to cook but it took about as long to get the crust brown.

[Italiancook]

I use the same olive oil my mother-in-law used: Felippo Berio. Food Network recently gave it a good rating. My mom-in-law never used EVOO, but that's what I buy. I also buy their light olive oil. Their EVOO has a fruity taste, so I use that in sweet muffins. For everything else, I use the light olive oil.

[Mike Nolan]

Not sure where I read it, but some chef/oil expert said not to use the expensive olive oils for anything other than dipping sauces, just use a light olive oil for most cooking purposes. Most of the time the flavor is muffled by adding ingredients and cooking/baking.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--I also use espresso powder in the chocolate cake.

I am currently using the organic EVOO that Aldi's sells. It's the only kind of olive oil I have in the house.

We ate half of one of the 6-inch layers for dessert tonight. The taste is wonderful and the texture tender. I think the texture is not just due to the olive oil but the technique that I used for mixing it, as well as the Gold Medal flour.

When I make my oil pie crust, which calls for half a cup of oil, I have started using half canola and half olive oil. The crust takes on an almost buttery flavor that complements almost any filling.

[chocomouse]

This morning, I baked two King Cakes, one for us to taste-test, and the other for a gathering on Saturday. I used the dough recipe from Emeril's website, and the filling recipe from Bob's Red Mill. This is not my usual annual cake! Although I let them rise and bake the suggested times, and they appeared to have risen fine, and seemed done, although it's not an easy product to test the doneness, something is not right. The inner, base sections are not done. The texture is different, soggy. It might be the cream cheese filling soaked into the dough too much, also. But the flavor is excellent and I will use the same recipes when I make it again - next year! - paying attention to my notes.

This evening, I made a pizza. It rose beautifully, was cooked perfectly, and the flavor is excellent.

[Mike Nolan]

Mardi Gras wasn't something we celebrated much, and a king cake always looks like an explosion at the paint factory to me. 🙂

[Joan Simpson]

I baked brownies today the recipe was a new one,they are very moist using oil.Made a 8x8 pan very fudgy,will post recipe later.

[BakerAunt]

I wanted to bake the Leimsamenbrot again on Thursday, but my husband asked for his beloved Grape Nuts bread, so I baked two loaves of it. I decided to replace a cup of the bread flour in my version with a cup of white whole wheat flour, thereby boosting the whole grains from the 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour that I already include. I used white whole wheat as the additional flour so as not to overshadow the Grape Nuts taste. The bread rose well and baked nicely, so I will see how it is tomorrow when we slice it at lunch

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