What are you Baking the Week of February 4, 2024?

[Mike Nolan]

No baking plans yet.

Spread the word

      

  

  

[chocomouse]

Today I baked 2 dozen of the molasses cookies I mixed, scooped, and froze in December.

[BakerAunt]

I made pancakes for Sunday breakfast. I tried a new recipe, "Whole Grain-Buttermilk Pancakes," from Rick & Ann's in Berkley, California. It was featured in a Bon Appetit article on Favorite Restaurants, Over the Counter, in September 2000 (pp. 169-170). I followed the recipe except that I reduced the molasses from 2 Tbs. to 1 Tbs. We like the flavor, and I will make them again. However, I am still figuring out how to use a Staub cast iron flat pan (originally intended for crepes). The first batch were almost perfect, but the temperature was a bit low, then I turned it up too high and burned the next batch (which the dog happily ate). The remaining batches were ok. I think that pan is too wide for the burner, so it does not heat evenly.

[BakerAunt]

A recent King Arthur email featured as its bake of the week "Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake." I baked it today with a few changes. I substituted in 1 cup plus 2 Tbs. white whole wheat flour, added 1 Tbs. milk powder, halved the salt, and replaced the sour cream with Chobani nonfat Greek yogurt. I reduced the sugar from ¾ to 2/3 cups. I reduced the chocolate chips from 1/2 to 1/3 cup. I decided not to do the cinnamon-sugar sprinkle on a non-stick spray bottom and sides of a parchment-lined pan. I deleted the parchment and greased the pan, and I put all of the cinnamon sugar on top. The cake looks nice, but the taste is underwhelming. If I were to bake it again, I would use avocado oil rather than canola oil, since I can only get nonfat Greek yogurt here. The cake needs a bit more fat, as it is slightly dry. I also think that the cake part is too plain, and I'm not sure that having sugar and cinnamon on the bottom and sides would have fixed that plainness, since I put it all on the top, and it does not come through strongly. It needs more cinnamon, probably in the cake itself. The chocolate chips do not really belong except to break up the plainness; cinnamon chips would be a better choice. Even if I had followed the recipe completely, I think this snacking cake would be underwhelming. A bit of vanilla might help, which is a surprise since King Arthur recipes usually employ that ingredient liberally.

[RiversideLen]

I made a batch of sandwich buns (6) but held out enough dough for a pizza for tonight's dinner.

[BakerAunt]

An update on the Chocolate Chip Snickerdoodle Cake: Like every oil cake, the taste and texture improve the day after baking. It is no longer dry. I still think that the recipe needs some refinement, so I may bake it again at some point with a few more changes.

[BakerAunt]

I have a recipe for Cranberry Scones (no butter) that I adapted from Elizabeth Alston's book, Biscuits and Scones. I have used it as a basis for some other scone recipes. On Wednesday evening, I used it to make a cinnamon mixed fruit and walnut scone that I will start eating for breakfasts tomorrow. I decided to use dried fruit when I found a bag of mixed dried fruit blend from King Arthur in my baking stash that is a couple of years old and never opened. I tasted it, and it was fine, so I used a cup of it and ½ cup walnut pieces. I use half of the Irish flour from King Arthur and add some flax meal and milk powder and increase the buttermilk to ¾ cups. I use 1/3 cup canola oil in place of the butter. This time, I also added 1 tsp. of cinnamon. I usually bake the recipe in a Nordic Ware scone pan, but this time I formed the dough into eight balls, put them on a baking sheet, and flattened them slightly before sprinkling Penzey's Cinnamon Sugar over the top. I planned to bake them for 20 minutes but pulled them out thirty seconds early. I look forward to sampling one with coffee tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

The scones came out very well. I enjoyed one for breakfast, and my husband enjoyed one at lunch. He is sometimes iffy about dried fruit, but he liked these.

[chocomouse]

I made burger buns today. I used 1 cup of bread flower and 3 cups of AP. They rose higher than any I've made for 10 years!

[BakerAunt]

We needed bread for tomorrow, so on Friday I baked my adaptation of King Arthur's Chewy Semolina Rye Bread in the Emile Henry long baker. I cut the salt by a third, but this time I used the full amount of yeast. As usual, I replaced 1 ½ cups of water with buttermilk and added 3 Tbs. special dry milk. I do not add dry onion or put the seeds on top, partly in deference to my husband, but also to allow the bread to work for a variety of fillings.

[Mike Nolan]

I made a keto-friendly bread today (egg whites, almond flour and coconut flour, mostly), still waiting for it to cool to see how it is.

Followup:

Well, it came out looking more or less like the picture on the recipe, though maybe it could have stood a little longer in the oven. And using pasteurized egg whites is always a bit challenging, they don't whip up quite as high as fresh egg whites.

As to the taste, I've definitely had worse, toasted and with a little margarine and peanut butter it tasted mostly like peanut butter, and it had enough crunch and texture to feel like I was actually eating something close to a sandwich.

The real test is if I can use it for something like cheese toast or a BLT.

For a first try, it was somewhat better than expected, but I think I can improve upon it.

[Author]

Posts