What are you Baking the Week of February 9, 2025?

[RiversideLen]

I made a loaf of Light Whole Wheat from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I subbed 3 ounces of the bread flour with semolina. I used liquid milk in place of the powdered milk and water.
It didn't take as long to raise as the book suggested it would. It baked up pretty tall. It's recently out of the oven so I haven't sliced into it yet.

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[chocomouse]

That's a pretty loaf of bread, Len! I'll have to look up that recipe in my book and give it a try.

[Mike Nolan]

I've tried a number of recipes in BBA, never found one that wasn't a good one, though there are several I've not repeated, though not because they didn't work. I like the bagel recipe in the Artisan book better, but still use the baking instructions in BBA. I've probably made the Marbled Rye bread recipe the most, with baguettes/country bread a close second. (I find both recipes work with a variety of shapes, our favorite is still the epis de bles.)

His timing may be off a little some days, but he anticipates that in the front matter, noting that minor variances in flour, moisture level/absorption and ambient temperature/humidity all have their impact on yeast activity. And Peter always says, "The dough will tell you what it needs."

[BakerAunt]

I have that cookbook but to my shame have never opened it. I need to do so.

That is a lovely loaf, Len!

[Joan Simpson]

Len your bread is beautiful!I don't have that book but may look into getting one.

[RiversideLen]

Thanks all.

The bread came out great in both appearance and taste, I had some with dinner. Looking forward to making toast and grilled cheese with it.

Open up that book, BA! It has a lot of good information; it's not just recipes. I fully agree that the dough will tell you what it needs.

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[Mike Nolan]

The front matter chapters in BBA and in Jeffrey Hamelman's book "Bread" are worth reading periodically, just to refresh your memory of things. I find I tend to leave steps out over time, and it affects the bread.

[BakerAunt]

As it turns out, a survey of my cookbooks reveals that I do not own BBA. Instead, I have Whole Grain Bread, Artisan Breads Every Day, and Bread Revolution. I've tried exactly one recipe from the three: Crispy Rye and Seed Crackers from ABED and was not impressed with the so-so taste. I regretted buying Bread Revolution, sight unseen, as it mostly called for sprouted flours, which would be hard for me to obtain. I have a hazy memory of trying a graham cracker recipe and being disappointed, although I'm not sure from what book. I also have two pizza books by Reinhart that I have never used.

I have Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread and have not baked from it

Sigh. I recall that we were going to challenge ourselves to try recipes out of the cookbooks on our shelves. I should start doing so.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Len - looks great. And I refer to BBA regularly although I've yet to bake a loaf from it. If you want to make a 4 or 6 strand braid it has great directions, for example. And there are some fun stories in it too.

Mike - thanks for the tips on the baking steel. I just don't want to shell out the money for it right now. I remembered how we made pizza at our college pub and I may try a variation on that. We would stretch the dough then put it in an oiled pan. The pan went in the deck oven. After some amount of time we would take it out of the pan and finish it on the deck.

I must have made hundreds of those pizzas over four years!

[Mike Nolan]

I only have a baking steel because my older son gave it to me as a Christmas present a while back, but it took me about a year to start using it. It's 14x14, I would have probably bought one that was more like 16x18, but when I make pizza it's usually about a 12-13 inch pie so it fits on the steel. I want to try bagels on it some day, though.

BTW, the King Arthur pie crust bag is a GREAT way to roll out a pizza into a nice round shape and transfer it to a peel.

[Joan Simpson]

Len your bread looks perfect!

I baked a Carrot cake today for the poker game tomorrow.The recipe I use calls for self rising flour. I had both my cannisters on the counter and realized before I added the flour so I got the baking powder and salt out to compensate and it looks like all is well.I had already added the cinnamon to the flour and didn't want to waste it.

[chocomouse]

We should pick a book and a date and challenge ourselves to bake one, just one! recipe from it! I pick Five-Grain Bread on page 281 in Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread". I will not make any major changes or substitutions (perhaps add a bit of water or flour if the dough doesn't feel right, or maybe reduce salt, for example of minor change). If anyone wants to join me- great! Or, you pick from a different book. Let's report back to the group next week Friday, Feb 21 - if that works for everyone interested.

Comments? Suggestions? Changes? Let's try this!

[BakerAunt]

That's a great idea, Chocomouse. I'm going to set up a thread where we can post what cookbook and recipe we pick and then write about it. February 21 works for me, but maybe we could call it the February 2025 Cookbook Challenge.

Len, having foresight has already completed his February recipe!

.

[RiversideLen]

The Challenge sounds like a good plan!

Even though I still have wheat bread, I can only go so long with having sandwich/burger buns so I made a batch of my rye/wheat/semolina buns this afternoon. But since I also have some of the wheat loaf left, I only made 6 buns and reserved some of the dough for a pizza. Maybe tomorrow or Sunday for the pizza.

[BakerAunt]

Today, Friday, is Valentine's Day. I baked a Blueberry Coffee Cake with streusel topping in a red heart-shaped pan that I bought some years ago from King Arthur. I used a doubled recipe from Recipes from the Old Mill (p. 143) that we like. I used three cups of blueberries that we picked in the summer of 2023 that had gotten lost amid the 2024 berries in the freezer. I followed the recipe, other than cutting the salt a bit and adding 2 Tbs. each o milk powder and flax meal. I also used buttermilk. For the topping, I replaced 4 Tbs. melted butter with 1 Tbs plus 3 Tbs. avocado oil, and I used ½ cup pecan meal in place of the 2/3 cup nuts. This pecan meal is of a finer consistency than what King Arthur used to sell, so next time, I would cut it to ¼ cup. My husband was very pleased with this edible valentine.

My other baking project was making the dough for my February 2025 challenge recipe. See the details there!

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