What are you Baking the Week of January 1, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

So what's in your baking plans for a new year?

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[cwcdesign]

Will's making sourdough and I'm hoping to make, probably tomorrow, a Crystallized Meyer Lemon Bundt Cake from Claire Saffitz's new book What's for Dessert? I got some of my neighbor's Meyer Lemons before the freeze. It's made with olive oil, so I will post results - I'm sure that BakerAunt would be interested if it is good - I'm expecting it to be.

[BakerAunt]

Citrus and olive oil goes very well together. Also, chocolate and olive oil--but that is another story. CWCdesign's proposed Meyer Lemon cake made me think of Miss Cindy and smile as I remembered her intrepidness in shipping Meyer Lemons to any Baking Circle Member who wanted some.

I had considered baking Whole Wheat Julekake, from Ken Haedrich's Home for the Holidays for New Year's breakfast, but since I baked that apple cake last night, I decided to wait and bake it for Twelfth Night or Epiphany. It calls for half an orange--peel and all! I'm planning on replacing the 4 Tbs. of butter with oil. I was thinking avocado, but olive oil might be an option.

[chocomouse]

Today I made my husband's birthday cake - it's a two-crust cream pie.

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[Mike Nolan]

Very nice looking pie.

[Joan Simpson]

Chocomouse Happy Birthday to your hubby and pie looks good, I know he's happy!

[cwcdesign]

Happy Birthday to your husband, Chocomouse. It's a beautiful pie - my Mom's favorite birthday cake was cherry pie

[chocomouse]

Thanks, everyone. I find that brushing a tablespoon or two of heavy cream on the crust makes it look extra special. This is an old recipe from my husband's family, the kind that says "bake in a moderate oven" and no specific details.

[Mike Nolan]

I made semolina bread today. The last several times I've made it I've used honey instead of sugar in the flying sponge.

[BakerAunt]

I experimented on Thursday with a recipe for Whole Wheat Julekake, a Norwegian Christmas bread, using the recipe in Ken Haedrich's Home for the Holidays: Festive Baking with Whole Grains (pp178-179.

I made a few changes in that I used the yeast for high sugar doughs, replaced a cup of the regular flour with more whole wheat flour, used buttermilk instead of milk, reduced the salt by 25%, and replaced ¼ cup butter with a scant 3 Tbs. avocado oil. I cut the cardamom in half from 1 tsp. and added ½ tsp. cinnamon, as my husband's tolerance for cardamom is not that high. I also added golden raisins, cranberries, cherries, and sliced almonds. I used pearl sugar with the egg wash, an idea I saw in another Julekake recipe. I baked it as a single loaf, using the bread bowl I bought some years ago from King Arthur.

It was probably too much dough for the bread bowl, and the baking time extended to an hour and 15 minutes. I do not use the bread bowl often, as it seems to slow down baking time even with a smaller loaf, something that I and others noted in reviews some years ago. After the first 70 minutes, with the loaf at 165F, I removed it from the bowl and put it directly on the oven rack for 7 minutes, when it finally tested at 198F.

I plan to add a glaze from another Julekake recipe (the one that gave me the idea of half cinnamon. It is a well-shaped loaf, but somewhat darker than I would have liked. I'll post tomorrow about texture and taste.

Oh, and when I was mixing the dough, I was distracted by trying to help my husband with a computer search issue, and initially forgot to add the egg. I had to mix it in well into the process, when the bread had been kneading for a while, and was that ever messy. Once again, I muttered to myself about the disadvantages of the open concept kitchen.

[BakerAunt]

Follow-up on Julekaka: The flavor is excellent. It does have a rather thick crust on top and bottom. I would make the same changes, but next time, I would bake it, as I should have done this time, as two separate loaves, possibly in 8- or 9-inch cake pans. I was not sure that my husband would eat it, but he polished off an entire slice with his breakfast.

I think that Julekake recipes are probably dependent on what ingredients the baker has on hand. Often candied fruit is used, and I think this recipe, using half an orange is a way of getting the candied orange flavor.

I did not mention it yesterday, but I also made dough in the morning for whole wheat sourdough cheese crackers that I will bake next week.

[Mike Nolan]

If it has candied orange or lemon peel, my wife won't eat it. Even zest is something she avoids. She's also not fond of rose water, orange blossom water or anything involving pistachio. That limits my baking experimentation quite a bit, especially around the holidays.

We got a panettone as a present a few years ago, but it was one of the mass-produced ones and not very good, it struck me as being a cross between bread and fruitcake with the worst aspects of both. I think we ate about a third of it. Some day I'd like to try a really good panettone, but making one seems like a lot of work.

[BakerAunt]

I considered trying to bake a panettone, but if I were going to use that much butter, I would have baked my Swedish Almond Ring (provided I could locate a can of good almond paste).

Mike's comment about the limitations on our baking that result from the people we love reminded me of a bit of a blow-up my husband and I had yesterday. I was talking about baking another batch of biscotti, when he asked if I could bake something he could also feed to the dog. I momentarily lost it. As I explained, after an emphatic no that rattled him, I already have limitations based on my health need to limit saturated fat, and limitations based on his inability to tolerate onion, cooked tomatoes, various kinds of beans, and some spices. I will NOT add the dog into the mix just because he and she enjoy having dessert together.

I may need to take up baking dog biscuits.

[Mike Nolan]

We've never had a dog, so I've never had to consider making dog treats, I wonder what changes would have to be made to recipes to make them more dog-friendly and safe? (Obviously, no raisins, maybe lower in salt and sugars? I know cats don't have taste buds that sense sweetness, do dogs?)

There's a vendor at the Sunday farmer's market who specializes in dog treats and has had allowed people to nibble on them as well. I've not tried one.

[aaronatthedoublef]

After the article/video about challah I was inspired. I made enough for 3.5x1 lb. loaves. Four strands. I am happy with two. The third is a little janky and was too long for the pan. I am using boiled cider to replace most of the water. I am still within legal limit for juice in bread because I have enough other liquid. Although I am not sure if eggs count as liquid...

Violet does not like challah. I know, we're all baffled too. But she came and smelled my dough and said, "smells bad which means it's right."

We said the blessing and pulled it apart. Kate likes it with some butter and honey. I did not tell her how much sugar is already in it...

So three loaves this week. I have to up may game next week. I probably also need to start it Thursday night so I can be ready to bake Friday morning instead of Friday afternoon.

A couple other things... I am trying something new with my pizza to try for a crisper crust. I take it out of the ove and put it on a rack to cool before I put it on the cutting board. I want to see if it will release some more moisture that might be in the crust.

Costco has started to carry KAB bread flour in 10 lb. bags! It's $8.47 or something close which is is only $1 more than a five lb. bag at the grocery store. I already had 20 lbs. of BRM but I bought a bag anyway because, well, can't have too much flour, especially if I am going to shoot for 12 loaves of challah. I don't know how long they will carry it but if it is long term, it will be the least expensive way for me to buy bread flour. I do like the five lb. bags because I just realized I just drop the bag in my flour container but the price is too good.

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