What are You Baking the Week of January 16, 2022?

[BakerAunt]

Last October, my husband finished picking the cranberries that grew on the little wild plant that came in the soil along with some trees he ordered for planting. He put it in a pot, and in 2021, it produced about 1/3 cup of wild cranberries. These kept well in the refrigerator in a closed container. I used them on Sunday to bake an adaptation of a recipe for Pecan, Orange & Cranberry Muffins, which I found in a neat little book, Muffin Magic (Ryland, Peters, & Small, 2010), p. 23, which I picked up in the remainder section at Barnes & Noble in 2012. It's a great little cookbook; most of the muffins use oil and limit the sugar to 1/3 cup and include whole grains and a variety of fruit.

My changes to the recipe were to use buttermilk in place of milk (increased by 1 Tbs.), reduce baking powder to 2 tsp. and add 1/4 tsp. baking soda, add 1 Tbs. flax meal and 1 Tbs. BRM milk powder, and replaced the orange peel and 2 tsp. orange juice that I did not have with1/8 tsp. Fiori di Sicilia. I used the third of a cup of cranberries that I had rather than the 1 cup the recipe specifies. I baked these as six large muffins rather than twelve small ones, and I reduced the temperature to 400F from 425F (using a large USA muffin pan which is more heat efficient). Baking time was still 20 minutes. Scott and I both had one at breakfast These are delicious, and we have the satisfaction of using our own cranberries. Sprayed, quality paper liners made clean-up easy.

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[Italiancook]

That's quite a fun and exciting story about the wild cranberry plant, BakerAunt. I'm happy you and your husband had this experience. I hope each future crop produces more and more cranberries.

[chocomouse]

Today I made bagels.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Apple, Barley, and Olive Oil Bundt Cake on Monday in a Nordic Ware Quartet pan (makes 4 small Bundt cakes). I adapted the recipe from one that came to my email from Zester, which has since ceased to exist. The barley flour was one of my innovations. For the apples, I use grated, unpeeled Winesaps. I plan to leave two of the cakes out for desserts this week and to freeze the other two.

I like to make pizza about once a month. On Monday, I made my sourdough pan pizza with the usual toppings of tomato sauce, Canadian Bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, red bell pepper, green onion, and, on my half, black olives. I made the tomato sauce by cooking down a can of Muir Organic fire roasted tomatoes, after first sauteing some olive oil in the pan. We accompanied the pizza with coleslaw.

[Joan Simpson]

I made the little chocolate cake with chocolate icing,so good and just right for the two of us.

[chocomouse]

This morning I made the KABC recipe Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls, their Recipe for 2021. I was disappointed. First, because it made only 8 (although I cut 9 slices to fit perfectly into a 9 x 9 pan) rolls. In this house, they won't last 2-3 days so I can test the claim about maintaining their softness. Secondly, the texture of the dough wasn't outstanding, not what I expected. I felt like perhaps they should have risen longer, or baked longer. I may try the recipe again sometime, but maybe I'll just stick with the one I've been using.

[Mike Nolan]

I made banana nut mini-muffins today, see the 'exploding muffins' thread.

[BakerAunt]

We were out of bread, so on Wednesday, I baked Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread, which is my adaptation of a Peter Reinhart recipe. I have been tweaking my increased wholegrain adaptation, this time by adding a bit more water, and that may have helped give a better rise. I bake it as three 8x4 loaves, as it otherwise makes two very large 9x5 loaves.

[Italiancook]

Last night, I made Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. I added 3/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips to my grandmother's banana recipe. It was a perfect amount of chips. One cup would have been too many. It's delicious, but I froze all the slices except the taste-test one.

This morning, I made Banana muffins for breakfast.

My husband had purchased one bunch of completely green bananas, one bunch of partially green and one bunch yellow. He thought they'd ripen at different times and prevent a grocery trip. But the green ones all ripened at the same time. So I'm left with a lot of ripe bananas to use up. Unfortunately, I have more ripened bananas than recipes. I'm thinking Banana Pancakes and sausage for dinner. I'll try to use several of the bananas to make banana syrup for the pancakes. I've never heard of banana syrup, so that may be a flop.

[BakerAunt]

You can freeze bananas for later baking projects, Italian Cook.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Rye and Barley Crispbread on Thursday, which I topped with pumpkin, sunflower, and sesame seed. I use my 2/3 sheet pans for this recipe. I decided to try baking at 347F convection rather than using the regular oven mode. The crackers browned more evenly and were done in 20 minutes, as opposed to 30 minutes.

[RiversideLen]

I made Healthy Oatmeal cookies from the Martha Stewart site, in addition to raisins I put in chocolate chips and coconut.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my adaptation of the Authentic Italian Lemon and Ricotta Cookies posted on the Olive Tomato website. I use low-fat ricotta, which works well. I have been using half white whole wheat flour, but today, I used all white whole wheat flour. The cookies are excellent.

[chocomouse]

Yesterday I made BakerAunt's version of Maple Buttermilk bread. It was perfect! I didn't need to add flour or water, it rose beautifully, got lots of oven spring, and is soft and moist. We had it for egg salad sandwiches for dinner. Today I decided to make it again, shaping it into 2 smaller loaves to gift, and 6 hot dog/sub buns. Today was a different story! Ur was a wet, sloppy mass. I had to add at least 1/2 cup of bread flour. I had already reviewed the ingredient list after I mixed it, and I'm very sure I didn't mismeasure either the flour or liquids. I usually make a wetter than normal dough, so I wasn't really concerned that the result would not be good bread. And it is good!! I have 2 gorgeous loaves plus the funny looking buns. The flour came out of the same container as yesterday, the weather is the same .... Thanks for your recipe, BakerAunt! It's a winner!

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad that you enjoy the recipe and my changes to it, Chocomouse. 🙂

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