What are You Baking the Week of January 21, 2018?

[RiversideLen]

Good advise Mike.

I dropped them a note and they said they will replace the damaged cans. In regards to the "best by" dates, they had this to say,
"In addition, in regards to your mention of "best by" dates, in lieu of expiration dates, we print "p-numbers" on our packages. You can see this on the package's label, just below the scannable barcode. This number tracks the entire life of the product, and provides more information about the item than a conventional expiration date. The one draw back is that customers cannot easily identify when a product is no longer fresh! (I apologize - we're definitely working on changing that!)"

So, I am satisfied with their customer service at this time.
I bought peanut butter stuffed pretzels, I used to get those from Nuts on Clark at Chicago's Union Station when I would go through there and haven't seen them anywhere since. They are just as I remember them, glad I bought a bag. Also tried the dark chocolate covered Brazil nuts, those things are great but I am a huge Brazil nut nut. There are a few other items I haven't sampled yet but everything looks good in the package and I'm sure they will be fine.

Today I made cinnamon rolls using the almond filling as the filling (I used a slightly expired can I already had, not one of the dented cans), sprinkled with a fair amount of cinnamon. I use KAF whole wheat pastry flour and oats in the dough. Came out pretty good, but as you can see, I have difficulty making them a uniform size.

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[chocomouse]

Yesterday I made cheesecake. I made one batch of dough for a 9" springform, but split it in half and flavored one with chocolate and the other lemon, and put them in two 7" pans. Eat one and freeze the other. I had a near disaster that I was able to salvage, as this was just for the two of us to eat and not to share with others. I was moving the lemon cake over to the island oven when I heard a "clunk." Back on the other counter was the chocolate version, but the ring part of the pan had popped off. Some of the crust was crumbled on the counter and the filling was oozing over the top. I got the ring back on - firmly snapped on. I was able to dump the whole mess into a bowl, scoop up the loose crumbs and sort of press them back into the springform, and then pour the filling back in. It tastes fine. And the lemon cheesecake? Not a blemish or a crack in it!! I'm going to try to post a photo, but have not that before.

[Italiancook]

RiversideLen, your rolls look beautiful. I had to look closely to realize they're not all the same size, so I think you should still pat yourself on the back for these beauties.

Chocomouse, I don't think I would have known how to rectify the error. Great save!

[skeptic7]

I made whole wheat date scones on Tuesday. I also melted the last of my dark chocolate and made chocolate pecan bark. Half of it turned out fine, the other half is soft. It had hardened too fast and I couldn't get the pecans imbedded into the chocolate, so I put it in a warm oven. The chocolate softened enough to let the pecans sink in, but when it cooled down it ended up soft.

[Mike Nolan]

That's because your chocolate was not tempered. Heating chocolate higher than about 105 degrees causes the cocoa butter to lose all crystal structure, and when it cools a random mixture of various crystal states (alpha-1 through alpha-5) will form. Only alpha-5 is solid at room temperature. It might harden up some over time (a few weeks) because there's a sixth crystal state (alpha-6) that is also solid at room temperature but doesn't appear until chocolate sits for several weeks.

[luvpyrpom]

Not much baking for home this week. Made a pan of soft cinnamon rolls for work meeting on Tuesday and then Sourdough Date Nut Cranberry bread for work today. It's a nice one to use up the unfed sourdough discard when I'm feeding it.

[Mike Nolan]

I made honey wheat bread today.

[chocomouse]

I made another batch of rye bread. It is so darn good!

[Mike Nolan]

I was looking at a KAF recipe for Westphalian rye bread yesterday, it's a 2-3 day recipe, with several very long rise periods (like 24 hours) and it bakes for 5 hours at 225 degrees.

[Italiancook]

Mike, it makes me tired just thinking about spending that much time on a bread. Must be delicious, though.

[chocomouse]

Mike, I bet that Westphalian rye doesn't taste any better than the KAF Sandwich Rye that I've been making lately. Different perhaps, but not better! The last two times I made it, I followed the recipe almost exactly, except I used AP instead of bread flour, and added Rye Bread Improver. KAF has stopped carrying, among a lot of other things, the rye sour I used to get there, so I need to find another supply.

[aaronatthedoublef]

The deli rye I've been making takes about three days. Based on advice from Mike I let it sit over night before even cutting into to it after it's come out of the oven (sorry if I've misinterpreted that). It seems to take a few days to really develop the flavor I am looking for. And I have not found place around here yet where I can buy rye with the same depth.

I think I can shorten the time some by doing the first rise all on the counter top and not in the refrigerator. I just haven't had time to experiment with that yet.

[BakerAunt]

I remember reading that rye breads need to sit about 8 hours, so overnight is what I do also.

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