What are you Baking the Week of January 31, 2021?

[Italiancook]

For the first and last time, I baked a mug cake last night. I was hungry for chocolate, but it was too late to start a regular cake. I turned to Food Network for a mug cake recipe. Didn't have chocolate chips, so I couldn't make what I wanted. I chose Trisha Yearwood's Peanut Butter Mug Cake. The reason I'll never make another is that I still had to pull out the flour, sugar, peanut butter, baking powder, and the egg carton. And put them away! I should have just made my grandmother's chocolate cake while I had everything out regardless of the time. It's easier to make a regular cake & freeze it in portions. Plus, I had a fork (whisking), a bowl, a mug, and 2 small saucers to wash. When I bake, I put the egg(s) on a saucer to take the chill off while I do other tasks. And I use a saucer to hold my measuring cups and spoons to keep them off the counter.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I made pizza dough and more bread dough. I also made BA's crackers. Over at the BBGA someone suggested rolling the dough with a pasta maker so I tried that (first time I've used a pasta maker). I did two passes and made long strips that I cut into squares. I did the first past on 1 - the widest setting and then the second pass on 2. The dough was more even than my hand rolling and I think it was faster once I figured things out. I might have been able to do a third pass on 3 or 4. I'll play around some more.

Violet and I went sledding instead of baking today. More snow is expected tomorrow.

[RiversideLen]

I made a blueberry pie. The crust was a Pillsbury refrigerated crust and blueberries were frozen. A made the top crust lattice.

[BakerAunt]

I made sourdough pan pizza for dinner on Saturday. I topped it with homemade tomato sauce from the freezer, Canadian bacon, low-fat mozzarella, baby bella mushrooms, green onion, and black olives also on my half. It was 1F this morning when we got up, the high today was 16F, and colder temperatures are predicted. The ice fishermen are loving it. Little ice house tents have sprung up on the lake, sometimes forming small villages.

[chocomouse]

I made Len's Buns today, with BakerAunt's usual substitution of buttermilk for the water. I scaled up the recipe and made 6 round "sandwich thins" plus 10 hot dog buns using KABC's New England Hot Dog Bun pan (which I dislike and have only used a couple of times over the years). I've made dinner buns from Len's recipe several times, but somehow this time they are even better; perhaps I screwed up the scaling, not sure. However, they are not soft enough to make a good hot dog bun. I guess a hot dog bun should be made out of fluffy white store-type bread dough. They are delicious, chewy and crispy on the outside.

[Mike Nolan]

I have come to the conclusion that it is basically impossible to make hot dog buns that are like the packaged ones from the store.

That doesn't mean home made ones aren't tasty, but they weigh about twice as much.

[Italiancook]

Aaron, thanks so much for sharing about using the pasta machine for crackers. I'm going to pass that along to the person to whom I gave my KitchenAid pasta attachments.

[Mike Nolan]

I want to try making crackers using the silicone strips I got, to see if they get it thin enough. They did seem to get pie dough thickness fairly uniform.

I did try rolling cracker dough out with my Kitchenaid pasta roller once, unfortunately the dough was too wet and it got stuck inside the mechanism. I was able to let it dry and pry the dough out after about a week.

I took it apart once, I think it took me two weeks and a dozen tries to get it back together, an octopus might have been able to do it faster, as it requires holding about six parts together simultaneously, I finally wound up taping several things down with masking tape.

[RiversideLen]

My recipe doesn't call for water, it calls for milk. This past year or so, I too have been using buttermilk instead of regular milk. I have also upped the quantity from 8 to 9 ounces.

I've never had any luck making hot dog buns either. I will usually buy them when needed.

[Mike Nolan]

We got 4-5 inches of snow today, and could get another 2-4 inches on Sunday/Monday, though if the temperature drops as much as predicted it probably won't snow much. Supposed to have a week or so of sub-zero lows and single-digit highs.

[chocomouse]

Len, you're right - milk, not water! I should have written "liquid"!! I have another batch of the same recipe rising right now -- for bread. One other difference I made was to use pumpernickel instead of regular rye -- I prefer using whole grains. I don't know how much of a difference it makes, in taste or texture. Anyway, it is delicious - thanks for sharing your recipe!

[chocomouse]

Mike, home-made hot dog buns weigh whatever you want them to weigh! I use about 50-55 grams of dough per bun. A three-cup of flour recipe makes about 18-20 buns. That's good for regular size (skinny) hot dogs, and a bit skimpy for the fat brats, Italian hot sausage, etc.

[Mike Nolan]

Yeah, but a 10 pack of commercial hot dog buns weighs around 11 ounces, or 1.1 ounces each, or 31 grams, which probably means no more than about 40 grams of raw dough.

That means a commercial hot dog bun is going to be around 20 grams of carbs while a home-made one is going to be more like 30-35 carbs.

I sometimes make hot dog buns, but mainly because I can't get poppy seed buns for Chicago hot dogs here. I do tend to make burger buns more frequently in the summertime, but they're close to slider buns for size, since I usually make burgers that are 2-3 ounces of meat.

Even the professional bakers on the BBGA forum aren't able to make those light weight hot dog buns in their bakeries.

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