What are you Baking the Week of January 7, 2024?

[Mike Nolan]

I will need to make semolina bread soon.

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[BakerAunt]

On Sunday evening, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them near the end of the week.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making semolina bread today, letting the bulk rise go longer than normal because it is cool in the kitchen, as it has been snowing since around 8AM after some freezing rain. We could wind up with as much as 10 inches of snow from this storm, but unless the temperature drops (as forecast) the snow may melt quickly.

[BakerAunt]

My combined Christmas/Early Birthday present is a deep 11-inch Staub skillet in a lovely red. On Wednesday, I used it to try a Washington Post recipe that came out before Thanksgiving: "Skillet Pumpkin and Apple Cake." That recipe used a 12-inch cast iron skillet, but my 11-inch enameled cast iron worked well. I replaced 1 ¼ cups of the AP flour with white whole wheat flour and used the King Arthur AP for the remainder. I added 2 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. For the topping, I used almost three Winesap apples. I did not peel them, but next time I will, as the skin makes it hard to cut pieces of the cake. I used frozen cranberries from my freezer stash. I reduced the butter in the topping from 4 Tbs. to 2 Tbs. and replaced the deleted butter with 1 ½ Tbs. avocado oil. The cake baked well in the allotted time. I inverted it onto an 11 ½-inch platter after ten minutes rather than fifteen, and it came out of the pan beautifully. We had some for dessert tonight, and it is excellent. The spices are more muted than in a traditional pumpkin bread or cake, but the topping of apples and cranberries in this upside-down cake work well with the lower spice profile. I will bake this recipe again.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Lime Pecan Biscotti on Thursday because we finished the Pfeffernusse and need something to go with tea. I cut back the sugar in my recipe by 2 Tbs. because they have always seemed overly sweet to me. I tasted a broken bit before the second bake, and I think the reduction works well. If my husband does not notice, then I will make the change permanent.

BTW, that Pumpkin Apple Cake is even better the next day, and the apple skins softened.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made on Sunday.

[RiversideLen]

I decided to make a loaf since I want to make some grilled cheese sandwiches. I don't make loaves often, usually make sandwich/burger buns. I made a basket weave round loaf based on my semolina/wheat/rye recipe but down sized it (made 60%) and omitted the rye (I think rye makes it hard to braid). It's hard to divide an egg to 60% so I separated an egg and used the yolk only in the bread and cooked the white with some ham for lunch. I baked it in a round Corningware dish. And since it's a smaller batch, just for giggles, I used my mini KitchenAid stand mixer to do the mixing/kneading. I think it worked out pretty good. I haven't sliced into it yet, but the finished loaf looks good to me. I was watching a youtube video recently of someone making a round challah basket weave and she lightly dusted the strands with flour before doing the weave to give the strands some separation in the baked loaf. That sounded like a good idea so I did that too.

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[BakerAunt]

What a beautiful loaf, Len!

Thanks for including the hint about dusting the braids lightly with flour. I will make a note to try that next time I do a braided loaf.

[chocomouse]

Really nice work, Len!

[Mike Nolan]

I don't think I've ever tried to braid a rye dough, but when I do the marbled rye bread I shape several rectangles, stack them in alternating colors and roll it up, and that seems to work well.

[BakerAunt]

We ran out of bread on Saturday, so I baked my adaptation of Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread. Instead of the Emile Henry Long Baker, which I think is slightly too wide for it, I baked it in a 12 x 4-inch loaf pan that is 2 ½ inches deep. That pan may be slightly too small, but the loaf still baked well. Next time I bake it, I will cut the water I use to cook the Pompanoosuc porridge by 2 Tbs. The difficulty with this bread is that the water content of the porridge is hard to estimate. I suspect that when someone uses a cup of leftover porridge, it tends to be drier, as it has more time to absorb excess moisture.

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