What are you Baking the Week of July 11, 2021?

[Mike Nolan]

With all the baking I did yesterday, no baking is planned today.

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[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I made the dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers.

[chocomouse]

I made mini-cheesecakes. They are vanilla, but I swirled some home-made raspberry jam into the centers. I see that KABC is no longer selling this mini pan, with the pop-out bottoms. I love that pan, and have made several different kinds of mini-cakes in them. I was thinking about buying another one since it makes only 12. I think I will search on Google. I now have another batch of crust and filling waiting to be assembled and baked. Does anyone else have this pan and use it for other goodies?

[BakerAunt]

I have this pan, but I have not yet used it. I have been thinking of trying mini-cheesecakes--and freezing most of them. That way I could have a special treat with far less guilt than if I baked a regular cheese cake.

[Mike Nolan]

What's the diameter of each opening, I think I have one that has 6 openings, probably 3 inches in diameter.

[chocomouse]

Mike, the insert is 1 13/16". The opening that it covers is probably about 1". The actual opening is a little less than the diameter of the base.

BakerAunt, I've read most people saying you should not freeze cheesecake, but I do it a lot, and they are fine. Of course, they don't stay in the freezer for eons! You could sub Neufchatel cheese, etc. And I think there are any number of goodies that could be made in this pan. I'm thinking of a little brownie batter, and after it is baked, top it with ice cream and stash in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

They sell frozen cheesecake in stores, I don't know why you couldn't freeze yours.

It'd probably make a good tart pan, I like to make tarts with sable breton dough. They're a little tricky to handle because they're rather fragile, but they have a soft texture that people really like.

[BakerAunt]

My pan was made by Chicago Metallic. I may have picked it up at T.J. Maxx once upon a time.

I also have some pans that have small rectangular squares with removeable bottoms that can be used for sweet or savory pastry. I know that I used them to make goodies for a party tray, but I do not recall exactly what I baked. I think it was a King Arthur recipe that was promoted along with the pan, and these pans, also Chicago Metallic, did come from the former KAF. I'm sure I have those recipes somewhere. If I find them, I'll post them, as they would work in the cheesecake pan as well.

It might be worthwhile going to the Chicago Metallic website to see what recipes are there.

[Joan Simpson]

I made sugar cookies today to take to my sister tomorrow.

When I worked at Shoney's we had a fantastic New York Cheese Cake and we kept it in the freezer until we needed one for the pie case,yes Mike is right.

[Mike Nolan]

I can find mini-cheesecake pans by Norpro and Chicago Metallic on Amazon.

[BakerAunt]

I took advantage of some cooler weather (with rain!) to bake a sourdough pan pizza—with the usual toppings—for dinner on Tuesday. We had it with coleslaw, which is a surprisingly (to me) good combination.

[RiversideLen]

I made a batch of burger buns this afternoon.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday evening, I made the overnight starter for my version of Marilyn’s Sourdough Oatmeal Bread. I made the bread on Thursday. My challenge with this recipe is that it calls for ½ cup butter. I replaced it last time with 1/3 cup canola oil, but that changes the texture. This time, I used 1/3 cup avocado oil in place of the butter. I again substituted in 4 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour. I also added 6 Tbs. flax meal. I increased the starter from 1 cup to 1 ½ cups. The dough needed another ¼ cup of bread flour. I kneaded for 6 minutes on speed 3 of my Cuisinart stand mixer. The first rise took 50 minutes, and the second rise took 45. I baked for 35 minutes, to a temperature of 190F. This recipe makes three loaves, so we will start slicing one tomorrow and the other two will be wrapped and frozen.

I have been sorting through a stack of Bon Appetit recipes torn from issues of the late 1990s and early 2000s. I am throwing most away due to the butter, cream cheese, and whipping cream (sometimes all three) in a recipe. However, I came upon a recipe for Chocolate, Hazelnut and Ginger Biscotti (December 1999, p. 210) that calls for three eggs and no butter or oil. It does have semisweet chocolate chips, but I can reduce that amount. With no desserts in the house on Thursday, I baked this recipe.

I substituted 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour for that much AP, I cut the amount of semisweet chocolate chips from 8 oz. to 4 oz., and I did not brush the log with beaten egg because I did not want to deal with the leftover egg, having just used up the last leftover egg in the bread. The dough was sticky, so I used a piece of saran to shape it into logs. I did the first bake for 33 minutes, judging by central dryness rather than the recipe’s stated “golden.” (The recipe uses cocoa, so how can chocolate be golden?) I let the logs rest for the stated 15 minutes, then sliced ½-inch thick. I stood them up for the second bake of 15 minutes. I did not do the decorative white chocolate drizzle; While it would make a fancy presentation, it is not needed. As my husband ate his fourth biscotti, I knew this recipe is a keeper. (Each biscotti is a little more than o.5 g saturated fat.)

These are delicious. I know that chocolate and hazelnut go together, and I know that hazelnut and ginger go together, but I would not have thought to put all three into a cookie. I am glad, however, that I only used half of the chocolate chips; the full amount would have overwhelmed the other flavors.

Here's the recipe: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chocolate-hazelnut-and-ginger-biscotti-102709

• This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by BakerAunt.

[chocomouse]

I made English muffins this morning.

[BakerAunt]

My husband feels dessert deprived, as he has now decided he does not like the ginger in the biscotti, and I have not baked a cake for a while, so on Saturday I baked, for the first time, a recipe from Bake from Scratch for Patriotic Sprinkle Cake.

Patriotic Sprinkle Cake

I made some changes in that I did not have whole milk, so I used 50% each whole milk and half and half. I reduced the sugar slightly, from 1 2/3 to 1 ½ cups. Instead of lemon zest, I doubled the vanilla. I also used all multi-colored sprinkles, and I baked it in the Nordic Ware Celebration pan not the Brilliance pan, which I do not own (and do not want because those edges would be horrible to clean). I baked it for 45 minutes and was surprised that it needed an additional 5 minutes before the tester came out clean.

The original recipe includes later steps where a tunnel is made in the bottom and raspberry sorbet is added (probably why recipe called for 3 Tbs. packed lemon zest). That is not going to happen here, although I may add a glaze tomorrow (not the one in the recipe). I turned it out after 10 minutes. I had one small spot that stuck (despite using the grease), but it was small, and I stuck the piece back on. We will slice it for dessert tomorrow.

One other note: I changed the mixing instructions in that I used my hand mixer, and I mixed in the milk and oil with the egg mixture, then used my cake whisk to add the flour mixture. Oil cakes, in my experience are more tender if the flour is mixed in by hand.

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