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

[BakerAunt]

Your buns look lovely, Joan!

Old Milwaukee Rye appears in Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads (revised and expanded edition), on pp. 136-139. It is probably also in the first edition which was published in 1973. The second edition is 1987. He gives the option of making it as two large round loaves or three or four long slender loaves. Len's instructions for buns is a great option. A great thing about the recipe is that it does not require you to keep a rye starter in the refrigerator. I'm going to have to try it.

With that said, Len's recipe differs in that it uses honey rather than molasses. Clayton does not give weights because most home cooks had not yet begun to use scales. There are other differences as well, so the recipe that Len found and probably changed (just like we all do!) was likely inspired by Clayton's.

Ginsberg's book is much later, having been published in this century.

Bernard Clayton's bread books, the first and the second editions, helped make me a bread baker.

[BakerAunt]

We had a lot of rain beginning in the later afternoon, and it is still raining this Tuesday evening. The cooler weather gave me the chance to bake three loaves of my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm testing a low-carb rye bread recipe tonight, the baking step is taking longer than what the recipe called for, but they were basing it on a free-form boule shape and I'm doing it in a loaf pan. I'm learning that with keto-friendly recipes you often need to bake them well beyond where you'd take a typical wheat bread or they are way too soggy the next day. The recipe says to take it to 200-210 and I'm aiming for the latter. I'm concerned that it doesn't seem to have much structure, I'm hoping taking it to 210 and letting it cool fully before doing anything with it will permit it to set up, but this recipe doesn't call for xanthan gum or psyllium powder, so it might wind up a bit crumbly.

Smells like a rye bread, though.

[skeptic7]

I did mini scones on July 6. I'm not being very adventurous but these always turn out so well.

[BakerAunt]

We had 5.25 inches of rain from late Tuesday afternoon into this morning. With the house cooled down considerably, I baked Scottish oatcakes on Wednesday morning, followed by Bittersweet Blackberry Brownies, using the last of the frozen blackberry puree from last year. It looks like we will have another bumper blackberry crop, so I anticipate freezing more for use throughout the coming year.

[Italiancook]

Impulse Purchase: A week or so ago, I decided I didn't want to continue washing my quarter sheet pans by hand. I gave them away. Fortunately, Williams-Sonoma carries Gold Touch quarter sheet pans. I have Gold Touch mini- and regular bread pans & standard muffin pans. My experience is that they can tolerate dishwasher cleaning. So I bought 2 Gold Touch quarter sheet pans.

While on the site, I thought, "I wonder if Gold Touch makes a 1/8 sheet pan." Didn't have any use for one; curiosity was my motivator. Yes, indeed, they do! They looked so cute I bought two. They have arrived, and they are cute. But I have no use for them. If I stretch my imagination, I can see heating up a slice of homemade pizza in the oven. Or maybe, only maybe, my husband could use one to defrost his slice of bread in the oven instead of placing aluminum foil on the oven rack. Beyond that, I have nothing! But they sure are cute!

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I have four 1/8th sheet pans. Mine are USA, and I bought them from King Arthur some time back. I could envision doing mini pan pizzas with different toppings in them, and perhaps bar cookies with different ingredients. I sometimes use them to group ingredients. And they fit in the countertop oven.

Oh, and they are cute. You just want to scratch them under their little rolled rim. 🙂

[Mike Nolan]

The rye bread probably got baked a little too long, it's on the dry side and the edges are a bit hard, but it toasts reasonably well and tastes like a rye bread. The plan is to use it for Reubens tomorrow. I might also buy a little pre-sliced ham.

[Mike Nolan]

In the past few months I've been buying silicone pans (bread and mini-muffin) as they work better with keto-friendly breads. I may wind up replacing all the 8 and 9 inch bread pans.

[RiversideLen]

Italian Cook, I have 4 1/8 sheet pans. I agree with BA, they are cute. They easily fit in my toaster oven, so they are great for reheating things or roasting hot dogs and other stuff. They are also good for using to put stuff in the fridge as a drip pan and so things can lie flat when going in the freezer. Mine are Nordic Ware. I have 2 regular ones (aluminum) and 2 non stick (coated aluminum). I started with 2 and then decided I needed 2 more.

[chocomouse]

Today I cut into KAF's Berry Easy Jam Bars that I had made with last years frozen raspberries. They cut more easily than I had thought they would, but they lost much of the crumble topping. Not sure I would ever make these again. I prefer more of the fruit filling, and I have tried and true recipes to use.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hi,

I've contemplated some 1/8th sheet pans. Now I have halves and quarters. They have become trendy here among restaurants to use as plates.

I made chocolate chip cookies. I used browned butter and toasted sugar and the cookies were brown, even though lightly baked. They did not have the flavor I was looking for either so I need to figure out how I made this one batch that tasted amazing.

The other interesting thing that happened was I usually brown the butter and let it harden then cream it with the sugars. This time I just dumped the liquid butter and some of the browned solids into the sugar and mixed. Then I followed the usual process - eggs, vanilla, and then the dry mixture, flour baking soda, and salt. The cookies stayed in lumps. they did not spread at all. Kind of weird. I flattened the last two batches.

We were in Evanston briefly before the 4th. I went to Bennison's. One of the things I bought on impulse were some sweet rolls. I miss those from when I was a kid. Are they a midwestern thing or a Chicago thing. The closest we have in the East are "Danish" which are good but not the same.

[Mike Nolan]

I think it's a combination of regional and ethnic preferences, Chicago has a large Polish population and Polish bakeries on the NW side always had great sweet rolls, the sticky buns were my favorite. I did some programming work for a company where the owner stopped by Lutz Bakery nearly every morning. Their pastries were always incredible.

Did you see the Coupe du Monde trophy in Bennison's window? Jory Downer was on the gold medal team as their viennoiserie specialist. (Sadly, the Downer family apparently dropped the pecan loaf from the menu when they bought the bakery, and I've never had anything like it from any other bakery.)

[Joan Simpson]

Two of my friends wanted a Coconut Poke Cake so I baked and delivered them today.It's a box cake baked then poke holes and pour a can of Coco Lopez cream of coconut over the top and when cooled top with Cool Whip and coconut.They turned out great.

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[Mike Nolan]

If I make that keto-friendly rye bread again (and that seems likely), I think I'll increase the amount of rye flour (at the expense of a few more carbs) and use caraway powder instead of caraway seed. And take it to 205-206, after it got to 207 it basically never got any hotter in the middle, but got really dry and the edges got overbaked though not enough to be considered scorched.

I'm going to slice the rest of the loaf and freeze most of it, even though it is on the dry side I don't want to lose it to mold.

[Author]

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