What are you Baking the Week of June 27, 2021?

[Mike Nolan]

The Johnson & Wales International Symposium on Bread had a presentation last Wednesday on Chocolate Babka from Breads Bakery in NYC, which is famous for it. They start with a laminated dough, then use nutella for the filling and finish it off with a light simple syrup glaze after it comes out of the oven. They make 1000 or more of these every day, I think I know why it sells so well.

I really want to try this, not sure I can wait until cooler weather arrives.

Another interesting presentation at the Symposium was by Prof. Michael Ganzle on the science of sourdough. In 30 minutes he essentially refuted everything I thought I knew about sourdough! I'm going to watch the presentation a few more times, maybe I can post a summary of his findings. The full presentation will be in the conference archives until the end of the year, then I think J&W will be posting them on YouTube.

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[BakerAunt]

I made Cornmeal-Pumpernickel Rye Waffles for breakfast on Sunday morning, as I had promised my husband, since we did not have the chance to have them on Father’s Day. I adapt the recipe from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking Book by substituting 1/3 cup canola oil for the butter. We used up yet another container of maple syrup. I may have to order from Scruggs again soon.

[cwcdesign]

I made zucchini bread. I lost the recipes I used to use so I tried Brown Eyed Baker’s recipe. I’m glad I did - it’s really good. I did check its temperature and took it out at 200 degrees - fully baked but still moist.

[chocomouse]

Today I made a peach cobbler, after reading posts and sites by Joan, Swirth, Pioneer Woman, Tastes Better From Scratch, etc. I finally chose the "Quick and Easy Peach Cobbler submitted by Sheryle and posted here by BakerAunt. I selected this recipe because the intro states "It has more of a cake type crust instead of the more traditional biscuit." I did make a few changes. I cut the 1 stick of butter to 3/4 of a stick (and next time will try 1/2 a stick). I cut the 1 cup of sugar mixed with the peaches to 3/4 a cup, and it is plenty. I also baked it another 10 minutes because it just didn't seem to be cooked, and a knife inserted came out with wet crumbs on it. I figured it would absorb some of the apparently excess moisture (which it did!) but I'm trying to avoid a runny cobbler. This came out exactly the way we like it! It will be my go-to basic cobbler recipe from now on, just in time for blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries.

Joan's recipe is very similar, mostly just different proportions, but I decided against her recipe because I knew once my husband saw it, there would be none left for me!

[Mike Nolan]

I am making semolina bread today, I changed the proportions of flour from 50-50 to 5 parts semolina and 3 parts bread flour. The recipe that I'm trying to reproduce lists these ingredients:

Water, enriched durum flour, enriched semolina flour, unbleached enriched
flour (which includes malted barley flour), less than 2 percent of each
of the following: rice flour, salt, sesame seeds, malt syrup, yeast.

So I'm figuring the durum + semolina has to be more than 50% of the total flour. I don't know what the rice flour is used for, possibly just lubrication under the bread?

[skeptic7]

Yesterday I did a half recipe of the KAF Cheese filled fake braid
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/cheese-filled-sweet-braid-recipe

only I did it in all whole wheat flour. It came out much better than I expected and was fairly soft and light. I thought it was going to fail completely and end up hard and flat. I'm enjoying it as a snack and breakfast and its going fast.

[Mike Nolan]

The semolina bread came out differently than the previous blend of flours, more of a dusty color crust and it probably wasn't developed enough. Tastes good, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a shot showing today's bread (above) and the previous bake (using a 50-50 ratio of flours).

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[BakerAunt]

The weather is dreadful for baking—hot and humid—but we were also out of bread. Although I rarely bake the same bread twice in a row, I baked three loaves of my adaptation of Grandma A’s Ranch Hand Bread, because that way I can freeze two loaves. I am not sure if I have any other recipes scaled for more than two loaves.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made last week.

People who were on the King Arthur Baking Circle may recall my quest for a koulourakia recipe (aided and abetted by Robin Woban--I miss her). My husband remembered eating them from a Greek bakery in Florida. I did eventually find one that he liked and that was also a hit with his cousins, who recalled them as well, when I took the cookies to a family reunion.

However, those cookies were butter based, and butter has become a very teeny part of our diets. I was pleased that Elena Paravantes included an oil-based koulourakia in The Mediterranean Diet for Beginners (p. 178-179).

On Wednesday, I baked these cookies, which are made small and include cinnamon and a cinnamon sugar coating. I made one change in that the recipe calls for 1 ¼ cups AP flour and I used ¾ King Arthur AP and ½ cup white whole wheat. To measure out the dough, I used a Zeroll 100 scoop (she said a teaspoon of dough) and that worked well. I ended up with 28 as opposed to the 30 stated, so that is fine with me. I baked them the full 15 minutes using my heavy baking sheets and baked on the third rack up. We each had three of the little cookies for dessert tonight. They are crunchy and sharp with cinnamon flavor. They will not be mistaken for the traditional Greek cookies, but these would be a pretty cookie on a cookie tray—something hard to achieve when not using butter. I will bake them again. I might try all white whole wheat flour next time, as I have had success with it in other cookies.

[BakerAunt]

Friday was a busy baking day. I baked my adaptation of Ellen’s Buns as 12 rolls. I baked my adaptation of the Soft Oatmeal Cookies from the Jennie Can Cook website. I also baked another batch of the oil-based koulourakia cinnamon cookies.

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