What are You Baking the Week of March 19, 2017?

[aaronatthedoublef]

My parchment says it's rated to 500. Until I adjust the thermostat I can only get my oven up to about 475. It still browns up quite a bit where it is not covered with pizza. I usually pull it out after the crust has set and I am currently down to using two sheets of parchment to make five or six pizzas. Each pizza is about 14 inches in diameter.

[RiversideLen]

I've baking my pizzas at 500 degrees, I use the parchment from KAF, I pull it out after 2 minutes, you can see from the baked pizza pic I posted, it gets toasty after 2 minutes.

Sometimes I make a simple sauce out of tomato paste, I thin it out to the desired consistency with water, put a little garlic powder and oregano in it and sometimes a teaspoon of olive oil. It comes out pretty good.

[cwcdesign]

No baking this week, but I keep thinking about it. I've loved the discussion about rye bread - Len, yours looks delicious. Dachshundlady has a recipe from allrecipes I want to try. I can post the link later if anyone is interested.

[BakerAunt]

Len--If you subscribed to the now defunct The Baking Sheet, issue 13.1 (Holiday 2001), pp. 18-19, has a great recipe for Rye Crisps. I particularly liked them with a thin slice of cheese, but other options are possible. Even my husband, who is not keen on rye, liked them. I played with the recipe a bit, so if you are interested, and do not have it, I can post it.

[RiversideLen]

BakerAunt, I don't have that, and yes, I would appreciate it if you post it.

[BakerAunt]

Len--as it turns out, I posted it on January 8, then forgot that I did it. You can find it in the recipes.

Although I have a mountain of work to trudge through, I seized time on Thursday and baked the KAF Barista Biscotti Bites in order to use up part of a bag of cappuccino chips. (I noticed that I have another full bag in the refrigerator that I will need to use up before we move at the end of June.) As soon as these cool, I will dip a third of each in chocolate ganache then let them sit until it hardens. I substituted 2 oz. of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips and used 4 oz. of their semisweet ones.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: Added information

[RiversideLen]

Thanks Baker Aunt. It looks like something I can do. I've never made crackers before. I'm putting it on file on my to do list.

[Rascals1]

Len your rye bread has me wanting to try it again, I'll have to eat it buy myself but that's ok. Did you say you used chocolate and coffee to give yours some color? If so how much per loaf, I don't want to use that caramel color KFC says to use. Thank you

[aaronatthedoublef]

I salvaged my unrisen challah from a few weeks ago thanks to the suggestions from everyone. I mixed some yeast with some water and sugar, let it activate and then kneaded it into the dough. I should have done this in a bowl and not on the counter. Or maybe added some flour to thicken it first.

But the dough rose nicely and I made 18 four ounce rolls from it.

After tasting, apparently I left out the salt too! Oh well...

[RiversideLen]

Rascals, I used fresh brewed decaf coffee for all the water the recipe calls for. It's not something I do often, just when I feel like making a darker loaf. I don't detect any flavor difference when doing that. In addition, or sometimes without using the coffee, I have used a level tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa. This does affect the flavor of the bread, gives it a very subtle chocolate note. Again, that is not something I do often.

[Mike Nolan]

I tried using cocoa to darken rye bread once, but could taste it in the bread, so I use caramel coloring, available in liquid form (such as Kitchen Bouquet or caramel food color) and in powder form. (King Arthur and the Great American Spice Company both sell the powder form.)

The powder is very hygroscopic, though, so be sure to keep it well sealed or it'll turn into a black lump. I don't know if keeping it in the freezer would help or make things worse.

[Mike Nolan]

Today I'm making Honey Wheat bread, which I haven't made in several months. My wife is slowly adding some carbs back into her diet.

[Rascals1]

Thank you Len

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday, I baked my adaptation of Pumpkin Tea Bread from Beatrice Ojakangas' Quick Breads (pp. 22-23) I substitute in a cup of whole wheat pastry flour, add 1/2 cup of powdered milk, and 1 Tbs. flax meal. This time I baked the batter in a Nordic Ware pan that makes four decorative loafs (each 2 cups), and a small Kaiser Bundt pan (holds 2 1/2 cups). The little Bundt cake will be for dessert for tomorrow's dinner. The loaves are for after service social time at church tomorrow.

I also tried a new recipe, Oatmeal Macaroons, from Quaker Oats Recipe Collection (1996), p. 14. I like that it uses 3 cups of oats. I substituted in 1/4 cup of white whole wheat flour (total flour is 1 1/4 cups). The recipe said to bake for 8 minutes, but on my heavy, parchment-lined cookie sheets, they needed 12 minutes. I used the Zeroll #40 (tablespoon) scoop. The yield was stated as "about 4 dozen, and I got 51. The cookies are also for after service social time tomorrow.

Addendum: The cookies soften overnight and are soft and chewy.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[RiversideLen]

On Friday I made rye sandwich buns.

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