What are you Baking the week of March 22, 2020

[Mike Nolan]

I never got my pie dough made yesterday, so that's on my list for today. What's on yours?

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[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I tried a new recipe: Olive Oil Coffee Cake with Blueberries and Pears, which I found at:
http://culinarygetaways.com/olive-oil-coffee-cake-with-blueberries-and-pears/
However, that was just a starting point. I have a Pear-Walnut Coffee Cake recipe in my recipe box (from the Dark Ages when I would type recipes onto cards), which came from something called “My Great Recipes.” I was craving the coffee cake and saw two Bosc pears on sale early last week. However, my original recipe has 10 Tbs. margarine or butter, which is not acceptable. So, I went surfing for an oil-based recipe and found the one in the link. Then I began to make changes. I used the two unpeeled pears and no blueberries. I don’t see the point of mixing the two fruits, although if we like the recipe, I might try it again with frozen blueberries. I used half AP flour and half whole wheat pastry flour. I reduced the baking powder to 2 tsp. and added ¼ tsp. baking soda. I used nonfat Greek yogurt. For the topping, I used a streusel from Recipes from the Old Mill that I like on an apple cake. It uses just 1 Tbs. of butter. I used pecans, as I have more of those than walnuts. The recipe used a ceramic dish. I used a 13x9 inch glass one. I would have done so anyway, as I’ve discovered that fruits (apples, blueberries) affect the finish on USA pans. I baked for 40 minutes on the third shelf up in my Wolf oven. My husband has been smelling the cinnamon all afternoon and is excited for dessert tonight.

On Sunday, I also baked Lens Rye/Semolina/Whole Wheat Buns. I used white whole wheat flour this time and let the bread machine do the kneading, so that I could work on the coffee cake. I sprinkled some of my free sample of KAF’s Everything Bagel Topping on two of the buns. We will use the buns for dinner sandwiches, but I’ll have one with the topping, which I don’t think my husband would like.

[aaronatthedoublef]

We watched the Spring Baking Championship yesterday and my wife and daughter decided I would make doughnuts. I made KAF chocolate fudge doughnuts. It calls for AP but I've always used bread. It has 1.75 cups of flour and I used 1.25 of bread and .5 of white whole wheat.

Tonight is pizza night. Last week was the first time I made pizza with the whole family home. Our oldest usually would have a first dinner then come home and have a second dinner so he ate less. There was almost no pizza leftover last week and I do not think there will be much this week.

[RiversideLen]

I made a cake from a mix, (BRM gluten free) it's a vanilla cake but I added a teaspoon of cake spice from The Spice House (sadly, they no longer make that blend), I did make the chocolate frosting from scratch. The cake calls for 1/2 cup of melted butter or veg oil, I used 1/4 cup of peanut oil and 1/4 cup of Greek yogurt. It says to wait for the cake to cool before frosting but I frosted it warm because it spreads easier. It's still cooling right now so I have to wait to sample it.

[Mike Nolan]

My pie dough is made and sitting in the fridge. 2 of them will go in the freezer for later, I'll probably blind bake the 3rd tomorrow and then make some kind of cream pie. We have strawberries, blueberries and bananas on hand.

My last blind baked pie crust shrunk a lot, seemed like more than usual. Not sure there's a way to prevent that.

[BakerAunt]

The cake is pretty good, but the pears get a little lost with the cinnamon crumb topping. I think that a 2% Greek yogurt might also be better, but I used what I had.

I tried some of the Everything Bagel topping on two of Len's rolls. I should have used the egg wash to keep them on. However, the garlic in the topping can burn, so I wonder why KAF includes it.

[RiversideLen]

BakerAunt, when I use the bagel topping, I press it in real hard after I shape the rolls.

I forgot to say I added 1/4 almond flour to the cake mix. I really can't taste any almond but the cake turned out pretty good.

[BakerAunt]

Ah--Thanks Len. I'll do that next time.

I used a technique on my crispbread where I sprinkle on the seeds, cover with waxed paper, and roll on top with a rolling pin. I wasn't sure that would work with the rolls, but I'll certainly push them down on the shaped buns before the rise next time.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I am thinking of making cinnamon rolls this weekend. My wife is not a fan of cream cheese frosting. I could make a milk/confectioner's sugar glaze. Maybe add a little lemon juice/zest. What do you all think?

[skeptic7]

Aaron; I use milk/confectioner's sugar on cinnamon rolls all the time. I also like the rolls plain.

[RiversideLen]

Aaron, I usually make a milk/confectioners sugar glaze for them. Lemon juice and zest in place of the milk sounds wonderful to me.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Okay... One more question. The cinnamon roll recipe specifically says to use AP and not bread flour. I have bread, white whole wheat, pastry, and cake.

Can I mix together bread, www, and pastry to lower the gluten to be closer to AP?

Thanks

[RiversideLen]

That's really personal preference as far as I'm concerned. I've made them using pastry flour, also have used white whole wheat combined with bread flour. Obviously, different flours will result in different textures but there's nothing wrong with different. The only thing I wouldn't do is use cake flour by itself.

[Mike Nolan]

According to the KAF website, their white whole wheat flour is 13% protein, their whole wheat flour is 14%, their bread flour is 12.7% and their AP flour is 11.7%. (By comparison, Gold Medal unbleached AP flour is somewhere around 10.5%, I believe.)

KAF offers two pastry flours, the pastry flour blend is 10.3% protein, the pastry flour (which I prefer) is 8%. KAF's unbleached cake flour is 10% protein, other brands of bleached cake flour will likely range from 7% to 9%.

Of course, some of the protein in a whole wheat flour isn't gluten, so I'd consider it the same as their bread four for blending purposes.

I'd blend to get to about 11.5% myself, it'll produce a softer roll. When I make cinnamon rolls, I often use a lower protein content flour like Gold Medal.

[Mike Nolan]

I blind-baked a pie crust today. After doing some research, I made sure I let the pie dough rest for a couple of minutes after rolling it out, and I made sure I draped it loosely in the pie pan, so it wasn't being stretched. I also used a metal pan instead of a glass one and I gave myself a little more margin around the outside. These are all suggestions various sources give for how to cut down on shrinkage when blind-baking a pie crust.

With all these changes, the shrinkage in the pie crust was much less than last time.

After it cools, I'll make the filling for banana cream pie and put French meringue on it.

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