What are you Baking the Week of March 26, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

Anything interesting going in the oven?

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[BakerAunt]

I baked oatcakes on Sunday. I usually get around 17, but today, I got 18.

[Joan Simpson]

I baked buttermilk biscuits to go with supper tonight.

[BakerAunt]

My husband is on a restricted diet for a couple of days, so for Monday dinner, I made, for me, my Spaghetti Squash and Parmesan Cheese Quiche, a healthier version of the recipe in Ken Haedrich's The Harvest Baker. Usually, I try to use a 2 lb. spaghetti squash, but my last one from fall (kept extremely well!) was a little over 3 lbs. Given how full my 11-inch diameter quiche dish was, I think that is the weight limit. This time, I used the oven's convection setting, both to partially pre-bake the crust, then to bake the quiche. The recipe said 375F, but I baked it at 375F convection. The quiche turned out nicely, only needing to bake for 38 minutes.

[chocomouse]

I made 2 loaves of Walter Sands bread, subbing whole wheat for some of the AP flour.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm going to do another batch of chewy peanut butter cookies shortly.

[chocomouse]

Mike, are you actually eating all those peanut butter cookies, or are you feeding them to the birds??!! Have you tried them with chocolate chips? IMO, that takes them over the top.

[Mike Nolan]

We're averaging about a week for each batch of around 35 cookies. That's less than 3 cookies a day for each of us. 🙂

My wife analyzed the recipe, they're about 9 grams of carbs each, and they're helpful when her blood sugar drops too low because they're a combination of fast and slower carbs.

I did try some with chocolate chips in them or a Hershey's kiss on top, we thought that made them a little too sweet.

[chocomouse]

Thank you to your wife for figuring out the carbs, Mike. That's helpful. Three of those cookies would bring my sugars back up within normal range, too. If only my husband had not already finished off the batch!

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--that is how I feel when I try to grab a snack of a few of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers and discover my husband has inhaled them!

We have a local maple syrup producer coming to our farmers' market. I bought a quart from them last year, and the syrup is excellent. I bought another quart this year, and I noticed that they have gallon jugs available for $45. As a quart is $18, I consulted with my husband, and I ordered a gallon to pick up this weekend. They are also offering a $1 rebate if people bring back their bottles, and I just happened to have last year's in the refrigerator waiting for me to clean it out with hot water when I bake bread. I am excited at having a large supply of maple syrup on hand!

With that prospect, instead of thawing bread from the freezer on Thursday, I baked my Mostly Whole Wheat Maple Buttermilk Bread. That let me clean out the container with the water for proofing the yeast. The recipe makes too much for a 9x5" pan but is somewhat scant for two 8 1/2 x 4 ½ inch pans. I decided to try two 7 ½ x4" pans that I picked up some years ago at T.J. Maxx. The dough fits perfectly, and I have two nicely tall loaves, which I will be excited to slice tomorrow at lunch.

I also baked, at my husband's request, a double recipe of my adaptation of the Oatmeal Raisin Cookies from Jenny Can Cook.

[Mike Nolan]

There's a Wisconsin maple syrup producer who usually hits the Sunday farmer's market in Lincoln around the 4th of July.

BTW, I was off a little on the carbs on the cookies, at 35 cookies per batch it's about 10.5 carbs per cookie.

[BakerAunt]

My husband pronounced the Mostly Whole Wheat Maple Buttermilk Bread to be the equal of his favorite Grape Nuts Bread. He likes the softness. He asked if I had ever baked it before, and I reminded him that I have baked it at least two, and maybe three, times. However, I had not baked it in the smaller loaf pans. I plan to use them for this recipe in the future.

On Friday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them next week.

[chocomouse]

BakerAunt, that's great you have a local syrup producer. And the price is right! Around here, most folks are selling it for $23 quart, but my husband has not raised his price. We will boil tomorrow, and then it looks like Mother Nature will shut us down late this week.

Where can I find the recipe for the Mostly Whole Wheat Maple Buttermilk Bread? We really like the maple oatmeal recipe from Beth Hensperger's Bread Machine Cookbook, but your recipe sounds like we should try it. I've made some changes to Beth's recipe, including subbing whole wheat for some of the bread flour, so it is also "mostly whole wheat"!

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--the base recipe is the Maple Buttermilk Bread recipe that I posted a link to a couple of years ago and you have baked. When I baked it this time, I did a couple more tweaks with the whole wheat flour and bread flour combination and adding a little flax meal and special dry milk.

Short Rant: I add the milk powder because one brand of buttermilk here, which used to be calcium fortified to 400 mg per cup is now only fortified to 300 mg per cup, and the Kroger brand is 290 mg per cup. I have to keep re-calculating to see if I am getting 900 mg from food!

I have posted my version of the recipe. It would be nice to figure out how to scale it to get two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2" loaves, although that would mean I would need the stand mixer.

I have a quick question for you: I am planning to can the syrup I bought, which is in a plastic jug. Should the syrup be heated in a stainless-steel pan? An enamel one? I cannot recall what I used when I canned the syrup that I bought from your operation.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Finally came around to baking bread yesterday. We were down to one ciabatta roll. I am trying something different with my standard starter loaf. I've been trying to tame the sour by changing the taste of the starter - if I skip a feeding and keep it cool it is sweeter. But then I just reduced the amount of starter and replaced it with some water. I haven't tried the bread yet as I went from making bread to making pizza last night so I'll cut into it today or tomorrow. I also subbed out some bread flour for rye as I have two three pound bags to use up. I made two 800g sandwich loaves and some 120g rolls. Violet had a friend over so I gave them a loaf. I've been trying to time my baking using a leave-in temp probe which has worked fine up until now. But it went to 209 and stayed there. I usually pull my loaves at 210-212. I realized it had been baking a long time with no alarm so I used a different probe and it was at 215. Not sure what was wrong. So the loaves are a little burned on top.

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