What are You Baking the Week of May 12, 2019?

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I made Native Grain Pancakes for breakfast—a recipe that uses mostly buckwheat flour, along with some wholegrain cornmeal and AP flour, and of course my favorite—buttermilk!

In the afternoon, I baked Semolina Rye Bread, using my adaptation of the KAF recipe that I baked perhaps a month ago. This time, I added 2 Tbs. special dried milk (to increase the calcium). I also used the water for proofing the yeast to clean out a honey jar before I proofed the yeast, so instead of 1 Tbs. sugar, I added just ¼ tsp. I used the bread machine to do the kneading.

Originally, I was going to make a sandwich rye loaf that I’ve not baked for a while, but we spent the morning dealing with a dead battery in my not yet two year old Subaru. My husband jumped it for me, I went to the store, then he had to come and jump it to get me home. Indeed, he had to go back and get his truck because his car was unable to give the battery enough power. Methinks a talk with the Subaru dealer tomorrow is in order.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

I made scones for mother's day and grating frozen butter and sliced my finger! First time I have ever done that with all the things I've grated. Fortunately no blood made it into the scones!

BA, I had a similar problem with my two year old car. And, like yours, it needed a big engine to jumpstart it because the battery has become so big to supply all the electronics. Turned out my rear window defogger was stuck on and the switch needed to be replaced.

Best of luck.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt and Aaron, your experiences concern me. When I bought a new car a couple of years ago, I was told the battery would last 5 years. After hearing your stories, I'm glad I carry the tow man's card in my wallet. I guess I'll have them check my battery at the next oil change. I just hate it when a battery goes out while I'm out and about doing errands. No advance warning.

[aaronatthedoublef]

My car was probably an anomaly and it was not a Subaru. My Subaru ran well for 13 years until I replaced it with a Mini. It is probably still running well today.

Many cars today do have massive batteries because they have tons of electronics. That makes them hard to jumpstart. The old jumpstarted I used for years just doesn't have the guts and even the one AAA carried with him didn't work so he had to hook it up to his truck battery.

Jump starting technology will have to catch up if it hasn't already.

[Mike Nolan]

Many car batteries only have a 3 year warranty and even then it's pro-rated. And when they fail, they're usually goners. My wife's Honda Fit, purchased in 2014, had the battery fail over the winter.

My car is a Toyota Avalon Hybrid, so it's got multiple batteries.

[BakerAunt]

I did some googling, and there have been issues for Subaru related to the electronics draining the battery. Subaru will take it in on a tow truck so that they can run a true test on the system. I would actually prefer a car that did not have such complicated electronics, but no one makes that kind of simple vehicle any more.

In the meantime, I think that a blueberry pie in an oil-buttermilk pie crust, with extra crust crumbs sprinkled on top would hit the spot and cheer us up, so I will head over to the kitchen and pull out a quart of the blueberry pie filling I canned last summer. This time, I will heat the filling and adjust for thickness before filling the parbaked crust. (Parbaking is necessary for an oil crust.) Details will follow.

[BakerAunt]

To cheer us up, I made a blueberry pie using that oil crust recipe that I tweaked from the King Arthur 200th Anniversary Cookbook. I substitute in some white whole wheat flour and use buttermilk. I made the larger recipe and kept some of it out as crumbs. I used a quart of blueberry pie filling that I canned last summer. I heated it up, after adding 2 Tbs. Clearjel, and I added ¼ tsp. allspice and a dash of nutmeg. After parbaking the crust, I sprinkled the bottom with some Panko before putting the hot filling into the hot crust, then I sprinkled the leftover crumbs from the crust (about ¼) over the top. I baked the pie at 425F for 15 minutes, then 25 minutes at 375F. I certainly bubbled up around the edges. We will give it two hours to cool, and then we will have it as a late dessert.

I'll add a note about whether this blueberry pie with an oil crust came out better than my previous attempt.

[BakerAunt]

The blueberry pie came out much better than last time. I used less filling and also preheated the filling with additional Clearjel. When we cut into it 2 hours and 15 minutes later, it held together well, although still a little warmer than I usually cut it. My husband had a little bit of seconds, so he liked it. The pie is good, but nothing beats a pie made with fresh blueberries.

[BakerAunt]

I have my car back. It had a dead cell in the battery.

On Thursday morning, I used a recipe for Chocolate Olive Oil Cake with Blood Orange Glaze, from a Baking from Scratch email to bake a Bundt cake, but I made some changes in the recipe. (See discussion under baking-desserts--blood oranges.) Blood oranges are not available right now, so I used a regular orange. I used canola oil and reduced it by 1/3 cup. I used buttermilk rather than regular milk and increased it by 1/3 cup. I used 1 cup of white whole wheat flour (Bob’s Red Mill ivory flour) in place of that much AP flour, and I added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill powdered milk. I baked it in the Nordic Ware Celebration Bundt pan—the one that allows you to cut 20 equal slices—as I don’t have the pan the recipe specifies and do not intend to buy it. I found that my cake needed 45 minutes to bake at 325F. After 20 minutes on the rack, it came out perfectly. I’m not planning to glaze it. We will eat it for dessert tonight, and I’ll add a not about what we think. The entire cake still has 43g saturated fat, but that is fine when sliced into 20 pieces. Had I followed the recipe, and used 1 1/3 cup olive oil, the total would have been 58g.

In the afternoon, I baked my Buttermilk Grape Nuts Bread, with some whole wheat and barley flour substituted for some of the AP flour, and I used bread flour for the rest. I also reduced the honey to 1 Tbs. and the salt to 1 tsp.

Note: The cake has a delicate orange taste behind the chocolate. The texture is excellent.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Joan Simpson]

Today I baked another loaf of sourdough bread,will cut it tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

On Friday, I fed my sourdough starter. I made a sourdough crust pan pizza, topped with a tomato sauce I made from crushed tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, ½ tsp. sugar, ½ tsp. Penzey’s Tuscan Sunset seasoning; a bit of rosemary, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce. I also topped with browned ground turkey, some chopped red bell pepper; sliced mushrooms, sliced green onion, small cubes of mozzarella, and Parmesan cheese.

[Joan Simpson]

I cut the loaf of sourdough today and I'm pleased.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a batch of Donna German's Austrian Malt Bread, because strawberries are on sale at $8 for an eight pound flat, so we're going to make Cardinal preserves.

[Joan Simpson]

Guessing Cardinal Preserves are strawberry preserves?Never heard of them called that.I make fig jam and add strawberry jello and it tastes like strawberry jam.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 6 months ago by Joan Simpson.

[Mike Nolan]

Cardinal preserves are the best strawberry preserves I've ever had. The recipe comes from the Farm Journal Freezing and Canning book, but we have it here:
Cardinal Preserves

You start with crushed berries and sugar, then you add whole berries and more sugar in three stages, you wind up with berries in several different states, some nearly whole, others partially dissolved, others fully dissolved.

Here's some of the Austrian Malt Bread with some Cardinal Preserves on it:

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