What are you Baking the week of May 19, 2019?

[chocomouse]

Yes, BakerAunt. The oven is 34 years old, so I've suspected other issues are possible. I'm thinking the upper element may be not working correctly, although it's not dead yet. That might account for the pale tops and not cooked through yet overcooked/burned bottoms. And, if it is working full strength only part of the time, it might be the cause of fluctuating temps. I've used two different oven thermometers, and they agree. I'm going to have our appliance repairman come back; he has the reputation of being the absolute best for miles arouund here.

[chocomouse]

I just posted Chocomouse's Breakfast Cookies recipe under recipes.

[Mike Nolan]

In an oven that old, the top element may not come on at all except when in broiler mode, you may have to get down on your hands and knees to check on that through the window.

Maverick makes an oven thermometer that is designed to measure average temperature, it hangs below the rack rather than goes in your meat. I've used both it and a digital meat probe thermometer at the same time to observe differences in what they measure.

Having multiple digital thermometers (I have at least 4 of them) seems expensive, but consider the cost of a ruined crown roast!

I'd be inclined to suspect a bad thermostat or a bad dial. Older electric ovens get 'dead spots' on the dials. (The digital controls are more likely to just fail completely.)

[chocomouse]

Thanks, Mike. I didn't know about dead spots on the dials. The appliance repairman did check the thermostat. A different one checked it also when I had a problem about 10 years ago, and said it was fine; he said 50 degrees above or below the set temp was fine! LOL I'm avoiding buying a new stove, as this is a JennAir, which I love, set into the island with a downdraft for grilling. My husband says a new one will require some carpentry work to fit in the same space. I really hate to shop!

[Mike Nolan]

Yeah, I hear you on the carpentry issue. Our SubZero side-by-side refrigerator and freezer are both 22 years old now, and the newer ones are about 11 inches taller, so we'd lose the cabinet space above them. So we keep repairing them. Fortunately, SubZero still makes parts for them. The guy who repaired the freezer last time it broke said SubZero actually has a few of this model sitting in a warehouse. They're something like 10-15 years old but have never been out of the crate.

If our DCS dual-fuel 48" range had to be replaced, we probably wouldn't have trouble getting a new unit in the space, but we'd probably have to take the island out to have space to get the old one out and a new one in. The DCS weighs about 700 pounds, too!

[skeptic7]

I have been having attic repair problems. Tuesday I was crawling around on the attic when to get further under the rafters, I decided to crawl on the drywall ceiling instead of on the joists. This would get me lower to the ground and hence I could get further under the ceiling and toward the edge.
The ceiling promptly cracked under the weight of my knee and sent my spray bottle and some dry wall into the room below. I looked at the hole -- realized that the ceiling had shown evidence of previous water damage and cracks and determined that I should make the hole bigger and try to put a drywall patch in.
After 4 attempts. my ceiling is now partially patched and I have learned several methods of not patching a largish hole in the dry wall. a) don't expect to cut a drywall patch the exact size and expect it to stay in place while you plaster it in -- gravity is not your friend
b) don't expect fiberglass tape and patching compound to hold it in place -- gravity is not your friend and wet drywall compound won't hole anything in c) when trying to cut out a nice smooth hole near already weak and cracked dry wall don't expect the hole not to grow bigger d) your nice piece of plywood cut for your existing hole isn't long enough for the new hole
Anyway it was way too hot to bake for most of the week, but by Friday I was desperate.
I did a quick bread for the first time in a crockpot. It cooked on high for about 3 1/2 hours and was moist and tasty. This was my normal whole wheat scone thing with 1/2 cup blueberry jam for flavor and color and sweetener. I guess I can't call it a scone as it was much more cake light in texture and color but it was good.
Saturday I did whole wheat buttermilk bread with a cinnamon swirl in the crockpot. About 4 hours, 2 hours on low and 2 hours on high and cooked to 190 degrees. Much better than no bread and great with hot chocolate. It was a soft dough just a little better than a batter and I didn't knead it very much. Slightly too moist but great toasted and the cinnamon sugar gives a nice sweet surprise in the bread.

[Mike Nolan]

I know my limitations as a handyman, and doing drywall work isn't something I'd attempt. We had a bunch of drywall work done last fall, repairing some areas where water had leaked in before we got the roof fixed correctly. (The re-roofing job we had done about 10 years ago was not done very well, so we found a different roofer when we got hit by a big hailstorm two years ago.)

[skeptic7]

I called up a friend to whine about my ceiling. He had a comforting matter of fact attitude toward the hole -- things happen -- ceilings are often fragile -- you should have seen my hole. He also told me how to fix this and why my proposed method -- drywall clips -- wouldn't work well. However he also admitted that he personally hated drywall and working with it and fixing holes and had called in expert help to deal with his ceiling problem.
It was nice to hear from a friend who didn't think "BIG DISASTER" "Careless stupidity", but more "poor you, that is going to be messy. Its a irritating fix not a disaster. Common mishap"

[chocomouse]

Skeptic, I admire you for your "Do It Yourself" projects. I would not even attempt that job. But I've been thinking about trying some crockpot baking this summer when the temperatures rise.

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