What are You Baking the Week of May 20, 2018?

[BakerAunt]

This afternoon, I will be baking a wholegrain bread in the Emile Henry long baker. The recipe started out as Antilope's (posted on this site), but I've adapted it--a lot.

Addition: I made 5-6 curvy, long slashes before baking, and that worked quite well for this bread. It's attractive, with no breaks.

I look forward to eating this bread tomorrow.

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• This topic was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

It's an overcast, cool Monday morning. I'm baking "3-C Cookies," a recipe that appeared in The Baking Sheet, 9.6 ((Autumn 1998), p. 26 and has been a favorite ever since. One additional note: the recipe was from Catherine S. Vodrey, who submitted them for the "Open Hearth" section of The Baking Sheet, where readers shared their favorite recipes. The recipe uses an egg and an egg yolk, and I had a yolk left after baking the Glazed Cheesecake Rolls last week. The three Cs are supposed to be cashews, coconut and chips (white chocolate). However, I found that cashews are wasted in these cookies, as the flavor gets lost amid the other ingredients. I used the suggested option of pecans, and I like that flavor. I always toast the coconut and the pecans. I used the #30 Zeroll scooper (2 Tbs.).

I cut the salt from 1 1/4 to just 3/4 tsp., as there is sodium in the baking soda and the coconut.

Although my husband says he cannot eat coconut, I've noticed lately that he is eating recipes that I bake with coconut, so I suspect that I will have plenty of help eating these cookies!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[RiversideLen]

I made a loaf of bread today, 50% whole grain (rye and white whole wheat), did it in a basket weave.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday evening, I fed my sourdough starter and made the dough for a double recipe of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I refrigerated it and will bake the crackers in a couple of days.

[chocomouse]

Yesterday I made another batch of the Oat-Wheat-Flax buns, but had to shorten the rise time due to other plans, so they didn't rise as much and may be a little more dense. I should have just put the dough in the fridge until we got back home. We love these buns - thanks so much Baker Aunt for bringing this recipe to our attention. We need cookies in this house, so I'm planning to make the Coconut Citrus Cookies posted in the latest KAF catalogue.

[skeptic7]

I baked a buttermilk whole wheat bread in my cloche! It was enormous about 3 lbs and around 7 cups of flour with cut up dried apricots. It was much better than the last whole wheat bread, but it was pushing the capabilities of the cloche as a bit of the top crust was stuck to the top of the cloche. It was also a bit too soft and on what I thought was a final rise, melted down into a shapeless blob instead of a nice round super boule. I added more flour and reshaped it.
Next time I am going to do this with 4 cups or less of flour and have a boule that fits comfortably within the cloche. I am also going to let it rise in a 8 or 9 inch round cake pan to have a layer between the bottom of the bread and the baking pan. The bottom was more cooked and dry than the top and sides.
Should the dough of a bread be noticeably drier than that of rolls? The noknead bread is more hydrated and they form shapely boules.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never seen anything that specifically suggests dough intended for baking as a loaf should have less moisture than dough intended for baking as rolls, though having a softer dough may facilitate the shaping of rolls.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--Did you sprinkle anything on the bottom of the cloche? I've found that with my clay bakers it helps to grease them, then liberally dust with farina (cream of wheat). I tried semolina, but it tends to burn. It seems to me that it not only prevents some sticking but also overbrowning on the bottom.

I've not used a cloche. I have a bread bowl (no cover) and the Emile Henry long covered baker. I really like how the covered baker performs.

From the cloches that I've seen, I think that you are correct that 7 cups of flour was too much. I think that 5 cups would likely be the limit.

[BakerAunt]

In the battle to combat lunch boredom, I decided to experiment with pizza for lunch on Thursday. I made the KAF Ultra-Thin Crust Pizza dough, but I reduced the salt to ¾ tsp. and the yeast to ¾ tsp. I divided it in half, and I have half in a covered bowl in the refrigerator, which I hope to use in a couple of days, at which time, I’ll report on how well the crust comes out after that long rest. I let the other half rise for two hours. I then put some canned artichokes on it, along with some halved black olives, sliced mushrooms, and green onion. I put chunks of mozzarella all over the pizza and grated Parmesan cheese over it. I baked it on my round Superstone baking stone, which is the one I always used before I got the large Emile Henry stone. It came out very well. The mozzarella that I used was on sale, as it was nearing its end date. It was sliced, for an appetizer platter. I cut it into chunks.

[RiversideLen]

I'm in the process of making cinnamon oat raisin bread. I haven't made raisin bread in about a year. This time I've added a little rye flour to it. I'm waiting for it to rise now. I just haven't decided what shape it will be, regular loaf, 3 strand braid, basket weave or buns.

[skeptic7]

BakerAunt;
I used parchment paper on the bottom of the cloche, but I didn't do anything else. I was surprised at how well the ceramic cloche bottom conducted heat.

On your pizza, do you use a very hot oven? why is that recommended for thin crust pizzas? A lot of articles talk about trying to get a very hot oven or to use a baking stone to increase the heat transfer. What good is this suppose to do?

[Mike Nolan]

Commercial pizza ovens are set anywhere from 650 degrees on up. A wood-fired oven might be in the 800-900 range, a coal-fired one (there are a few in NYC) will get to 1000 or higher.

The point of a really hot oven is to make a nice crisp crust. The toppings tend to keep the top from getting as well done, so it has to bake from the bottom up.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--I preheat the oven to 425F with the stone inside. For my large one, I preheat for an hour. For the small one, which is not as thick, I only preheated for 30 minutes. For a somewhat crispier crust, I could probably slide it off the parchment after the first 10 minutes or so, but I've not tried that.

I didn't realize that you are using parchment with your cloche, so my idea about the farina probably would not help, as I have not found it needed with parchment.

Clay bakers can be frustrating. I've not yet figured out the bread bowl I got from KAF--and apparently, I was not the only one, as there were some discussions about it on the Baking Circle as well as in the reviews of it. Your cloche, I take it, is intended to trap steam inside as the bread bakes, which is what my Emile Henry long baker does. Possibly, you would want to remove the cloche at some point before the bread is done, so that it can brown properly on top, and perhaps also on the sides.

[BakerAunt]

Back in February, I posted a link (in Desserts) to a recipe that is a twist on the usual lemon bar. On Friday morning, I finally got around to baking "Classic Lemon Bars," a new recipe from an email from Taste, an occasional online magazine. The recipe was adapted by Jessica Reed from one by Mrs. Eleanore Mickelson, that appeared in Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1962 (Pt. 3, p. 12).

We will have some for dessert tonight, at which time, I will add a note to this post as to what we think of them.

Added Note: These bars are terrific! They have a lot of lemon flavor. I will definitely make them again.

• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 6 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[RiversideLen]

My raisin bread didn't come out pretty, but it tastes good.

Today I made sandwich buns.

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