What are you Baking the Week of October 15, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

I think my bagel dough was a little too dry, when I used the 'roll around your hand' method they didn't all seal together, one or two of them sort of came apart, one looked like a bagel schnecken.

I'll probably increase the water next time around.

[RiversideLen]

I made cupcakes from a box mix (Devils Food).

[aaronatthedoublef]

I ran into Temple and pre-shaped the challah and then Violet and I shaped it and baked it. It was nice having full-sized sheet pans and a large, professional oven. I could bake all 14 loaves at once. Violet now wants to do challah bakes with me every week. It's funny - she loves the smell of my dough and, of course, the smell of baking bread, but she dislikes challah. Who dislikes challah (everyone asks that)? Violet does. Although she says mine is better than others she still has not desire to eat it.

Saturday Violet and I made my birthday cake. She is funny. She asked my favorite and I pulled out the recipe and told her she could see how often I'd made it by the mess on the pages. 🙂 It is Rosie's chocolate fudge cake. Rosie had wonderful bakeries in the Boston area when I lived there. I moved to Seattle and was a little homesick, saw the baking book on remainder in Barnes & Noble, and scooped it up. It is a sour cream chocolate cake with a non-cooking version of a boiled chocolate frosting. We added milk chocolate chips between the layers to add some texture and contrast to the unsweetened and semi sweet chocolate. The we added toasted and untoasted coconut to the outside.

And, this is the REALLY big news - Violet asked if she could turn the cake pans in the oven and then take them out of the oven. She has always been afraid to do this so I am really proud of her.

And we still need to work on grabbing a cake pan by the edge and not sticking one's thumb in the cake. But I still do that sometimes so...

[Mike Nolan]

I've probably made over a half dozen different Challah recipes over the years, though I haven't done your apple cider one yet. (Soon.)

The one I've gone back to the most is Peter Reinhart's recipe in BBA. I recently bought Maggie Glezer's book, A Blessing of Bread, though I haven't tried any of her recipes yet.

I did a chocolate Challah once, I forget whose recipe I used for that one, though, and I'm not sure if I saved it anywhere. (I've got stacks of recipes I've printed over the years off the Internet.) It made interesting French Toast.

Get Violet a good set of gloves. I like the barbecue ones better than the welder ones.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked "Peanut Butter Honeys," a recipe from Mumpy that is posted here at Nebraska Kitchen. I wanted to use up the rest of a jar of no-stir peanut butter that I accidentally bought. (Note to self: pay attention to words on label not just picture, as this brand also makes the natural peanut butter that does need stirring.) I made the same changes as last time by using 3 Tbs. avocado oil instead of butter, replacing the flour with white whole wheat, and adding 1 Tbs. Bob's Red Mill milk powder. I used the specified amount of salt this time rather than halving it; the salt is needed to offset the honey. This time, I also added 2 tsp. flax meal. I used local honey that I bought at our farmers' market. I used my Zerroll #40 scoop and got 23 cookies. I baked the entire batch on my 1 and 2/3 sheet pan on parchment. I initially baked for 8 minutes, rotating halfway through, then gave them an additional minute. We had some for dinner tonight, and they are excellent. Next time, I will try making them with natural peanut butter, so I will need to adjust for the oil difference.

[BakerAunt]

Aaron--Violet is becoming quite the baker! It is nice to have someone to whom you can pass on your knowledge and skills!

[Joan Simpson]

Aaron I know that blesses your heart with Violet helping and learning from you in the kitchen.

[Mike Nolan]

I made peanut butter cookies this evening.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Tuesday evening from dough I made last week.

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