What are you Baking the Week of October 25, 2020?

[Joan Simpson]

Today I baked two loaves of banana bread shared one with my SIL.

[Joan Simpson]

Today I baked two loaves of banana bread shared one with my SIL.

BakerAunt my cousin has gotten someone she knows to make her one of those boards and hers fits over her stove top,very nice.

[chocomouse]

I used the recipe on the bag of Harvest Grains from KAF, although I changed it quite a bit. I increased the amount of each of the flours by about 1/4 cup, but I didn't measure, just scooped with a spoon. I also added about 3 tablespoons of flax meal, and decreased the salt. Of course, I then had to increase the liquid to get the dough texture I wanted. It rose beautifully and made 2 large 9 x 5 loaves. There is a recipe, same name, in the KAF files, but it is different from the one on the bag.

[BakerAunt]

For dessert on Friday, I adapted a recipe for Pumpkin Streusel Muffins from Breads, Breads, and More Breads, a Pillsbury cook booklet (#37). The recipe is a long time favorite. I replaced ¾ of the AP flour with whole wheat pastry flour, added some flax meal and milk powder, and made some other changes. After putting the streusel on top, I put some Halloween sprinkles on top of it. I used Halloween baking papers.

[chocomouse]

I made chocolate chips cookies.

[BakerAunt]

For Saturday night dinner (Halloween!), I made my sourdough pan pizza. I topped it with homemade tomato sauce, frozen in August, Canadian Bacon, mozzarella, mushrooms, green onion, black olives on my side, and Parmesan cheese.

[Italiancook]

My husband would enjoy the abundance of ingredients on your pizza, BakerAunt. Recently, my husband brought home a pizzaria pizza. He said he was hungry for a pizza with a lot of toppings. Apparently, my "less is more" approach to homemade pizza isn't cutting it.

I have a loaf of my grandmother's Banana Bread in the oven. She used solid Crisco in it. Since the ratio for subbing oil for shortening is 1:1, I used light olive oil.

[BakerAunt]

One of my friends, whose grandparents emigrated from Italy, prefers her pizza with just cheese. I wondered if a lot of toppings is an American innovation.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hello. Sorry for going silent for a while. I made sourdough sandwich bread. Shaping it with more care as well as blocking the fan has helped. I am working on batards as well as sandwich loaves. My last batard came out more like a baguette.

I also figured out my chocolate cake problem. I went back to the beginning of the book and it was old enough that the method of measuring was to scoop and level. I was filling and leveling so I had significantly less flour. I measured the right way and the cake layers were two of the prettiest I have ever made! And then my wife had me cut it into bite size pieces so people could take them from a platter... I offered to make brownies instead but she didn't want that because then we would have had cake AND brownies. The cake was originally for my book club which was postponed because of bad weather.

So when looking at a recipe it matters when it was from and what the method of measuring is. I wonder when it changed and why it changed. Also when KAF or some other place gives generalized volume to weight conversions (4.5 ounces for a cup of bread flour) which method of measuring are they assuming for volume?

[Mike Nolan]

KAF recommends you stir the flour, then gently spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off. Even then, you can see variances of as much as 1/4 ounce per cup.

KAF's recipes assume a cup of AP or bread flour weighs 4.25 ounces, the latest USDA database says it is 137 grams (4.83 ounces), though. But I've seen cookbooks or recipes that range from 4 ounces to 5 1/2 ounces for a cup of flour.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. See, I was off on the volume to weight measurement and I was looking at the chart!

I'll have to figure out volume to weight for this recipe on my own!

It teaches me that when someone gives me a recipe I need to pay attention to how old it is. I should go look in my KAF BIG BOOK of BAKING to see how it says to measure flour.

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by aaronatthedoublef.

[Mike Nolan]

Older recipes probably used the scoop and level method, which tends to produce weights around 5 ounces for a cup of AP flour, especially if it hasn't been fluffed up first.

When I test out a recipe for the first time, I usually assume 4.25 ounces of flour per cup, it is far easier for me to add a little flour than to adjust the rest of the recipe when you have more flour than it calls for. Now, you can get it TOO soupy, in which case it is hard to get it balanced.

I saw a comment recently (on the BBGA forum, I think) talking about high hydration doughs made with potato flour where the poster said it was very easy to accidentally turn it from bread dough into potato soup. It is easy to visualize that.

[BakerAunt]

I've had problems with some KAF recipes where I worked by the metric weight rather than by volume--and yes, I measure my flour as the now KABC suggests. If you want to use weight rather than volume on one of their recipes, I suggest measuring ingredients by volume, then weighing them and writing down your results.

[chocomouse]

Most of KABC's recipes are given in both volume and weight measures -- there is an option to click on the posting to choose your preferred method. However, their older recipes are mostly only in volume.

Thanks, BakerAunt, for reminding us it is now KABC. I hate to admit it is difficult for this old dog to learn new tricks.

[Mike Nolan]

Sorry, but for me KABC is a TV station in Los Angeles.

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