What are you Baking the Week of October 31, 2021?

[Mike Nolan]

Happy Halloween.

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[Joan Simpson]

Sour cream biscuits.

[Janiebakes]

My husband was wandering through Costco and came across an entire Spanish Ham, jamon serrano. Happy memories of Spain convinced him to buy it. It came with a stand and a knife and sits on the table. Being ham, it has it's share of fat. Being jamon serrano, it is pricey, so what to do with that pricey fat. I looked for crackling recipes online. Turns out there is southern crackling bread that uses cornmeal and wheat flour. There is also an Italian version that is a yeasted bread. Peter Reinhaet has a version in The Bread Baker's Apprentice but it is deluxe using eggs, butter, milk and cheese. I found a leaner verson called panecon ciccioli. I rendered the fat in a 200 degree oven because it has a very low smoke point. The drained cracklings were added to flour,water, yeast, salt and pecorino cheese. The recipe is here: https://www.theitaliangardenproject.com/blog/a-new-york-treat-pane-con-ciccioli I was short on the cracklings and rendered lard but just went with what I had. I used cubed pecorino, about 200 grams. It made two nice sized rings. I was afraid to bake it at the 475 degrees called for. It seemed far too hot. I used 425 and baked it for about 35 minutes. Absolutely delicious. Nice crust and tender crumb. I can also see using this dough with nuts, a few raisins and a sugar glaze. Maybe with citrus zest. Butter instead of lard. But don't be afraid of using lard. After all, if carrot cake uses a whole cup or more of oil, what's the matter with few tablespoons of lard in a loaf?

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[BakerAunt]

I have wanted to try the Pumpkin Soda Bread in Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker, p. 52, and Sunday (Halloween) seemed a good time to bake with more pumpkin. I knew that I would have to make at least one change to the recipe, as it uses 4 Tbs. butter, which he cuts into the flour. I also thought that I could make it more whole grain. I replaced 2 ½ cups of the AP flour with the Irish whole meal flour that King Arthur sells and used 2 cups KAF for the rest. I reduced the salt from 2 tsp. to 1 tsp. I added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder to increase the calcium, and because I think the added dairy helps when replacing butter. Instead of 4 Tbs. butter, I used 3 Tbs. avocado oil, for a little more fat than canola oil would provide. I also chose golden raisins. I used 1 cup of pumpkin rather than ¾, in part because mostly I freeze pumpkin in 1 cup, 2 cups, or 1 ½ cup containers, and I did not want ¼ cup left over. I hoped that the whole meal flour would take up some of the excess liquid. Instead of an egg yolk, I used half an egg that I had left over from another use. I mixed all the liquid ingredients together, then added them to the flour, raisin, nut mixture, which is what I do for an oil-based pie crust or scones. The dough was sticky, so there was no way I would be kneading it, but it held together nicely when glopped onto two corners of a parchment-lined baking sheet, and I was able to shape it a bit around the sides. I baked for the stated 40 minutes, turning the sheet at the halfway point. I might cut two minutes off the baking time, as they seem slightly overbrowned. The flavor and texture are excellent. I will bake this recipe, with my changes, again.

I have been pleased with The Harvest Baker. While Ken Haedrich is not always as focused on heart healthy ingredients as I would wish (he recovered from a heart attack a few years ago, so he must have some awareness of the issues), I can usually find ways of adapting the recipes in his baking book, which is one of the few I have found that has great squash recipes.

[chocomouse]

I made brownies with a layer of caramel in the middle. They are delicious, but I need to make a few changes and try again to get what I want. OH, well, more taste testing!

[Mike Nolan]

I've tried making caramel-in-the-middle brownies once or twice, it is tricky. What kind of caramel were you using? I've used the stuff in a jar for a caramel apple pie a few times.

[chocomouse]

Mike, I made the caramel sauce -- sugar, butter, heavy cream. I think cutting back a bit on the cream might produce a thicker, more solid caramel. Perhaps I just need to boil it a bit longer. One change at a time!! I believe KABC has a recipe for hard caramels and I might check that out looking for tips and/or thoughts on cutting back the cream. I also might just call their hot line.

[Mike Nolan]

The thickness of cream caramels is mostly controlled by the temperature it is cooked to. Any water in the cream and in the butter is boiled out before it gets to 230. For caramel apples I like it on the soft side, cooked to 242 degrees on a properly calibrated thermometer, for caramels I'm going to cut and wrap I like them a little harder, but not to the point where you can't chew them without risking your fillings, more like 246. At 248 they're pretty solid. But it can go from 242 to 248 quickly, sometimes under a minute, so you have to watch it carefully. I use a digital probe and the first time I see the temperature I'm after, I take it off the flames.

If I'm making caramel apples I put the pan in a bain marie to keep it from getting too cool while I'm dipping the apples, otherwise I pour it out quickly into a prepared form. I have 4 stainless steel candymaker's bars, 3/4 inch square, that I use for poured candies, so I can pour it directly on the marble and let the bars do the shaping while the marble does the cooling. For toffee I will sometimes put aluminum foil down to make it easier to move around. The last time I made honeycomb sponge candy I poured it into an 11x13 pan as the recipe specified, next time I'm going either going to pour it onto the marble or use a 13x17 pan so it is thinner.

I use the caramel recipe in the Antoinette Pope School New Candy Cookbook, I've been using it since the 1960's. The book is long out of print, but occasionally you see copies for sale online, I think I paid under $20 for mine and I see at least 3 online, at prices ranging from under $9 to $25.

[BakerAunt]

I found a cup of frozen, unsweetened applesauce in the freezer, so Saturday afternoon, I baked White Whole Wheat Apple Cider Baked Doughnuts,” a recipe that originated at King Arthur, that originally used whole wheat flour, although they later used white whole wheat flour. On the KABC site it uses AP flour. I have been working with this recipe off and on since 2013, but the version I baked today is the best. I reduced the sugar from 1 ¼ cup to 1 cup and the salt from 1 ½ tsp. to ½ tsp. I reduced the 4 Tbs. boiled cider to 1 tsp., and the vanilla from 1 ½ tsp. to ½ tsp. I want the flavor of my homemade applesauce to dominate! I have some Penzey’s Chinese cinnamon that I used. I had a partial egg left over from another use, so I used that with the other two eggs (recipe calls for three). I coated the two six-well doughnut pans with The Grease. I found that the thick batter was easy to distribute using a mini-spoonula—about three glops per well. I baked for 17 minutes. I inverted them onto the rack almost immediately. I moved each doughnut to a platter and sprinkled it with Penzey’s Cinnamon Sugar (includes a bit of vanilla.) The recipe includes a maple glaze, but I decided to forgo it in favor of the light cinnamon sugar dusting.

I ate a warm one with a cup of tea--ah, autumn feels real!

[Joan Simpson]

Warm apple cider doughnuts sound good BakerAunt.

I baked some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today,very good.I haven't been in the mood to bake lately.

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