What are you Baking the Week of September 1, 2024?

[Mike Nolan]

I made my first two attempts at a keto-friendlier version of my mother's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies today, using carbalose as the flour and allulose as the sugar, with just a little molasses to give it that 'brown sugar' taste. I used Guittard Sante chocolate chips, they're made with coconut sugar and are low net carbs.

They show potential, I think the taste is similar but it needs more oatmeal flavor. I used 1/4 of the usual amount of oatmeal in the first batch and doubled that in the second batch. The oatmeal itself adds a little under 1 carb per cookie, so I've got room to increase it further.

They're not crispy, they're more chewy/soft, and a bit too flat. I think those things can be worked on, too, possibly by increasing the amount of shortening.

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[Joan Simpson]

Mike for low carb and Keto friendly I think they look great!

[BakerAunt]

I made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I'll bake them early next week.

[BakerAunt]

Friday morning was cool enough that I decided to bake Buttermilk Oaten Cakes, a recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads (1987), pp. 215-216, that I had marked to try. He notes that the recipe comes from County Cork, Ireland. It called for mixing 2 cups quick or old-fashioned oats with 1 ¼ cup buttermilk or sour milk and allowing to sit overnight before adding a mixture of 2 ½ cups bread or AP flour combined with 1 tsp. baking soda and 1 tsp. salt the next day. I used old-fashioned oats, and when I looked at them this morning, they had absorbed the buttermilk, and I knew that 2 ½ cups flour would be too much, especially as I planned to substitute 1 cup of white whole wheat flour. So, I used 1 cup white whole wheat and 1 cup King Arthur AP flour. I left the baking soda amount but cut the salt to ½ tsp. The recipe states to add a little milk if the mixture is dry in order to get a soft, smooth dough. I added an additional 4 Tbs. of buttermilk. I though the baking time of 40 minutes at 350 F seemed a bit long for the dough, which is flattened to 1-inch thickness, then cut into four quarters, "placed side by side." I was not sure what side by side meant. I kept them separated from each other. I baked for 30 minutes, then checked with my trusty instant read thermometer. With temperatures of 198 and 202 F, I took them out. I had a warm one for breakfast. I like the taste. Although it has no sugar, the oats give it a slightly sweet taste, and I used Land 'o Lakes canola-butter spread on my first half and added blackberry jam on the second, although the jam covers the oat flavor. I am not sure how these will be at room temperature. I may re-heat slightly. They are large, so if I were to bake them again, I might cut them into sixths rather than fourths and adjust the baking time accordingly.

One reason I tried this recipe is that my husband has taken to eating jam and bread with tea, so we are going through bread much faster. I want to give him an alternative.

[Mike Nolan]

So: Tea, a drink with jam and bread,
that will keep you making dough.

[Joan Simpson]

I like that play on words Mike. Today I made a new recipe for brownies. I had to bake longer than it said and I don't know how the middle will be but edges are good.

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[Mike Nolan]

The edges are my wife's favorite part, anyway. We have one of those 'all edges' pans, but I haven't made brownies since last year. I did use it for cornbread once, because I was planning to use it for stuffing.

[RiversideLen]

Joan, those brownies look good to me.

Mike, wouldn't adding more shortening to the cookie dough actually make them thinner as it would increase the spread? I had an idea for a little while now about baking cookies in a cupcake tin to limit the spread. You'd have to use cupcake papers to ensure they release easily. The other day when I made the chocolate chip cookie dough I ran a test batch doing that. They came out taller and round and, of course, uniform diameter (I used a number 40 disher). I'm not sure I'll do it again, mainly because it's a little more effort but it remains an option.

Yesterday I made a batch of oatmeal raisin cookie dough. I had an open package of mini chocolate chips that was fast approaching it's best by date, so I added those in. Today I baked the cookies and have them ready for the block party tomorrow.

[Mike Nolan]

Our younger son used to make the oatmeal crisps cookies with butter (so did my sister), they definitely came out flat. I'm not sure if increasing the amount of shortening would make them flatter, which is why I will try it the next time I make these. At the rate of about one cookie a day, it could be October before I'm ready to make them again. The ones with additional oatmeal were definitely less flat, so that might be an option as well.

I lowered the temperature 25 degrees because I've had issues with allulose-based cookies getting too dark, so that might have been a factor as well.

If you research online how to make cookies crisp, there are multiple not necessarily consistent suggestions, such as decrease moisture, increase the amount of sugar, which I don't think would help with allulose, because it has different crystal states than sucrose, and add fat.

[BakerAunt]

Good one, Mike: I'll keep making the dough.

[Joan Simpson]

Update the brownies were delicious .This is the recipeI did have to bake an extra 20 minutes.

Quick & Easy Brownie Mix (For Fudgy & Gooey Brownies)

[Mike Nolan]

They still looked a bit gooey in the middle, but that can be a good thing with brownies. 🙂

[Joan Simpson]

They were a bit more gooey than I wanted I'm thinking of cutting the oil back or adding in a 1/4 cup more flour ?What do you think?

[BakerAunt]

Joan--you didn't say if you used coconut oil in your brownies. I never use it, so I do not know if replacing it made a difference.

However, if I were baking the recipe and using regular oil, I would cut the oil back to 3/4 cup to start and see how that affects the results. I might even cut it to 2/3 cup.

[Joan Simpson]

BakerAunt I used canola oil but thought that was a lot one cup. I will try them again cutting way back.

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