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I'm making Vienna Bread today (the Clonmel Kitchens Double Crusty Bread recipe, using butter instead of oil.)
Our SubZero freezer died on Thursday, and we didn't figure that out until most of the food in it had gone bad. Can't get a repairman out to even look at it until Wednesday, but hopefully parts are still available. The newer SubZero units are about 10 inches taller than the 501 models that we bought 22 years ago, we'd have to do some remodeling in the kitchen to get them to fit and would lose the cabinet space above them.
I'm sorry to hear about the freezer failure, Mike. Losing all the food makes it that much worse.
The hardest part of my low saturated fat diet is having to avoid the cookies and pastries that rely so heavily on butter. While a little butter can be ok, a lot of my recipes call for significantly more, and even a modest serving can add up when attempting to stay at 11 g or less of saturated fat per day, especially when I've already assigned 3 grams of that to dairy, and I still need to add in meat and/ or eggs--and the Land o' Lakes light butter-canola spread I plan to have on my sweet corn tonight. I spent yesterday afternoon exploring some recipes at My Nebraska Kitchen, and I printed some promising ones.
On Sunday afternoon, I baked Lemon-Anise Biscotti, which was submitted to the Baking Circle on April 8, 2004 by Bettina (aka Laura Four Paws). She had it from a Cooks Illustrated email that invited subscribers to send it to friends--and we were all friends on that site. Assuming an egg is 2 grams of saturated fat (I’ve also seen it listed as 1.5g), these biscotti have only 4 grams of saturated fat. When cut into slices, that will be quite acceptable, and eggs have valuable nutrients as well.
The recipe is missing one step, as it does not say when to add the lemon zest, anise seed, and vanilla. I whisked them in after first whisking together the eggs and sugar, before sifting in the flour mixture over the egg mixture and incorporated it with my large dough whisk. It is a very sticky dough. I weighed it on saran on my scale. (I need to weigh my bowls so I can divide dough in them on the scale.) Instead of floured hands, I used slightly damp hands and a metal knife to spread and shape the two rolls on the parchment-lined cookie sheet. (I’m not sure why the recipe says an oiled cookie sheet covered with parchment. It must be a mistake.)
After the loaves had cooled, I found that they stuck to the parchment, and I could not get a spatula under them, but I pulled up the long side of the parchment next to each loaf, so that I turned it over, and then the parchment was easily peeled away. I cut mine straight rather than on the diagonal so that the pieces would be about the same size. That actually gave me 5 dozen. For the second bake, I stood them on their sides, but still baked for the stated 15 minutes. (I'm not fond of turning biscotti.)
The flavor of the crumbs from when I cut them is great, and I'll try one after they cool, but this recipe is certainly a keeper. I look forward to having them with tea and coffee.
It's not in the recipe section, but in the saved threads:
A note on the Lemon-Anise Biscotti: These are quite sweet, so I'm having them with tea without sugar. I mentioned to my husband perhaps reducing the sugar when I bake them again. He said that it is needed to offset the anise--a flavor he does not really like--although I notice that he is eating the biscotti (and keeps leaving the lid part-way open). The lemon flavor does not seem to come through; perhaps it supports the flavor profile in another way.
Sorry about your freezer, Mike. It's really frustrating when refrigeration isn't working. Several years ago I bought a La Crosse digital thermometer, it consists of sending units (it comes with one but you can add up to 3) and a receiving unit (pictured). I have one sending unit in my fridge and one in my chest freezer. This way I can tell at a glance if my refridgeration is working correctly. A couple of years ago I was able to catch a problem with my fridge early on and repair it before it caused a real problem.
We are out of bread, and it was terribly hot and muggy today, so I started my adaptation of Bernard Clayton, Jr.'s Dark Grains Bread after dinner. I'll probably be up until midnight. I'm keeping careful notes, and I hope to be putting my version of the bread on this site soon.
Added Note: The bread came out well, although there is the usual "speckled" top with a bit of wrinkles. The first rise took less than 50 minutes, and the second was almost over risen after 30 minutes. It was warm in the house, but this bread has always had a fast rise. I've been using 4 tsp. yeast, since it's a lot of whole grain. Clayton used 4 1/2 tsp. When I cut it back before, the structure seemed to suffer, but I'm also using a different method to mix it and kneading it longer. I might try 3 3/4 tsp. next time and see if that helps control the rise.
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