What are You Baking the Week of September 24, 2017?

[BakerAunt]

Aaron, if you are melting the chocolate and the butter, you could stir in the sugar after you do so, and "melt" it.

Another possibility: put your sugar in the blender or food processor and process it so that it is finer.

[BevM]

The recipe I have used for brownies is by Hershey's and requires melting the butter first then adding the sugar. I always stir for a while to melt the sugar and it makes a dense. moist brownie which is a family favorite. I haven't seen castor sugar at Walmart but I will look closer on my next trip.

[Mike Nolan]

The only place I've seen anything labeled as 'caster sugar' in the USA was a specialty grocery store. C&H makes a 'Baker's super fine granulated sugar', it's what is I have used when a recipe called for caster sugar.

[BevM]

When I lived in California, C&H was the brand of sugar in the stores. Here in the South it is Domino's. If processing in the blender, would the before and after measurements be the same in volume or weight?

[Mike Nolan]

I would expect it to be a little denser, ie, take up less volume after being ground into smaller pieces, for the same reason that table salt weighs more per teaspoon than the larger grain kosher salt, but if you take it all the way to powdered sugar, I think it gains volume, because a powder can hold more suspended air in it.

If you weigh it beforehand, it might lose a little weight when you grind it up (dust and whatever sticks to the food processor), but probably not enough to matter.

Followup: The C&H site says that their superfine baker's sugar is measured the same as regular sugar, which implies that a cup of both would be the same weight, or the difference so small as to be negligible.

[BakerAunt]

The weight, however, should be the same. It would be interesting to see if it measured the same.

I've used and liked the C&H Baker's sugar, but here in northern Indiana, the brand is Domino's. I think that they are the same company, as I have had sugar coupons good on either brand. I will have to look next time to see if they have the Baker's sugar.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Mike Nolan]

American Sugar Refining, Inc. markets products under the brand names C&H, Domino, Florida Sugar and Redpath. They also own the Tate & Lyle sugar refining business, which includes the rights to the Tate & Lyle's brand name, including Lyle's Golden Syrup.

[cwcdesign]

Darinna Allen of Ballymaloe uses cream in her Irish scone recipe.

[BakerAunt]

On Saturday afternoon, I baked a new recipe: "Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Streusel," from Bake from Scratch 4.2 (Fall 2016), p. 45. I baked it exactly except for substituting in 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour (flour total in cake is 1 2/3 cup). I also used homemade pumpkin puree from the "peanut pumpkin" I processed last week. In making the streusel, which includes roasted salted pumpkin seeds, I initially burned the butter instead of browning it and had to throw that butter away and start over. The cake did come out of the pan nicely after 10 minutes cooling, but next time, I'll probably let it cool for 15 minutes. I was not sure about cooling it on a rack, so I inverted it back onto another plate to cool. It has sunk a bit in the center, so even though it tested done at 55 minutes, I probably should have baked it another 5 minutes.

[BakerAunt]

Well, I'm not sure another 5 minutes would have made much difference. While it is a cake on the outside, the inside is reminiscent of pumpkin pie.

Here is the recipe: https://www.bakefromscratch.com/pumpkin-cake-with-brown-butter-streusel/

Theirs does look bit more cakey than mine, but it also seems to have sunk a bit in the center. I used homemade pumpkin puree--but I did weigh it for 15 oz. Mine was probably a bit more watery than canned, but I've made this substitution in other pumpkin recipes without a problem.

I'm going to ask Cass about it. I note that the sugar does far outweigh the flour, and I recall that causing problems for me in another recipe that he then balanced.

The flavor is actually wonderful, and that streusel topping superb, so I would like to figure out how to bake the cake successfully.

ADDENDUM: The online recipe says it is supposed to be a "pumpkin pie like" cake. NOW they tell me. They say THERE (not in the magazine I worked from) that for a more traditional cake, use only 1 cup of pumpkin. So, what I ended up with is correct, except it could have baked another 5 minutes.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I also baked my version of Antilope's Vienna Bread, since we are nearing the end of fresh tomato season, and I must have my Bacon and Tomato sandwiches.

[BakerAunt]

I heard from Kid Pizza about my pumpkin dessert recipe. He said that for it to have been a cake, the flour, and sugar, and pumpkin would need to be equal weights. However, for the pie-like dessert, which it is apparently supposed to be, he suggested that if I bake it again, I should not put the streusel on at first but wait 15 minutes. The remaining 45 minutes would be enough to let the streusel brown, and I would not have to worry about it being overbrowned while waiting for the dessert to cook through.

[skeptic7]

I baked a cheese pizza and two loaves of ginger bread. Completely boring but tasty!

[BakerAunt]

Pizza is never boring!

[BakerAunt]

Oops. I put a post under the wrong week. I've now moved it to October 1.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by BakerAunt. Reason: moved post to correct date

[Author]

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