What are you Baking the Week of September 6, 2020?

[Mike Nolan]

It is going to be really hot here, they've backed off on it hitting 100 but it will be in the high 90's. High forecast for tomorrow in Lincoln is 79 and 50 (with rain) on Tuesday!!

So no baking today, but we've still got left over cake and pie to finish off.

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[chocomouse]

It has, typically, cooled off here lately; 78 now, but moving into the low 80s the next few days, with nights down around 50. This morning I made bagels - nice and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made last week.

Yesterday was pleasantly cool. Today was warmer, around 81F. The rain keeps missing us. Our area desperately needs a good rain. My husband says it is one of the most sustained droughts the area has seen.

[Joan Simpson]

Today I baked a coffee cake just simple cake with a streusel topping one from an old cookbook made a few changes and it was really good.Replaced milk with buttermilk and instead of all baking powder I cut it back and added 1/4 tsp. of baking soda.This reminded me of the old Sara lee coffee cake.I've had a piece with a glass of milk already.I'll add this to recipes, I've made this before and added chopped apples and sometimes blueberries or raisins.You can add nuts to topping or batter also.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Joan Simpson.

[BakerAunt]

Earlier this summer, I used the Bob’s Red Mill “Oregon Trail Cookies” recipe as the basis to develop my own version using olive oil and a bit of buttermilk in place of butter. I deleted the flax seeds but used 1 Tbs. flax meal and added 2 Tbs. sunflower seeds. I baked the recipe again on Tuesday, but we are low on honey, and I wanted to save it for my husband to use on his oatmeal, and so I used molasses in its place and added ¼ tsp. ginger to the cinnamon. I like the combination and would use this variation again.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I did a shift at a new, local shop that a friend of mine and his partners started. They have an Albanian master baker who was skeptical of me. I gained a little cred because 1) I listened (the other baker besides me did not) 2) I make my own sourdough with my own starter and 3) I have a stone and not a steel in my oven.

It was a hard, long fun shift but it was fun and the head baker can teach me a lot. He also wants me to bring in some of my starter which is making me kind of nervous.

Interestingly he said American yeast is much stronger than the yeast he is used to.

[BakerAunt]

What a great opportunity, Aaron! I look forward to hearing about further adventures in the bakery.

[RiversideLen]

That does sound like fun, Aaron.

Yesterday I made a batch of my sandwich buns. A little while back I was watching a Youtube video and the guy said not to add the salt right away as it interferes with autolyse. I've always added everything in right at the beginning so I don't forget. But the last several times I did not add the salt and oil until the 20 minute rest was over. It really makes a difference with the kneading of this dough. Before there would usually be a portion of dough sticking to the bottom of the bowl and I would have to coax it to incorporate with the rest of it. But now that problem has gone away.

[BakerAunt]

I've been holding back the oil and salt until most of the flour is incorporated. I usually have about 1-2 cups of flour that I mix with the salt and hold back until after a 15-20 minute rest, then I mix in the oil, then the reserved flour and salt. I agree that it makes a difference in the dough. Cass gave me that hint about holding back the oil until the yeast could get working.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm doing the first test bake in my 13x4x4 Pullman pan tonight, using the semolina/Austrian malt variation I've been making lately. I need to figure out how much dough to put in, I did some volume comparisons and I think it's not quite 2X what I've been making for a 9x5 loaf pan.

[Mike Nolan]

My son got a baking steel recently, so far he likes it.

I've looked at them a couple of times but already have two baking stones and a box full of unglazed 6" quarry tiles, and I don't bake on them very often.

My problem is I'd like one that is about 22 x 17, a little larger than my 3/4 sheet pans, and it doesn't come in that size.

[BakerAunt]

The comment about American yeast interests me. I have a bread book from a Swedish baker, and I noted early on that it uses a LOT of yeast. He does say in the introduction that he likes to use fresh yeast, but it is not clear from one recipe to another what he is using. I'm curious as to whether the Albanian baker was referring to fresh yeast or the freeze dried yeast.

[Mike Nolan]

I made too much dough for the first Pullman pan test, I used a total of 36 ounces of flour, next time I'll cut that to 32 or maybe 30. I didn't bake it with the lid on so it was free to rise well above the rim.

If the lid was on the slices would be 4x4, at the center the loaf is more like 5 1/2 inches high. There's also a 'keyhole' in it, probably a shaping issue. But overall, it was a good test and the bread is fine, though maybe not quite as fine-grained as it would be with the lid on.

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[BakerAunt]

In spite of the key hole, the bread still looks delicious, Mike.

I baked cornbread on Wednesday to go with the soup I made for dinner.

[chocomouse]

I made the Apricot Oatmeal Bars that BakerAunt often makes. I used raspberry jam which I made from our fresh picked berries. I made a few slight changes, mostly increasing the ingredients a bit to fill a 9 x 12 pan, and subbing in white whole wheat. They are delicious, and I will definitely make again. I am thinking about a thin layer of melted chocolate on top of the jam (raspberry or apricot) then sprinkled with the topping.

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