What are you Baking the Week of September 7, 2025?

[Mike Nolan]

No baking plans for today.

Spread the word

      

  

  

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I tackled the large zucchini that had been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of weeks. When I halved it, I was pleasantly surprised that it did not have the usual large seeds. I grated it with my food processor, then set aside 340 grams, which I used to bake a revised version of King Arthur's Double Chocolate Zucchini Bread. I like my new adaptation better than the original recipe and have posted it here at Nebraska Kitchen.

I always thought the original recipe was odd, as I just do not like honey with chocolate. I also thought the original recipe had an off taste, which I think was due to the baking soda, which I replaced with more baking powder.

I also made dough for Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, as the last batch vanished during our guests' visits. 🙂

[BakerAunt]

I fed my sourdough on Monday when I made crackers, and it is lively. On Wednesday, I tried baking a new recipe, "Whole Wheat and Rye Sourdough Bread," a recipe on the King Arthur site attributed to Marilyn Mulgrew of Rochester, New York. It was a challenge, and not just because I made a couple of changes. I increased the whole wheat by ½ cup, replacing that much AP flour. I also used bread flour rather than AP. I replaced ¾ cups plus 2 Tbs. warm milk with 7 oz. of water and added 2 Tbs. special dry milk. I also cut the salt from 1 tsp. to ¾ tsp. I mixed and kneaded the dough in the bread machine. I should have kept a closer eye on it near the end, but it seemed to be coming together ok, and I had added a couple more tablespoons of flour earlier. The dough was a sticky mess all over the machine at the end of the kneading cycle. I ended up scraping it all out onto a mat floured with another 2 Tbs. whole wheat flour and kneading it some more. After the rise, I did a couple of stretch-folds before shaping it the best I could and plopping it into a 9 x 4-inch baking pan to rise for 45 minutes. I chose that pan because some recipe reviewers felt that the sides needed more support, and this pan is a little deeper than my standard pans. The recipe called for a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, but reviewers commented on their loaves being rather short. The bread is baked at 400 F for 25 minutes, but it only registered 178 F at that time and was getting overly brown on top, so I lowered the temperature to 375 F, tented it with foil, and let it bake another 10 minutes, at which time the internal temperature was 205 F. It is not a typical loaf in that it looks very much like a batter bread.

I suspect that part of the issue is that I have a starter with more liquid than the recipe developer or King Arthur. I would add another ½ cup flour next time and maybe reduce the liquid by 2 Tbs. Of course, whether there is a next time will depend on taste and texture when I slice it tomorrow.

[skeptic7]

I did more Bao -- basically the KAF Taiwanese Breakfast Bao -- yesterday and this morning. I turned out nicely,but I noticed when kneading that it doesn't feel exactly like other doughs. Can baking powder have an affect on the gluten formation? It doesn't windowpane like the other doughs.

[Joan Simpson]

I wasn't in a baking mood so I baked the Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies from KAF so easy and good.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[BakerAunt]

That brownie recipe is one of our favorites, Joan!

. Follow-up Notes on the bread I baked on Wednesday: The bread is interesting, but I would cut back on the aniseed, which overwhelms the other flavors. It works fine as the base for a shaved ham sandwich, but I like it less for my turkey bacon and tomato sandwiches, as I want the bacon and tomato not to have flavor competition from the aniseed. I'm not sure that I will bake this recipe again.

[Mike Nolan]

Anise can easily overwhelm other flavors in bread.

[BakerAunt]

Skeptic--That's an interesting question, but not one to which I know the answer. I don't think the baking powder should make much of a difference in how the dough feels or whether it windowpanes. King Arthur's Hot Cross Buns recipe uses baking powder as well as yeast, and when I made that recipe, a couple of times, years ago, I don't recall any difference in how the dough felt. Mike regularly uses the HCB recipe, so perhaps he can weigh in on it.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Saturday from dough I made on Monday.

[Mike Nolan]

Yes, I use the HCB recipe in the whole grains book. The dough is on the stiff side and takes a long time to come together. Once I add the raisins it is more easily shaped.

[RiversideLen]

On Friday I made chocolate chip cookies using Alton Brown's "The Puffy" for Saturday's block party. For the chocolate chips I used a mix of semi sweet mini chips and regular size milk chocolate chips.

[Mike Nolan]

The rolls didn't rise as much as I was expecting and they're not very soft. I think the ones with the lecithin in them may hold up a little better when wet, I'll try that tomorrow.

They're a bit too hard for Diane, so I probably need to try something else.

[Author]

Posts