What Did You Bake the Week of December 18, 2016?

[BakerAunt]

Sunday morning I made pancakes from a mix but added a lot of oats. On Monday, in preparation for our trip to Indiana, I baked my variation of Moomie's Buns as 12 rolls. I also baked the KAF recipe for Eggnog Scones with my modifications (substituting in 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour and reducing the cinnamon chips from 2 cups to 1 cup--what were they thinking!!). I had mixed up a double recipe of Sourdough Cheese Cracker dough on Sunday evening, and I baked these as well. After three days of travel, on Friday evening, I baked shortbread and used my Christmas stamps to flatten the balls of dough. For the first time, I used the Hudson Mill Bleached Flour that I bought, after Kid Pizza recommended bleached flour for shortbread. The balls of dough were less greasy, and the taste and texture is superb. From now on, I will use bleached flour in my shortbread. On Saturday, I baked a loaf of Grape Nuts Bread. I also baked my variation on my Mom's pumpkin pie and used the buttermilk crust recipe that I have posted here. This time I remembered to use the industrial coffee filter, with beans inside, when I blind baked the crust. I had to send my husband to the store to buy a bag of beans for the blind baking; in this little town they had only two kinds of dried beans--black, which he bought, and chick peas. I suppose a lot of people do not cook beans from scratch around here .I finished my Christmas Eve baking with the No Fail Sugar Cookies found on the Fancy Flours website.

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[Italiancook]

I attempted to bake a Pineapple Upside Down Cake using homemade yellow cake. I know the cake is fully cooked, but parts of it are soggy. I think I should have dried the pineapple and cherries before putting them in the pan. Nevertheless, the cake tastes good. I also think I put too much brown sugar in the bottom of the pan. Before I make this again, I'm going to read a couple of online recipes for this cake. I'm not positive brown sugar is used on the bottom.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife has done 2 kinds of cookies so far, raisin oatmeal spice cookies and Russian teacakes. She's got dough for chocolate mushrooms chilling, so that's probably today's project.

I made caramelized almonds and then some chocolate almond haystacks. I need a better mold for those, though, I've been making them in a 30mm hemispherical mold and I think they'd work better in some kind of a log mold so that the almond slivers are mostly aligned in the same direction.

Tried coating some nougat (from a pastry shop) with milk chocolate but the chocolate wasn't properly tempered and it came out too soft. I may need to add a little cocoa butter to this type of milk chocolate to get a firmer coating.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook: I'm pretty sure that brown sugar is used in pineapple upside down cake--at least I recall my mother using it. I've no idea, however, what recipe she used. It could have been the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, or perhaps one of those booklets in those Encyclopedia of Cooking binders.

[cwcdesign]

I baked 6 dozen Best of Breed dog biscuits (KAF) for my dog sitting clients. A couple of owners were disappointed I didn't bake something for them. I won't be baking again until after the New Year.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, now that I've thought about your post, I think you're right about the brown sugar. I learned how to make Pineapple Upside Down Cake from a friend. She told me to put brown sugar on the bottom, then the pineapple slices and cherries, followed by a yellow cake mix batter. I used a scratch yellow cake batter. Perhaps that's different than the cake mix. But I think part of the problem was that I didn't dry the pineapple and cherries. Nevertheless, I am going to check online recipes before I try this again.

Even though the cake is soggy, my husband has eaten a large portion of it.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--I'm sure that you are correct about the need to drain the fruit. It might also help to have a firmer scratch cake?

[Joan Simpson]

Italiancook this is a recipe I got out of old church cookbook published from a local church in 1959.The best ever.It's easy and good.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake by Mrs.J.L.Brannen
Melt 1/2 cup butter in large frying pan.Add 1-cup brown sugar.Spread evenly over bottom of pan.Lay complete wheels of pineapple over first mixture and in center put a cherry.Make following sponge batter.

Beat yolks of 3-eggs and one cup of sugar.Add 5-Tablespoons pineapple juice.Sift 1-cup plain flour and 1-teaspoon baking powder. Fold in fluffy beaten egg whites and pour over fruit.Bake 45 minutes in moderate oven at 350*

This has been the best I've ever had and I've never dried the pineapple before laying it in.
I actually put my iron fry pan in oven with butter to melt as I'm getting everything ready.

[RiversideLen]

First a made some bread, a small braided loaf, some sandwich buns and raisin cinnamon bread, all made from my oat/wheat recipe.

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[RiversideLen]

Also made some cookies, Acorn Cookies from this site by janiebakes, Noel Nut Balls from Martha Stewart and Oatmeal Raisin cookies. For the Acorn cookies, I added a teaspoon of Hazelnut Flavor that I bought from The Spice House. That really gave it some good flavor, my brother thought it was butterscotch. After he said that I think he may be right, the hazelnut flavor does have butterscotch notes to it. Very nice though. The Noel Nut Balls call for a teaspoon of bourbon, pfft, I give it a tablespoon. The bourbon combines with the honey for a very nice flavor. For the oatmeal cookies, probably my favorite overall, I added a handful of dark and white chocolate chips.

I also made Stollen from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

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[S_Wirth]

Those cookies really look nice, RiversideLen!

And the breads and buns look outstanding...great job!

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by S_Wirth.

[Italiancook]

Joan, thanks for the Pineapple Upside Down cake recipe.

RiversideLen, your handiwork looks delicious and pretty.

[KIDPIZZA]

DEAR ITALIAN COOK:
I am referring this post to your concern for your ??? of using brn sugar in the "UPSIDE DOWN CAKE POSTING. Your right next time consider smearing a dollop or two of honey on the pan surface.
Another variation you can consider is one of these two.... but one is the same as the other but very slightly. Either heat slightly the pan & then smear the honey with your paint brush or slightly heat the honey in the microwave & then paint the pan.
ORRR...just mix in a little butter in with the brn/sugar ...melt it somewhat & apply. Just the sugar alone is not wise.

I'cook in any event let us all know how well you have fared with my secret trick.....of which I am running out of.

~CASS/KIDPIZZA.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by KIDPIZZA.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by KIDPIZZA.

[BakerAunt]

It's so nice to see you posting, Cass!

[Italiancook]

Joan, I was in a hurry when I posted my thanks to you. I'm definitely going to try your recipe. Pineapple Upside Down cake is my favorite non-chocolate cake. I don't own a cast iron skillet, so I'll have to figure out which of my skillets will be best.

Cass, so good to hear from you. Glad you're following what we're all up to in the baking/cooking arena. I appreciate your input on the Pineapple Upside Down Cake flop I had. I won't be trying honey, because I can't buy honey around here that I like. The only honey I can find at my store is clover honey, and I don't like the taste of it. I know there is honey of different flavors, I just haven't found them. Adding butter to the brown sugar makes a lot of sense. I'll remember that. Thanks.

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