What Did You Bake the Week of October 16, 2016?

[BakerAunt]

On Sunday, I baked Spiced Oat and Pear Scones, an online recipe from Real Simple. I mixed up the dry ingredients the night before, cut in the butter, and refrigerated overnight. 1 substituted one cup of whole wheat pastry flour for one-third of the regular flour (KAF). On Sunday morning, I added the diced pears, then the milk, shaped, cut, and baked. The scones are ok but nothing special. I will not bake this recipe again. I froze six of them for quick breakfasts later on, since with the warmer weather I know they will not keep at room temperature for more than a couple of days. Friday evening, I baked pizza, using the KAF thin-crust pizza recipe. On Saturday I made pumpkin bread as six mini-loaves, using Beatrice Ojakangas' recipe from Quick Breads, but I substituted in a cup of white whole wheat flour and added a tablespoon of flax meal. I also baked a double recipe of sugar cookies, from the Nordic Ware Geo cookie stamp box, but I used the new set of Halloween cookie stamps that I bought on sale from Sur la Table. I substituted in a cup of white whole wheat flour. The pumpkin bread and cookies will fulfill several functions: the social time after church, a gift for a former student of mine visiting friends in town with her husband this weekend, and dessert for our family on Sunday.

Note: Maybe it was this cookie recipe, but I was not impressed with the Nordic Ware Halloween stamps. The cat and the spider made a passable design, but the pumpkin barely shows up. I'll use a different cookie recipe next time I make them.

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• This topic was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by BakerAunt.

[Italiancook]

I made a yellow cake and froze it in slices. As a nod to calories, I didn't ice it. Now, I wish I had frosted it with KAF Brown Sugar Frosting that is part of their apple cake recipe. I've wanted to try that icing, but just plain forgot.

As mentioned in another thread, I did Take 2 on my mom's Cranberry Banana Nut bread. Actually, it's pretty good. I need to narrow in on the sifting of the flour, but overall, I'm pleased. Using Williams-Sonoma Cranberry Relish instead of the obsolete Ocean Spray Cranberry-Orange Relish doesn't replicate my mom's bread. The W-S product has apple in it, so it doesn't taste exactly like mom's. In addition, I don't think the W-S product has as much orange. Next time I make it, I'm going to add 1/4 teaspoon orange oil.

I baked 3 mini loaves of Banana Bread for the freezer. Next week, I'm going to take frozen soups and rolls to a shut-in. I plan to take her 2 or the mini-loaves.

[Mike Nolan]

I baked a two-layer Celebration Challah for a dinner party someone we know was throwing and it may have been the nicest looking one I've done. BTW, it's 22 inches long.

[Joan Simpson]

Mike your Challah looks amazing!I made a pumpkin pie this week and a coconut cream pie.Looking forward to doing more baking!Enjoyed reading your posts on your chocolate class in Chicago too.

[Italiancook]

Mike, I agree with Joan, "your Challah looks amazing!" Truly gorgeous.

[BakerAunt]

Beautiful.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, beautiful challah!

Just out of curiosity, have you ever made a six strand challah? I've tried a couple but they don't come out as nice as the two layer challahs.

I made two different pizza recipes, mine and Jim Leahy's no-knead pizza dough. It's interesting because the method in the book appears to be different from what is online in places like this http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/03/jim-laheys-no-knead-pizza-dough-recipe.html.

[Mike Nolan]

I've tried making a four-strand braid and a five-strand braid, but I haven't tried a six-strand yet. (I've seen instructions for eight- and nine-strand braids!) Anything beyond three-strand would take a lot of practice, I suspect.

A suggestion I've made before to practice complex braids is to get some thick macrame yarn.

[luvpyrpom]

I made Italiancook's Cranberry Banana bread using the cranberry relish I had leftover from Thanksgiving last year. It was very good, everyone loved it. I also made the KAF Gingerbread Bundt cake for work. Everyone said it was like a cross between molasses and gingerbread cookies. Otherwise not much else baking as it was a busy work week.

Mike, I love your challah. I've done the 6 strand before, my challenge is to roll each strand the same length. I've been thinking about using the challah dough to make Dutch Crunch bread as I'm not sure what the flavor the topping is.

[Mike Nolan]

The Dutch Crunch topping recipes I've seen have been mostly rice flour, so they don't have much of a flavor to me, just crunchiness.

[Mike Nolan]

Mine usually start out pretty close to the same length, but don't always stay that way, I guess I stretch some of them while braiding. I use any extra at the end to fold over and pinch together to make the end hold together better, I hate it when the braid unwinds at one or both ends. Whether that would work as well on a >3 strand braid is something I'd have to do a bunch of them to find out.

[aaronatthedoublef]

In a six strand, double decker like Mike's I have two lengths - the bottom and the top with the top being shorter.

[Mike Nolan]

I find when making a two-layer Celebration Challah that the smaller strands for the top need to be a bit shorter than the ones for the bottom were, because they don't have as far to go to get around the other strands. And if you make the top layer a little short, you can gently stretch it.

[cwcdesign]

I made an Irish Chocolate Cake and discovered that if you don't let the chocolate cool enough you get a denser cake with that little bit of pudding texture near the top of the pan (the bottom of the cake when you turn it out.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Sounds like a good meta topic - what accidental discoveries did you make while cooking/baking that changed the way you make a recipe?

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