What Did You Bake the Week of October 23, 2016?

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday I baked cornbread to go with soup. On Thursday, I baked a carrot cake (recipe from Wilton) and frosted it with cream cheese frosting (from Susan Purdy's The Perfect Cake) for a birthday party at work. On Friday. I finally had time to roll out the sourdough-cheddar cracker dough I had made twelve (!) days ago and bake the crackers. The flavor is excellent; this dough really does improve by being allowed to rest, although I don't plan to leave it this long again. Saturday afternoon, I baked Grandma A's Ranch Hand Bread (recipe on this site), using 3 1/4 cups of buttermilk and 3/4 C water for the liquid. I also added 1/3 cup of flax meal and used 3 Tbs. honey in place of the sugar. That evening, I baked my adaptation of the pumpkin scones from the KAF website--being sure to sprinkle them with a coarser grain mix of white, black, and orange sugars, Finally, I baked Halloween sugar cookies, using a half recipe of the No Fail Sugar Cookie recipe from the Fancy Flours website, but I increased the salt from 1/2 to 3/4 tsp.

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• This topic was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt. Reason: added detail

[Mike Nolan]

I made Vienna bread.

[Italiancook]

I made Ina Garten's Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits. This time I remembered to put in the butter! Some of the reviews said they were too salty, so I left out 1/2 teaspoon salt and thought they were too salty. Next time, I'll reduce salt to 3/4 teaspoon, but I think there's some science to needing a certain amount of salt for the baking powder to act. I'm uncertain. Is there a science reason behind adding salt with baking powder?

The biscuits are good. I froze all of them but the taste test. Later in the week, I microwaved one to go with a bowl of chili. That released more of the cheddar flavor. I'll make these again.

I also baked plain ole muffin tin dinner rolls. I gave 8 to a person from church who is shut-it (along with frozen soups). The remaining 4 I froze.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not aware of any significant chemical reactions between baking powder and salt. Leavening is caused by the interaction of an acid and a base. Baking soda is the base (alkali), but a solution of salt in water is pretty much pH neutral, so you still need some acid. (With double-acting baking powder, there are two acids involved, one of them requires heat to begin reacting with the base.)

I've tried far too many recipes that were WAY too salty for my taste. Graduates of certain cooking schools (I'd put CIA at the top of that list) seem especially prone to develop and prefer recipes that are heavy on salt.

[BakerAunt]

That recipe sounds great, Italian Cook. Is it on a website or in one of Ina Garten's cookbooks?

I often reduce salt in some quick breads, especially when a recipe calls for baking soda, which is in itself salty. I've thus reduced the salt in both my cornbread and in David Lee's biscuits. It was unusual for me to increase salt in the cookie recipe, but I always thought that they were a bit flat, and then I accidentally put too much salt in them and noted that while a bit too salty, they were tastier. So, this time I increased the salt in my sugar cookies a bit. I remember Cass (where is he?) telling us that shortbread is better with a bit more salt, and I increased the salt in my shortbread for that reason. I don't know if that thread was transferred here or not.

I find a lot of restaurant food too salty, and I consider that when ordering. It's good that we do most of our eating at home.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by BakerAunt.

[Italiancook]

Thanks, Mike, for your reply about baking powder & salt.

BakerAunt, Ina Garten's Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits are on the Food Network website. As I recall, the recipe calls for 1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt. I used 1 teaspoon and will try 3/4 teaspoon next time. The cheddar has salt, so I think I'll be okay with the extra reduction.

The recipe makes 8 large biscuits. I found I could not eat an entire biscuit, because it was so large. Next time, I'm going to cut the dough into smaller-sized biscuits. I can't recall if the recipe says this, but on her video, Ina put a little grated cheddar on top of the biscuits after the egg wash. I think that's a good step.

• This reply was modified 8 years ago by Italiancook.

[BakerAunt]

Thank you, Italian Cook. I have printed the recipe and added your notes to it. I'm somewhat surprised that she does not use any baking soda, since the recipe uses buttermilk. Thanks also for reporting on how well they froze after baking.

[luvpyrpom]

Not much in baking this week. Tried cranberry Christmas cake from Barefeet in the Kitchen blog. No leaveners in it except for eggs. They were the only leavener for the whole cake. Definitely will be making this cake for family and friends. Also made vanilla scones as I had bought a small bottle of vanilla paste from a spice shop within reasonable driving distance. I was told to substitute one to one ratio in any recipe. I couldn't taste or smell the difference in the vanilla scones.

[Joan Simpson]

Brownies and corn bread.... not much here.

[cwcdesign]

I baked a dessert to take to a dinner party - a Triple Chocolate Bread Pudding with Bailey's Chocolate Sauce from Simon Pearce's cookbook. It was delicious and a big hit, but mine did not look like the photo at all. I think I'll have to contact the restaurant to find out why. One minor disappointment - I mixed up the custard and poured it over and left overnight as the recipe said, but I know I'll have to mix better next time - some of the bread chunks did not get soaked all the way through. The sauce is made with cocoa powder and I think you can control its taste by the type you use - I used the Double Dutch and I loved that it was not too sweet and you could taste the Bailey's.

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