[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks Mike. I was taught baking powder doesn't last six months in an open container so, like you, I wonder what the potency would be after six months.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks again, BA. I read through this and it is pretty interesting. Hansel and Gretel popularized gingerbread houses so that is probably a reason not to make them taste good. Keep the kids away lest they end up in a witch's oven!

I have a question about one of the recipes that uses a powder from deer antlers (red stag I believe) as a leavening agent. It says it is supposed to sit for several months but if you use a leavener that is activated by acid how long will the rising strength last? Six months seems a long time.

On his pancake episode Alton Brown says to make all your pancakes immediately before the baking soda dissipates. Mr Brown has obviously never made pancakes for teenage boys or else maybe I am supposed to keep making up small batches of batter. But at any rate wouldn't the leavening power of stag antler or baking soda for that matter be gone after six months?

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hey Skeptic, you can use pancakes like scones... Spread some jam or clotted cream on them and they will be very tasty! Or, I've used pancakes as a replacement for bread to make sandwiches on occasion. It doesn't work for everything but when it does it's great.

We had some unscheduled baking this morning. Kate made up a strada last night to bake today and we bought a panettone too. Violet would not eat either or anything else we had. So I pulled out my little Elizabeth Alston biscuit book and we made a recipe she has for biscuit cinnamon rolls. The recipe only used a cup of flour and 1/3 cup of milk but was supposed to make way more than we had. We had enough and some left over so it was okay but I think the recipe is wrong. I already had biscuit dough too but I'd just put it in the freezer last night.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Hey Skeptic, you can use pancakes like scones... Spread some jam or clotted cream on them and they will be very tasty!

We had some unscheduled baking this morning. Kate made up a strada last night to bake today and we bought a panettone too. Violet would not eat either or anything else we had. So I pulled out my little Elizabeth Alston biscuit book and we made a recipe she has for biscuit cinnamon rolls. The recipe only used a cup of flour and 1/3 cup of milk but was supposed to make way more than we had. We had enough and some left over so it was okay but I think the recipe is wrong. I already had biscuit dough too but I'd just put it in the freezer last night.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - thanks! This article is fascinating and very cool. It seems like this happens a lot with food.

I'm starting to research sufganyot which are traditional Hanukkah doughnuts. I swear they used to be made from pate choux. I even have a recipe from Duff Goldman that uses choux.

But all the recipes this year are for Dutch/German style raised doughnuts.

BTW, Violet wants to make her own pumpkin puree for pies next year. BA, I told her I was shipping her out to you to learn.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Merry Christmas everyone! No snow but cold. We had a few inches on rain Thursday night through Friday with high winds and then the rain stopped and temps dropped. The high was in the teens yesterday but warm compared to the Midwest.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Here are the candy cane cookies. A little wonky. They were very soft and we needed to work faster. But Violet's happy.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - Thanks. I looked up gingerbread house kits and found a bunch too. I mostly stay away from Amazon these days unless I know exactly what I want. It's just too complicated otherwise. Walmart has some as does Michael's (not sure if Michael's is in the Midwest) as well as Etsy. I think I still may make my own to give as gifts with a gingerbread mix. Fun project for after the holidays.

Len - those look beautiful. I looked up the recipe and they have baking powder instead of baking soda and shortening to make them puffy. Did you use butter-flavored shortening and if you did does it really add butter taste?

I remember the episode where he made these and made chocolate chip cookies four ways. I read something recently - I think on Test Kitchen but I cannot find - and they talk about using baking powder AND baking soda in cookies to make them chewy and give a rise. I may have to try that.

[aaronatthedoublef]

BA - thanks for the pointer to the gingerbread cookie cutters. They're pretty neat and along the lines of what I want but a little small. But I can search for bigger ones now.

If you all were using something like this would you want plastic or metal?

Pretty cool Navlys. I wonder how often people run into the things you ran into and give up. How many people does that turn off from baking.

Attached is a picture of my biscuits. No leakage! Based on advice from you all and Solveig (the recipe creator) I used my pastry cutter and cut the butter in instead of just tossing it. This is a big recipe and even cutting it back by 60% I still have a lot of dough left over after making two dozen midsize biscuits. Even better, Violet and Kate who both "don't like biscuits" like these! I may also use some for pizza crust this weekend if I make pizza.

The bad news is Violet tested positive for COVID so one more Christmas without Nana and Gramps. We're trying to make this as special for the kids as possible and doing last minute things - like getting a tree - that we had not planned on doing.

I added a picture of Violet's elf, Daisy, who spent a couple days on our gingerbread house. She has been very mischievous this year and has been taking cookies and candy.

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[aaronatthedoublef]

I have biscuit dough chilling in the refrigerator. I'm not sure what I'll do with it yet. I also need to make some bread. We were going to leave for VA today or tomorrow but now Violet has covid and Henry may so we're staying put again. At least we had Thanksgiving. And we may try to head down for New Year's.

I gave Violet a Duff Goldman cookie cookbook for Hanukkah so whatever cookies I was planning are on hold (unless I sneak them in). She has already read through the book twice and is deciding on what to make.

Has anyone seen a set of cookie cutters for cutting out the parts of a gingerbread house? I have some friends who have a maker space - they have tools and knowledge to help you make things. It might be cool to give some people gingerbread house kits that are slabs of pre-baked gingerbread. I'll make them if I cannot find what I want.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Thanks BA. This is a fantastic video. It's amazing how much they can produce without machines and hand stretching.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike - like you, I am not much of a decorator. I have done it a few times in my life (like my infamous rollercoaster cake). Violet, on the other hand loves this. She could not and did not wait for me to finish putting the house together but began as soon as there was a structure to work on. we even had to remove some of her decorations to allow me to finish putting the roof on. I wish I had some pictures of that process.

Thanks Joan. This is something my nine-year-old clearly loves to do with me and I'm going to keep on hoping it survives her becoming a surly teenager. 🙂

I have been using Grandma's unsulfured molasses. Whole Foods has some black strap but it is hugely expensive and Big Y has big jars of Grandma's on sale so I bought two bottles. I have used it in other cookies but didn't notice the bitter taste.

I think the molasses helps keep things pliable. But I also noticed the gingerbread needs to cure for about 12 hours otherwise it is very soft. So trim the edges right out of the oved then let it sit for a day or so (not in a plastic bag).

BA, I thought gingerbread was actually a cake/quick bread and that the flavors were adopted for cookies like the pumpkin spice-ification of everything this time of year. I also used Crisco instead of butter to reduce the spread and this spreads more on silpats than on parchment which wasn't necessarily bad. I suppose if I were making cookies for eating I would cut back on the molasses, up the sugar a little, and chill them before they went in the oven. Maybe upping the flour some would help them hold their shape too.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Here is our gingerbread house.

It is very hard and has a bitter aftertaste from the molasses. But, my boys, when they were younger, would still have eaten it. 🙂 Now people just pick the candy off!

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[aaronatthedoublef]

The pie looks great. We need to up our pies game! The chocolatines are really impressive. They look amazingly consistent. And proper darkness, at least here, is being debated as we've had an influx of European master bakers who bake things darker than Americans typically like them.

I have the sides of my house baked. The roof was in the oven too but then the oven shelves were too close and I accidentally wrecked them. I crushed up some Jolly Ranchers and put them in the windows to try to simulate glass. Kate and Violet were pretty impressed but it all looks rough to me. I rolled it all out on parchment but I may use silpats next time, at least for the ones with windows.

I promise, I'll take pictures.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Violet and I started a gingerbread house a couple weeks ago. The recipe was too small (and my first attempts at cut outs were wonky). I made a double recipe yesterday and will cut it and bake it with V tomorrow. I need to make some royal icing. I found a recipe that works with pasteurized egg whites. I had some meringue powder but cannot find it. The recipe I have is for flooding cookies so I think I'll need to add some powdered sugar to it to stiffen it up for mortar.

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