BakerAunt
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Sunday was a day of baking. I began with Orange Sesame Whole Wheat Muffins, a recipe that I adapted from Carnation evaporated milk. I only make it when I have the Cara Cara oranges for zest. With their toasted sesame seed and toasted coconut, the muffins are strictly for me, as Scott does not do well with either ingredient. I will freeze two, with the rest for breakfast into the week. I baked these as six large muffins.
I then moved on to Ron's Irish Porridge Bread, a recipe that I printed off from King Arthur in June of 2014 but had never gotten around to baking. I used the steel oats option, as I do not have Irish oats. I made a few changes by substituting 3 ½ cups whole wheat flour for that much AP and replacing the other cup of the AP with Bob's Red Mill Artisan Bread flour. I deleted the whole-grain bread improver, which I have never used. I think the artisan bread flour replaces using it. I also added ¼ cup of flax meal and used ¾ cup of buttermilk and proofed he yeast in ¼ cup water. I took the maple syrup sweetener option. I replaced ¼ cup butter with canola oil. I cut the salt from 2 tsp. to 1 ½ tsp. Initially, I seemed to have too much flour--I should have held back ¼ cup--and I added ¼ cup more of buttermilk. That was too much, and I needed to add another ¼ cup of bread flour. The Ankarsrum takes a longer time for kneading, in this case, about 16 minutes, but it is a gentle kneading. When I can pull a windowpane, I end the kneading. The bread had great oven spring. While the recipe says 30-35 minutes, the bread needed 40 minutes. One loaf had a slight blow-out on a long side, probably a shaping error.
Two of my remaining three butternut squashes showed clear signs of needing to be used. Yesterday, I picked up a package of marked for quick sale ground turkey, so that set me up for Sunday to make a large pot of Turkey and Butternut Squash Chili. I made it after lunch and will freeze most of it in single serving containers for lunches for me.
Dinner tonight will be more of the turkey-vegetable loaf but with roasted sweet potato chunks.
Mike's meatloaf picture and the ensuing discussion reminded me that I had not done a turkey loaf for a while. With that inspiration, I made a "garden" turkey loaf for Saturday's dinner. The recipe comes from the Quaker Oats site and uses frozen spinach. I replaced grated carrots with chopped red bell pepper and some chopped celery. I used Penzey's Mural of Flavor in place ofe Italian Seasoning, in deference to my husband and use dried onion. I added an additional ¼ cup of quick oats as well as 2 Tbs. flax meal. We had it with potato chunks tossed in olive oil and roasted. Dessert was blackberry brownies.
Chocomous--Here is what King Arthur has posted on its website: "We apologize for the low inventory on mixes and other items, and thank you for your patience. Our team is working hard to bring your favorite baking ingredients back as quickly as we can."
The shortages include, but are not limited to, the Irish-style flour, and the double chocolate cocoa powder, as well as the special dry milk. They discontinued the malted wheat flakes which is a favorite ingredient of mine, and I have not found a replacement source.
The post office shipping surcharge is supposed to go into effect on April 26. It will be an 8% fuel surcharge on selected packages, affecting Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Ground Advantage. It will be in effect until January 17, 2027. (It may be longer if it takes the price of oil longer to come down.)
Here is the announcement:
https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2026/0325-usps-announces-transportation-related-time-limited-price-change.htmOur weather turned cold again on Friday after a warm day yesterday. Today, it stayed in the low 40s. In the evening, I baked Blackberry Brownies, using a container of the puree that I froze last summer. Scott has been working in the woods and tangling with blackberry vines, so he says that it is good to remind him that there is a bright side to having them around. I will refrigerate them overnight, and we will start having them for dessert tomorrow evening.
After I added the cocoa to the flour, I realized that I had used the dutched cocoa rather than the natural cocoa. Given that the recipe includes 1/2 tsp. baking soda, I realized that I needed to make a change, so I kept the 1/4 tsp. baking powder but used another 2 tsp. baking powder in place of the baking soda. The brownies smell lovely and have a nice rise, so I will see how the texture and taste are tomorrow.
For dinner on Friday night, Scott had the last chicken thigh and the rest of the orzo with mushrooms and kale. I had the other half of the stuffed acorn squash that I made a few days ago.
Aaron--the King Arthur bread with apples that I baked did not get gooey. I used Winesaps, which tend to hold their shape when baked. It also had a lot of whole grains. I don't know if it makes a difference, but I leave the skin on the apples.
I'm also a fan of cold meatloaf sandwiches, sometimes with mayonnaise if I have used tomato sauce in the meatloaf. I have not had one for years, as Scott is not fond of ground beef meatloaf, which I used to make all the time. He will eat turkey loaf, but there is never any left for a sandwich.
Happy birthday, CWCdesign!
On another note, I hope the shoulder surgery and the recuperation go well.
On Thursday, I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from dough I made last week.
Chocomouse--King Arthur has been running shortages on certain items for nearly three months. Is that the same at the local store? They have a short paragraph on one of the shopping pages that apologizes for shortages and says that their people are working on it. On the plus side, I've found that Bob's Red Mill milk powder works just as well as the special dry milk, so I may not bother with that product when and if it comes back into stock.
The post office is planning to put a fuel surcharge on packages due to the rising cost of oil.
Aaron--golden wheat is the same as white whole wheat. King Arthur changed the name because the general public could not wrap their heads around how whole wheat could be white. The $9.99 for 10 lbs. is what I paid back in December at Walmart, and maybe at Kroger.
We had leftover chicken thighs with leftover orzo, mushroom, kale combination for dinner on Thursday. Annie was glad to get some chicken, as her nerves were frazzled by a couple of loud thunder bursts in the later afternoon. We may have more storms this evening. We need the rain.
I roasted my second, and last, acorn squash on Wednesday, then stuffed it with some of the leftover filling from when I did the first one. Again, it was lunch for me, and I will have the other half tomorrow.
For Wednesday's dinner, I made Crispy Oven Fish and Chips again, which we had with the rest of the dill tartar sauce and microwaved frozen mixed vegetables.
Joan--I am hoping I won't need your tip about dish soap and Q-tips, because I am going to try VERY hard not to get another tick, but if it happens, I'll now know what to do.
Mike, I haven't bought any accessories for my Ankarsrum just yet. It did come with an additional hard plastic mixing bowl, which is a kind of doughnut shape. A post us attached in the center of the base, and that bowl goes over it. Two sets of beaters also came with it, one for beating egg whites, and another for cakes. Neither set was recommended to be used with cold butter. The joined pair of two beaters snaps onto the post. I think that I wrote about it when I made my birthday cake, as I had to beat together the eggs and sugar and the oil and vanilla. However, I moved that mixture to a bowl before adding the flour, fruit, chocolate chips, and nuts by hand.
I have been tempted by the pasta roller and cutter attachments.
Recently, Ankarsrum has introduced two new beater sets. One is whisks, the other is beaters that can work on cold butter. However, it requires buying a metal bowl that like the hard plastic one is a doughnut shape. The new beaters cannot be used with the plastic bowl. The new beaters were introduced in a special initial offering on Pi Day, with only 200 available, and they sold out within two hours. The beaters will become widely available in a later release. I think that they did the special release on Pi day to call attention to it for making pie crust.
I'm not sure that it would make sense for me to get the new beaters, as I would also need to buy the special metal bowl. I rarely have occasion to cream butter.
One intrigues me about the pasta roller is that it would be nice to make my own lasagna noodles, and it might also be a way of rolling out cracker dough without a sheeter. King Arthur sells the pasta roller along with a pasta cuter that does noodles.
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