BakerAunt
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My cake (Bischofsbrot) came out very well. It's a delicious way to celebrate my 70th birthday.
We had more of the pork loin roast with butternut squash, barley, and kale.
I use canola oil in sone of my recipes. For a recipe where a little more fat is ideal, I like olive oil or avocado oil which have 2 g per Tbs. as opposed to 1 g per Tbs. for canola. However, Mike is correct: in some recipes there is just no substitute for butter. Sometimes half butter and half avocado oil will give the desired tasted with less fat.
Aaron--You mentioned that you are looking at a Wolf stove. That is what I got, and I still love it after seven years. I chose dual fuel, so gas burners with electric oven. A two-thirds sheet pan just fits. If you get the Wolf, go for the red knobs!
I did not get the Wolf hood. We have low ceilings, and it would have been far too powerful. The sales rep who helped us recommended another, which was also a lot less expensive. We went with another Amana refrigerator with freezer drawer on the bottom. (Our 25-year-old Amana is in the Annex kitchen.)
On Tuesday evening, I baked Bischofsbrot, which is a firm cake with walnuts, regular and golden raisins, dark chocolate chips (72% cacao this time), and maraschino cherries, of which I put in extras. I make it with half barley flour and half King Arthur AP flour. I replace the 6 Tbs. butter with ¼ cup avocado oil plus 2 Tbs. buttermilk. It bakes in a 12-inch long, narrow loaf pan at 300 F for 90 minutes. For the first time, I used the Ankarsrum for something other than bread and employed the plastic bowl and the whisks. I will write up the details for those interested in how the mixer works. I will say, however, that I continue to be impressed.
Aaron--You can probably do the bread in a Dutch oven, as Skeptic suggests, but I don't know if the cold start would work the same or not. It's worth the experiment.
Joan--What kind of oil did you use in your bread? I like either olive oil or avocado oil. Oh, and your loaf is beautiful!
Apologies for not getting the thread started on the Ankarsrum adventures. A lot is going on. I will try getting to it in the next day or two.
Skeptic--I'm always bemused by the run on certain products before a storm, as these are usually products that I keep well stocked.
Monday night's dinner was Oven Crispy Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce and microwaved frozen vegetables. I had intended to make coleslaw in the afternoon, but I have been having an issue with my foot, and my doctor had an open appointment. Scott drove me over in the early afternoon. I am glad we have four-wheel drive. The roads were mostly ok, but we still slid a bit a couple of times. No other cars were around when we did.
For dinner on Tuesday, I made Pork Loin Roast with Butternut Squash, Barley, and Kale. It is a perfect recipe for winter, as the pork and barley cook in a braise, then while the roast rests, the squash, kale, bit of cider vinegar, and grated Parmesan are added. We have enough for several days. The roast and the two butternut squash I used came from the autumn farmers market.
We have had another five inches of snow as of late Sunday morning. That called for Pumpkin Oat Wholegrain Belgium Waffles for breakfast. Annie approved. Scott says the waffles have powered his snow shoveling. Overnight snow means shoveling more of it at once. When it snows during the day, he can clear it periodically.
I baked Rustic Sourdough Wholegrain Bread in a Cloche in the afternoon. I have posted the recipe as I have made it in the past with the other mixer. (Yes, I know that I have liquids in oz. and dry ingredients in grams.) Tonight, or tomorrow, I will write about my experience making the dough in the Ankarsrum in the thread about the mixer that I will start in Discussions. It is a lovely loaf of bread, so I will try to add a picture tomorrow as well.
From last night into this morning, we had another 5 1/2 inches of snow. We finished up the beef stew for dinner, with more cornbread.
I also made yogurt today.
Ok, I will start such a thread, under Discussions, probably tomorrow. I will also post my Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread recipe, as that will allow people to compare the amount of flour in my three loaves. My thought is that the Ankarsrum should handle a double recipe of Paddy's bread with ease.
I baked Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Saturday. I also baked cornbread to go with leftover stew for dinner
I mixed the levain for my Wholegrain Sourdough bread this evening in preparation for bread baking tomorrow. We have had a high of 6 F today, and the ice fishermen were out in their tents. The birds were appreciative of the seed we put out for them.
Aaron--I am still learning to use the Ankursrum, which I have had for less than a month. So far, I really like it for my three-loaves batches of bread. I use the dough knife and dough rollers. A dough hook is included, but it is suggested only for heavy bread or making mincemeat. I find that I use less flour in recipes with this mixer than with my Cuisinart stand mixer--and with it, I used less flour than when I kneaded by hand. I also give it high marks for making Sourdough Cracker dough.
I have not yet tried mixing cookie dough. Their recipes call for using the second plastic bowl that comes with it and is affixed over a central post. There is a "cookie whisk" attachment that comes with the mixer to use. Butter must be very soft. There is also a balloon whisk attachment that came with it.
I'm not so sure this mixer would work well for making frosting. That would be a reason to keep a small Kitchen Aid around.
I'm hoping to try cookies and a cake in the next week. Maybe I should start an "Adventures with the Ankarsrum thread?
With cabinets, be sure to know what you are getting and to measure. My Franciscan ware Desert Rose plates are too wide for the shelves in our cabinets. As I had never had that issue any where I lived before, it never occurred to me to go in with tape measure and measurements of my dishes. I did not go for pull out drawers in the lower cabinets only because I was expecting FULL shelves, but modern cabinets only have half second shelves. We put in two large utility cabinets to use for the pantry, but I did not realize how deep they are or that they only allowed for three shelves on the bottom and one on the top. They are too deep, and the shelves too far apart to be as useful as they need to be. And of course, I have had the problem of shelves in the utility cabinets collapsing because it did not occur to the designers that I would be putting a lot of stuff on them. Scott and I are currently trying to work out how to modify them. If I had had my druthers, and the space, I would have preferred open shelving in that back area, or better yet, I would have loved a walk-in pantry, because where we live, the big grocery runs happen only every three or four weeks.
With whole wheat, I think that bitterness is in the taste buds of the person eating it. I recall a guy on the Baking Circle who was particularly sensitive to tasting bitterness in whole wheat. As for me, I never found it bitter. Perhaps, it is genetic.
I baked five small loaves of Wholegrain Pumpkin Bread on Friday, using more of the puree from the "basketball" pumpkin. The puree is thick and does not have water separation after resting in a bowl. I used half whole wheat flour this time, and I think that is what I will use from now on rather than white whole wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour. The pumpkin and spices are strong enough that the whole wheat does not overwhelm them. I will freeze three loaves. I always think of S. Wirth when I bake this recipe, as she pointed it out to me in the recipes at Nebraska Kitchen that were saved from the Baking Circle. It has become my go-to pumpkin bread recipe.
On Friday, it was 0 F when I awoke, and it never got above 2 or 3 F. I made and canned six more pints and one 4 oz. jar of apple butter, with some left for us to have on bread and rolls. I do the canning in the Annex apartment's kitchen, so I bundled up when I went out. It was tolerable as it is a short distance, and Scott did a great job getting all the snow off the sidewalks, so they were dry when the deep cold set in. We are in for at least a week of deep cold. The lake has frozen. A couple of ice fishermen went out, but not for long.
For dinner, I made Beef stew, using stew meat from the farmers market that I bought a while back and incorporated some fresh rosemary from my rosemary plant.
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