[BakerAunt]

I had a day of baking on Wednesday. I am thankful that my husband helped me with the dishes. I baked my Rustic Wholegrain Sourdough Bread (made the levain last night), using the cloche top and the Rommerhof bowl. I did three shapings of the loaf, with 5 minutes between each time. Next time, I will do just two, as the dough becomes harder to form into a nice-looking round after the second time. The bread still baked well, and I look forward to slicing it tomorrow.

My second project was the wholegrain Pumpkin Snacking Cake, using a cup of peanut pumpkin that I had frozen last year. I am mindful that I need to make room in the freezer for this year's pumpkin bounty. The vendors have gotten to know me and have promised to save back a peanut pumpkin for me when they are ready.

My final bake on Wednesday was a recipe for Applesauce Muffins, from a Los Angeles Times Magazine piece featuring three muffin recipes from the 1990s titled "Muffins are Back." I recall at the time thinking that I had not known that muffins had ever gone away. I had cut out the page with the recipes and found it a while back as I was sorting some of my stacks of recipes. I had some commercial applesauce to finish in the refrigerator, so today was a good time to try at least one of the recipes, and the oven was already warm. I made some adjustments in that I used white whole wheat flour instead of AP, added some milk powder and flax meal, and added a bit of water as I did not have enough applesauce. I replaced the dried apricots and raisins with some dried fruit mix from King Arthur that I wanted to finish, and I microwaved the fruit with water to liven it up. I baked the recipe as six large muffins and will probably freeze a couple for quick breakfasts.

[BakerAunt]

As the weather has turned cooler, and since I have fed my sourdough starter twice within a week, my mind had also turned to sourdough bread to bake in a cloche. I have been adapting the Kind Arthur Rustic Sourdough recipe to make it more wholegrain, so that is the recipe I am using. My starter is my trusty milk-based one that I started around 1991. I like it because it is willing to let me ignore it for several weeks, although with my husband's love of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers, it is now gets fed at least every two weeks.

[BakerAunt]

Now that the leftovers are gone, on Tuesday, I used some cooked black-eyed peas from the freezer and combined them with sauteed celery and yellow bell pepper, some ham, and cooked farro, along with some dehydrated onion, thyme, and freshly ground black pepper. We had it with the rest of some leftover applesauce.

I also made yogurt today.

[BakerAunt]

That slice looks great, Mike!

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover pizza and bean salad.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. I will bake them at the end of the week.

[BakerAunt]

Later this week, I might see if I can engineer an oil-based version of the Soft Barley Cookies in the King Arthur Cookie Book. I had to stop baking them due to the butter content, but I, and particularly my husband, think longingly of them.

[BakerAunt]

We had leftover pasta and some more of the Green Bean salad for dinner tonight. We took my bonus daughter and boyfriend to the airport--a 6-hour round trip for us with traffic, and a train that stopped across the tracks when we were not far from home. I wish that a company would re-establish bus service to and from Midway from Michigan City or another mid-sized city that is closer. Finishing the double tracking of the South Shore Line, would also help.

[BakerAunt]

Tomorrow, my bonus daughter and her boyfriend head back to San Diego, so for our last dinner of the visit, I made sourdough pan pizza with homemade tomato sauce and the usual toppings, except that I left off the black olives and green onion.

Earlier in the day, I baked blueberry cobbler for dessert. It is traditional that she will eat some for breakfast tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

To go with pizza for Saturday night dinner, I made Green Bean, Cherry Tomato, and Goat Cheese Salad.

[BakerAunt]

I baked Oatmeal Date Muffins for breakfast on Friday.

[BakerAunt]

We took a trip to the Indiana Dunes on Friday, had a picnic, and hiked. For dinner that night, I made my Oven Crispy Fish and Chips with Dill Tartar Sauce, which we had with microwaved broccoli from the farmers' market.

[BakerAunt]

That's great, Len, that you have figured out how to have your pizza and not heat the house up.

We took a boat ride in the late afternoon, so we did an easy dinner of leftover vegetarian lasagna and leftover pasta from last night. My husband and I also had the last of the cantaloupe.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the input, Mike. I use the convection setting for crackers and get a more even result. I also use it for all my pies, although my pies are streusel-topped these days. I cover with foil for the first 45 minutes, then remove it to brown the streusel and let the pie finish in 5-10 minutes. I will report on how the convection setting works with cookies.

On Thursday evening, I baked a batch of the Whole Wheat/Rye/Semolina Buns (AKA Len's Buns) as 10 buns. We are planning a picnic tomorrow, so we needed buns for sliced turkey sandwiches.

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday morning I baked Pumpkin-Oat muffins. I did not think they were among my best, as they had a craggy appearance, but they tasted good, and they had disappeared by Thursday afternoon, so the rest of the family did not let appearance deter them.

[BakerAunt]

Oh, Skeptic, that is horrible! They need to get back to your house and install the oven correctly. Remind them that if they do not install the anti-tip device, they will be liable for accidents.

On Thursday, I baked a double recipe of Big Lake Judy's Best Ever Molasses Cookies.

I have been noticing that when I bake cookies, the second batch is baking faster than the first batch. I cut a bit of time off of the second and third trays of cookies, and since the fourth tray had just five cookies, I cut the time by 2 minutes. Those five burned. Next time I bake cookies, I am going to use the convection setting, as I do for crackers, and reduce the heat by 25 degrees.

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