BakerAunt
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Welcome back, Blanche,
You actually started one of our most informative baking bread threads about five years ago. I went back and re-read it just now. Wow! If anyone wants to re-read that thread, just click on "topics started" next to Blanche's name, and the thread will come up.
There is always room here for rookies! We all love to bake bread. Personally, I think the world becomes a better place when people bake their bread, since it teaches paying attention to detail, going through a process to achieve a goal, being willing to adapt, and practicing patience.
I was an English professor before I retired, which meant that I was teaching writing skills, not just literature. Too many students wanted instant results, but writing is a process that requires some of the same skills as bread baking, and those skills are developed over time.
One of my friends is allergic to tomatoes; getting people to take it seriously is sometimes an issue for her. At one dinner at a house, she asked if an item contained tomatoes, and the person responded, "Not enough to kill you." Clearly, that man had no clue about food allergies. Even when eating out, it can be an issue, since some recipes might use a bit of tomato paste. That means she is cautious as to what she orders.
Aaron--that explains why in Secrets of a Jewish Baker, the author says to make sure that the egg wash does not get into the space between the braids. Next time I try baking challah, I will see about getting the pull-apart texture. I wonder if part of it is using all egg yolks. I'm usually short of the five my recipe specifies, so I substitute in a whole egg. Of course, I am now substituting in some white whole wheat flour to get more wholegrain.
I may have more yolks with which to experiment. We really liked the Zimtsterne (cinnamon star) cookies that I baked this past holiday season, and each recipe calls for two egg whites. I used the star cookie cutter, but I think that I could use a snowflake or a heart cookie cutter just as easily.
I prefer the Bob's Red Mill bread flour to the King Arthur bread flour; for me it gives a better rise. I find that I can use more whole grain flour when I use the BRM.
Your challah is beautiful, Aaron. Maybe Violet will develop a taste for it when she is older.
My husband has a sweet tooth, so biscotti without sugar are not his idea of a treat. I think he was referring to the nuts and dried fruit in most of my biscotti. It did occur to me last night that I can bake the pumpkin biscotti, which do not have fruit or nuts.
I would say our dog is a bit spoiled, although her opinion is that she is rightly valued, and that part is also true. When we first got her at 14 mos., she had clearly had negative experiences with some male, so we addressed that, on advice from a trainer, by making my husband the one who feeds her. I only occasionally will do so. She will eat her kibble once he puts a little something on it: a bit of yogurt in the morning, a bit of bread at lunch, or a bit of whatever we are having at dinner. She has also latched onto the concept of dessert, which we have after doing the dinner dishes, and tea, which my husband has late in the afternoon. No matter where she is in the house, she can hear him, even if he is only moving toward a Tupperware container and comes running, sits, and looks up expectantly.
I will do some looking around at dog biscuit recipes.
I considered trying to bake a panettone, but if I were going to use that much butter, I would have baked my Swedish Almond Ring (provided I could locate a can of good almond paste).
Mike's comment about the limitations on our baking that result from the people we love reminded me of a bit of a blow-up my husband and I had yesterday. I was talking about baking another batch of biscotti, when he asked if I could bake something he could also feed to the dog. I momentarily lost it. As I explained, after an emphatic no that rattled him, I already have limitations based on my health need to limit saturated fat, and limitations based on his inability to tolerate onion, cooked tomatoes, various kinds of beans, and some spices. I will NOT add the dog into the mix just because he and she enjoy having dessert together.
I may need to take up baking dog biscuits.
For dinner on Friday, I made a combination of farro cooked in turkey broth, which I combined with sauteed chopped carrots and sliced mushrooms, the small amount of leftover gravy, most of the remaining turkey, and microwaved frozen spinach. It made a colorful and delicious meal, and there is likely enough for two more meals.
I can see how it would be difficult to wall off part of an eating establishment to prevent cross contamination. The issue probably extends to the suppliers who would have to guarantee that their products were not manufactured in a facility that also processes sesame seed, as with peanuts and other tree nuts.
If I had a food allergy, I do not know that I would want to trust any restaurant.
Follow-up on Julekaka: The flavor is excellent. It does have a rather thick crust on top and bottom. I would make the same changes, but next time, I would bake it, as I should have done this time, as two separate loaves, possibly in 8- or 9-inch cake pans. I was not sure that my husband would eat it, but he polished off an entire slice with his breakfast.
I think that Julekake recipes are probably dependent on what ingredients the baker has on hand. Often candied fruit is used, and I think this recipe, using half an orange is a way of getting the candied orange flavor.
I did not mention it yesterday, but I also made dough in the morning for whole wheat sourdough cheese crackers that I will bake next week.
I experimented on Thursday with a recipe for Whole Wheat Julekake, a Norwegian Christmas bread, using the recipe in Ken Haedrich's Home for the Holidays: Festive Baking with Whole Grains (pp178-179.
I made a few changes in that I used the yeast for high sugar doughs, replaced a cup of the regular flour with more whole wheat flour, used buttermilk instead of milk, reduced the salt by 25%, and replaced ¼ cup butter with a scant 3 Tbs. avocado oil. I cut the cardamom in half from 1 tsp. and added ½ tsp. cinnamon, as my husband's tolerance for cardamom is not that high. I also added golden raisins, cranberries, cherries, and sliced almonds. I used pearl sugar with the egg wash, an idea I saw in another Julekake recipe. I baked it as a single loaf, using the bread bowl I bought some years ago from King Arthur.
It was probably too much dough for the bread bowl, and the baking time extended to an hour and 15 minutes. I do not use the bread bowl often, as it seems to slow down baking time even with a smaller loaf, something that I and others noted in reviews some years ago. After the first 70 minutes, with the loaf at 165F, I removed it from the bowl and put it directly on the oven rack for 7 minutes, when it finally tested at 198F.
I plan to add a glaze from another Julekake recipe (the one that gave me the idea of half cinnamon. It is a well-shaped loaf, but somewhat darker than I would have liked. I'll post tomorrow about texture and taste.
Oh, and when I was mixing the dough, I was distracted by trying to help my husband with a computer search issue, and initially forgot to add the egg. I had to mix it in well into the process, when the bread had been kneading for a while, and was that ever messy. Once again, I muttered to myself about the disadvantages of the open concept kitchen.
Aaron--I'm a fan of my very simple rice cooker. It does specify different water levels for amounts of brown rice, with the amounts for "other rice" on the other side. When I've used brown rice for a stir-fry, I find that it is best if made a day ahead and refrigerated, which helps dry it out.
CWCdesign--I've been following Kenji Alt-Lopez's instructions for cooking beans from his book The Food Lab. He recommends adding salt when soaking the beans and also adding salt to cook the beans. That method has worked well for me. I always test-eat a bean at what is supposed to be the end of the cooking time to see if it has softened appropriately or if I need more time, perhaps at a bit higher heat.
Thanks for the interesting article, with accompanying video, Aaron. When I bake the King Arthur pumpkin ginger braid (not challah but uses six braids), I do the six-strand braid that is specified. I have crib notes in that I bought the KABC mat that has the directions on it. While it helps to know which braid goes where, I think that there is more to it, in the positioning of the braids while working. This video gave me some ideas on how to place a strand before moving on to the next one.
A good friend, of more than 30 years once told me that it took a while for her to realize that Protestant was actually an umbrella term for a lot of different groups, with even the long-established denominations having splits within them. My friend passed away in December, four and a half years after a major stroke robbed her of so much of her life. I missed her then and miss her now.
Aaron--our local grocery store actually had some small organic pumpkins for sale. I cannot say I wasn't tempted, but I still have four pie pumpkins and that Long Island Cheese to cut, process, and freeze or use. I'm being held back by lack of freezer space, even though we have two refrigerators with freezers. I wish that I could figure out a place for a chest freezer.
Aaron--I've posted the directions for making pumpkin puree in the recipe section. Let me know if anything is unclear.
I made muddled mashed potatoes on Wednesday to go with leftover turkey and gravy for dinner. We also had microwaved fresh broccoli. I made yogurt today as well.
I also like a good Reuben.
Our dinner was leftover turkey, dressing, gravy, and (for me) cranberry-cherry relish, and microwaved fresh broccoli.
We had fog all day but temperatures in the high 40s.
One of my spaghetti squashes was showing signs of going bad, so on Monday, I baked my considerably lightened up version of Ken Haedrich's Spaghetti Squash and Parmesan Cheese Quiche. I use a 10 1//2-inch quiche dish, having had an unhappy experience with the size recommended. I use my oil-buttermilk crust (have olive oil and half canola). I cook the onions, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil rather than butter, and I use a 12 oz. can of 2% evaporated milk in place of a cup of half and half or milk and 1/3 cup of heavy cream. His recipe states 2 1//2 cups spaghetti squash, but if I'm going to roast a squash, I plan to use it all. The squash was 2 lbs. 14 oz, and I cut out a couple of bad spots before roasting. I probably had somewhat over 3 cups. I use 8 oz. mushrooms (recipe states 1 ½ cups). I used pre-grated 2% mozzarella on the top as I do not have cheddar or fontina. The only drawback to this recipe is that it takes about two hours of prep and another 45 minutes to bake. I started it after 10 a.m., so lunch will be late today, but on time for the rest of the week when I warm it up.
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