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Italian Cook--I keep my Grease in the pantry, but others on this site refrigerate it. I go through mine quickly, as I have been doing a lot of cakes. I do not make a huge batch at a time.
I've noticed that the Grease is not a good choice for a cake that is left in a pan, or for brownies. For those purposes, I use Crisco, as I do for loaves of bread.
Like, you, Italian Cook, I have learned A LOT from the people on this site. We have a great community of bakers and cooks.
Italian Cook--I use the Grease--and bless S. Wirth, who first posted the recipe, and Miss Cindy, who drew attention to it by writing effusively about it after I joined the Baking Circle.
The recipe is on this site, but let me quickly repeat it: combine equal volumes of flour, oil (I use canola), and Crisco. (Note: do not use weight.) I use my hand mixer and mix it well. I usually use 1/4 cup of each and store the leftover in a plastic take-out container that I reserve for that purpose. I use a fork to mix it up well each time before I use it. I have a silicone brush that works well for coating the wells of the pans. I also use the Grease when I make layers for cake.
I find that it helps not to let the cakes cool too long in these pans. A couple of minutes, and I invert them onto a rack. Rap the pan down, on the rack for any that initially seem to hold back.
Cleaning: First of all, do not soak the pan. It comes with a warning that prolonged soaking can damage the finish. I have soft sponge that I use to clean the pan. If there are spots that are hard to get to, I do use that tool--pointed end and the brush--to dislodge it. You can also use the tool before you get the pan wet to wash it.
I probably have far too many specialized Bundt pans, due to good sales at T.J. Maxx and Tuesday Morning over the years. I have a similar pan to this one that is ducklings. I have the seasonal Bundt pans in plastic tubs--two of Christmas, one for Thanksgiving and Halloween, and one for Valentine's and Easter. That does not even count the others, some of which I inherited from my Mom, who didn't use them but could not pass up a good deal and the idea that she COULD use them if she wished.
As my dessert options have shrunk since I eliminated almost all butter from my diet, it makes me feel good to be able to bake an oil cake in a fancy pan.
I suspect that the Bunny pan will continue to be available, but getting it on sale when you can is a good idea. I've noted that prices tend to increase from year to year. My Bunny Pan was $19,99 at T. J. Maxx after Easter. Williams Sonoma also often has good after holiday sale prices.
Garage sales can also be a good source of used bread machines. Both of mine came from different sales, the first from a sale in Texas, and the second from a sale here. I keep the first one because it is small enough to travel. I think the second, a Zo, kneads more efficiently and can handle a little more dough.
Italian Cook--can you make the pizza dough in your food processor?
I'm glad to hear that your tomatoes are perking up, Mike. My husband was surprised that the gardening stores did not have chelated iron, but I reminded him that these days, one never knows if stores will carry what we expect. (At least that is true of the grocery stores around here.)
Today, my husband started our tomato plants inside. We are having unseasonably warm weather today and probably tomorrow, but of course that could change quickly at this time of year, as it did last week when we had two nights of freezing temperatures.
On Monday, I made another batch of yogurt.
For dinner, we had Sloppy Josephines (ground turkey rather than ground beef) on the Wheat Oat Flax Buns I baked, with a mixed greens, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and green onion salad, and microwaved fresh broccoli.
On Monday, I baked Wheat Oat Flax Buns, a KAF recipe from a long time ago that I have adapted by replacing the water with buttermilk and the orange juice with water. I have found it works better if I cut the AP flour by 2 Tbs. I also use a whole egg and do not brush the tops with egg white. I add 2 Tbs. special dry milk. I cut the yeast by ½ tsp., and cut the salt from 1 ½ to 1 1/8 tsp. These got slightly overbrowned at the lowest baking time. Next time, I will put them on the third rack up to bake.
I also baked a double recipe of “Soft Oatmeal Raisin Cookies No Butter” from Jenny Can Cook. I added 2 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder and 2 Tbs. flax meal. I reduced the brown sugar slightly to 2/3 cup in the doubled recipe. In addition to the raisins, I added ½ cup chopped walnuts.
Note: The cookies are ok with the lesser amount of sugar, but I will go back to the full 3/4 cup for a double recipe next time I bake them.
We had the last of the beef stew, and as there was too much for one person but not enough for two, I cooked some bulgur, and we had the stew over the bulgur.
I made another batch of my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Cracker dough on Sunday. I will bake the crackers at the end of this week.
A note on KABC's Cranberry Orange Rolls: I was unimpressed with their cranberry orange filling. It's rather blah--which is hard to achieve with cranberries. I will not make the filling again. As for the rolls, I have used the roll recipe before, once or twice with blueberry pie filling, and so I do like it. I thought it came out rather dry this time, and the baking time of 25 minutes-35 minutes was too long--and I took them out at 25 minutes. I will probably add an egg to the dough next time I use it.
We had leftover beef and vegetable stew with the rest of the cornbread and a few of the multigrain crackers I baked.
On Saturday morning, I baked my variation on the KABC Maple Granola recipe.
Saturday afternoon, I baked my oil-based version of the multigrain crackers from King Arthur’s Whole Grain Baking Book, I have now baked this adaptation twice, and we like the flavor. This time I substituted avocado oil for the canola oil. Both oils work well.
Saturday evening, I baked Cranberry Orange Rolls, a recipe from KABC. I have baked it before, once using a purchased filling and another time using canned blueberry pie filling, but the recipe now includes a recipe for making your own cranberry orange filling, and I had some nice oranges and some frozen cranberries. My changes are to replace the orange juice in the rolls with water, and the water with buttermilk, use half whole wheat flour, reduce the salt by ¼ tsp., omit the Fiori di Sicilia, and use a scant 3 Tbs. olive oil in place of the butter. My dough needed an additional 2 Tbs. water. I made these as 9 rolls in a ceramic baker, but the recipe includes directions for making six large ones in the “hamburger bun” pan that USA makes and KABC sells. I have had acidic fruit react with USA pan’s coating, however, so I used the ceramic baker. Otherwise, I would have shaped the rolls and refrigerated them overnight to bake in the morning. However, I did not want to try that with the ceramic baker, and I also was unsure if the filling would stay in place overnight. I will frost them tomorrow for breakfast. I'll use orange juice in that icing but will replace the Fiori di Sicilia with vanilla.
The sourdough pita is probably more work than I want to do, but those look excellent.
The recipe CWCdesign posted would be one that I might try.
Also, thanks to S. Wirth for posting the link to the pita article and recipe. I might try that one also. I note that in the picture the top and bottom are even thickness.
I am wondering if the amount of heat on the stone (or steel) affects the bottom and top thicknesses.
Friday morning, I baked “Toffee-Pumpkin Snack Cake, my adaptation of a recipe from a seasonal magazine, Better Homes & Gardens Fall Baking (p. 28). I bake a half recipe for the two of us, and I reduce the oil in it from ½ to 1/3 cup and use homemade pumpkin puree, which I had frozen. I replace the pumpkin pie spice with my own blend and reduce the toffee pieces (used milk chocolate ones) from ½ cup to ¼ cup, which is mixed into the batter. I add 2 Tbs. milk powder. This time I reduced the sugar from ¾ to 2/3 cups. I strewed the top with pastel sprinkles, in a nod to spring. I omit the cream cheese frosting.
We had salmon and couscous with Penzey’s Greek seasoning for dinner on Frida, along with a green salad with carrots and green onion.
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