[BakerAunt]

Sigh. All this cheese talk makes my mouth water. I've had to confine myself to low-fat mozzarella and 2% pre-grated cheddar cheese, along with feta (both the cow's milk variety and the goat milk). I particularly miss gouda.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my seasonal eggnog cake on Wednesday evening. I posted the recipe at Nebraska Kitchen a long time ago, then added an alternate version that uses only oil and no butter. I was able to snag non-fat eggnog when we went shopping a couple of weeks ago. I would have settled for low-fat, but it was either the non-fat or the full-fat eggnog. I baked it in a star Bundt pan. After turning it out, I sprinkled the top of the cake with a mixture of extra fine red, green, and white sugar. The cake will rest overnight to develop the flavor, and we will begin slicing it for dessert after dinner tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

Or you could make your own cream cheese:

homemade cream cheese

[BakerAunt]

I made applesauce on Wednesday. I used 3 lbs. each of organic Gold Rush and Jonagold apples. I will freeze most of it. I saved the water that cooking the apples produced. I use it for my oat bran cereal (1/3 cup of oat bran, 1/2 cup of apple juice, and 1/2 cup of milk. I add raisins and walnuts before eating this breakfast treat. It is a change from just steel-cut oats.

My next project will be to make another batch of yogurt. I broke one of the six jars last week and have nothing of the correct size, so I will reduce the recipe to make 5 jars. I found some jars at Lehman's that should be the correct size and have ordered them, so I hope they will work. I had to buy a set of eight. If they do work, it will give me a chance to make yogurt before I empty out the last jar.

[BakerAunt]

Although my pumpkin rye whole wheat flour loaves did not have a high rise. The laves at the center point are 3 1/2 inches high. The bread texture is compact but soft, while the crust is thick and chewy. The molasses flavor is strong. I had worried that the crust got too dark, but the flavor is good, and the loaves do not have a burned taste. My husband went back for an additional slice, so he likes it.

[BakerAunt]

It's good to see you posting again, Aaron!

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers from the dough I made up last week.

I also baked an adaptation of Jane Brody’s Pumpkin-Rye Bread from Jane Brody’s Good Food Gourmet (1990), pp. 416-417. I recall baking this bread back in the 1990s, when I kneaded it by hand--and that is a lot of dough as it makes three loaves. I liked it a lot. My adaptation is an effort to make the bread more wholegrain, since the original recipe uses 3 cups rye and 6 1/2 cup AP flour. I also needed to replace the butter.

I replaced the milk with buttermilk and the 4 Tbs. butter with 3 Tbs. olive oil. I used 4 ½ tsp. yeast, which is the equivalent to two packets, although she states that would be a scant 2 Tbs. I reduced the molasses slightly from ½ cup to 1/3 cup. I used Bob’s Red Mill dark rye flour (she says wholegrain rye flour). I replaced 3 cups of the AP flour with BRM whole wheat flour and used 3 ¼ cups BRM artisan bread flour. For the pumpkin, I used 2 cups of puree from the hybrid pumpkin I roasted yesterday. (She used canned pumpkin and said if using puree to drain the water, but I left it.) My rising times were longer, which is to be expected with my changes. I baked the three loaves at 400F, as stated; mine needed 35 rather than 30 minutes. They smell good but are a bit overly dark; next time I would reduce the heat after starting to 375F. The bread did not have much oven spring. I will evaluate taste and texture tomorrow. I will try the recipe again, as I have another 2 cups of the hybrid pumpkin puree. I might only use 2 cups of the dark rye next time and 4 cups of whole wheat flour.

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook makes an excellent point. That was how I ended up with that odd package of fish rather than salmon. Of course, it doesn't help that the packaging is so similar.

Dinner on Tuesday was black-eyed peas with brown rice and diced ham (also sauteed celery and the last two yellow, long bell peppers picked a while back when green, parsley, and dehydrated onion. We have enough for another two dinners.

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I roasted one of the hybrid pumpkins (spaghetti squash-pumpkin) from our garden. In the spring, Scott had planted seed from a spaghetti squash I bought at the farmer’s market last year, but as they grew, we knew we did not have a spaghetti squash on our hands but what looked like a tall, narrow pumpkin. When I cut it open, the inside texture was definitely pumpkin. It took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to roast and soften. I pureed it in the food processor and ended up with a scant 4 cups. It reminds me of the pumpkin I used to cook before I knew about pie pumpkins. I froze half of it and plan to use the other two cups in a Jane Brody recipe for Pumpkin Rye Bread that I will adapt to make more whole grain. That will be a project for tomorrow

For dinner, I roasted cubed sweet potatoes and used toasted panko to coat chicken cutlets that I roasted as well. We had microwaved fresh broccoli—the last of the organic broccoli that I got at the farmer’s market over a week ago.

[BakerAunt]

On this Monday afternoon, I am experimenting by roasting one of the two spaghetti squash-pumpkin hybrids from our garden (see this year's gardening thread). The final fruit looked like a narrower than tall, small pumpkin. I cut it in half, and the interior, my husband agrees, certainly looks more like pumpkin than the spaghetti squash interior. Thus, I am roasting it cut side down, as I do with pumpkins. After it bakes, I will see if it is worth pureeing for baking use. Stay tuned.

[BakerAunt]

Sorry, I mistyped. It should be that baking soda has 4x the rising power of baking powder. I have corrected the original post. Baking soda, however, does not have the lasting power of baking powder, so once it is wet, the item needs to get to the oven and not sit around. I also meant to write that replacing baking soda with baking powder would NOT make much difference in the rise. I've corrected that error as well. (I hate doing my typing in an open concept room with a dog and a husband asking for attention.)

I have substituted dutch process cocoa for natural and I follow the directions from Cass and replace the baking soda with 4x the baking powder. I'm not sure if dutched cocoa needs to be treated differently.

[BakerAunt]

CWCdesign--sometimes I find that a sheet of saran wrap--put over the dough I am trying to shape--lets me shape the log from the sides, then move to the end to shape the ends.

Baking soda, as Cass would remind us, has 4x the rising power of baking powder. So, 1/4 tsp. baking soda would be replaced with 1 tsp. baking powder.

My thought is that baking soda or baking powder would NOT make a difference in the spread. More flour might help.

I would definitely add the espresso powder--probably at least a teaspoon.

I just looked at the recipe: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/malted-brownie-biscotti-recipe

I might see if I can engineer an oil version.

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad you found a way to save your soup, Navlys!

I had half a cup of spaghetti squash that I needed to use up, as well as 1 cup of broth, and a few mushrooms—not to mention two small tomatoes that ripened in the house and were unlikely to be good in a salad. I sauteed the vegetables, along with a chopped carrot and some green onion, in olive oil, then added the spaghetti squash and a can of light chicken meat. In the meantime, I cooked ½ cup bulgur in the broth, then added that to the vegetables. It made a satisfying lunch for Sunday with enough left for another lunch later in the week.

Sunday dinner was salmon and couscous with Penzey’s Mural of Flavor as the seasoning. We also had microwaved frozen peas.

[BakerAunt]

Follow-up on the Soft Ginger and Molasses Cookies: I taste the spice more the day after the cookies were baked. It is, however, still a mild taste, so my husband will be happy too.

[BakerAunt]

A while ago, I bought some ginger syrup from King Arthur but was unsure how I would use it. (Hey, I like ginger.) KABC had a recipe for Soft Ginger-Molasses Cookies, but of course it used butter. On Saturday, I used that recipe as a starting point to develop my own oil-based cookie. I made a half recipe just in case it did not work out. I used white whole wheat flour and added 2 Tbs. milk powder (BRM). I used ¼ cup avocado oil plus 2 Tbs. water in place of a stick of butter. As oil cookies tend not to flatten out, I used a drinking glass to flatten the dough slightly after scooping them out with a # 30 scoop and rolling each ball in coarse white sugar. My cookies baked well, and the texture is soft although not quite as light as a butter cookie would be. They are about the same size as the original recipe’s cookies, and I ended up with 15 (half of original recipe claims that would be 21). The spice flavor is mild, which my husband likes, and I like that they go well with a cup of tea. It’s possible that the spice may become more pronounced after a day.

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