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I baked an apple pie on Friday, which we will allow to cool and rest overnight before slicing into it tomorrow. This time, I used fewer apples and baked it longer, so I am hoping for better results than I had with the last apple pie.
That dinner sounds so good, Joan. I enjoy hearing how people re-use their leftovers to create new meals.
CWCdesign--I'm glad that you got through the ice storm and power outage ok. If I have a choice between snow and ice, I will choose snow.
I made yogurt on Friday.
Dinner was leftover turkey pot pie.
I had a couple of thin slices of the Julekake for breakfast this morning. The taste is very good, which means I may give the recipe one more try. in the future. I think that I will increase the Gold yeast to 1 Tbs. I might try a doubled baking sheet to see if that prevents the burning on the bottom. I'm also wondering about lowering the temperature to 360 F.
I'm glad your orange pancakes came out so well, Italian Cook. Future-You will be so happy that Today-You made and froze those pancakes!
I find it somewhat difficult to get good oranges where I live, so buying a few to bring back from Florida helped, although I can get the Cara Cara oranges at Kroger this time of year, and those are also good for baking.
On Thursday, I baked Whole Wheat Julekake, from Ken Haedrich's Home for the Holidays: Festive Baking with Whole Grains (pp. 178-179). I first tried the recipe about two years ago and made the error of trying to cook it as one loaf in a bread bowl rather than as two loaves on a baking sheet. The result then was an undercooked center and a burnt outside. I wanted to follow the recipe more diligently than I did two years ago but trying to avoid problems.
My changes were replacing the water with buttermilk and replacing another cup of AP flour with whole wheat, using bread flour, reducing the salt to 1 ½ tsp. from 2 tsp. and adding 2 Tbs. special dry milk. I replaced 4 Tbs. butter with 4 Tbs. avocado oil. I used an orange that I brought back from Florida, using just half. The recipe calls for using a food processor to combine the half orange and ¼ cup sugar. I cut the orange into smaller pieces rather than quarters this time, which worked much better. The recipe specifies a ¼ oz. package of active dry yeast or 1 Tbs. That is confusing, as a packet of yeast contains 2 ¼ tsp. yeast. I used 2 ¼ tsp. but I used the special Gold since the sugar content is high. I had trouble with the rise. It was cool in the house until my husband got the fire going in the woodstove, but the dough took more than two hours to almost double. I hate to think what the result might have been with regular yeast. The second rise took about an hour and 45 minutes. The loaves needed the 55 minute-baking time, although I checked them 10 minutes early. I'm not happy that they are burnt on the bottom, and a little darker than I would like on the top. I will let them rest overnight and slice into one at breakfast.
In writing up my experience, I realize that I omitted ¼ cup of water by accident. For various reasons, it was hectic in the kitchen, and I missed that ingredient. That might account for the slow rise, although I ended up adding 2 Tbs. less flour. However, I think the temperature is too high for the sugar content of the bread, which has 1/3 cup honey, ¼ cup sugar, and the half orange with peel. I expect the bread will be edible, although I may have to cut off part of the bottom crust, but I am disappointed.
We had a little more snow overnight. The ice fishermen ventured to the middle of the lake, so the ice must be thick out there. I decided that a good dinner for a cold Thursday evening would be "Scottish Scone-topped Chicken Pot Pie," my lighter rendition of King Arthur's "Town Meeting Chicken Pie." For the vegetables, I briefly sauteed celery, mushrooms, and sliced carrots, then simmered them in broth. I used the remaining turkey that we have not frozen. My husband calls this recipe a healthier version of biscuits and gravy.
I also made turkey broth on Thursday.
Did you end up getting snow, Joan?
I needed to use up the spaghetti squash that I roasted a few days ago, so for lunch on Wednesday, I used it in a variation of my Spaghetti Squash Lasagna/Casserole. As it was only a 1 lb. spaghetti squash, I used a deep 7 x 7-inch ceramic dish. In place of the tomato sauce, I used a can of Del Monte petite diced tomatoes with Hatch chilis (Clearly, my husband is not going to eat this casserole!), which I added to sautéed chopped onion, celery, and garlic. I added one of the containers of white beans that I cooked and froze a month or so ago and a teaspoon of Penzey's Fajita seasoning, which I got as a free sample. I layered this mixture with the spaghetti squash strings. It is delicious and fulfills my desire for a little food spiciness. I have enough for three more lunches.
For dinner tonight, we had more of the turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. We microwaved the last of the fresh broccoli.
Hi, Navlys. We survived a kitchen renovation when we lived in Texas with the help of an electric kettle, the microwave, the crockpot, an electric skillet lent by a friend, a rice cooker, and an electric hotplate that had belonged to my husband's parents. Oh, and rotisserie chicken is great, too!
Chocomouse--I had to start using mine, since it has a February expiration date. I'll be interested to hear about your experience with it. I did note on the nutrition panel that this flour is "not a significant source of calcium." That surprised me, since the Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour has 11 g calcium per 1/4 cup, and the King Arthur white whole wheat flour has 10 g of calcium per 1/4 cup. As I want the extra calcium, I'm glad that I substituted in some buttermilk.
I woke up early on Tuesday. It was 0 F outside and we had had about an inch more of snow overnight. I decided to bake Pumpkin Streusel Muffins, a recipe I adapted from one of those little Pillsbury booklets of yore that they sold at the grocery store checkout. This one is called Breads, Breads, and More Breads. The muffins were a good way to use up the Fairy Tale pumpkin puree in the refrigerator, as well as another couple of ounces in the freezer from the bigger Fairy Tale pumpkin I did some weeks ago. I replaced the AP flour with white whole wheat flour and made a few other changes. Instead of baking them as 12 muffins, I used two heart cakelet pans that I bought from King Arthur some years back, with each pan making five hearts. I used the Grease, and it worked well.
Joan--my husband looked at the national weather earlier and told me, "It looks like Joan is going to get some snow!". We are currently at -4 outside, and we awoke this morning to about an inch of snow, but that is what normal winter usually brings here.
I steamed some potatoes from Saturday's farmers market and made muddled mashed potatoes to go with leftover turkey and gravy. I used some nonfat Greek yogurt in the potatoes, along with some olive oil and some salt. We had microwaved frozen peas on the side, and I had more of my cranberry-orange relish.
The bread has a unique flavor that I like. It is a dense bread, so it is easy to slice thinly. I probably have enough flour to try it again. I might hold back 1/4 cup of the flour next time. I think that this regenerative flour probably varies in how much water it requires. I'll know more when I do a second loaf.
We had turkey and gravy and finished up the dressing, accompanied by microwaved fresh broccoli and cranberry orange relish for me.
When I convert my recipes to weights, I measure them in volume, then write down the weights. I've always suspected that King Arthur folks develop recipes with volume, then just use a standard conversion instead of weighing the volume.
Cold weather here--in the teens all day and now in the single digits and heading down to negative numbers tonight.
I baked Lime Pecan Biscotti on Sunday, using some more of the limes that we harvested from my tree, as well as some zest I froze in the autumn. These cookies go very well with tea in the afternoon.
About a week and a half ago, Vitacost had a 20% off sale on everything, as well as an additional percentage off of some other items. I noted that they had the King Arthur Whole Wheat flour blend that is regeneratively grown, 2 pounds for $5.95, which is the King Arthur website price, but I got 20% off and free shipping due to the amount of my total order, so I decided to buy it. I experimented with it on Sunday, using the "Climate Blend Sandwich Bread" recipe on the King Arthur website. I knew that I would have to make some changes, as the recipe calls for mixing the flour with the water, allowing it to rest for 20 minutes, then adding the instant yeast and the rest of the ingredients. However, my mixer does a poor job on single loaves, and I did not have active yeast. I also wanted to substitute in a cup of buttermilk for that much water. So, I mixed the flour with a cup of the buttermilk plus a tablespoon of water, since buttermilk is thicker. After the rest, I added it to the yeast, proofed in the remaining ¼ cup of water and honey in the bread machine. I used avocado oil for the vegetable oil and reduced the salt from 1 ¼ tsp. to 1 tsp. I did not think the dough was the correct consistency, which the recipe warns about. I ended up adding 3 teaspoons of water at various intervals as the machine kneaded. The recipe specifies that the dough should be "tacky" not sticky. The first rise took 80 minutes. The second rise took an hour. The loaf did not have much oven spring. However, it has a pleasant aroma which differs from regular whole wheat flour. I will report on texture and crumb when we slice it tomorrow.
One issue that I have with King Arthur's recipes is that the flour weight never agrees with the volume measurement, and I am always careful to fluff the flour and spoon it in gently. In this case, 3 1/2 cups of the flour did not equal 402 g, as the recipe states but 456 g. I stuck to the volume measurement because in the past, when I follow King Arthur's weight measurements, the bread needs more flour. Has anyone else had this issue?
We had more of the turkey, gravy, and dressing but switched out the vegetable to microwaved frozen peas.
I had a bag of cranberries to use, so on Sunday, I made Cranberry-Orange Relish, which uses raw cranberries and a Naval orange. The original recipe is "Cranberry Relish to Remember" from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. She only uses 2 Tbs. or sugar, although she adds 2-3 Tbs. orange liquor, which is not something that I have around the house. I increase the sugar to ½ cup, and that works for me.
I noticed that one of my spaghetti squashes had developed a soft spot, so I roasted it after lunch on Saturday, then refrigerated the strings. I will decide in a couple of days how I will use it.
Dinner on Saturday was turkey with blue bag Pepperidge Farm dressing, the last of my cranberry-cherry sauce, and microwaved fresh broccoli. I also made gravy with the defatted turkey drippings after deglazing the pan with a couple of splashes of white wine. I thickened it with some flour, but I also tried adding 2 Tbs. of flax meal, which worked very well. For dessert, we had more of the Pecan Pumpkin Squares that I baked yesterday. I like a "Thanksgiving in January" and am looking forward to the leftovers.
If we had done the turkey yesterday, as planned, we would have coordinated with Chocomouse and husband's Thanksgiving in January!
Our temperatures are also heading down. We have three days of subzero temperatures, at least overnight, predicted.
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