[BakerAunt]

Sigh. We are still waiting for our first red tomato.

We have two spaghetti squashes. One is yellow, the other green. both are a good size.

We have two small honeynut butternut squashes starting.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse: Only the greatest baker can bake without turning on the oven!

[BakerAunt]

Occasionally, Kroger has had deals of King Arthur flour. Around this area, usually Walmart has the lowest price. We aren't close enough to a Costco to make it worthwhile to have a membership.

On Saturday, I made my variation on the King Arthur Maple Granola. I also baked the Authentic Italian Lemon and Ricotta Cookies (No Butter) from the Olive Tomato site, making the same changes as last time. I made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers. It will rest in the refrigerator and be baked in about a week, as that develops the flavor.

[BakerAunt]

I am bemused by the "Shop Local" mantra. I would shop local if local places carried what I need.

[BakerAunt]

I'm glad that Will persevered, CWCdesign, in spite of the wonky instructions.

At the moment, I have only a single recipe that I bake that calls for diastatic malt, and that is the Rosetta Rolls I am trying to perfect with Cass's help. I bought mine from New York Bakers because the King Arthur diastatic malt had other stuff added. A lot of bread flour, like Bob's Red Mill artisan bread flour, includes diastatic malt. My understanding is that diastatic malt is used for a long rises. It is food for the yeast, so sugar is not needed. In my recipe, it is not added with yeast but added to a biga that has fermented 8-16 hours. When the diastatic malt is added, with bread, water, and salt, there is a 35-40 minute initial rise before shaping and stamping, then a 3-8 hour refrigerator rise before a 20 minute room temperature rise and baking. The oven spring is tremendous, and the rolls so very light inside.

I am guessing, but I think that if the rolls do not have an extended refrigerator rise, then sugar or honey rather than diastatic malt would work well.

[BakerAunt]

A note on the blueberry bread I baked earlier this week: it needs to be consumed within two days (particularly in hot and humid weather) due to the high moisture content. When I make it again, I will either freeze half or try to make it in two smaller pans.

I have been sorting through piles of recipes that I photocopied or cut out of magazines. On Friday, I baked Soft Sandwich Bread with Flax, a recipe that King Arthur put out in its 225 anniversary year when they were still emailing subscribers recipes. It is on the website, and I looked at it there--and discovered that my copy contained an error, as the bread calls for 2 Tbs. of honey. I also read the reviews, where many people were saying it had too much water and is too salty:

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/soft-sandwich-bread-with-flax-recipe

I proceeded to make changes: I substituted 1 cup of whole wheat flour for that much of the AP flour. I used half water and half buttermilk. I reduced the salt by one-third. I used about 1 Tbs. of honey. (I use the water for the yeast to clean out a jar with crystalized honey on the bottom, which I estimate as about 1 tablespoon.) I also used olive oil and reduced the oil from 1/4 cup to 3 Tbs. I added 2 Tbs. of special dry milk to increase the nutrition. I let the bread machine do the mixing and kneading. I agree with reviewers who thought that bread should be baked in an 8x4 pan, so that is what I used. I ended up with a nice, high-rising loaf and look forward to slicing it tomorrow at lunch. If we like it, I will work out a double recipe so that I can bake two loaves at once.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

Friday night dinner was pork cooked in the skillet by my husband, brown and mixed wild and brown rice cooked in chicken broth in the rice cooker, and microwaved fresh broccoli.

[BakerAunt]

That's my favorite pizza crust, Len, but my husband prefers my sourdough crust, so I do not make it as often as I once did.

[BakerAunt]

The blueberry bread is excellent: lots of blueberries suspended in a tender, not too sweet cake without any spices detracting form the sheer blueberrieness. It did have a slight sinking in the center on top. I might decrease the baking soda by about ¼ tsp., since I recall Cass saying that is often the reason for sinking. I will definitely be baking it again.

On Wednesday afternoon, I baked Ellen’s buns as twelve rolls, and we had some with the soup I made for dinner.

[BakerAunt]

Three flower girl dresses? I am impressed, Janiebakes!

I made soup for dinner on Wednesday, since the pork we were going to have did not thaw. Most of my soups are based on what happens to be around. I used the potato water left over from last week’s potato salad, along with turkey broth from the freezer. I cooked 1 cup brown and ¼ cup red lentils with sliced carrots and celery and scallions, then added some sliced mushrooms, a quartered and sliced yellow squash, green beans from our garden, parsley, a heaping quarter tsp. of garlic powder, a tsp. of thyme, and some freshly ground pepper. We had it with rolls I had baked.

[BakerAunt]

It is too hot to bake a pie—maybe Friday--but I need a dessert in the meantime, and I have a lot of blueberries. I thought that a blueberry quick bread would be nice, but it turns out that I do not have a recipe for one. I did a quick google search for ones that do not use butter, but the pictures I saw did not look appealing. Frankly, they reminded me of early efforts by new bakers. I searched blueberry bread at Nebraska Kitchen and found the thread where S. Wirth gave the link to Shaboom’s website, in response to Kimbob’s mentioning a blueberry bread recipe she had from her. According to the headnote, Shaboom got the recipe from PJ at KAF, who got it from a good friend, “Nonny” in Maine, and it was a hit on the (old?) baking circle although Shaboom says she did some adapting (as I did).

I decided to bake it Tuesday evening. I used Siggi’s yogurt (Icelandic yogurt that is close to Greek yogurt), substituted in 1 cup white whole wheat flour, reduced the salt by 25%, and chose avocado oil as the vegetable oil. I included the optional pecans. It baked for 50 minutes, and perhaps I might check it slightly earlier next time. I had to use a spatula around the top of the pan (next time I will grease there) but otherwise the loaf came out easily after resting for 15 minutes. I look forward to having a slice tomorrow.

[BakerAunt]

I use both semolina and durum flour in my pizza. The semolina is more granular and the durum more finely ground. The semolina has the yellowish color, but the durum is more cream colored.

I think that King Arthur has a recipe or two for a durum flour bread (probably because they are the only readily available source of durum flour).

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, afternoon, I made and canned three 8 oz. and one 4 oz. jars of Seedless Blackberry Jam with a bit of Black Raspberries.

For dinner, I cooked the last boneless, skinless chicken breast, which I coated in Panko with Penzey’s Sunny Paris and Parmesan. I baked it in the countertop convection oven. We had the chicken with leftover potato salad and more microwaved green beans from our garden.

[BakerAunt]

I'm not sure, but I think one of the secretaries at work (she was from Hawaii) used to make this dessert for the annual Christmas party. It is great that you were able to re-capture a family culinary memory, Skeptic.

[BakerAunt]

Yum, yum, Joan!

I baked two loaves of the Semolina/Rye/Wheat Bread (aka Len’s buns recipe baked as loaves). I may have to work out how to scale it up to three loaves. We really like this recipe.

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