[BakerAunt]

We had leftover soup and rolls.

[BakerAunt]

I have added a coconut cake recipe, first posted on the Baking Circle by ibbibud, then re-posted by naughtysquirrel. (I assume the first posting must have vanished.)

[BakerAunt]

So far, I have found a couple of recipes that were posted on the Baking Circle. However, both appear to have come from cookbooks.

One is for Pulla Bread, posted by tuulikkii. However, it states that it is from The Finnish Cookbook, by Beatrice Ojakangas.

Another recipe, "Judy's Fluffy Cracked Wheat Bread," posted by ljgriffith, states that it is from More Bread Machine Magic.

I'm not sure that I should add recipes from other cookbooks, even if they were posted on the Baking Circle. However, there are some recipes that are here from the BC that did come from such sources.

[BakerAunt]

My husband feels dessert deprived, as he has now decided he does not like the ginger in the biscotti, and I have not baked a cake for a while, so on Saturday I baked, for the first time, a recipe from Bake from Scratch for Patriotic Sprinkle Cake.

Patriotic Sprinkle Cake

I made some changes in that I did not have whole milk, so I used 50% each whole milk and half and half. I reduced the sugar slightly, from 1 2/3 to 1 ½ cups. Instead of lemon zest, I doubled the vanilla. I also used all multi-colored sprinkles, and I baked it in the Nordic Ware Celebration pan not the Brilliance pan, which I do not own (and do not want because those edges would be horrible to clean). I baked it for 45 minutes and was surprised that it needed an additional 5 minutes before the tester came out clean.

The original recipe includes later steps where a tunnel is made in the bottom and raspberry sorbet is added (probably why recipe called for 3 Tbs. packed lemon zest). That is not going to happen here, although I may add a glaze tomorrow (not the one in the recipe). I turned it out after 10 minutes. I had one small spot that stuck (despite using the grease), but it was small, and I stuck the piece back on. We will slice it for dessert tomorrow.

One other note: I changed the mixing instructions in that I used my hand mixer, and I mixed in the milk and oil with the egg mixture, then used my cake whisk to add the flour mixture. Oil cakes, in my experience are more tender if the flour is mixed in by hand.

[BakerAunt]

I made yogurt on Saturday.

Dinner on Saturday was soup made with turkey and chicken broth from the freezer, the last of some pork drippings, carrots, celery, red bell pepper, mushrooms, 2 tsp. reconstituted dried Penzey’s onions, a yellow squash and a zucchini from the farmer’s market, parsley, 1 ½ cups of Bob’s Red Mill Vegi-Soup mix (lentils, dried peas, and barley), and 2 tsps. Penzey’s Ozark Seasoning. We had it with rolls that I pulled out of the freezer.

[BakerAunt]

Friday night's dinner was leftover pork and roasted potatoes along with microwaved fresh green beans from our garden.

[BakerAunt]

Chocomouse--our house sits on a sandy site--one reason the berries do so well. My husband is researching how to put some kind of tub in to create a little bog. A fellow botanist gave him the name of someone who has done a little bog, so my husband will ask the guy about what he did ad how it has worked.

The cranberry plants were in moss that was around the young trees when my husband bought them, so they were hitchhikers but welcomed ones.

[BakerAunt]

We have green tomatoes on our tomato plants, but the plants are growing tall and spindly for some reason, and the top parts with flowers are well past the supports.

When my husband bought some trees from the Indiana DNR a few years ago, he discovered some cranberry plants that were in with one of the trees. He has been growing it ever since, and this year it has cranberries. At first, I thought, yes, nice, but today he showed me that they are now the size of regular cranberries, although naturally still green. I think my husband is hoping to have a little cranberry bog on one of the terraces. It would be neat if I could get enough for scones.

[BakerAunt]

What a great deck garden, Chocomouse.

With most of their predators gone, deer populations keep rising, which is also a problem for the deer. Last year we found the remains of two male deer on one of our woodland properties. They had fought for territory, locked antlers, and died.

[BakerAunt]

On Wednesday evening, I made the overnight starter for my version of Marilyn’s Sourdough Oatmeal Bread. I made the bread on Thursday. My challenge with this recipe is that it calls for ½ cup butter. I replaced it last time with 1/3 cup canola oil, but that changes the texture. This time, I used 1/3 cup avocado oil in place of the butter. I again substituted in 4 cups of whole wheat flour and 2 cups bread flour. I also added 6 Tbs. flax meal. I increased the starter from 1 cup to 1 ½ cups. The dough needed another ¼ cup of bread flour. I kneaded for 6 minutes on speed 3 of my Cuisinart stand mixer. The first rise took 50 minutes, and the second rise took 45. I baked for 35 minutes, to a temperature of 190F. This recipe makes three loaves, so we will start slicing one tomorrow and the other two will be wrapped and frozen.

I have been sorting through a stack of Bon Appetit recipes torn from issues of the late 1990s and early 2000s. I am throwing most away due to the butter, cream cheese, and whipping cream (sometimes all three) in a recipe. However, I came upon a recipe for Chocolate, Hazelnut and Ginger Biscotti (December 1999, p. 210) that calls for three eggs and no butter or oil. It does have semisweet chocolate chips, but I can reduce that amount. With no desserts in the house on Thursday, I baked this recipe.

I substituted 2/3 cup white whole wheat flour for that much AP, I cut the amount of semisweet chocolate chips from 8 oz. to 4 oz., and I did not brush the log with beaten egg because I did not want to deal with the leftover egg, having just used up the last leftover egg in the bread. The dough was sticky, so I used a piece of saran to shape it into logs. I did the first bake for 33 minutes, judging by central dryness rather than the recipe’s stated “golden.” (The recipe uses cocoa, so how can chocolate be golden?) I let the logs rest for the stated 15 minutes, then sliced ½-inch thick. I stood them up for the second bake of 15 minutes. I did not do the decorative white chocolate drizzle; While it would make a fancy presentation, it is not needed. As my husband ate his fourth biscotti, I knew this recipe is a keeper. (Each biscotti is a little more than o.5 g saturated fat.)

These are delicious. I know that chocolate and hazelnut go together, and I know that hazelnut and ginger go together, but I would not have thought to put all three into a cookie. I am glad, however, that I only used half of the chocolate chips; the full amount would have overwhelmed the other flavors.

Here's the recipe: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/chocolate-hazelnut-and-ginger-biscotti-102709

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by BakerAunt.

[BakerAunt]

I am sorry to hear that your sister is not doing well, Joan. I'm sure your visit comforted her.

On Wednesday, I roasted red potatoes tossed in olive oil and Penzey’s Mural Seasoning to go with pan cooked pork my husband made. We paired it with leftover coleslaw.

[BakerAunt]

I have heard of black bean brownies on some TV show ages ago.

I have also heard of beet brownies.

[BakerAunt]

I took advantage of some cooler weather (with rain!) to bake a sourdough pan pizza—with the usual toppings—for dinner on Tuesday. We had it with coleslaw, which is a surprisingly (to me) good combination.

[BakerAunt]

I started with the shredding blades--first the fine, then the regular--but it was not the right size for coleslaw. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have worked out that the slicing blade would work for the vertical pieces of cabbage.

[BakerAunt]

I was able to buy a lovely cabbage from one of my favored farmer’s market vendors on Saturday. On Tuesday morning, I made J. Kenji Lopez-Alt’s “Super-Simple Tangy Buttermilk Coleslaw.” My only change was to exclude the red onion in deference to my husband and instead use 2 tsp. Penzey’s dried onion that I rehydrated in the dressing mixture before adding. I made a note to myself this time that when I shred cabbage in the food processor, I need to use the regular slicing disc, not the shredding disc. I used the regular shredding disk for the carrot.

My next project will be making pizza sauce, using a can of Muir Glen organic diced, fire-roasted tomatoes.

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