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We ran out of bread on Sunday, so this time I baked two loaves. I modified my recipe for Sunflower Oat Wheat Bread by using 2 cups of Harvest Grains in place of 1 ½ cups old-fashioned oats. I also deleted the sunflower seeds since there are some in the Harvest Grains. I put in ¼ cup of high-gluten flour in place of that much bread flour, as I am trying to use it up. These are big loaves—9x5 loaf pans—and I will freeze one.
On Saturday morning, I baked “Deep Dark Brownies,” a recipe that I got from King Arthur some years ago. Although they baked it in a 9x9 pan, I found the center baked better if I used a 10x10 ceramic square dish that I bought from KAF. (They certainly missed out on THAT promotion idea!) The recipe is oil based, so that works with how I bake these days, but I wanted to see if I could improve the health value. I started by omitting 1 cup of chocolate chips. (Sigh.) In addition, this time I reduced the granulated sugar from 1 ½ cup to 1 ¼ cup but left alone the ½ cup powdered sugar. As I use the double Dutch cocoa and 1 Tbs. espresso powder, I thought reducing the sugar would give more of the intensity of dark chocolate, and it did. I also added 1 Tbs. Bob’s Red Mill milk powder, 1 Tbs. flax meal, and substituted half barley flour for that much AP flour for nutrition. I replaced ¼ of the ½ cup of oil with buttermilk. I decided to omit the nuts. I decorated the top with some chocolate sprinkles and some small snowflake-shaped candies. I baked for 30 minutes on the third rack up in my oven. By baking in the morning, I was able to let the brownies rest for seven hours before we cut them for dessert tonight. My husband went back for seconds, so my healthy modifications did not deter his enjoyment, nor mine
Yes, Joan, a pot of food is great when it is cold!
Saturday night’s dinner was black-eyed peas, cooked with a ham hock, then mixed with brown rice prepared in my rice cooker. I added celery sauteed in grapeseed oil, chopped parsley and re-hydrated onion, then cut the meat off the ham bone and returned it to the pot. I added a bit of pepper. Had I been making it just for me, I would have added some chili powder. I’m just glad that I have found some bean dishes my husband will eat. We have enough for two or three more meals.
Thank you, CWCdesigh and S. Wirth. The Walmart.com order looks promising. I had wondered about grinding pearl barley in my food processor, but it looks like it would have to be a grain grinder, which I do not have and would rather not buy.
Best wishes, CWCdesign for the surgery. I'm glad that you will be able to come home afterwards. About a dozen years ago, a friend of mine sustained a broken wrist injury while out walking, and she also had to have surgery, but she recovered with the operation and physical therapy.
On Thursday, we made our first grocery run since before Thanksgiving to the larger town northeast of here. I was able to buy Stonyfield full-fat plain yogurt, which meant that I could make a batch of yogurt today. Walmart still carries it. Apparently Kroger no longer carries it. I also noted with dismay that Kroger no longer had Kraft shredded 2% cheese, the only lower fat one they carried. They were the only store in our area where I could find any kind of reduced cheese.
I was irritated to note that the 1% milk I buy now lists its calcium as 250 mg, whereas before it was 300. Maybe the rules for calculating it changed? I decided to increase the Bob's Red Mill Milk powder that I add for yogurt from 3 to 4 Tbs.
Actually, I think that next time I will instead add an egg to the Cinnamon Bread.
I got a late start on the bread I needed to bake so that we have sandwiches tomorrow due to the events of this afternoon. After dinner, I pulled out the bread machine and let it knead a single recipe of Len’s Whole Wheat/Rye/Semolina bread. It is now on the second rise and will shortly go into the oven.
Sounds delicious, Joan!
I was glad to have a fast dinner planned for Wednesday. I boiled rigatoni (Italian, from Aldi’s) in the defatted drippings from our turkey, along with a little broth. I sauteed carrot strips and thick celery slices in olive oil. Once the liquid boiled for the pasta, I put a colander over it and the rest of a package of frozen broccoli into it, then covered with a lid, so that it could steam while the pasta cooked. I cut up some of our leftover turkey, then combined everything in a big pasta bowl. I grated Parmesan cheese over it and mixed it in. It’s simple, and we can probably make another two meals from it.
My cinnamon bread turned out well. I would slightly increase the liquid, perhaps by 1 Tbs. next time, but I'm pleased with how well the swirl turned out, and I like the flavor of the muesli.
I baked whole Grain Pumpkin Bread on Tuesday, using the recipe at Nebraska Kitchen that Lemon Poppy originally put on the Baking Circle. Ever since I needed to give up most butter, it has been my go-to recipe. I usually substitute in a cup of barley flour, but since Bob’s Red Mill may have discontinued it, I am rationing the barley flour, so I used whole wheat pastry flour instead. As always, I reduce the sugar to 1 ¾ cups, and I follow Lemon Poppy’s suggestion to use half buttermilk and oil. I also decided that it would be best in five rather than six 3x6-inch pans, and that worked well. The pumpkin I used was from three years ago; clearly it got lost in the freezer.
My other baking project on Tuesday was to satisfy my yearning for a cinnamon swirl bread with raisins that I can eat with breakfast, and on which my husband can snack. I have a recipe for Oatmeal-Cinnamon Raisin Bread that came from The Baking Sheet (Spring 1999), pp. 24-25. I proceeded to make a lot of changes. I used half whole wheat flour and half bread flour and added 1 Tbs. special dry milk and 1 Tbs. flax meal. I substituted in 1 cup of buttermilk. I cut the brown sugar to 3 Tbs. and used 2 ½ Tbs. olive oil in place of the butter. I used 1 ¾ tsp. yeast. Instead of oats, I used a generous ½ cup of Bob’s Red Mill Muesli, which I soaked in the buttermilk. The dough seemed slightly dry, so I added 1 tsp. water as it kneaded in the bread machine. I added 1/3 cup golden raisins. For the filling, I had some sugar and cinnamon (what I had forgotten to put into a recipe a few weeks ago), so I used it, then spritzed it before rolling up the dough into a loaf. I chose an 8x4 USA loaf pan. Both rises took 80 minutes. I moved the containers to the front room where it was warmer. The loaf was not done after 35 minutes of baking at 375F. It needed another ten minutes. I did tent with foil after the first 25 minutes, and the crust still got a bit darker than I wanted, It’s cooling now, and I will have a slice at breakfast.
This dough fit in the small 2-quart dough bucket, but Italian Cook is correct that some breads, like the wheat rye bread I baked on New Year's Eve, do better with a 4-qt.
Kimbob: What is this vacuum of which you speak? 🙂
I keep showing my husband pictures of Mike's garden--hint, hint.
For lunch on Monday, I made Curried Butternut Squash Soup. I first roasted the squash, then pureed it with some broth. (Memo to self: use deeper pot when using stick blender.) I added 1 tsp. of Penzey’s Now Curry. I have enough for two more lunches.
I made mashed potatoes on Monday for dinner to go with leftover turkey and some peas and carrots we microwaved.
The only issue for bread is to make sure you have the overhead clearance in the oven to keep it from hitting the elements at the top. My current convection oven would not work for a high-rising loaf. I did do a little baking in a toaster oven, but the one I have does not make a good seal when closed, and that affected how well an item baked.
On Sunday, I fed my sourdough and made dough for my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers.
Your buns look very nice, Len.
That cake sounds fantastic, Chocomouse. Happy Birthday to your husband.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, CWCdesign.
Thanks for the additional information on the book, Aaron. I think my nieces might enjoy it.
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