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I have several of RLB's baking books. I baked a cake recipe, with disastrous consequences, and assumed it was, perhaps my fault, and it might have been. Once I found Susan Purdy's cake book, I never went back. A friend, who has a friend who does cakes for special events, told me that friend always goes to Purdy for "crucial" cakes. The cake I baked for our weeding reception came from Purdy's book.
I have Beard's bread book, but I don't think that I ever baked any of the yeast breads. I have a hazy memory of baking a quick bread, but I do not recall it, so it must not have been memorable.
I have Hamelman's book but have been too intimidated to bake from it. I have several of Peter Reinhart's books, but I've not baked any bread from them. I tried a graham cracker recipe, but it wasn't what I was seeking in terms of taste and texture. That may have been because I needed a non-butter recipe, so perhaps any would not have been what I sought. I tried a cracker recipe as well--searching for some alternatives--but I found it only ok.
I'm surprised at how many of my bread recipes came from those little Pillsbury cook booklet that used to be sold next to the checkout stands thirty years ago. Those, and some of the magazines, had more approachable bread recipes.
I should make a New Years Resolution to bake more new recipes from my bread baking library.
My guess is that the bread flour, because of its gluten, would produce a less tender scone. I have substituted half whole wheat pastry flour (stone ground from Bob's Red Mill) with good results. Also, using half of the KABC Irish wholemeal flour produces a tender scone.
I stopped using KABC whole wheat flour in favor of Bob's Red Mill because the stone grinding seems to me to improve the taste. It also has those specks of bran.
Your soup sounds delicious, Skeptic.
For Wednesday dinner, my husband cooked some pork, and I roasted the last of the sweet potatoes from the farmers’ market, drizzling them with a bit of maple syrup ten minutes before they were done. Microwaved frozen peas completed the meal.
We should be able to coast on leftovers from last night and tonight through the end of the week. More time for baking!
Skeptic--I've made the faux springele recipe from King Arthur. I tried making real springel some years ago without the Bakers' Ammonia. They were very hard, which may be normal, and I did not much care for them. That recipe came from a magazine.
I made a great--no butter--gingerbread cookie with springele molds last year. The recipe is probably at the House on a Hill website. They make springele molds but no longer sell them directlt.
I'm not sure about the mat, as that was not something I had to use.
I am pretty sure that there is a recipe or two here at Nebraska Kitchen, I think from Laura.
This one by GIR is close, although mine has a removable head:
I also cannot tell from the pictures how thick the "bristles" are.
I looked at the Zyliss site and did not see anything like the one I bought. Perhaps they do not make it anymore? The bristles are all the same size, with no angle, and they are close together. Now I really wish that I had bought a second one. No other silicone brush I've had has worked as well.
Skeptic--I had a little of the porridge the first time I made the bread. I found it very sticky--almost gooey. It could have been my cooking. This time I simmered it uncovered for the five minutes. It was still goopy, but since I was using it only for bread, I stirred in the buttermilk (thus bringing down the porridge temperature before combining it with the other ingredients), and that took care of any sticking in the pan.
I plan to stick with my steel-cut oats and use the porridge strictly for bread, especially as it is more expensive.
I haven't started any Christmas baking either, although I baked pumpkin muffins last week in Christmas muffin cups. I'm thinking of baking a half recipe of Pfeffernusse and limiting myself to one or two per day. Shortbread, alas is out of the question. I'm planning Lucia Buns for Dec. 13.
Here's a little Cathy comedy about baking holiday cookies in advance:
I have a small silicone brush made by Zyliss that I bought from King Arthur a couple years ago. It works better than any silicone brush I have tried, maybe because it has a lot of "bristles," and it's easy to wash. (I put soap directly on it and rub it on, then rinse well.) I use it for egg washes and for brushing on oil. If KABC still sold it, I would buy a spare.
Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads was recently reissued in a 30th Anniversary edition. It was my first real bread book, and he gives directions for mixing by hand, mixer, or food processor. The only issue is that the yeast in some of the recipes can be reduced a bit since yeast has become increasingly dependable.
I do not have a good sourdough bread baking book to recommend. I started out with Sunset Magazine's article and recipes on sourdough, then began playing around with King Arthur's recipe. I have ordered Daniel Leader's new and award winning bread book. I expect it will take a while to arrive, but I'll let you know what I think when it does. I had stopped buying cooking and baking books that I haven't seen, but 25% off at Barnes and Noble online was too good to pass up.
Tuesday night’s dinner was sourdough pan pizza topped with my own sauce from the freezer, Canadian bacon, low-fat mozzarella; mushrooms, green onion tops from the container my husband is growing in a pot on the enclosed porch, and grated Parmesan.
The Pompanusuc Porridge bread is an excellent soft bread. I was eating slices plain at lunch--that's how good it is. One change I forgot to mention is that I used whole wheat flour rather than white whole wheat. I'm glad that I have enough of the uncooked porridge to make more loaves of bread, as KABC has it listed as "sold out for the season."
I'm glad that the second pan came out better, Italian Cook. Higher heat can encourage a faster oven spring. I discovered that my sourdough breads do better if the oven is initially at a higher heat, even if I then lower it after the loaves go in.
I promised my husband an apple pie, so I baked one early Monday afternoon, using Bernard Clayton’s streusel top recipe. I used my part whole wheat oil crust. The filling was 10 Jonathan apples, which I bought at the store before I knew we would be going to the apple place. (At least they are from Michigan.) I tried something new with the streusel topping. I made the regular amount, but I used 1 Tbs. melted butter and 3 Tbs. grapeseed oil.
We were also out of bread on Monday, so I baked my version of the KABC Pompanoosuc Porridge Bread. I have figured out that cooking ½ cup of the porridge in 1 cup of water gives the right amount of porridge for the recipe. I replaced 1 cup water with buttermilk and 2 Tbs. sugar with 1 ½ Tbs. maple syrup. I reduced the salt from 2 ½ tsps. (!) to 1 1/2 tsp. and reduced the yeast from 2 tsp. to 1 ¾ tsp. I replaced 2 Tbs. of butter with 1 ½ Tbs. olive oil, which I added after the initial mixing of the other ingredients. I use the Zo to do the mixing and kneading. I had baked this bread last spring, using my baking bowl (original recipe gives it as an option), but it is a lot of dough for the bowl, even if it made a high loaf. This time, I substituted my Emile Henry long baker without the lid. The long baker handles the amount of dough nicely, and the shape is better for sandwiches. I slashed it horizontally and baked for 40 minutes to 200F. I look forward to slicing it tomorrow at lunch.
I made another batch of yogurt on Monday.
For dinner, I made Salmon and Couscous with Penzey’s Mural Seasoning. We had it with microwaved fresh broccoli.
For an 8 1/2 inch tart, in an Emile Henry ceramic tart dish, a 75% recipe makes a perfect crust.
Skeptic--I was able to get a red onion at the farmers' market a while back, so I did indeed use part of it. I probably could have used more. It's hard to know what "a small red onion" means in terms of quantity.
The oil crust recipe, from the 200th KAF Anniversary baking book was my starting point for the oil crust that I developed. I found that instead of pressing it into the dish, I could indeed roll it out, immediately after mixing, then fit it into the dish. I refrigerate it for an hour, then line it, fill with dried beans, and pre-bake. I do not recall if I posted my partly whole wheat pastry flour oil crust here. I'll have to look.
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