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On Saturday, I made pea soup for the first time this season. I had some ham in the freezer to add, so it is wonderful on this cooler evening.
The dough filled the bottom mold, so I was hopeful. I weighed it down with an iron griddle with a handle (handle was a mistake). When I moved it to the oven, the top was already trying to come off. Eight minutes into the bake, it popped the griddle off and tipped. I was able to remove the top, put the griddle under those spindly legs, which I should have done in the first place, and put the righted loaf back in the oven. The top does show where the pan slid, so the pumpkin is lopsided, but it had begun to take the indentations of the mold before I lost the top. Because of the depth of the bread, it took about 65 minutes to bake to 190 F. I covered it for the final 10 minutes with foil because the part outside of the mold was overbrowning.
What I would do next time: Use 50 grams less dough. Put the mold on the flat griddle so that it will be stable. Weigh down the mold with the lid of my large Le Creuset pot. That way the weight is directly on the entire mold. Ideally, there would be some kind of clamp to hold the two parts together. I'll give some thought to whether I can rig something that would work.
The side that was on the bottom is beautiful with lovely indentations, the other side is, as I noted, a lopsided, overbrowned mess.It looks like one of those unfinished sculptures where one side is beautifully detailed and emerging from an uncut stone.
Aaron--I think that Joan's advice is excellent. I also have never frozen starter, but I seem to recall that at one time that was featured in a thread on the Baking Circle as a way to preserve it if someone was going on an extended trip away from home. I don't know if it is among the threads that were saved here.
I have a milk-based starter, and it does ok if ignored for a month or longer, but I find, like Joan, that it takes a couple of feedings (and using what I take out for crackers or pancakes) before the sourdough is strong enough to work without any yeast.
I just looked at all the saved threads, and I don't think the sourdough thread made it to Nebraska Kitchen from the Baking Circle.
I am baking the bread in the pumpkin mold today. I decided to use my recipe for "Mostly Whole Wheat Maple Buttermilk Bread, as I recalled that I bake it as two smaller loaves (7 1/2 x 4-inch) with a dough amount close to what Mike suggested. That recipe has too much dough for two 8x5 pans but not enough for two 9x5 pans. It fits perfectly in a 10x5 pan. Each side of the mold is about the size of one of the 7 1/2 x 4-inch loaf pans.
The dough weighs 1450 grams. It fills the lower mold. I've put the other mold on top and weighted it down with a flat iron griddle. It is now on its second rise. After an hour, without looking at it, I will bake it and report back. This bread recipe has fantastic oven spring, so I am hoping for a great result. If it comes out well, I will try to post a picture.
Yes, those brownies meet my definition of health food! They have whole grain (oats) and calcium!
I agree that one can never have too many sheet pans of various sizes. I like the heavy ones.
Here is a link to a blog that has pictures of the pumpkin mold. He is baking a cake, so you will see the two halves baked separately.
https://www.goodthingsbydavid.com/2015/11/creating-pumpkin-shaped-cake.html
We re-ran last night's dinner.
Thanks, Mike. I've taken to weighing my dough in grams, so 3 1/4 pounds would be about 1474 grams.
The volume of both sides is 10 1/2 cups.
We had leftover chicken for dinner on Thursday. My husband had more of the mashed potatoes. I halved and roasted a carnival squash. After baking it at 375 F for 40 minutes, I filled the halves with a mixture of farro cooked in chicken broth, sauteed red onion and banana pepper, some leftover slivered almonds, and a bit of dried sage, then topped it with some leftover Greek cheese crumbles before baking it another 10 minutes. I ate one half with my chicken and will warm up the other half at dinner tomorrow. My husband is not a fan of the various acorn squashes, so he does not mind.
I was going to bake small loaves of pumpkin bread on Wednesday, but then I remembered my recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cake, which I adapted from a recipe that came with the Nordic Ware Autumn Wreath pan. So, I mixed up a large batch of the grease, as I plan to use a lot of my Nordic Ware pans this autumn and winter and baked the cake. We should have waited until tomorrow to slice it, but we do not have that much self-control. The cake is delicious and will be even better tomorrow.
I roasted six whole chicken legs on Wednesday. We had some for dinner tonight with muddled mashed potatoes. Once again, I steamed the potatoes rather than boiling them. After mashing, I added a bit of salt and some evaporated milk that needed to be used. We will get another two meals out of today's cooking.
I, too, have the cookbook disease. I even have some Bon Appetit magazines that I need to go through to see if there are any recipes that I might cook or bake. (We won't talk about the piles of cut out and printed from the internet recipes that I have.) I gave up cabinet space in my small kitchen for a large, three shelf bookcase, and I have a row of cookbooks on top of it. Out in our Annex, I have two bookcases of cookbooks. I easily have over 300.
I need to look up some recipes from them to try.
Thanks for reporting back on that pumpkin bread recipe, CWCdesign!
On Tuesday, I baked three loaves of Whole Wheat Oat Bran Bread. Two go into the freezer, and we will start eating the other one at lunch tomorrow.
Navlys--all prepared soups benefit from additions, in my humble opinion. I'm glad you were able to add some good touches to yours.
I made yogurt on Tuesday.
We are having more of Sunday's soup for dinner tonight.
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