[BakerAunt]

We sliced the bread tonight, and taste and texture are excellent. I even though that I tasted flavor notes that I missed before. I will definitely use the bread machine to mix and knead this recipe in the future, and perhaps some of Ginsberg's other recipes.

The cherry pie is delicious, and the streusel complements without taking away from the cherry filling. I plan to type up the recipe so that I have it for future pies. The jarred Morello cherries are probably seasonal, but if Aldi's still has them, I'll be buying another three jars to tuck away for a future pie.

[BakerAunt]

My husband roasted a turkey. I made the Pepperidge Farm Blue Bag dressing. Our meal also includes microwaved frozen vegetables, homemade applesauce, and cranberry-cardamom relish for me. We had slices of Pumpkin Rye bread (with Land o' Lakes canola-butter spread), and dessert is a cherry pie with streusel top.

[BakerAunt]

There were sporadic fireworks around here, starting at around 10. The dog freaked out. She actually slept downstairs near the furnace closet; perhaps the hum helped her.

It is raining here, and below freezing. My husband brought in extra wood in case we lose power, and he has gone ahead and started the turkey. I'm trying to think of what I need to do in case we loose power. The rain is freezing on the front windows and the sidewalks are slick. We saw duck hunters launch this morning, which in these weather conditions is not a good idea. They may have trouble getting their boat out as the boat ramp would be frozen by now.

[BakerAunt]

New Year’s Eve was spent baking in the kitchen. I baked the Spiced Pumpkin Rye Bread that Stanley Ginsberg has posted on his Rye Baker blog. I decided to let the bread machine do the mixing and kneading instead of struggling with the dough in the 7-quart stand mixer, and it made the process so much easier. The bread had a great rise. We will have some at dinner tomorrow, but I really baked it because we are having turkey for New Year’s Day, and it makes the best turkey sandwiches.

I also baked a cherry pie on New Year’s Eve. I used my oil crust in a deep-dish Emile Henry ceramic pie plate. I used the filling from Baking Illustrated cherry pie. I used a half recipe of the streusel recipe from Carole Walter’s pie baking book but used just 1 Tbs. of melted butter, replacing the rest with 1 ½ Tbs. grapeseed oil. I used her technique of a foil tent for the first 40 minutes. I baked the pie for 25 minutes at 400F, then reduced it to 375F for the next 25 minutes, taking the foil off after 15. I let it go an additional 5 minutes. It looks good, we shall see when we cut it for dessert on New Year’s Day.

[BakerAunt]

We had no special plans either. My husband has already gone to bed. I just took a loaf of rye bread out of the oven, and very shortly I will be putting in a cherry pie, which will likely come out shortly before midnight. We've heard a few small fireworks around the lake. The poor dog headed to her bed to be covered with a blanket. It's cloudy out there, so I am hoping there will not be any big fireworks.

[BakerAunt]

I wasn't sure if I should put this entry in baking or cooking, but as it was the main course, I'll put it with the dinner discussions.

I made “Spaghetti Squash and Parmesan Cheese Quiche,” a recipe from Ken Haedrich’s The Harvest Baker (p. 189), for dinner on New Year’s Eve, because I needed to use up a small spaghetti squash. I had tried this recipe several years ago and the 9 ½-inch tart pan was not large enough, and I had overflow. Part of that may have been too much spaghetti squash. This time, I used an Emile Henry 14x6-inch rectangular tart dish that is two inches deep. I decided to do a ¾ recipe of my oil crust, replacing the whole wheat pastry flour portion with white rye that I need to use. When I was putting the egg mixture in, I realized that I should have made a full recipe of crust, so I reserved the rest of the filling, and I’ll scramble it for lunch tomorrow. Had I done the full recipe of crust, it would have fit. My husband often looks askance at quiche, but he ate and liked it. I substituted 1% milk and a bit of leftover evaporated milk for the half and half and heavy cream, and the quiche turned out fine. I used some low-fat mozzarella sprinkled on top.

We had it with some microwaved frozen peas and some of the leftover herbed cheese pretzel buns.

[BakerAunt]

If I were doing mini-pies, that would work. I'll file the idea away for when I do make them. Thanks, CWCdesign.

[BakerAunt]

A few months ago, Indiana introduced metrics whereby counties are color coded in terms of prevalence of Covid-19. I tended to ignore it and focus instead on number of cases. It seemed odd to me that with high numbers our county was consistently orange, the next to lowest tier--the one that allows gatherings of up to 50 masked people inside. (I think that is far too high.) It turns out that someone made a mistake calculating the data, and our county--and about half the counties in Indiana--should have been in the red zone, which is the next to highest tier. That one only allows masked indoor gatherings of 25 (still too high in my opinion).

[BakerAunt]

Thanks, Mike and Len. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to use a streusel crust. Even if I could slightly freeze then put the top over the pie, I would likely have difficulty attaching it around the edges to the bottom crust, and it might become soggy into the pie on the top.

I make the pie filling without spices, but I do use a bit of almond extract. I'm thinking that a streusel without spices, as I do not want to cover the flavor of the cherries. I'm wondering about using some almond flour in the streusel. I have a bit in the freezer that should be used.

I think that I will riff off of my blueberry pie recipe that has a streusel crust.

[BakerAunt]

On Tuesday, I baked my oil-based version of my eggnog cake (also subbing in 1 cup barley flour). I put the batter into two Nordic Ware 4-well nutcracker pans, which is just the right amount. I used the last of the frozen organic low-fat eggnog frozen from last year, when I was amazed to find it in the grocery in the larger town northeast of us

[BakerAunt]

Wow! That's quite a project, Skeptic. Have you tried a small pair of tongs for getting your pecans right side up in the chocolate? You could drop it right over the chocolate.

[BakerAunt]

Ah, yes, Ewell Gibbons and Grape Nuts. My high school German class had a project in which we videotaped commercials in German, and being teenagers, of course we did parody commercials. One student took on the persona of Gibbons, and as he ate a pine branch at the end, the rest of the students sang O Tannenebaum off camera. These videos were still being shown to German classes when my sister, who is thirteen years younger than I, studied German in high school. (In mine, I was an interviewer asking my petite friend about her box--back when it came in boxes!--of Tide, and her response was that as a player for the Wupertal Wupperwinds--don't ask me where we got that name--she needed to keep her soccer jersey clean.)

[BakerAunt]

On Monday, I revisited a recipe from a Pillsbury Classic booklet, Feelin’ Good (#51) for Smashing Herb Cheese Pretzels. These are a baked, bread pretzel. Long ago, I made them with half whole wheat. This time I also cut the salt by 25% , reduced the yeast form 2 ¼ to 2 tsp., and added 1 Tbs. flax meal and 2 Tbs. special dried milk. I used 2% pre-grated cheese, which is the only way I can get 2% cheese. I had forgotten how to shape them properly, so I ended up with pretzel buns. They taste ok, but next time, I will delete the special dried milk and use 1 cup of buttermilk in place of that much water, as they seemed slightly dry to me. I wish that I could find a block of 2 % cheese as well, since I think the additives in the pre-grated affect the outcome.

[BakerAunt]

I made a pot of pea soup with ham for dinner on Monday night. It should last us a couple more days.

[BakerAunt]

I will pass on this idea!

I looked at the overview of the book. There are better ways to be sustainable, and frankly, no one is going to eat the wood, unless the baker who was putting sawdust in cookies (see Aaron's earlier post) is looking for more ingredients.

The book strikes me as a convoluted way of approaching a possible problem with a much simpler solution.

We bought our tree from a Christmas tree farm in our area, thereby supporting a local producer. Such farms protect land that might be gobbled up for development, and the trees have a positive effect on the environment as they grow.

As for after the holidays, when I lived in Lubbock, the Boy Scouts would pick up trees for a small donation after the holidays, and the trees would then be mulched. People could also drop off trees at a site where they would be mulched. Here, once we take the tree down, my husband ties it to our light post, and it looks like another tree until about May or June, depending on the weather. He then takes it over to the shed and it eventually becomes firewood. My husband's cousins remember their mother sending them out to bring home discarded neighborhood trees, which she would put in the back yard as a refuge for the birds in the winter.

We actually have two trees this year. The second one came from our woodlands, after we had bought the first, where my husband discovered that in the autumn a male deer had girdled one of his 18-foot tall trees, effectively killing it. So, he took the tree down, and the top 7 feet are now a second Christmas tree.

[Author]

Posts